Ackerman's The Spirit of Toys: Resurrection and Redemption in Toy Story and Toy Story 2

Alan Ackerman discusses several of the concepts that are present in Disney Pixar's Toy story films. One of his arguments that really popped out to me was the notion of death, humanity, and perfection . Ackerman argues that death is present and "imagined obsessively in both movies"(Ackerman 896). I definitely agree that there are themes of death and humanity throughout the film. As Ackerman points out, the character Sid is an image of death, some might even argue that he is the grim reaper, who in a twisted way escorts toys to their doom by destroying them with tools and toy rockets. Sid's skull shirt further credits the theory that he is the presence of death in the film. Toys like Buzz, eventually realize his own humanity when he  attempts to fly and gloriously fails, breaking into a few pieces (Ackerman 897) . No arguments there with Ackerman.  However what I found particular interesting about his analysis of the second film was the toys' idea of death in connection to perfection.

Ackerman once again points out references to death in the form of storage that Jessie and other toys are placed in before finding Woody (904). This idea of keeping toys in storage or their original boxes in mint condition sparked a curiosity in me. Death for these toys may not be as literal as being destroyed, but rather not being played with feels equally as painful. I started to notice that throughout the second film, the toys are obsessed with being perfect. When Woody's arm is ripped, he becomes visibly worried and upset, fearing that because he is partially damaged, Andy won't want to play with him anymore and subsequently feels like he has died. Jesse and the other television characters are excited to be on display in the museum because they will be in mint condition and perfect forever. I feel that Woody subsequently realizes, at the point and level of perfection, they aren't really living.

This made me think about images of perfection in the real world. There are people who go through their lives trying to achieve perfection as if anything less would be comparable to death. I feel that the presentation of perfection to death in Toy Story allows people to take a step back and realize that life is not always about being perfect, and sometimes being a little rough around the edges is just fine.