Fact or Folklore - Toy Story Characters

[BelleBeauty]

My DH just asked me why we have never tried this little trick in WDW or DLR. It sounds a little fishy to me and I'm not sure if it is true, so I wanted to check with the experts.

DH says that supposedly if you are near any of the Toy Story characters and you yell "Andy's coming" that they are supposed to fall down and pretend they are "just toys" as they would in the movies.

Sounds complicated to me... What do you think?

[disneymom15]

I don't know if thats true or not, but it would
be very funny to see.

[Melanie]

This (and an accompanying picture) is making the social media rounds the last few days.

When I first saw it, I immediately thought Disneyland. They are much more loose and unstructured out there with their meet 'n greets. WDW, not so much. Plus, like someone pointed out (who happens to also be a member here ), everyone at Disneyland is an aspiring actor.

[Capt_redshirt]

I dont know about buzz (would be hard to pull off) I do know the toy soldiers do stiffen up if they hear it i say this at DHS but i think you have to have a good actor behind it all

[magicofdisney]

It's worth a try.

[JesGettingStarted]

I have heard for the most part this is false. I cant imagine that they would throw them selves on the ground while wearing those costumes. It would be hard to get back up and they would get dirty. Also since they wouldn't be able to do this every time someone said it, especially now that it is making the rounds on the internet, I doubt the higher-ups would allow it as it ruins the experience /magic if it is something that cant be done every time someone says this.

My cousin's boyfriend used to be Tigger at WDW and he told us a story about another cast member who was very limber in his Tigger costume and able to do flips and all kind of craziness in the parades. He was told he had to stop because other Tiggers could not do the same type of things. The higher ups felt it ruined the magic because one day Tigger was all over the place and the next he would seem almost lethargic. Can you imagine how disappointed you would feel if you had those Tiggers back to back?

Same thing would apply here I feel.

[joanna71985]

I can tell you, they won't do it at WDW (at least not Buzz, Woody, and Jessie)

[Goofeygal]

It is something that did happen but was never approved by Disney, characters are not suppose to sit or lay on stage for safety reasons.

[BelleBeauty]

All of this makes total sense to me (why I asked the experts). I also feel like it would be odd within the magical story of everything because obviously we are all humans and wouldn't that mean they should be pretending to be "toys" for all of us too, not just Andy?

I'm sure I'll hear some teenagers screaming it around DLR when I go in June though....

[The Horned King]

Interesting thought, But I feel the woody costume looks very top heavy, not sure hitting the deck would be encouraged, not only for the safety of the cast member but also little kids that can and will run up to a character screaming with excitement.

That been said, I have seen some amazing and unique events from cast members in all job roles, especially characters that have had me amazed. The magic of disney I suppose. These random events of magic!

[PirateLover]

This caught fire over the past 2 or 3 days. Everyone is posting it on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. They all have the same exact photo but I've seen different captions. The first few I saw said "Disneyland" but now that has been changed to the more general "Disney." It seems to me that this was maybe a one time or super rare thing, someone shared it online, and it went viral. With the amount of people now saying that they can't wait to try this or it's on their bucket list, it will make for some awkward meet and greets! I could see the characters perhaps freezing/stiffening up, but definitely not flopping to the ground every time someone tries it.

[TinkerbellT421]

According to snopes, it used to happen. And then when the picture went viral it would get shouted 50 times an hour. They also have a video of someone trying it recently and talking to a cm about it.

[Main Street Jim]

After TS3, it's now "Bonnie's coming!" :P

[Tygger7]

My DD asked me to post this....people have been asking her about this non-stop and she wanted to "set the record straight":

"For everyone so I don't get asked this question anymore...thanks to people posting something that went viral on pinterest, when you yell "Andy's Coming!!!!" to the Toy Story characters at Disney World, they no longer do anything. When I was working there as a character attendant, not even a month ago, the characters WOULD fall to the ground and act like toys. Again, thanks to people who can't just leave the magic alone and who like to spoil things, the Toy Story characters no longer do this. There may have been other issues but I do know that before this went viral, they did it. That was literally three weeks ago. I worked with Buzz and Woody on many occasions at Hollywood Studios."

As you can tell, she is pretty upset about the whole thing. Social media can be great, but it can also ruin a lot of things....

[azcavalier]

Funny...I'm on Intercot probably four times a day (at least), Facebook a ton, etc, etc, and the first I saw of this was today, as a link at the bottom of a story I was reading. Somehow I had missed this entire thread, so I started another one (now closed).

It is certainly hard to keep anything a secret with social media and the internet. It's too bad, too. I would have loved to have seen it. When i'm at WDW in a month, i'll keep my ears open to see if anyone else tries it. I certainly won't be!

[minnie04]

We just got back and while we were there my nephew sent a picture of it and told my son to yell it (Andy is coming), but we never saw Buzz or Woody so no one yelled anything. I think he told my son it would only happen if you yelled it to Buzz & Woody. I had my doubts, but thought it would be cool if it happended..

[Jeri]

I saw a video, cant remember where now, but they ask a cast member if this really happens and she said NO. It use to but they have put a stop to it now. I still see it floating around the internet but it just isn't true anymore.

[EeyoresBestFriend]

This sounded like a really cool bit of Disney Magic, and like others here, I thought 'yup . . . that's spoiled now because of the video'.

Many folks often complain about Disney 'losing' the Magic - sounds like others are quite determined to destroy it themselves.

Sometimes magical memories are meant to be spontaneous and not shared.

[SBETigg]

Yes, it's a shame that things like this can catch fire on social media and spoil a good thing. But on the other hand, if something cool happens to you on your Disney vacation, you might want to share it. Most of us are fairly judicious about what we share, but we're a special bunch and even we have had whole threads on sharing Disney secrets.

It got people excited about going to Disney parks and seeing those characters, whether they planned to try to yell "Andy's coming" or not. So be it. The original intention didn't seem to be "let's spoil this special thing for everyone" but more in the spirit of "wow, how cool is this?" There are good and bad sides to everything. Better to be optimistic and enjoy what we can while it lasts instead of getting upset at people for sharing what everyone seemed to think was exciting and wonderful with all of the best intentions. And fortunately, Disney is always finding new ways to surprise and delight guests.

[BriarRose0708]

I'm completely guilty of getting excited over this and when my friend posted it to my Facebook account I re-shared it. She posted it because she knows how nutty I am about Disney and that I go often. It was something that never occurred to me to do since I haven't done the Woody and Jessie meets before. It really was more of the photo that made me laugh than the thought of actually trying it on my next trip.