Pixar have ruined Woody. One of the greatest animated characters of all time, and they've just destroyed his legacy. In the original version of Toy Story, the cowboy doll wasn't the intelligent, well-meaning - if flawed - leader of a gang of children's toys, with all the likeability Tom Hanks' voice provides, but a maniacal dictator who would do anything to maintain his position. So when Buzz Lightyear shows up, he goes psycho - instead of struggling to adjust to change and reacting in an immediately regrettable fashion as in the finished film, he actively tries to make the spaceman's life a misery, attempting to maliciously orchestrate the demise of Andy's new favourite. If hearing that isn't bad enough, you can actually view the footage for yourself, although I wouldn't recommend it if you don't want your impression of the iconic character to be forever tainted. It's like watching a totally different film. There's scenes of Woody bullying Buzz, purposely trapping him behind some draws just because he's lost his power, and others where, instead of teaching Sid a lesson, he and Buzz torment the kid for a solid minute, delighting in how they've screwed him up for life. Sickening. Woody will never be the same and it's all Pixar's fault. Oh wait, that's ridiculous. Seeing the storyboard doesn't affect the quality of the finished movie. Glimpsing the rough initial sketch doesn't affect the quality of a painting. Watching the script read-through doesn't affect the quality of the final performance. Peeking in the kitchen during prep doesn't affect the quality of a meal. And reading an early draft of a book certainly doesn't affect the quality of the novel, nor the legacy of its characters. Yet that's exactly what's people are pretending's happened with the release of Go Set A Watchman, the "sequel" to To Kill A Mockingbird, which is out this week. I say "sequel" because, while it's set after the events of the 1960 novel, Watchman was actually written years before Mockingbird, and shelved when Lee's publishers suggested a book set earlier would be more palatable. The context is a little different to the Woody example (instead of a redraft, Mockingbird was a "prequel" to this work), but the rough-round-the-edges point, with character's personalities and motivations undefined, is the same. Watchman isn't a refined work, more a look behind the scenes of one of modern literature's greatest classics. But that hasn't stopped critics lambasting the arch-characterisation and the general public making all manner of jokes about the heavily racist language used by the characters. What did people expect? You don't delve into the development process of any artwork and expect to find some great piece hidden there. The fault really rests with the publishers for touting Watchman as anything more than it is, and the mainstream press being so desperate to announce Harper Lee has written a "new" book that they didn't take the time to elaborate where the manuscript came from. In reality, Watchman is a "What if?" or an in-development idea, and to treat it as anything more because HarperCollins saw a way to print money is frankly ridiculous. Particularly odd is the way people have jumped on Watchman for ruining Atticus Finch, turning the progressive lawyer into a bigot. I've not read the book yet, so can't comment on the specifics, but to suggest that any subsequent content can mar what's come before, particularly so long after (in the fifty-five years since his debut, Finch has transcended the mediums of both print and film), is getting way too precious. Sure, unlike the Woody comparison this is "canon", although that doesn't elevate this debate above picking holes in Batman And Robin (something I think is a worthy past-time, but a comparison I wager the literary types throwing out the phrase "destroyed legacy" wouldn't like). By all means read Go Set A Watchman. Delight in being part of a literary event. Be disgusted at the racist prose. Negatively compare it to the original. But don't for one second pretend Atticus Finch's legacy has been irreversibly tarnished. And if it has, then he goes right alongside psycho Woody, paedo Indiana Jones and nondescript human Darth Vader. Have you got Go Set A Watchman yet? What do you make of the "change" to Atticus Finch's character? And what about that Woody footage?
