- Aug 22, 2001
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O.K. so I'm looking for Buzz and Woody from Toy Story because my son's birthday is coming up and he loves those movies when I stumble on this during a google search The Hidden Message In Toy Story 2
©2000 by Dave Palmer
dpalmer@magicdave.com
I figured out that the movie Toy Story 2 actually has a hidden message in it: it's a fable about the eventual triumph of Linux over Windows...no really, I swear I haven't been sniffing the copier toner again. (minor spoilers ahead, but if you're the type who goes to see a film like TS2, and you're on the edge of your seat waiting to see how it comes out in the end, I'd suggest that maybe you're wound just a BIT too tight...)
OK, look: the character of Wheezy the penguin is obviously meant to resemble the Linux penguin. No doubt about that, right? So when we first meet Wheezy, he's been tossed on a shelf and forgotten. Some people would say that UNIX was nearly in this state until Linux came along, an operating system from the 70's that was worn out and on its last leg.
Andy's mother tosses Wheezy into a box to sell at a yard sale, but Woody (who is the leader, or the soul of the free toys) declares that he must be rescued...he must be *freed* At this point, toys represent software, and Woody is saying that software must be free for everyone to play with. Enter the Villain, Al, a rich, nerdy, sinister toy salesman...he can only be a symbol of Bill Gates. Al tries to buy Woody, but Andy's mother refuses, so Al steals him, very Gatesian behavior. Further, Al steals Woody from a money box. Well, what does a money box symbolize? How about IBM in the early days of personal computing? And the theft of Woody from the box can be likened to Gates convincing IBM to let him make and sell the software in the box.
So Al gets Woody back to his penthouse apartment, and we find that Woody is the last link in Al's collection of valuable Woody memorabilia. IOW, Al has grabbed up all the various types of software for himself. His plans are to sell the whole collection to a museum, to lock up all the software, both figuratively and literally, where people will have to pay to see it, but won't be allowed to touch it (as in: no source code).
Woody finds that the other toys in the collection will be kept locked up in storage if he does not go along with them to the museum...perhaps an obscure reference to Gates' claim that IE was an "integral and necessary part of Windows?"
Al calls in a toy repairman to spruce up Woody and make him look artificially new again, an obvious reference to both the "creation" of MSDOS and Windows 95: slap a coat of paint on something old and sell it as new.
So now, Woody has decided to go along with the plan and go to the museum. The toy character Stinky Pete has won him over with reasonable-sounding arguments about "lasting forever" rather than being tossed aside after a few years. Further, Woody has been dazzled by the astonishing array of pretty but largely useless Woody memorabilia. He's been seduced by the dark side, and it looks as if Al has won.
But meanwhile, Some of Woody's toy pals (the software from the old days) have come to rescue Woody, and have made it to Al's toy store, where they are astonished by the dazzling array of toy/software possibilities. However, all these toys are locked up in the store, and they can only open the doors to the store when they get together and cooperate. Rex is appalled when he finds out that you can only win a Buzz Lightyear video game he's been playing if you ALSO purchase a book of game hints. The message? "Oh, you want to know how to really USE our software? That's a *little* extra..."
The rescuers are momentarily confused when a new, better Buzz Lightyear joins them, one who seems to be helping them, but is actually working at cross-purposes. Perhaps a symbol for Next or BeOS? In any case, he soon aligns with an evil toy and vanishes from the story.
By the time the toys make it to Al's apartment, Woody is all set to leave for the museum. Rather than just being tossed loosely into a box the way free toys are, Woody has been cocooned into a custom-fitted case, shrink-wrapped and licensed. But at the last minute, he recognizes that Stinky Pete is evil, and that a toy's true purpose in life is to be played with. He also convinces Jesse to flee with him, maybe representing the GUI concept here, or perhaps the concept of getting other software companies to produce their programs for a non-Windoze OS.
After the obligatory chase scene, Al sets off on a plane to the museum, smugly believing he has won and he's king of the world, while at the same time, the freed toys ride off back to Andy's room. Stinky Pete, the toy who remained loyal to Al, is condemned to the hell of being worked over endlessly by an incompetent child make-up artist. The symbolism could hardly be stronger here: software that stays closed up in Windoze is doomed to an endless succession of sloppy and purely cosmetic makeovers, with no possibility of realizing its full potential.
Back in Andy's room, all the toys are happy. Jesse takes an immediate shine to Buzz, a marriage of the new and old, venerable UNIX to the new GUI world. And then Wheezy the penguin steps forward in all his glory. He's been reborn, he has a new voice, and bursts into a bright new rendition of the old Toy Story song "You've Got a Friend in Me." All the free and open toys join gather round him in the light of a new dawn of comradeship. We see Al on TV, now a broken and weeping wreck. The TV, BTW, can be thought of as a "window," giving us the message, "those in Windows are failures."
But wait, there's more!. As the credits roll and the cretins dash for the exits, we are treated to a series of cute "out-takes," little scenes where the computer-generated characters have supposedly made mistakes. These mistakes appear in...yeah, you guessed it: windows. Windows on the main screen. The message is clear, windows = errors.
There's even a brief criticism of Linux itself. One of the out-takes shows Wheezy repeatedly trying to catch a microphone being thrown by another toy character, but he keeps dropping it, or it keeps hitting him in the head. Put another way, the Linux penguin is experiencing hardware conflicts and crashes. But as we saw earlier in the film, Wheezy eventually makes a perfect catch and bursts into glorious song.
