My Childhood Obsession
Bobby Iger and the boys at Disney announced they’re truly fresh out of ideas, by sharing that Toy Story 5 and Frozen 3 are in development. While this is disheartening for a myriad of reasons that I’ll get into another time, the kid in me is pumped for another Toy Story movie—especially since I can share it with my son.
Every kid goes through phases where they are obsessed with a movie or TV show. My niece loves Bluey and CocoMelon, our friends kids can’t get enough of Paw Patrol, and my friend Andy, of Music Outlet Mall, loves Over The Garden Wall on Cartoon Network. Ok, maybe some of us are still obsessed with our childhood loves (see my other post on nostalgia for my feelings on that).
My obsession as a kid? Toy Story. I would write my name on my toys’ feet like Andy (the boy from the movie), obsess about what my toys were doing when I was running errands with my mom, and watch the movie (on VHS!) nonstop. When I was three, CD-ROMS were huge, and there was usually a licensed game that tied in with a movie. So as soon as I learned that there was a Toy Story CD-ROM game, I knew I wanted it. Every time someone would ask me what I wanted to for Christmas, I would promptly respond, “I want Toy Story for Computer CD-ROM.” This sentence was a mouthful—but I repeated it each time someone asked me what I wanted.
Fast forward a few years and my obsession hadn’t died down at all. I lived and breathed Toy Story. I’m pretty sure that if streaming services existed when I was a kid, our house would have been featured in one of the infographics that the service posts on social media about how one household streamed Toy Story for 800 days subsequent days*.
*remember when Netflix did that? They straight up called out someone who streamed the first Pirates of The Caribbean for 365 days.
Naturally, I kept asking for more Toy Story toys to feed my addi-er-childhood obsession. I wanted them all, and I wanted to write my name on all of them. I wanted to be the Michael Jordan of getting Toy Story toys and writing my name on their feet, and not the dumb ones you could get in a McDonald’s Happy Meal, but the authentic toys that really made you feel like you were Andy (was I ok as a child?). There was nothing worse than getting handed a cheap knock-off toy (ok yeah—I was a little shit, a nickname I apparently earned).
One Christmas morning, I remember rounding the corner to see the tree—and I suddenly I got tunnel vision. There, tucked away in the corner of our living room, was not just any Toy Story toy. This was THE toy. I was so excited, I had been dreaming of this moment my whole life. I finally had the lifesize version (not the happy meal size) of this toy, and all I could do was start yelling out at the top of my lungs:
“I GOT A BIG WOODY!!! I GOT A BIG WOODY!!!
“I GOT! A BIG! WWWWWWOOOOOOODDDDDDDYYYYYYYY!!”
The room instantly filled with howls of laughter, but I couldn’t stop yelling it. The excitement was too much to bear, and I needed the whole world to hear that I, Billy West, had gotten my first big woody. I mean, who wouldn’t get excited about that? This is a pivotal moment in every boys life, right? When you get your first big woody, you’re gonna remember it.
Episode Of The Month
I’m trying out a new segment where I handpick my favorite episode of something I watched during the last month. If you were to only watch one episode all month, make sure it’s this one. For February, it was hands down episode eight of Poker Face, “The Orpheus Syndrome.” Natasha Lyonne makes her directing debut and pays homage to Alfred Hitchcock by using stop-motion horror at a key moment in the episode along with some great camera work that makes you feel really unsettled. This was the most cinematic episode of the show, and I loved it.
What To Watch This Weekend
I’m late to the party but Full Swing is pretty damn good. I got turned off of Netflix’s sports doc thing after checking out Break Point, but I think this show has definitely got it. Disney+ also dropped Season 3 of The Mandalorian, which was a fun episode that sets up the rest of the season—it’s not a strong episode but it gets you back in the groove for more adventures with Din and Grogu.
On the movie front, Creed III hit theatre’s this weekend and Hulu got Triangle Of Sadness, which is one of the best picture nominations that i’ve been wanting to check out. Peacock also has M3GAN, which looked like a lot of fun—jury’s out on if i’ll be able to get my wife to watch that one with me.