Sid apologist?

That movie also has the toy collector who fixes/cleans Woody and it doesn’t seem to hurt him.

Of course, this guy is also keeping the prospector doll sealed in a box for collection purposes, so maybe it’s not such a rosy picture of toy collectors…

 

As someone who also used to be a kid who destroyed dolls (among other things) and put them together, I used to be called "Sid" by the adults in my life. All in good fun of course, but I guess I would be kind of a Sid apologist because of that, I can't hate him if I was him at one point. I always thought the same way you said, how was he supposed to know the toys are alive? It's like rooting for the underdog...he's just creative and misunderstood, and I like that about him.
Thinking about it more now though, there is a difference between destroying for the sake of destroying, and destroying for the purpose of giving the toy new life, which is more what I and I think a lot of other people did. As much as I "destroyed" I still had respect for my things and I did it because I loved them so much and wanted to make them more personal and mine.

 

I'm 40 and have loved toys my whole life, I collect dolls, action figures, and Lego, and since I was like 8 or so I've dabbled in customizing toys. Way back when I repainted a Ninja Turtle to have a pink bandana which might be the least of my "crimes vs toys". When I was 13 or maybe 14 I had a make your own generic Cabbage Patch doll kit, I took just it's head shaved off half the yarn put nails in it like Pin Head from Hellraiser. Cut a hole where one of her eyes was and a hole in the back so a toy rat could live in there and have a window and door, wired the mouth shut and painted her Goth AF. I also killed many Barbies and action figures for "science", well learning to custom toys by taking em apart and putting em back together and repainting them. I have boxes of toy parts in my home. (you never know when you can reuse something.) I saw Toy Story at home on video, and well to me it was a very different movie then it was to most. I always felt bad for Sid, maybe cuz in many ways I was Sid. However I am also a person that always buys the damaged stuffed toys as it needs more love, or the broken doll cuz maybe I can fix it. People might look at Mindy in horror (that messed up doll head with a toy rat in it) But I love her. I learned a lot in making Mindy and many others, and I still have them I love my weird and messed up project toys and I love my costly collectors toys, you can be Sid and Andy at the same time. People are complex

 

I am a casual Disney fan, and I haven't seen all Toy Story films, because I am a toy lover since I was born -- the only things that bring true tears to my eyes in film are animal abuse and animated toys. I can't stand when kids destroy their toys, but I am Catholic, and I was raised in a very strict family with very strict ideals. My parents weren't as strict with me as a child (I was a well-behaved oddball since birth). I did get it from aunts and uncles, and older cousins that despite being a young child or the possession only being a toy, you shouldn't be an a-hole and destroy things willy-nilly. Discipline and decorum are kind of a huge thing within all my extended family, having a well-behaved child, is seen as something that is not only a sign of a being a good parent but a decent human. I have to say I fully agree with that, I never had any toys that were broken, dirtied or painted on with markers that I treated that way myself. My extended family kids were so well behaved, I didn't mind babysitting them when they were young. I never saw any broken or beaten toys, even the ones belonging to my nephews who were quite rough with their action figures. However, I know that my whole family are probably considered weirdos and most people think "who cares, it's just a toy." Or, "they are only children, they are only playing." Which leads to people thinking anything goes, if you're young enough.

If a toy was ever broken, dirtied or painted on, it better not have belonged to one of my family members, or the punishment would have been remembered for a lifetime, by the owner of said toy. Not physical punishment, mind you. My whole family is very strict, but very few ever believed in spanking being a good thing to do as a disciplinary act for any kind of disobedience. At fourty-two-years-old, I still can't stand toys being broken in my presence and never would condone it from any family member. I know it wouldn't be something anyone in my family would ever do out of malice, and I don't expect to see it in my lifetime from any of them, because it is seen as extremely poor (human) behavior and that's just not how my family members function. We are huge old weirdos as a whole, and I kind of appreciate it more than I can say in writing. That goes for destroying other people's property as well, it's not well tolerated within my family, I don't think I will ever see the day anyone in my family breaks something that belongs to them on purpose, let alone other people's things (not even the young ones, and tantrums are no exceptions). I am one of those weird MISB collectors, and a lot of my extended family members are as well, but not all. As long as the toy is not damaged out of spitefulness, or anger, playing with it and somehow the toy getting broken along the way, is not seeing as poor behavior. It's the malice in the act, that gets punished and not tolerated, but it kind of goes without saying that toys are rarely ever broken in any way in my family (just because of the strict nature of parents within my family in general, which I guess is more like a regime than a family Lol!). (:

 

I think the issue with Sid was less that he modifies toys, and more that he breaks toys that don’t belong to him, like his sister’s dolls. The more disturbing side of it for me was not that he changed them, but the way he played while he was doing it. It seemed less about creativity for him and more about playing at torture/gruesome surgery/violent interrogation. And sure, kids play weird things all the time without it meaning anything more, but that seemed to be almost ALL he did with his toys. Even when I was dangling my Barbies over the railing of the upstairs landing pretending it was a cliff, I would sometimes also make believe that they were going to a masquerade ball, and other things that didn’t involve mortal peril.

they do later show a Barbie with lots of drawings all over her in marker and a rather creative haircut, and that’s portrayed as a positive thing about her little girl (she even seems to like it). So I guess it’s the tone of Sid’s play that matters more than what he actually does?

 

#SidDidNothingWrong

I was a complete monster to my toys as a kid. So many chewed legs, ripped off heads, painted on tattoos, and uh certain "unique modifications" that if seen today would likely get me on a list.

 

I can totally see how living toys would see Sid as a monster. But, as toys are not alive, he was just a kid playing with his toys. So not evil.

If I was his parent, I would hesitate to get him new toys until he took better care of the ones he has. Yes, it’s hard for kids to always make the right decisions for their toys and just getting played with can be hard on objects. That’s ok. But, Sid was deliberately destroying his family’s toys and it was wasteful as some other kid could have enjoyed that toy when Sid grew out of it. I just think his parents should have stopped enabling him and redirected.

 

Toy story is a fun series of movies but all it's massages are completely harmful if one takes them seriously, Sid was just a kid who destroyed toys yes the fact he also destroyed his sisters toys was bad behaviour and the way he laughed as he pretended to torture them creepy but it's not sociopath cause he knew it was objects and not alive to me he is just a bit spoiled and maybe too much into rough music but all kids go through the destructive phase it's more of a grow up ritual the de-attachment of the toys of childhood even trough destruction. The second has the toy collector and seller as an evil thief who stops to nothing to complete the series and blatantly has as a message that it's bad to keep toys for display even in museums cause poor toys are bored in their boxes and without love , the third has the message that letting very young kids play with dolls and toys such is torture for the toys and it makes you feel if you throw your old toys in the garbage it's like murder as they will crushed in the truck etc that's what in the emotional climax scene in the garbage bin .... They are funny movies but they reinforce the worst stereotypes and well sid did nothing wrong to the toys he was though not behaving very well to his sister but again even that in a normal sibling rivalry way.

 

Sid is only 'evil' in the context of a universe where toys are secretly sentient beings.
In that case, the entire society of Toy Story is evil because people toss toys into the garbage.