Toy Story 2
Using Tzvetan Todorov's narrative structure, we can see that Toy Story falls into the categories Tzvetan has created. ‘Equilibrium’ (What is the normal life of characters) in Toy Story we see a clear normal life of the toys. They are still played with by their owner Andy and then when he is gone they still are happy. (Pictures below)
Tzvetan Todrov
Even in this clip we can the narrative stage of ‘recognition’ (of the disruption + plan to resolve it). The toys all panic because they see that woody has ended up in the yard sale and big Al has purchased him and taken him, so the toys plan how to get woody back.
Also the narrative stages ‘Repair and Return’ are seen clearly in this film. We see the plan of getting woody back is put into place and the all the toys go on a hunt to find and rescue woody. They then have a bit of conflict with stinky pete but then rescue woody.
Claude Levi-Strauss
Claude Levi- strauss noticed that films tend to have binary oppositions to drive the narrative forward.
In Toy Story we have both a protagonist being Buzz Lightyear and a antagonist being Stinky Pete and Big Al. Buzz is the clear protagonist due to the fact that he is the one who is the master behind trying to save woody and is the most brave. Big Al and Stinky Pete are the clear antagonists due to the fact that they are selfish and don’t care about the other toys. (We can see that Buzz looks the strongest and most brave compared to Stinky Pete and Big Al.)
Also we see an opposition of good and evil in the film. We see good when the toys all gather together to help rescue their fellow friend Woody. We see evil when Stinky Pete brainwashes Woody and Jessy that having owners is no. (In this video clip we can see the whole crew working together to deafeat the evil Stinky Pete.)
Purposely the creators of Toy Story made the main hero, Buzz Lightyear to be very handsome and the strong character whereas the bad characters in this film are ugly and fat symbolizing they are the ones that are bad. This is a typical feature to notice in films.
Also Levi mentions the opposition between honorable and corrupt, this is clear in Toy Story as we can see that Buzz is very honorable as he is always helping others and putting them first and is willing to risk his life to save Woody. Whereas with Stinky Pete he just wants someone to come with him to China because he had a horrible owner that treated him nastily.(In this clip the fact that Buzz is a honorable toy is made clear in this clip.)
Roland Barthes
Roland Barthes, believes enigma code. These enigma codes are questions, which are raised by ‘Clues’ in the text.
The main mystery is why Stinky Pete is the evil character he is. This question is created by the fact that we see Stinky Pete as a big pessimist, very sad and a very evil person. We find out later that he had a bad experience with his owner. His owner miss treated him and has caused him to hate owners but prefer collectors, as they don’t hurt his feelings.
