Caroline Rozzo's Writing 101 Disney Blog

 While Toy Story is not a classic fairy tale like Cinderella, there was an original plan for the movie that was changed quite a bit before releasing the Toy Story  that we know today. Interestingly enough, it sort of reflects the usual aspects of a fairy tale.  Originally, the story involved a wind up drummer/one man band toy named Tinny, who goes on many adventures with his other toy friends in hopes of being loved and played with by a child after accidentally falling out of his original "family's" car at a gas station. After numerous problems arise and the toys are put in danger by a dog named Baby (like the dog that Andy gets in Toy Story... here is one similarity), the toys ultimately end up in a kindergarten class where they are played with and they all live... you guessed it... happily ever after.  Tinny The Wind Up Toy Eventually, this story evolved into the classic story of Woody and his fellow toys, with the main character Tinny being replaced by Woody. How...

 "And they lived happily ever after..."  This is the classic ending to fairytales, finishing off an action-filled story about a princess or other being defeating their worst challenges, but ultimately ending up in this happily ever after state. But what does this really mean? I suppose that the answer to this question depends on who you ask; a fairytale writer, a young child, a teenager, and an adult will each give you different answers. Each of these different perspectives elucidate the inherent unknown that goes along with ending a story with such a statement. Perhaps, then, this is what makes fairytales so interesting and ambiguous.  While it is traditionally portrayed in fairy tales that 'happily ever after' is directly correlated with finding love with a prince, and living together forever in an unexplained perfect state, I don't think that love is necessarily the driving factor in determining the start of a happily ever after.  To me, happily ever after is r...

 If somebody told me a couple years ago that we would be living in a pandemic right now, I could not even imagine what it would be like. This uncertainty even in present times causes lots of stress and anxiety for many people.  I spent the main quarantine (March to June) with my three best friends, so I always had them there to help me get through this weird and stressful time. I am very grateful that we spent so much quality time together and always had each other to turn to during these very isolating three months. We did a lot of puzzles, which reminded me a lot of my childhood and doing puzzles with my three siblings. I have a vivid memory of my sister and I climbing a bookshelf in my brothers room and going on top of his closet where there is a ledge, and we sat there, hunched over, putting together a Care Bear puzzle. Doing the big, multi-day puzzles with my best friends during quarantine definitely brought me back to this simpler time and made things a little bit bette...