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  • Accidental Innuendo: The title of the song You've Got a Friend in Me has been interpreted as a sexual metaphor. Not helped by Woody's status as a Memetic Molester.
  • Angel/Devil Shipping: Andy/Sid is fairly popular, despite not having any interaction in canon. The fact that Word of God confirmed Sid as Andy's Evil Counterpart probably helps, and since they were next-door neighbors, it's almost inevitable that they probably interacted offscreen at some point.
  • Complete Monster: Lots-o'-Huggin' Bear, NOS-4-A2, Evil Buzz Lightyear. See those pages for details.
  • Fan Nickname: Another name for Legs, the fish hook toy with female legs? Hooker.
  • Fanfic Fuel: Check your toy collection. What could your toys coming to life be like?
  • Fanon: A popular theory (and one used in a lot of fanfics) is that Emily (Jessie's former owner) eventually grew up to become Andy's mother, due to Emily and Andy's shared love for cowboy toys.
  • Fountain of Memes: Because of their goofy facial expressions and highly quotable dialogue, Woody and Buzz have formed countless memes.
  • Genius Programming: The Sega Genesis version of the video game adaptation of the first movie is very impressive on a graphical level. The digitised sprites are one thing; the faux 3D effects in the background is another. Some of the background elements look as if they were rendered on the PS1, and there are sprites that should be technically too large for the Genesis to handle, but still work anyways. The Pizza Planet level is often regarded as being one of the most graphically impressive things on the Genesis. And then there's the fact that there's the first person level.
  • Germans Love David Hasselhoff:
    • The franchise is huge in China, to the point where it has a huge presence at both Hong Kong and Shanghai's Disney theme parks, and its' own hotel at the former. Bob Iger attended the parade at the grand opening of the former park and noticed that the crowd got excited when the Toy Story float appeared. This led to the company deciding to purchase Pixar after nearly parting ways with the company due to creative differences.
      • In fact you can find lots of Lotso merchandise in Chinese shops, both legal and bootleg.
    • It's also big in Japan as well, and is the most popular Pixar film (aside with Inside Out and Monsters, Inc.) in the country. This is probably because many Japanese people, both young and old, have a fondness for toys.
  • Harsher in Hindsight:
    • In the first film, after the other toys think Woody murdered Buzz when the former accidentally exposes the latter's severed arm to them through the window at an attempt to prove Buzz is with him, Mr. Potato Head tells Woody he hopes he gets his voice box pulled out. Guess what happens to Woody in the fourth film?
    • Mr. Potato Head and Hamm comment on Buzz's quality voicebox. In the fourth film, the wear and tear has set in and he sounds "like a car ran over him".
    • During the scene in the first film in which Woody and Buzz watch as Andy and his mom drive away from the gas station, Woody complains that he's a "lost toy", which definitely sounds more gut-wrenching now after his decision in the end of the fourth film.
  • Heartwarming in Hindsight:
    • Woody twice misnames Buzz as "Lightbeer" and "Lightsnack." In Toy Story 2, when Stinky Pete calls him "Buzz Lightweight," Woody is quick to angrily correct him.
    • During Woody's bout of jealousy, Bo Peep tells him that, even though Andy's playing with Buzz more, he'll always have a special place for Woody. Come Toy Story 3, we see that Andy has the hardest time letting go of Woody.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight:
    • During the ending scene of the first movie, Rex anticipates that Andy will get another dinosaur for Christmas. Preferably, a leaf eater. In the third movie, Trixie the triceratops becomes his best friend.
    • After the Buzz Lightyear commercial, the announcer informs that they're all available in Al's Toy Barn. Guess where the toys' next journey is to?
    • "Maybe, if we find some balloons, we can float to the top!"
    • Also in 2, the Hilarious Outtakes have, at one point, the Prospector having a conversation with twin Barbie dolls and telling them he'd try to get them a part in the third movie. And indeed...
    • While the toys and the wrong Buzz are spying on Al, Buzz speculates that he is one of Zurg's minions. This line becomes especially hilarious when one remembers that Wayne Knight, the guy who voiced Al, will later voice Zurg in the spin-off series Buzz Lightyear of Star Command.
    • In Toy Story, Buzz lets out the famous Wilhelm scream when he is knocked off the window by a lamp in Andy's Room; in Toy Story 2, Emperor Zurg is an obvious Darth Vader Parody, and in Toy Story 3, Big Baby tosses Lotso into the dumpster in a manner similar to Darth Vader tossing the emperor into the Death Star's reactor shaft in Return of the Jedi. In 2012, Disney buys the rights for Star Wars and the rest is all history!
    • YouTube user Jonason Pauley created a live-action remake of the first movie. Come 2019, Pixar would create their own live-action series featuring their characters.
    • In Toy Story 2, the climax involves Woody and Jessie having to escape from a plane during takeoff. This is not the last film with Tom Hanks to have him in peril on a plane; there are the plane crashes in Cast Away and Sully, the latter of which introduced the meme "Never travel with Tom Hanks".
    • Tom Hanks's character in this film has an owner named Andy. Tom Hanks previously played another character named Andy in another film from two years prior.
