If there is one animated movie franchise that forever changed the history of cinema, it is definitely Toy Story. The 1995 film that marked John Lasseter's feature directorial debut is considered to be one of the best animated films in history, groundbreaking for many reasons. For starters, it was the first entirely computer-animated feature film, as well as Pixar's first feature film, establishing the studio as a worldwide animation powerhouse and paving the way for all the hits that would follow. This classic film was inspired by the 1988 short film Tin Toy, also directed by Lasseter, in which Tinny, a one-man band toy, tries to escape from a baby. Due to this production's popularity, Lasseter came up with the idea of developing a film from the toys' perspective.
Toy Story takes place in a world where toys are alive, though they hide this from their owners and other humans, and the movie revolves around the relationship between Woody, Andy's favorite cowboy doll, and a new toy who comes to compete for his owner's affection, Buzz Lightyear, a space cadet action figure. As we all know, these characters eventually become the best of friends, headlining one of the most popular franchises in the animated film industry. Toy Story was very well received by both critics and audiences, leading to three sequels, in 1999, 2010, and 2019, as well as a recent spinoff film called Lightyear, which explores the life of the man who inspired the action figure in the films. Something that all the Toy Story films have in common is that, somewhere along the line, the much-beloved characters have to deal with a villain who threatens their well-being, from collector Al McWhiggin to Lotso, Sunnyside Daycare's most evil toy, not to mention the franchise's most iconic villain: Sid Phillips. Regarding the latter, it is possible that both filmmakers and audiences may have been rather harsh, so in this article, we are going to analyze if Sid really earned the "bad kid" label, and if he was wrongly judged.
A Toy's Greatest Fear
The first Toy Story movie, besides featuring the most diverse and picturesque collection of toys, also introduces their owner, Andy Davis. This boy is the sort of owner that any toy would like to have: a very quiet boy who, despite playing with his toys quite a lot, takes very good care of them. The audience grows fond of Andy because they see him through his beloved toys' eyes, and they can appreciate just how much he cherishes them. The same thing happens with Sid, but in an opposite way. From the very beginning of the film, he is portrayed as troubled, someone who enjoys destroying toys and using them to conduct the most terrifying experiments. In contrast to Andy, Sid enjoys blowing up toys with explosives, and making up the most chilling stories alongside his aggressive bull terrier Scud. Throughout Toy Story, Sid is presented as the absolute opposite of Andy: he has a poor relationship with his little sister, doesn't really talk to his mother, his only company is a terrifying dog (who, again, appears to be the polar opposite of Buster, Andy's dog), and he is very, very hostile to toys. Naturally, there is one crucial fact that should not be forgotten: Toy Story is all about events narrated from a group of toys' perspective. Bearing this in mind, one can easily understand why Woody, Buzz, and the other toys label Sid as a bad boy; their lives are in danger at the hands of this kid because who knows what he's capable of! Even the Mutant Toys, that peculiar group of toys that was intervened by Sid, dislike him and try to keep their distance from him. All of this, coupled with some aesthetic features such as his iconic skull t-shirt and his wicked laughter, urges the audience to quickly empathize with the toys and identify Sid as a mean and troubled kid who harms toys.
A Kid Just Like the Rest of Us
.jpg?q=50&fit=crop&w=1500&dpr=1.5)
Of course, Sid may seem strange, even naughty, and he comes up with the weirdest ideas for games, but there is one detail that is generally overlooked when analyzing this character, a detail that may completely change one's perception of him: Sid, like the rest of the children and adults in Toy Story, does not know that toys are alive. As far as he knows, he's not really hurting them, as toys are merely a tool for him to get creative and perform the wildest and inventive ideas that pop into his mind. Admittedly, Sid is not the best-behaved kid ever portrayed in a Pixar movie either: he neglects his toys, constantly fights with his sister, throws tantrums in public places, and has a much rougher way of having fun than the rest of the kids. However, this is still relatively normal behavior for an 11-year-old boy, whose ideas are perhaps a bit edgier and wilder than the rest of the kids. While Andy pretends that Woody is a cowboy saving the day, Sid enjoys being experimental, pretending to be a doctor, a scientist, or a researcher, and his toys are just actors in his stories. He is a very lonely boy who doesn't seem to have many friends, and therefore he relies on toys to entertain himself.
Another thing worth mentioning is that Sid doesn't actually destroy toys, but instead he uses them to create something new, while being totally invested in the process. Sid is resourceful, passionate about rockets, war games, and medical surgeries, but at the same time he dreams of riding horses and loves eating Pop-Tarts — just like any other kid his age. For what it's worth, most kids in the Toy Story audience likely shared more in common with Sid's play style than they did with Andy's. As the toys are used to Andy, it is easy to understand why Woody, Buzz, and the others see Sid as a bad and scary kid (which, in their eyes, makes him the antagonist of the movie), but considering that he is a lonely, creative kid who is unaware that toys are alive, it is clearly evident that Sid is just a kid like any other, one who enjoys playing with his toys and has fun in his own way. Moreover, when toys came to life in front of him and Woody warned him to play nice, Sid changed his behavior and never harmed toys again, which proves that the kid wasn't wicked by nature.
Toy Story 3: Sid's Cameo As A Grown-up
By the end of Toy Story, Sid became the only person who knew about the toys' secret, and that changed his life forever. In fact, there is an unconfirmed fan theory, outlined by Digital Spy, that asserts that Sid became a garbage man on a mission to rescue discarded toys from a doomed destiny. In Toy Story 3, there is a small cameo of a garbage man wearing a black T-shirt with a skull on it, doing his job while listening to music. The fans quickly associated this young man with Sid due to their physical resemblance. Lee Unkrich, the film's director, later confirmed that the garbage man was indeed Sid, and the actor who voiced him was the same as in Toy Story, Erik von Detten, reprising his role. Nevertheless, the theory about Sid's mission to rescue toys remains, for the time being, a fantasy created solely by fans.