Lots-O'-Huggin' Bear (2024)

Lots-O'-Huggin' Bear is recognized as the best character page, which means it has been identified as one of the best articles produced by the The Disney Villains Wiki community. If you see a way this page can be updated or improved without compromising previous work, please feel free to contribute.

Lots-O'-Huggin' Bear or known as Lotso is the main antagonist of 2010 Toy Story film series, Toy Story 3. he was the ruler of Sunnyside Daycare and the leader of Lotso's Gang.

He was portrayed by the late Ned Beatty.

Biography[]

Toy Story 3[]

Lotso is an elderly, purplish-pink stuffed teddy bear with a strawberry scent and a soft New Orleans accent. He uses a toy wooden mallet as a makeshift cane.

He is first introduced riding over to Woody, Buzz, and the other toys in his dump truck. He greets them in a friendly manner and tours them around Sunnyside. He explains that every toy here is pre owned and have found the ownerless life with generations of new kids coming in better than life with an owner. Lotso and the toys then approach the bathroom door which is opened by an old baby doll. Lotso explains that he and Big Baby used to belong to the same owner before being abandoned, but they're fine with that. The Bear assigns the new toys in the Caterpillar Room, knowing the toys there are treated riotously by the younger kids. However, unknown to Lotso, Woody escapes to go home to Andy - in the process, he gets stuck on a tree and is found by Bonnie.

That night, after the toys experience a rather rough playtime with the toddlers in the room, Buzz decides to go find Lotso to ask for his friends to be moved to the Butterfly Room. After being discovered by Lotso's gang as an eavesdropper and forced into their "Time-Out Chair" in the library for interrogation, Lotso arrives and releases Buzz, saying their guests shouldn't be treated as such. Buzz requests a transfer for him and his friends, to which Lotso agrees, but only to Buzz's moving, knowing he might be useful to him. He refuses to listen to Buzz's plea to relocate his friends, convincing Buzz that they have the newer, stronger toys be in the Caterpillar room so the older toys won't have to go through those "hardships". But Buzz is still unwilling to abandon his friends. Realizing Buzz can't be talked out of his loyalty, Lotso orders Big Baby to put Buzz back in the Time-Out Chair. He then uses a Buzz Lightyear action figure manual, which is given to him by the Bookworm, to reset Buzz to his demo mode. This mode reverts Buzz to a mindset that makes him think he is a real Space Ranger again (similar to how Buzz originally believed so in the first film as well as Utility Belt Buzz from the previous film) and brainwashes him into thinking his friends are helpers of Emperor Zurg.

Lotso and his gang then arrive in the Caterpillar room and tells the toys the room needs new toys like them and makes Buzz imprison the toys inside cubbies (which act as cells), with Mr. Potato Head being put in "The Box" after trying to fight Big Baby. Lotso has Buzz give out a set of rules, and then, as a way to make sure the toys obey his many rules, Lotso forks over Woody's hat, which he left behind in his escape, making the toys think Lotso killed Woody. The Bear and his gang then leave with a wicked laugh and leave Buzz to stand guard.

The next day, unbeknownst to Lotso, Woody returns to rescue his imprisoned friends after learning Lotso's true character from Chuckles and Bonnie's other toys. He and the toys formulate a plan to escape Sunnyside, including the successful attempt to bring Buzz back on their side. During that night, the toys attempt to flee Sunnyside through the garbage chute that the Chatter Telephone had told Woody about earlier. They nearly succeed, but Lotso and his gang confront them on the other side of a dumpster, blocking their route of escape and revealing that they've tortured Chatter Telephone until he told them about their whereabouts. Lotso tries to coax the toys about Andy that doesn't wanted them anymore. However, Woody rebuffs that statement. Lotso then tells Woody that he's a piece of plastic who was only made to be thrown away. Right after, Lotso hears and notices an approaching garbage truck arriving any minute. He tries coaxing the toys into coming back to the Caterpillar Room, but Jessie refuses, stating she would rather rot in the dumpster than join his "family". This makes Lotso signal to Stretch to push the toys into the dumpster.

Then, Ken appears, explaining that Lotso has been using even his own thugs to bring himself up to where he is. Woody then reminds Lotso of his old life with his former owner Daisy, rightfully telling him that she did in fact love him and Big Baby, annoying Lotso. The cowboy then pulls out Big Baby's old pendant (received from Chuckles during his stay at Bonnie's house earlier) and tosses it to Big Baby, who picks it up, sniffling "Mama." Lotso snaps at Big Baby and and smashes the pendant to pieces with his mallet, making Big Baby cry. Lotso then orders a now reluctant Stretch to push all the toys into the dumpster, and jabs the doll with his mallet, desperately trying to re convince the "dummies" that all toys are merely trash awaiting disposal. Suddenly, Big Baby, fed up with Lotso's deceit and abuse, throws the wicked bear into the dumpster and slams the lid on him, much to everyone's surprise. Big Baby then blows a raspberry directly at Lotso and allows the toys to escape. As the toys quickly try to leave Sunnyside from across the now-closed dumpster, however, one of the Aliens gets stuck in the dumpster lid, prompting Woody to hurry back and free the alien by slightly opening the lid. Before Woody can return to his friends, Lotso climbs up, grabs Woody by the ankle, and pulls him into the dumpster, prompting Andy's other toys (excluding Barbie) to hurry to his rescue just as the garbage truck arrives to pour the garbage from the dumpster and the toys into the truck.

