Daily Dialogue — May 1, 2013
Buzz: Lotso, there’s been a mistake.
Lotso: A mistake…?!!!
Buzz: The children in the caterpillar room are not age-appropriate for me and my friends. We respectfully request a transfer to the Butterfly Room.
Lotso (gestures grandly): Well, request granted!
Ken: But, Lotso…
Lotso: Hush now, Kenneth! This Toy’s shown initiative! Leadership! Why, I’d say we found ourselves a Keeper! (to others) Hear that, everyone?! We got a Keeper!
Lotso lifts Buzz’s arm — World Champion! His Gang applauds dutifully. Lotso throws his arm around Buzz.
Lotso: We’re callin’ you up to the Big Leagues, son! From now on, you’ll have anything you want!
Buzz: Excellent! I’ll go get my friends.
Lotso stops.
Lotso: Whoa, whoa! Hold on there, Boss! Those Caterpillar kids need someone to play with…!
Buzz: But my friends don’t belong there.
Lotso: Oh, none of us do! I agree! Which is why — for the good of our community — we ask the newer toys, the stronger ones to take on the hardships the rest of us can’t bear anymore.
Buzz: Well, I… I guess that makes sense.
Lotso smiles.
Buzz: But I can’t accept. We’re a family. We stay together.
Lotso’s smile fades.
Lotso: Family man, eh? I understand. (sharply) Put him back in the ‘Time Out’ Chair.
Big Baby grabs Buzz and slams him in the toy chair.
Buzz: What are you..? What? Unhand me!
Lotso: Bring in the bookworm.
— Toy Story 3 (2010), screenplay by Michael Arndt, story by John Lasseter, Lee Unkrich, Andrew Stanton
The Daily Dialogue theme for the week is: I’m not who you think I am, suggested by Mark Twain. Today’s suggestion by Aarthi Ramanathan.
Trivia: Originally, a sequel was planned when it seemed that Disney and PIXAR would split over creative differences in 2004–2005. Disney started up an animation division titled ‘Circle 7,’ which would have been in charge of churning out sequels for PIXAR films that would not involve the original creators at PIXAR. Entertainment Weekly published an article that said the original plot for Toy Story 3 was going to be about Buzz Lightyear having a defect. Buzz would then be shipped to Taiwan to be fixed, but the other toys find out that the toy company is just replacing the broken Buzz toys with new ones, so they ship themselves to Taiwan to rescue him. This script had to be canned when PIXAR and Disney made amends. Part of their agreement was not to further develop projects that had been planned during their fallout.
Dialogue On Dialogue: Commentary by Aarthi: “Lotso is a typical example of a passive-aggressive villain. Portraying himself as a good leader and pretending to be ‘just’, but in effect actually using Buzz (and others) for his own corrupted agenda, aka. reeling him in with friendly overtures and then after having him exactly where he wants him, going for the ‘kill’ and revealing who he really is — a mean old bear.”