Lamp Life is an animated short produced by Pixar and set in the Toy Story universe. It is exclusively available for streaming on Disney+ since January 31st, 2020.
It chronicles the story of what happened to Bo Peep (the porcelain baby lamp figure and Love Interest of Woody) between the time she was donated and her meeting Woody again during the events of Toy Story 4.
The flashback retelling by Bo is actually made of deleted scenes from Toy Story 4, which were repurposed in this short, with the aftermath of Toy Story 4 (after Woody left the gang to live as a lost toy with Bo) as a Framing Device.
Tropes in this short include:
- Chekhov's Gun: The two little girls that Bo Peep and her lamp were donated to attempted to replace a lightbulb at one point. Unfortunately, they used a too-small lightbulb and screwed it in at an incorrect angle, resulting in a short-circuit induced fire that burned Bo Peep's bonnet. She uses the same method to create a small fire in the antique shop so she and the sheep could sneak out while the fire department was too busy dealing with the fire.
- Company Cross References: The first new family to own Bo's lamp eventually replaces her with a red Luxo lamp.
- Continuity Nod:
- At the beginning of the short, Woody has finished telling Bo his story of everything that happened in Toy Story 3 and the beginning of Toy Story 4, with Giggles being particularly fascinated with the bit about the giant claw at the end of the former.
- Woody doesn't have his sheriff star anymore, as he donated it to Jessie at the end of Toy Story 4.
- Demoted to Extra: The Anti-Villain of Toy Story 4, Gabby Gabby, shows up in Bo's story along with her henchmen the Bensons since part of it happens at the antique store of that film, but they do so for a very short amount of time.
- "Eureka!" Moment: During her time at Second Chance Antiques, Bo Peep overheard a mother suggest to her children that they go to the nearby playground. That's when she got the idea to become a Lost Toy in order to have plenty of kids play with her, and so she and the sheep would never have to worry about being abandoned by one again.
- Hope Crusher: Bo Peep wanted to be played with by the family Andy and Molly's mother donated her to, just like her previous owners did with her. Unfortunately, the girls weren't as careful with playing with toys like Andy was due to being very young girls, and Bo Peep and her sheep are made out of porcelain. As a result, their parents banned them from playing with the lamp and its figurines (though it didn't stop them from getting some playtime in with them behind their parents' backs).
- Humiliation Conga: Bo Peep and her sheep suffer through many misfortunes after being given to various owners.
- Lampshade Wearing: At a college party that's in the room where Bo Peep is, one of the dancing students is wearing the Bo Peep lampshade on his head, and another college student puts an upside-down red cup on Bo Peep's head also giving her the same look.
- Living Is More than Surviving: After years of being passed between owners and being thrown away, Bo Peep originally welcomed the peaceful life of being on display in the antique store. However, the boredom of just collecting dust on a shelf proved to be just as miserable.
- Noodle Incident: How Bo Peep's arm got broken off is not included in her narrative, only that it happened after she left the antique store and became a lost toy.
- The Reveal: This short explains not just what happened to Bo and her lamp between being donated and ending up in the antique store, but also how her cane got snapped and how she lost her bonnet. Giggle McDimples is revealed to have also come from the antique store, and helped Bo in her escape.
- Secret Santa: When Bo Peep winds up in a "Free" box by the curb once the little girls outgrew the lamp, a college student walks by and decides to use the lamp as a White Elephant joke gift for one of these events. It didn't stop the guy who received it from using it for quite a bit afterward.
- Unreliable Narrator: Giggle and Bo teasingly suggest that some of the story was untrue (most prominently the antique shop being protected by lasers — things you'd expect in a museum full of invaluable art, not in an antique shop), or at least jazzed up a bit. Outside the lasers, none of it is really outside the realm of possibility for Toy Story though, so the audience can take it at face value.