    • In late 2018, a YouTuber named Bryan Seeker made a video essay focusing on Disney's original solo attempt at a Toy Story 3, wherein he postulates his own alternate premise for the "Buzz gets recalled back to Taiwan" plot that features an ending almost exactly like what would become Toy Story 4's, but with the roles swapped: Buzz, rather than Woody, decides to stay behind to continue saving toys from being lost and scrapped rather than return to Andy's room, and it's Woody who bids him a heartfelt goodbye with the rest of the toys before returning to their owner without Buzz.
    • There existed a photoshop concept of Keanu Reeves and Nicholas Cage as Woody and Buzz respectively. While Keanu didn't land the role of Woody, he did eventually appear in Toy Story 4.
    • This lyric from the opening musical number from Muppets Most Wanted:
      Gonzo: While they wait for Tom Hanks to make Toy Story 4!
    • The "Zoo Pals" plate commercial features a fork that resembles Forky.
  • Ho Yay Shipping: It's not very uncommon to find Woody/Buzz shippers. There is also a small following for Ducky/Bunny which isn’t that surprising considering the fact that Ducky and Bunny are always seen together due to the fact that they are sewn together by hand. On the Yuri side, there’s Bo/Jessie.
  • Memetic Molester: Woody thanks to a certain infamous Japanese figurine. It's even the page image.
  • Memetic Mutation: See here.
  • Misaimed Fandom: A harmless example: It's pretty obvious to an adult that Buzz in the first film is supposed to come across as a very cheesy, superficial space hero character who's completely deluded about himself and rather buffoonish and obnoxious in his behaviour. This hasn't stopped numerous little boys from completely eating up the character at face value and finding him exactly as cool as the kids in-universe, almost ignoring the fact that his space adventure prowess isn't real in-universe. It's probably this kind of fandom that allowed Buzz's ''actual'' space adventure cartoon to be made. Twice.
  • No Problem with Licensed Games:
    • The Toy Story video game for the Sega Genesis, Super NES and PC is a very fun side-scroller that perfectly captures the spirit of the film, and even uses pre-rendered CGI sprites to match the look of the film.
    • The PC game Toy Story Activity Center is also a surprisingly fun, well-crafted minigame collection with CGI animation just as good as the actual movie.
    • Disney's Animated Storybook: Toy Story is considered to be one of the best entries in that interactive storybook series for some clever gags hidden in the hotspots, decently-entertaining minigames ("Freezing cold... cold... cooler... cool... warm... warmer... HAAAWWWT."), and also having CGI animation just as good as the film.
    • The Toy Story 2 game for both the PlayStation, Dreamcast, PC and the Nintendo 64 combined the similar free-roaming gameplays of Super Mario 64 and Spyro the Dragon to great effect, while following the plot of the movie. This helped a lot in Europe, where the game's rerelease on the PlayStation Network helped to make out for the Spyro trilogy's late arrival (December 2012). Additionally, several movie locationsnote  translate pretty well to functional video game levels.
    • Meanwhile, the third film's game was also considered pretty fun, if a little on the easy side; platformer akin to the second game's style on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, with the Toy Box mechanic of an open world managing a city laying the groundwork for another Disney game. Heck, the PS3 version even has a playable Zurg there!
    • And then there's the world based on the films in Kingdom Hearts III...
  • The Problem with Licensed Games:
    • The Game Boy version, on the other hand, wound up as a textbook case of Porting Disaster, thus playing the trope completely straight. The pre-rendered sprites weren't ported very well and just look downright messy, and the controls and physics took a bad hit. (Woody's pull-string doesn't always work and he moves and jumps very slow.)
    • It appears handheld games weren't Toy Story's strong suit as, uncannily similar to the first game's handheld version, the GBC version of the Toy Story 2 game was hampered by bad controls, wonky physics and a baffling choice of enemies. (Why are the Little Green Men and Rex out to kill Buzz?)
  • Signature Song: "You've Got a Friend in Me".
  • Ships That Pass in the Night: Andy/Sid has quite a following, despite that fact that they have never interacted at all.
  • Unintentional Uncanny Valley: Like so many elements inherent to the series since the very beginning, this trope has finally come full circle. While in the original the human characters appeared unnatural and robotic due to the Valley (the very reason the animation of the toys was convincing for its time), as of the third film Pixar made the humans more stylised in line with Ratatouille and The Incredibles. However, Pixar instead invokes the Valley to great effect with Ken and Barbie, whose animations are just subtly inhuman enough to make them very slightly creepy. This is especially apparent in Ken's opening scene, and he is most certainly not to be trusted. Big Baby is the Unintentional Uncanny Valley personified.
  • What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: All moral guardian freaks aside, Toy Story 3 does heavily push a G rating in terms of intensity, action, and implied offscreen torture and violence, and probably received a couple exemptions from the MPAA (like Titanic (1997)'s nudity). If it were another movie, it'd probably get a PG rating.
    • The toys all face certain death twice. And not just Disney death. Shredded to bits and burned in the fiery pits of Mordor death. And right before their final demise, they all HOLD HANDS ready to embrace their seemingly inevitable fate together.

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