![](https://i0.wp.com/janesrenaissance.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/SoLongPartnerSmall.png?resize=448%2C323&ssl=1)
I don’t believe a scene in any other movie has captured the feeling of having to say goodbye to a piece of one’s life more beautifully than this one. The final scene with Andy and Woody in Toy Story 3 is so well done and hit me so hard that I had yet to convince myself to watch it again until I decided to write this post. When I contemplated on the Most Heartbreaking scene that I’ve witnessed in a fictional story, many movies entered my mind, but Toy Story 3 was already at the top of that list. My resistance to relive the hurt I experienced at its first watch made me believe it would be this scene and re-watching it only cemented that.
In the final ten minutes of Toy Story 3 there is no crying or outward dramatics that accompany most of the other heartbreaking scenes I mentally ranked for my list. Neither is there the death of a loved one or a cruel infliction upon an innocent being. It’s actually the opposite. The scene is filled with happiness, shared fun, and the start of new friendships. In a different movie those final few minutes could be a sweet wrap up to a happy ending. On paper, a scene such as this shouldn’t be on a list of the Most Heartbreaking, but that’s the beauty of its execution. The writers and animators created a moment of two friends simply saying their final goodbyes and made it into a mastery of emotion.
Witnessing this Toy Story 3 scene causes a squeeze around my heart for two reasons: one is the pain of saying goodbye to someone we love, and the other is saying goodbye to a time in our life that must pass away.
Before my re-watch I had forgotten that Woody wasn’t supposed to be in the give-away box as Andy had originally planned to take his favorite toy to college with him, but after seeing Bonnie light up and reach for Woody and her knowing his catchphrase “There’s a snake in my boot!” gave Andy pause. Although he didn’t want to leave him behind, he knew Woody would be safe with Bonnie and leaving Woody would allow all the toys to stay together and continue to have a purpose.
Andy, by letting Woody stay behind with Bonnie, was sacrificing a piece of himself because it was best for Woody. Instead of possibly staying unpacked in a box in his dorm or lying alone in a corner, Andy left his lifelong friend with Bonnie where he could continue to bring joy to another child. It wasn’t what he wanted, but it was what was best.
It wasn’t just Andy who had to say goodbye, but also Woody. Andy was his person and the one thing he cared most about. The plot of the Toy Story movies was Woody always trying to return to Andy. It was where he belonged. But by the end, Woody also had to accept that Andy was growing up and with that growth came the acceptance that their time together had to end. Andy would never again be a young boy and a return to the past is impossible. Woody sitting on the step watching Andy pull away as he says “So long, partner” is not a simple parting of friends. It’s a forever-goodbye.
Woody represented not only something and someone Andy loved, but also signified the end of his childhood; a childhood that we all experience and none of us can ever repeat. For Andy, and with all of us, one life was ending and another beginning which is rarely something we consciously recognize. The routine turn of the calendar erases the days and the clock ticks by a little too long until one singular moment we’re no longer children. Our childhood has departed us without so much as a “Goodbye” or “Nice knowing you”.
Most of our tomorrows are much like our yesterdays, but the present we were so comfortable and familiar with suddenly becomes a past that we can never repeat and no amount of money or prayer can return us to a different time. It can be agony if one dwells on it too long. When Andy whispers “Thanks, guys” and drives away, he’s leaving not just his best friend but also his childhood in the rear window, and for me there’s something so painful about the realization that we can’t go back. There is no U-turn or reversing. A moment in time we experienced and once loved can’t be recreated, repeated, or reproduced. It’s a little death that we must accept. Andy saying goodbye and letting go is something we all of us must do at some point.
That is why the final goodbyes of Andy and Woody is my most heartbreaking scene. It perfectly illustrates the growing up and letting go of a life that can no longer be lived, whether we’ve chosen that path or not. And sometimes those changes require us to say goodbye to those we love even when it hurts.
I’ve yet to see Toy Story 4 so I don’t know what actually happens with the toys and how their story continued, but I’d like to believe that Bonnie played and loved on Woody and the gang until she also eventually grew up (like we all do), and returned them to Andy who later passed them down to his kids. It’s not often that we let go of love and it returns, but I hope in this case it did.
I really struggled to write these words because the emotion I experience watching this scene isn’t quite captured on the page, but I tried to show my appreciation and respect for one of the best scenes in all of film. Perhaps this type of experience is best witnessed and not written. In my opinion, the talent at Pixar created the most exquisite scene, a scene which is almost too good to watch.
Leave a Reply