In the first Toy Story film, Woody is Andy's' favorite toy and leader of his toys. According to John Lasseter, they wanted the audience to be like, 'No, Woody, don't make those choices,' instead of just, 'Wow, what a jerk.' In addition, the change was also brought about because Apple and Pixar co-founder Steve Jobs and the rest of the production team did not like how Woody ended up and decided to change his personality by making him the wise leader of the toys, and his jealousy over Buzz was more sympathetic.

However, Pixar was given another chance, and over the next two weeks, they reworked the movie plot, making Woody a more likable character. This nearly led to Toy Story being canceled after a Black Friday Viewing.

This poor choice in characterization had been forced upon Pixar by then-Disney Chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg due to the latter wanting more of an adult, cynical, edginess to the story, resulting in Woody becoming jealous, sarcastic, belligerent and mean toward Buzz and the other toys. He also proceeded to heavily insult the toys, especially Slinky, during this time, which resulted in all of them turning on him.

One notable example of this from the original script is that Woody actually throws Buzz out the window on purpose and doesn't care one bit over what had happened or what the other toys thought of the incident, even saying in a casual tone that it was a 'toy-eat-toy world' when accused of doing so. In the original story pitch of Toy Story, Woody had a markedly more distasteful personality having the character of one whom had let his role as 'leader' go to his head and had little compassion towards his peers. Paul Newman (Who Is the Voiced Of Doc From Cars) was originally going to voice before being replaced by Hanks. Woody currently makes daily appearances in the Toy Story Midway Mania attraction at both Disney's California Adventure in Anaheim, California and Disney's Hollywood Studios in Orlando, Florida. In each film, Woody leaves Andy's room (where he and the other toys live) and ventures out into the world on an unexpected adventure. He is the leader of Andy's toys and later Bonnie's toys. He was once the favorite toy of a boy named Andy Davis until Andy grew up and gave him to a little girl named Bonnie Anderson.

He is a pull-string cowboy doll based on a character of the same name from a 1950s children's television series called Woody's Roundup. Sheriff Woody (commonly referred to as just Woody) is the main protagonist of the Toy Story franchise And Disney.Pixar:The Animated Series. That's what we're made for, right?” ―Woody, during his staff meeting with all the toys in Andy's room What matters is that we're here for Andy when he needs us. “ It doesn't matter how much we're played with.

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