Sheriff Woody (Black Friday Reel)

Sheriff Woody (Black Friday Reel) "Just use this vast reserve of brain power to consider this for a moment: if it wasn't for me, Andy wouldn't pay any attention to you at all; in fact, my stretchy friend... you would have been hauled away to Goodwill a long time ago, so shut your mouth and GET! THEM! OFF! THE! BED! Do it. NOW, Slink, or I’m throwing YOU off!" Gender: Male Type: Jealous and Heartless Tyrannical Jerk Species: Toy Portrayed by: Tom Hanks Status: Scrapped Media of origin: Toy Story Black Friday (scrapped)

Sheriff Woodrow "Woody" Pride is the main protagonist in the Toy Story franchise.

While Sheriff Woody as seen in the Toy Story franchise in general is a likable and endearing protagonist, the same cannot be said for his original "prototype" incarnation as seen during development of the first Toy Story film, however, as originally, he was going to be a mean-spirited character because Jeffrey Katzenberg, the former Studio Chairman of Disney, wanted Toy Story to be 'edgier'. This early version of Woody was very negatively received by everyone involved in the production of the film (including John Lasseter) and consequently nearly shut down production on the original Toy Story and even Pixar's legacy.

Why He Should Go "All the Way" to Goodwill And Was an Absolute Disgrace

NOTE: This only accounts for the Black Friday/"Prototype" Woody, not the final version since the latter is more likeable.

1. FIRST AND FOREMOST, he is a victory for executive meddling on the part of Jeffrey Katzenberg (the former Studio Chairman of Disney) during development of the first Toy Story film. In fact, this is executive meddling at it's absolute WORST, due to the various reasons as listed below.
2. Instead of being the honest, loyal, and selfless cowboy we all know and love today, Woody was originally a cynical, spiteful, and vile bully. In fact, this early version of Woody is so despicable that he might as well be the main antagonist of the original Toy Story.
   • Woody may have been a bit of a jerk in the official Toy Story movie mainly due to his jealously towards Buzz Lightyear, but not to this extent.
3. He is a ruthless tyrant who treated the other toys like dirt, wouldn't apologize, and showed absolutely no remorse for his actions.
   • He snapped at Slinky just for disagreeing with him and calls him a "spring wiener".
   • He threw Buzz out the window on purpose and claimed he slipped.
4. He even acts way too short-tempered, as he constantly yells at all the other toys non-stop for very little-to-no-reason, to the point that it becomes exaggerated and unfunny.
   • Granted, Woody may have been a bit of a short fuse at times in the official Toy Story movie, mainly due to his frustrations towards Buzz Lightyear's delusions as a Space Ranger and said character's failure to realize the truth of him being just a toy and not a real Space Ranger nor he could actually fly, but not to this extent.
5. His infamous "Hey, it's a toy eat toy world" line.
6. Even his original creator John Lasseter was unhappy and utterly ashamed with how needlessly mean Woody turned out to be in this Black Friday version.
7. In the 1992 animated test video, while nowhere near as vile as his Black Friday counterpart, he came off as the malicious, passive-aggressive, and manipulative jerk who treats Buzz's earnest heroism like a joke and comes off as both selfish and lazy.

Redeeming Qualities

1. When the film changed direction, he became the sweet cowboy we know him as, who, while still coming off as quite of a jerk at first, improves over the course of the film.
2. He actually got his comeuppance where Mr. Potato Head, Bo Peep, Rex, Hamm, and Slinky threw him not only off the bed, but (and we quote) "out the window, like he did to Buzz!"
3. At least his voice actor, Tom Hanks, still did a great job voicing him.

Trivia

1. Despite this early incarnation of Woody been scrapped from the final film, he ironically very likely served as an inspiration to the creation of Lotso, the main antagonist of Toy Story 3, with all of the negative character traits of this Black Friday incarnation of Woody originally had, such as his jealousy, spitefulness, cruelty, cynicism, selfishness and tyrannical dictatorship, being transferred over to him, albeit exaggerated further. Likewise, Lotso is an example of what Woody would have become if he let his fear of being replaced get to him, and served as a lesson for Woody in Toy Story 3, because if Woody didn't move on with his life and decided to remain with Andy instead of his fellow toy friends, then he would've ended up being an evil tyrant like Lotso.

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