I have... issues with Toy Story 4 (Buzz would not leave Woody because his voice box told him to, what the fuck), but Toy Story 4 handles its villain redemption masterful. Gabby Gabby is obsessed with wanting to be loved by a child and thinks that her problem is that her voice box is broken. She wants to steal Woody's voice box because then she thinks people will like her. Her bad thing she does in the story is that she kidnaps the spork toy to try to lure Woody to get his voice box. Not a good thing to do at all, but you know... Not nearly on the level of Obito's actions. Woody eventually relents and let's her have his voice box in exchange for getting back the spork toy. Afterwards, Gabby Gabby activates her voice box to get the attention of the child she's been desperately wanting to be owned by for years and... the child is bored with her. Gabby Gabby is devastated, but Woody, since he's developed into being one of the most caring characters in mainstream movies at this point, goes over to comfort her and say that Bonnie will care for her. On the way to Bonnie, Gabby Gabby notices a scared lost child and decides (despite her extreme fear of being rejected again) to help the lost child by comforting them by being nearby. The child sees Gabby Gabby being lost and decides to be brave to help the doll and goes and finds a security officer to help find their own parents and the child develops a strong attachment to Gabby Gabby and Gabby Gabby has a happy ending as a heroic character.
It's a really beautiful villain redemption arc and definitely the best moment in the movie, but what really makes it work is that... she didn't do that horrible of stuff. Gabby Gabby is not kind to the spork toy or to Woody and does bad things to them, but she's not trying to kill them. She's not committing horrific crimes like Obito or other cartoon villains. She's not a good person/toy but she is definitely redeemable. A lot of media feels the need to raise the stakes impossibly high to be exciting but then wants to redeem the villain to send a good message to children or to be more interesting (Naruto and Steven Universe being major examples here). And I just don't think stakes involving dozens to millions of lives and redeemable villains are really compatible. It comes off as really weird when Naruto redeems a villain after they committed horrific crimes against humanity. Toy Story 4 can redeem Gabby Gabby because, while she's not a good person at first, she's not like some mass murdering terrorist like Naruto villains could be.
It's a really beautiful villain redemption arc and definitely the best moment in the movie, but what really makes it work is that... she didn't do that horrible of stuff. Gabby Gabby is not kind to the spork toy or to Woody and does bad things to them, but she's not trying to kill them. She's not committing horrific crimes like Obito or other cartoon villains. She's not a good person/toy but she is definitely redeemable. A lot of media feels the need to raise the stakes impossibly high to be exciting but then wants to redeem the villain to send a good message to children or to be more interesting (Naruto and Steven Universe being major examples here). And I just don't think stakes involving dozens to millions of lives and redeemable villains are really compatible. It comes off as really weird when Naruto redeems a villain after they committed horrific crimes against humanity. Toy Story 4 can redeem Gabby Gabby because, while she's not a good person at first, she's not like some mass murdering terrorist like Naruto villains could be.
