I doubt that there’s anybody here who hasn’t seen or heard about Toy Story, but just in case, there are spoilers.
There’s something I’ve always wondered about the movie but only now have thought about asking.
For a while Buzz Lightyear doesn’t know he’s a toy.
Later on in the movie Woody has the toys break the rules and come alive in Sid’s presence so that Woody can escape, and Sid will stop torturing the rest of them.
Since it takes a while for Buzz to realize he’s a toy, presumably he wouldn’t know about the rules of becoming inactive when a human looks at him. So why does he become inactive in the presence of humans?
I don’t think there is an explanation. The part at the end where they come alive to Sid was the weakest part of the movie. Are you telling me that Andy wouldn’t rather have a sentient, self-aware Woody to play with, rather than a doll with a pull string? If there’s some grand, metaphysical rule that they must be inanimate when people are around, fine. Since they’re doing it by choice, not only does that call Buzz’s actions into question, but it means the rest of the toys are manipulative assholes.
But Woody does make it sound like it’s just a rule the toys follow. So it seems illogical then that Buzz would follow it since he doesn’t think that he’s a toy.
Maybe he believes the rule exists for another reason, from another source? If he thinks the big, curious alien will get bored and go away if he doesn’t encourage it, and knows he’s safe within his space armour, he might play dead even if he doesn’t know he’s a toy.
I’ve always assumed it was this, plus instinct. Buzz basically views the humans as potentially hostile aliens who can clearly overpower him with no trouble, and his immediate thought is therefore, “hide until I can get the hell out of here and back to Space Command.” However, being a toy, he has certain behaviors wired in at the “genetic” level (much as animals will freeze when suddenly placed under a floodlight, or how we jerk back automatically when burned). So rather than actually running away and hiding under something, his instinct as a toy, even though he doesn’t know he is one, is to freeze in place until the human goes away.
Of course, as with all instincts, this automatic behavioral response can be overcome if necessary - especially once a given toy is aware of it. Hence the toys’ ability to come alive for Sid later in the movie.
I also disagree with Robot Arm that the toys are “manipulative assholes.” They exist in a world in which toys are alive, and humans don’t realize this. You see how freaked out Sid gets when Woody and the other toys come to life in front of him - and it’s not just because they’re trying to be creepy. It would freak anybody out to realize that their dolls can move about of their own free will. Hell, it’s the plot of at least a dozen horror movies!
In order to remain toys at all, they have to pretend to be inanimate. And they happily do so, because ultimately the toys care about their owners and want them to be happy. And more importantly, they want to be played with. It’s a major theme in both Toy Story movies that the worst thing a toy can go through is to be forgotten by his or her owner. So hiding their alive-ness is their way of reciprocating the love and care they’re shown by the kids who play with them.
It’s surprising because the Pixar people actually worried about details like this. They had a meeting during the production of Toy Story 2 because somebody asked how the toys got back from the airport to the house. (The result was the brief cutaway shut of the airport shuttle in the street.)
Ideally the toys should never “really” come alive. It should be a sort of parallel reality not perceptable to humans, where the toys can’t actually make permanent changes to the physical world, or at most the toys actions get translated into Really Unlikely Coincidences. Or who knows, maybe Sid got a hold of some blotter acid and had a really bad trip.