I'd say this guy has really lost it
©2000 by Dave Palmer
dpalmer@magicdave.com
I figured out that the movie Toy Story 2 actually has a hidden message in it: it's a fable about the eventual triumph of Linux over Windows...no really, I swear I haven't been sniffing the copier toner again. (minor spoilers ahead, but if you're the type who goes to see a film like TS2, and you're on the edge of your seat waiting to see how it comes out in the end, I'd suggest that maybe you're wound just a BIT too tight...)
OK, look: the character of Wheezy the penguin is obviously meant to resemble the Linux penguin. No doubt about that, right? So when we first meet Wheezy, he's been tossed on a shelf and forgotten. Some people would say that UNIX was nearly in this state until Linux came along, an operating system from the 70's that was worn out and on its last leg.
Andy's mother tosses Wheezy into a box to sell at a yard sale, but Woody (who is the leader, or the soul of the free toys) declares that he must be rescued...he must be *freed* At this point, toys represent software, and Woody is saying that software must be free for everyone to play with. Enter the Villain, Al, a rich, nerdy, sinister toy salesman...he can only be a symbol of Bill Gates. Al tries to buy Woody, but Andy's mother refuses, so Al steals him, very Gatesian behavior. Further, Al steals Woody from a money box. Well, what does a money box symbolize? How about IBM in the early days of personal computing? And the theft of Woody from the box can be likened to Gates convincing IBM to let him make and sell the software in the box.
So Al gets Woody back to his penthouse apartment, and we find that Woody is the last link in Al's collection of valuable Woody memorabilia. IOW, Al has grabbed up all the various types of software for himself. His plans are to sell the whole collection to a museum, to lock up all the software, both figuratively and literally, where people will have to pay to see it, but won't be allowed to touch it (as in: no source code).
Woody finds that the other toys in the collection will be kept locked up in storage if he does not go along with them to the museum...perhaps an obscure reference to Gates' claim that IE was an "integral and necessary part of Windows?"
Al calls in a toy repairman to spruce up Woody and make him look artificially new again, an obvious reference to both the "creation" of MSDOS and Windows 95: slap a coat of paint on something old and sell it as new.
So now, Woody has decided to go along with the plan and go to the museum. The toy character Stinky Pete has won him over with reasonable-sounding arguments about "lasting forever" rather than being tossed aside after a few years. Further, Woody has been dazzled by the astonishing array of pretty but largely useless Woody memorabilia. He's been seduced by the dark side, and it looks as if Al has won.
But meanwhile, Some of Woody's toy pals (the software from the old days) have come to rescue Woody, and have made it to Al's toy store, where they are astonished by the dazzling array of toy/software possibilities. However, all these toys are locked up in the store, and they can only open the doors to the store when they get together and cooperate. Rex is appalled when he finds out that you can only win a Buzz Lightyear video game he's been playing if you ALSO purchase a book of game hints. The message? "Oh, you want to know how to really USE our software? That's a *little* extra..."
The rescuers are momentarily confused when a new, better Buzz Lightyear joins them, one who seems to be helping them, but is actually working at cross-purposes. Perhaps a symbol for Next or BeOS? In any case, he soon aligns with an evil toy and vanishes from the story.
By the time the toys make it to Al's apartment, Woody is all set to leave for the museum. Rather than just being tossed loosely into a box the way free toys are, Woody has been cocooned into a custom-fitted case, shrink-wrapped and licensed. But at the last minute, he recognizes that Stinky Pete is evil, and that a toy's true purpose in life is to be played with. He also convinces Jesse to flee with him, maybe representing the GUI concept here, or perhaps the concept of getting other software companies to produce their programs for a non-Windoze OS.
After the obligatory chase scene, Al sets off on a plane to the museum, smugly believing he has won and he's king of the world, while at the same time, the freed toys ride off back to Andy's room. Stinky Pete, the toy who remained loyal to Al, is condemned to the hell of being worked over endlessly by an incompetent child make-up artist. The symbolism could hardly be stronger here: software that stays closed up in Windoze is doomed to an endless succession of sloppy and purely cosmetic makeovers, with no possibility of realizing its full potential.
Back in Andy's room, all the toys are happy. Jesse takes an immediate shine to Buzz, a marriage of the new and old, venerable UNIX to the new GUI world. And then Wheezy the penguin steps forward in all his glory. He's been reborn, he has a new voice, and bursts into a bright new rendition of the old Toy Story song "You've Got a Friend in Me." All the free and open toys join gather round him in the light of a new dawn of comradeship. We see Al on TV, now a broken and weeping wreck. The TV, BTW, can be thought of as a "window," giving us the message, "those in Windows are failures."
But wait, there's more!. As the credits roll and the cretins dash for the exits, we are treated to a series of cute "out-takes," little scenes where the computer-generated characters have supposedly made mistakes. These mistakes appear in...yeah, you guessed it: windows. Windows on the main screen. The message is clear, windows = errors.
There's even a brief criticism of Linux itself. One of the out-takes shows Wheezy repeatedly trying to catch a microphone being thrown by another toy character, but he keeps dropping it, or it keeps hitting him in the head. Put another way, the Linux penguin is experiencing hardware conflicts and crashes. But as we saw earlier in the film, Wheezy eventually makes a perfect catch and bursts into glorious song.
I'd say this guy has really lost it
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