**SPOILER ALERT: This post contains spoilers for Toy Story 4 (which I’m sure many people have seen by now, but I wanted to give the warning anyway).
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I saw the Toy Story 5 trailer the other day, which showed the beloved gang at Bonnie’s house, including Woody.
Who went off with Beau Peep and a bunch of other toys at the end of the previous movie.
So, if Woody left at the end of Toy Story 4, how is he now back with the rest of the toys in Toy Story 5?
I have not yet seen the movie, so if this is some kind of flashback situation or otherwise gets explained in the first few minutes, I’ll become aware of that when I get there. However, just from the trailer, it does not seem like there is a flashback in progress or any other reason for Woody’s presence.
Which begs the question for me at this moment: Why is he there?
Okay, enough about Toy Story. The real thing I wanted to talk about today is series consistency and why it’s important to keep your audience aware of the story’s progression. Example, if you kill off a character in book 1 who then shows up in book 4 with no explanation of how they got there or any acknowledgement of previous events, that’s going to confuse the heck out of people.
Now, as an avid fantasy reader, I never believe characters are dead, not even when they die on the page. I was burned too many times when I was new to the genre, and it’s made me highly suspicious. That said, if a character “dies” and then comes back very much alive, I still want to know how such a thing is possible. I also inevitably end up asking lots of questions: Where has this person been? What have they been doing? Did any of their actions affect the story in a significant way? Did their death/resurrection/whatever change them?
And if you’ve been reading any of my posts, you know what I’m going to say next.
“And while I’m asking these questions, I’m not engaged in the story.”
(Good job. You nailed it. 😁)
I will see Toy Story 5. I grew up with the series, and it’s one of my favorite Pixar franchises. But I’m going in with the expectation (hope?) this inconsistency will be addressed early and thoroughly because it breaks from what I know of the story up to this point. Whether I get it or not is another question.
(SHHHH! No spoilers!)
But if you want to talk anything else Disney with me, I’m always up for that.
👋 Fair travels,
Mary
P.S. A big thanks to Sweetaholic from Pixabay for the image.
