Toy Story & The Velveteen Rabbit

[einsteinsdesk]

I watched Toy Story 3 yesterday with my son. I felt pretty pretty strange watching it. It was disconcerting to see a story about how these toys have lives and feel loyalty, and are deeply hurt when they are thrown out. It was kind of like getting a hoarder guilt trip in animated form. Has anyone else had this reaction to this movie?

I remember reading the Velveteen Rabbit when I was younger, and I feel like it affected me deeply. Like it reinforced my tendencies to keep worn and broken toys regardless of how much I used them.

Seeing it through the recovery lens, I realize it encourages empathy with inanimate objects by anthropomorphizing them.

[AnnieOkie]

I never thought about Toy Story that way, but you do make a good point. I can see how it might affect some people, especially a child with a sensitive soul.....good food for thought.

[lizziejeen]

Oh yes! I totally have a problem getting rid of stuffed animals unless I know they are going to a good home.

[gottaproblem]

I hadn't thought about it this way but you make a very good point. It is hard enough for me to part with things without thinking about the item feeling bad.

[shoshatikvah]

Yeah, I've wondered about that. I don't really have sentimental attachment to things (no more than the average person, at least - I am a bit of a hoarder but it's more This Is Potentially Useful for the most part) so it hasn't affected me in that way (well, I haven't seen TS3, but the first two do the same thing, obv) but whenever I watch one of them I do think "hmm, this is probably not helpful for some people!"

[HFH]

I have always been that way also, I thinking back have connected it to the Velveteen Rabbit also. I have such a hard time parting with stuffed animals. Even when people suggest I give them to hospitals or sick children I worry they will get discarded sometime in the future, or will not be treasured enough. It has made decluttering VERY HARD. We have a rule in our family that we will buy no more stuffed animals, my kids dont ever ask for them as gifts, we dont(I CANT) walk down the stuffed animal aisle in stores.

[fluffernut - now Jannie]

Both of these bother me. I recently donated a lot of my kids' old books to a local Day Care Center. I have thrown out TONS of old toys, especially stuffed, because they could harbor germs. I meant to send some to my niece and her three kids, all under 6, but niece and husband recently had a nasty split, the police were called to their house, niece is now in hiding with the kids. I can't get her address.

[cricket]

When my daughter was little, Toy Story affected her deeply that way. She already couldn't let go of things, collected feathers, leaves and stones that became precious in addition to her toys. Toy Story only made that worse for her.

She is a teenager now and was able to toss out the feathers, etc, in recent years, and said things like, "Why in the world did I save these?" But all the stuffed animals, decorative items, etc, she has been boxing up and putting the basement. She can't let go of them yet, even though she doesn't want them in her room.

I feel like it's a step in the right direction. She is making her room nice for now at this stage in her life, not living with clutter she has outgrown, which is miles ahead of me. I think that when she opens those boxes someday she will be able to make easy decisions about what items are keepsakes and which need to be released.

My son was not bothered at all by Toy Story. It was just a funny movie to him.

[fluffernut - now Jannie]

The problem with Toy Story Three in particualar is that it is an extremely emotional and sentimental film, more so than the first two.