A fan theory by Jon Negroni’s (a known movie blogger) intern has added a whole new layer to Toy Story because it suggests that Andy’s mom may have been Jessie’s original owner (via Jon Negroni). After decades of loving this franchise, which beautifully portrayed friendship, abandonment, and growing up, I never thought I’d still be finding such great perspectives about it around the internet. 

Toy Story 2 was the movie that first introduced us to Jessie, the free-spirited cowgirl with abandonment trauma. You might have missed these details in the John Lasseter directorial, and they seem to prove how the character’s backstory isn’t just tragic but also a part of a larger narrative that has now unveiled the series’ most unexpected villain. 

This theory hinges on one seemingly minor but mind-blowing detail of Andy’s hat. If you’ve ever noticed his cowboy hat, you’ll see that it doesn’t match Woody’s. This is strange because Woody is the leader of the toys and also Andy’s favorite. He wears a brown cowboy hat, but Andy wears a red, white laced hat, which looks quite similar to Jessie’s.

So, where did the hat really come from? Do you remember in Toy Story 2, one of the best and most deserving animated movie sequels, where Jessie recounted her past, revealing that she belonged to a girl named Emily until she grew up and left Jessie behind? In the flashback, we see Emily’s room filled with classic decor that certainly belongs to a bygone era. 

But right there, on Emily’s bed, is a red, white-laced cowgirl hat, exactly like the one that Andy wears. In her donation box, Emily does donate Jessie but keeps the hat because when the latter is picked up years later by a toy collector, the hat is no longer with her. 

This means Emily probably held onto the hat. Now that we fast-forward to Andy’s generation, he wears the same hat, with a slight fade in the place where the ribbon would have belonged. As per the theory, Emily grew up, became Andy’s mom, and gave him her childhood hat. 

Jessie unknowingly finds her way back into the family of her original owner through Andy, and it seems like no one recognizes the connection, but these threads tie the story together in a way that’s satisfying but also somewhat heartbreaking. If Emily is really Andy’s mom, voiced by Laurie Metcalf, then she unintentionally becomes one of Toy Story’s villains. 

I realize that it’s a stretch to call her that because she wasn’t overtly cruel like Lotso or Sid. Emily loved Jessie, but when the time came, she moved on, grew up, and packed Jessie into a box, only to never look back. Now, that’s a normal part of becoming an adult, but to the toy herself, that was devastating.

If the theory is true, then I believe that in this context, Emily or Andy’s mom becomes the most realistic antagonist of the Toy Story universe because most people who hurt us are unaware of the emotional scars they leave. They aren’t loud, evil, and cruel, but there’s also no acknowledgment of others’ suffering. 

While there was no way for Emily to know this about her toy, the situation seems like a great representation of what often happens to people in real life, where someone’s evil intentions don’t hurt them, but just plain ignorance.

Pixar, of course, hasn’t confirmed this theory, but what do you think? Is there any weight to it, or is it just a complete stretch? Let us know in the comments.