Daily Dialogue — December 26, 2018

Sergeant (V.O.): It’s a…
Rex: It’s A WHAT? WHAT IS IIIITTTTT?

Rex shakes the table, inadvertently knocking off the TalkBoy and causing the batteries to fall out.

Rex: Oh, no!
Mr. Potato Head: Oh, ya’ big lizard! Now we’ll never know what it is!
Hamm: Way to go, Rex!
Woody: [as the toys struggle to put the batteries back in the TalkBoy] No, no, turn ’em around! Turn ’em around!
Hamm: He’s putting them in backward! [to Mr. Potato Head] Hey, you’re putting ’em in backwards!
Woody: PLUS IS POSITIVE! MINUS IS NEGATIVE! Oh, let me!

Woody jumps down.

Sergeant (V.O.): [downstairs, into the Baby Monitor] Red alert! Red alert! Andy is coming upstairs!

Woody puts the batteries back in properly and picks up Talkboy.

Sergeant (V.O.): …juvenile intrusion, repeat! Assume your positions now!

Woody: ANDY’S COMING! Everybody back to your places! Hurry!

— Toy Story (1995), screenplay by Joss Whedon and Andrew Stanton and Joel Cohen & Alec Sokolow, story by John Lasseter & Pete Docter & Andrew Stanton & Joe Ranft

The Daily Dialogue theme for the week: Gift.

Trivia: This was the first animated film in Oscar history to be nominated for a Best Screenplay Academy Award — Adapted or Original.

Dialogue On Dialogue: This scene exemplifies how Pixar — even in their very first feature length film — has a storytelling instinct to invert expectations. A boy and his toys. How happy, right? Wrong! The toys live with an existential fear that they will be replaced. Hence, their anxiety about Andy’s birthday party and his most recent gift.