Review: Woody

Badass is defined (by myself) as the relentless being of one's self regardless of popular demand or evolutionary change. An example that I use (by myself) on this blog is Dwight Schrute. While Dwight is on TV and his characteristics are hilariously flawed, the man does not change. Best movie example: Jeffry Lebowski aka The Dude. The Dude owed much of his prompt and prestige in referential terms to old Western movies. In fact, applying 'badass' to movies usually means a gruff, take no shit style derived from the John Waynes, Clint Eastwood, and the wildest of Bill Elliots. So now in 2010, amidst pretty much a lackluster summer of movies while movies are the cash crop of current America economics, it took another badass cowboy to save the day. Err, summer.

Woody, without going into his past life on Woody's Round-up, is likely the biggest bad-ass in children's movie history. He also uses his bad-ass-ed-ness-itude for good. What makes Woody so bad-ass is not just doing good by way of his friends, but his unrelenting nature in doing so. In Toy Story 1, Woody, thought to be a turncoat by all the other toys, rushes the moving van and throws RC racer to the street in order to save Buzz from being left behind. He gets tossed over for his troubles but still- that's pretty bad ass to just show up to a whole bunch of people who are pissed at you and expect them to trust you. In Toy Story 2- Woody rides Bullseye onto a moving plane to rummage through the luggage in order to find new friend Jessie. Sure he got caught up in his nostalgia and legend, but shaking that off fame and legacy because you know you have a much stronger love in your life to an extent that you convice strangers to follow you? Hella bad ass. He's Woody- he loves Andy so much that everyone knows that this link to a picture exists. Now let me get to Toy Story 3- where Woody has gone through the ringer of new Toy syndrome and his actual value, and is now faced with a grown-up Andy.

SPOILERS

Woody in Toy Story 3 is nothing short of pure bad-ass. He gets the dream job of being the only toy Andy has kept. But still out of loyalty to Andy and to his friends- risks that cushy job to rescue them from the garbage, then does a series of difficult escapes, only to ultimately go back for his friend's because he knows what is right and what is best, even in the face of grave danger and imminent doom. To admit something now: AGAIN HUGE SPOILER: the toys in the incinerator, holding hands- cut to Woody still struggling for freedom and then realizing that this is the end. Wow. I cried. Damn did I cryIn fact- Toy Story 3 is basically Woody knowing what he knows, standing pat in it, and rescuing people countless times. Until the final moments where it is about Woody truly being Woody and letting those emotions define him.

In fact, that is what makes Woody a different kind of bad-ass altogether- his emotion. Though it never really gets the best of him, he lets those emotions show. Showing those emotions is what made Toy Story a renaissance in animation history. Woody isn't governed by these emotions, rather he takes them on. Unlike any other cowboy in movie history- Woody would proudly admit to a snake being in his boot. Woody symbolizes loyalty and class. He also symbolizes toy cowboys and about a billion dollar revenue. Which is more badass than anything because everyone loves him still.