Hollywood Strikes Again

I don’t go to movies and my child is grown, but I saw a review of the new Toy Story and thought I’d pass it along.

I actually dragged my kid (10 years old) to this movie because I was a fan of the first three. Here’s what you get for the price of admission: 

Woody and his crew are now subjugated to the orders of some much more organized and capable female doll who’s running the toys at their new place. Woody is not picked to play anymore by his kid, but instead his female sidekick is dragged out to play, and not only that, but his kid REMOVES WOODY’S SHERIFF BADGE AND GIVES IT TO HIS FEMALE SIDEKICK!

Woody’s love interest, Bo, is given away to some other kid and asks Woody to join her, but Woody doesn’t join her out of loyalty to his kid. Flash forward, Woody rediscovers Bo living at large in a town as a LOST TOY, aka single and childless. She’s now gone from being a ladylike sheep herder to being what could roughly be described as a “tough chick” who has shed her effeminate exterior and mannerisms and doesn’t need anyone. As their adventure continues Woody starts taking orders from Bo, willingly gives up his voice box to another overbearing female toy so that she can achieve the things that he’s achieved in life (an obvious nod to checking one’s male privilege) and at the end when he tries to get Bo to return to the gang she refuses to come and instead WOODY ABANDONS HIS KID AND HIS ROLE AND HIS ENTIRE LIFE TO LIVE A NON-TRADITIONAL CHILDLESS LIFE WITH HIS RIOT GRRRL BO!

So that about covers the anti-male and anti-family angle, but you know they wouldn’t just stop there, right? There are two throwaway characters in this movie who are voiced by black actors (Kegan and Peele), and from their first appearance onward their main schtick is physically assaulting white (and in one case a white elderly) characters, which is obviously very funny, right? Keep in mind that this franchise is so anti-violence that Woody can’t have a gun in his empty holster, but it’s high comedy to have this guys committing all kinds of unprovoked attacks on people, who all just happen to be voiced by white actors…hardee har har.

I know, I’m crazy…it’s nuts to think that there are people in Hollywood who’d use their positions and their power to influence the thought patterns of kids against whiteness and the masculine gender role and the nuclear family…that’s just nuts, right? This is probably all just stuff I’m imagining; there’s probably no agenda at play here. It’s probably just a coincidence that these types of themes seem to occur over and over. I’m sure if I just looked for it there’d be plenty of examples of contrary themes and patterns in children’s movies that I’ve just failed to notice in the past. Certainly.