Woody's Roundup is a fictitious puppet show-within-a-show in the 1999 Disney/Pixar animated film, Toy Story 2. It is sponsored by a cereal brand called Cowboy Crunchies. It is also the show's opening theme song performed by Riders in the Sky.
In the film, the show ran from 1949-1957 and gained a great deal of popularity, especially for its lead character, Sheriff Woody. However, the show was canceled after the launch of Sputnik 1 that made westerns less popular with kids, as Stinky Pete declared that "once the astronauts went up, children only wanted to play with 'space' toys" and Woody remarks on how he know how that feels (referencing his jealously towards Buzz from the first film). The final episode ended on a cliffhanger at the Grand Canyon that, according to Stinky Pete, was never resolved, yet Woody and company remained pretty sure that it was indeed "Woody's finest hour."
Background[]
Official Description[]
- A crucial story element involved Woody discovering his past life as a TV star. Delving back to the early days of black-and-white television, the Pixar team envisioned Woody’s Roundup in the primitive marionette format of the day. To capture that authenticity, the crew enlisted various CGI processes to make the vintage television footage look not only old but also like it had been stored in a garage.
Characters[]
| “ |
Look, the thing is, I'm a rare Sheriff Woody doll, and these guys are my Roundup gang. |
” |
| —Woody attempts to tell Buzz Lightyear about his Roundup gang | ||
The main cast of the show consisted of:
- Sheriff Woody, the sheriff and main character
- Jessie, the yodeling cowgirl
- Stinky Pete, the Prospector
- Bullseye, Woody's horse
- Assorted 2-D critters such as rabbits and deer
Most of the gang shared personalities similar to their "real world" counterparts owned by Al, with the biggest exception being Stinky Pete. On Woody's Round Up, he is a joke character: a friendly bumbling fool that normally injures himself from his stupidity. However, Al's Stinky Pete is much wiser and became bitter from being an unsold toy for several years.
The Roundup gang is about to be sold to the Konishi Toy Museum in Tokyo, Japan, but due to Buzz Lightyear's interference as part of his rescue mission, Woody, Jessie, and Bullseye go back to Andy's house while the Prospector ends up with a little girl named Amy.
Untitled penultimate episode[]
| “ |
Will Woody and Bullseye land to safety? Can they reach Jessie and Stinky Pete in time? Tune in next week for the exciting conclusion: 'Woody's Finest Hour!' |
” |
| —Announcer, at the end of the episode | ||
During the next to the last episode, the Prospector and Jessie are trapped in an old abandoned mine. Jessie decides they've got to get out of the mine, but Prospector, wanting some light to find his gold, lights a "candle," which, to Jessie's knowledge, turns out to be a stick of dynamite that will blast them to smithereens. Jessie then calls to the critters with her yodeling and tells them to scurry off and get Sheriff Woody. Meanwhile, Woody has nearly finished building a new schoolhouse with help from Bullseye. Just then, the critters reach Woody, and he learns that Jessie and the Prospector are in danger, awaiting his rescue. Woody mounts Bullseye, telling the horse to "ride like the wind!". As Woody and Bullseye run off, Jessie tries to fan the flames out, then the Prospector tries to smother it out by jumping on it, but burns his butt instead. Woody and Bullseye then jump over the Grand Canyon as the announcer calls for the end of the episode.
Trivia[]
- Woody's Roundup is Woody's answer to Buzz Lightyear's Buzz Lightyear of Star Command.
- Woody's Roundup is a parody of Howdy Doody.
- The theme song is heard in its entirely during the film's credits. It is listed as Track 1 on the Toy Story 2 Soundtrack and on the 2000 album Woody's Roundup: A Rootin' Tootin' Collection of Woody's Favorite Songs by Riders in the Sky.
- Ash Brannon and John Lassater, the director and co-director of the film, created the merchandise of the TV Show themselves, which they claimed was a great deal of fun.
- On the cover of Life magazine showing the success of the show, it has the date January 12, 1957, which is John's birthday.
- The Ball Toss Woody game is Ash's favorite of the merchandise he helped create.
- According to John in his theme of the Cowboy Crunchies cereal, if you saved twenty box tips of the cereal and sent them to the company, you would get a Woody's Roundup collector's plate, each one composed of a Roundup Gang character, Al is shown to own all four of them.
- Tom Hanks actually had a Woody Bubble Blower in the recording studio with him during sessions recording dialogue in Toy Story 2.
- The actual lyrics for the theme song of Woody's Roundup are slightly different from the one heard during the TV episode intro.
- The song heard during the TV episode intro is missing the first line "Woody's Roundup, right here every day".
- Also, the line, "And the main himself of course. It's time for Sheriff Woody" is substituted for "And Woody the man himself, of course. It's time for Woody's Roundup" in the TV intro.
- The final episode was, according to the announcer, going to be titled "Woody's Finest Hour", but got cancelled due to Sputnik since thanks to that, children want to play with space toys.
- At the airport, when Jessie is about to be loaded into a plane bound for Japan, Woody tells Bullseye to "ride like the wind" as they (and Buzz) gallop through across the field. Also, he even says "Hey, howdy hey!", as he, Buzz and Bullseye go to save Jessie. During this scene, the music from Woody riding Bullseye in Woody's Roundup is heard. When Woody is rescuing Jessie from the plane that is about to take off, he tells Jessie to let go of the plane and pretend that it's the "final episode of Woody's Roundup". After they find together, in which Woody and Jessie swing down from the plane by using Woody's pull string and land on Bullseye, Jessie triumphantly describes the rescue as "definitely Woody's finest hour!".
- In the scene where Woody turned on the TV to show Buzz and the other toys his show, the episode actually turns out to be "Woody's Finest Hour", as evidenced by Woody showing the same footage of him riding Bullseye as well as the fact that he didn't turn it off after that, making the episode continue playing. Plus, dialogue from the episode can be heard after Buzz and the other toys leave Woody, which suggest that Stinky Pete lied to Woody, Jessie and Bullseye about the episode never airing, likely because he didn't want them to see how the final episode ended because its moral contradicts his belief that being a collector's item is better than being loved and played with by a child, considering in the film, Pete tried to convince Woody that going to the museum is better than going back to Andy. Plus, when Stinky Pete turns on the TV to prevent Woody's escape, it shows the show's intro instead.