The Daddy: The Woody Doll: Lovable Plaything the Child can Bond With or Commercial Incarnation of Capitalistic Dependency?
The Momma: Oh man, I just don’t know anymore. Three weeks ago, the kid didn’t even know who Woody was. Now I feel like Woody is running the show!
D: Woody! Woody! Woody! I swear to god, at first it was kind of cute, but now it seems like he’s substituting it for words he’s already learned, like some kind of freakish Pixar-based language!
M: It still boggles my mind that he STARTED the whole craze without even seeing the movies. I mean, that the obsession started with a freaking cardboard cutout? Pixar must have some serious wizards in their animation department…
D: Yeah, I can’t tell if it’s an indication of their amazing character development or flat out sorcery, the fact that the kid jumped on board with just an image and us telling him his name. I mean, if he had SEEN the movie first, I could understand.
D: Also, didn’t we at one point (pre-kid) talk about trying to keep heavy branding out of the house, or was that just a fancy dream I had in an imaginary magic perfectly balance no-way land of parenting?
M: HA! You’re FUNNY!
M: No, I mean, I think we had talked about limiting it, but honestly, we both love Disney & Pixar ourselves so I knew it would eventually make it’s way in. I guess I just didn’t REALLY realize the obsessive level that it could get to.
D: Yeah, I have to say, the kid has watched his fair share of television so far (more than I’d be happy to admit on my end) and I’m glad the obsession (and let’s face it, it was inevitable) over a character or show has been based around a movie and company that WE love. Had he gone this route with Dora the Explorer or Franklin or some bullshit, we would have had to had a serious intervention right quick.
M: I’m even thankful it’s Toy Story and not (sorry folks reading) Cars. If I’ve got to watch the movie over and over and have the doll shoved in my face a million times, I’m eternally thankful it’s something I like more than a little.
D: I’m not even sorry to the readers. Cars was terrible. Not at all up to the canon of basically every other Pixar flick. I’ll stand up to the critics and take the Pepsi challenge any day on this one. Cars pales in comparison to Wall-E, Toy Story, Up, or Ratatouille. Now, from a marketing and merchandise standpoint? GENIUS!
D: But yes, watching Toy Story over and over? There are certainly worse things in the world.
M: I do see that we’re going to have to be the enforcers though. The kid wants all Woody, all the time. He wakes up, and his first word (after “Hi!”) is “Woody?” I mean, seriously kid? Clearly, he’s a full on addict now.
D: He actually says “Hi” to you first? Lucky! Yeah, he’s definitely got the itch. It’s amazing to see the switch flip on from not recognizing characters or specifics to desperately clinging to a cartoon character. Now the work begins to try to if not wean him off, control the Woody intake.
M: I do love to see the recognition. Honestly, it’s FUN. We just need to…regulate the fun.
D: Totally. It’s the next step in his squirrel brain development. Now we just have to deal with the cravings that happens. It has led to another super fun new concept, which we can table for another day: “MINE!”
M: Oy. Yeah, let’s take MINE on another day. I’m not ready for that headache.
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