Pixar Analysis Episode 1: Why does Woody have a holster but no gun?

First off, let me just point out how awesome Toy Story is as well as the fact that the question we should be asking is not why doesn’t he have a gun but, rather, why does he have a holster? Super Carlin Brothers did a great video on this but, unfortunately, were unsuccessful in getting to the bottom of this mystery. I, on the other hand, will not rest until I have cracked this case wide open. One of my initial theories was that, when they were designing the toy, they had initially intended to include a gun but then decided against it when they realized it may be a bad influence on children and then just forgot to get rid of the holster before the toy went into production but it doesn’t seem likely. I mean why even consider a gun in the first place if this were designed to be a children’s toy?

My second theory is maybe it was originally designed for adults but then they later changed it to be more children-oriented but then I realized the toys they produce for adults are used while in bed. It’s important to remember that it was originally a Saturday-morning cartoon and, in that series, he still had a holster but no gun. So I guess they could have decided to initially give him a gun but later decided against it and just forgot to remove the holster in post-production and, theoretically, this could be plausible but I’d like to believe there’s a deeper, more nuanced answer than that. Unfortunately, however, there really isn’t one. In the original production of the film, they had planned on giving him a gun. However, when Disney made modifications to the film, they didn’t want it in there for obvious reasons and yet, for some reason, decided to keep the holster.

I’m sorry. I really wish there were a better answer than that but that’s what I heard and, given that it’s a kid’s movie, it would make sense that they wouldn’t want that in there but it’s so stupid. I mean buzz has a laser, stinky Pete has a pickaxe, and the soldiers all have guns (although they were real toys long before the film came out so maybe that’s why they kept them in). You even see Mr. potato head holding a gun at the very beginning of the film and the etch-a-sketch draws a realistic-looking revolver at on point. So, bottom line, the short answer is Disney is dumb and overprotective of children.

Anyway, thank you guys so much for reading. I honestly am not sure if this is destined to become a long-running series (or even if I’m going to do any more episodes after this) but I just always wondered about that and so it’s somewhat gratifying to finally get to the bottom of this mystery. You can check out the SCB video right here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yh6pDySavWA and hopefully I’ll be releasing a new episode of Buffy analysis soon.