The truck takes Andy's toys and Lotso to Tri-County Landfill, where they are pushed onto a conveyor belt leading to a shredder (except the three aliens, who get swept away by a vehicle). After the toys grab onto a metal object so that they hang from the magnetic ceiling, safe from the shredder, Lotso calls for help from under a golf bag. Woody and Buzz drop down from the ceiling to free Lotso using one of the golf clubs to pry up the bag to let Lotso crawl out. The bear takes the cowboys hand as the club rises to the magnet, split-seconds before the shredder chews up the golf bag. They then drop down and land on another conveyor belt heading right for an incinerator. As the toys run in the opposite direction, Lotso notices an emergency stop button and calls Woody to help him up the ladder and access the button. Woody and Buzz then call to Lotso to push the button, but Lotso gives the helpless toys a menacing grin, shouts a final insult directly at Woody, and runs off, leaving Andy's toys to die in the incinerator. Luckily for them, the Little Green Men rescue them before they can be engulfed in flames.

Meanwhile, Lotso tries to find his way out of the dump, he turns to see another garbage truck pulling up toward him, forcing him to go limp. As the truck stops next to him, a garbage man steps out of the truck and is surprised upon discovering Lotso, remembering he once owned a Lots-o'-Huggin'-Bear during his childhood. Sticking to his cherished memories of the pink bear (as well as his strawberry scent), the garbage man decides to take him along and then straps him onto his truck. Lotso is last seen tied up on the truck's front grille by his wrists and ankles with a few other toys the same garbage man had collected sometime earlier. Lotso panics and gasps as he wakes up to find himself in this predicament and the other toys on the grill laugh at him as the truck drives away.

Appearances[]

“Lots-o'-Huggin' Bear is a jumbo, extra-soft teddy bear with a pink and white plush body and a velvety purple nose. This lovable bear stands fuzzy heads and shoulders above other teddy bears because he smells like sweet strawberries! With a smile that will light up your child's face and a belly just asking to be hugged, Lots-o'-Huggin' Bear is sure to become a bedtime necessity. Stain-resistant. Spot clean plush surface with a damp cloth.”

Personality[]

At first, Lotso seemed like a caring, compassionate, friendly, and polite teddy bear, welcoming Woody and the gang with open arms, giving them a tour, and telling the toys that different kids at the daycare center would continue to play with them for years to come and that they would never get rejected. However, this was only a ruse as his true self is actually a tyrannical, cruel, selfish, sad*stic, manipulative, and brutal control freak who regularly abused his position, despised children and ruled Sunnyside as a concentration camp.

Lotso often imprisoned new toys in the Caterpillar Room so that he could test their ability to endure the abuse of the reckless and destructive children there until the broken toys are thrown away and send to the dump to their deaths, with no remorse for it. This nature was because according to Chuckles, Lotso was originally a good-natured and gentle bear, a friend of both Chuckles and Big Baby. He loved his owner Daisy as much as she loved him, as they did everything together.

However, when Daisy forgot them and replaced Lotso with another teddy bear, Lotso felt betrayed and heartbroken. The grief and anger meanwhile drove Lotso to develop a harsh expression of cynicism and a negative philosophy about being a toy, believing that they were nothing special and destined to get thrown out in the trash (which is somewhat accurate considering the fact that toys tend to be given away and sometimes even discarded by their owners when they outgrow them). He even deemed love as a complete illusion, and while he played up his affable image as the ruler of Sunnyside, he developed near fatalists tendencies as he stated that all toys were ultimately made to be thrown away and there was no salvation for them.

Lotso also showed no mercy to toys that resisted, opposed, helped other toys escape, and didn't follow his views, with examples being breaking Chuckles the Clown and Chatter Telephone, having Stretch push the toys into the dumpster, disowning Ken for not agreeing with his view that there were a hundred million Barbie dolls, and punching Big Baby with his mallet for being attached to their former owner again. Additionally, by destroying Big Baby's old pendant, Lotso showed that he not only wanted to forget his own relationship with Daisy and pretend it never even existed, but he also wanted to destroy all of Big Baby's ties to Daisy and essentially all toys' ties to their owners.

However, despite his claims and great extremes to secure his power, Lotso is ultimately a coward and hypocrite. When welcoming Andy's toys to Sunnyside, he is shown to be contradicting in his statements concerning donations, claiming to Andy's toys that getting donated is the best thing that ever happened to them, and then saying that them getting donated by Andy was his loss and therefore, he can't hurt them anymore, even though he is intentionally hurting them by placing them in the Caterpillar Room. Eventually, when the toys try to escape Sunnyside, Big Baby, having enough with his abuse, throws him in the trash heap and Lotso begs him not to lock him inside and at the landfill. Despite seemingly showing thankful feelings toward Woody for saving him from the shredders, Lotso kept his belief that children would end up throwing away their toys out of boredom and disinterest without realizing the physical and emotional pain they cause to them, as evidenced by his refusal to press the stop button of emergency which, if he had pushed it, would have led to his redemption by sparing Woody and his friends from their ardent death in the incinerator.

Overall, Lotso has proven to be both irredeemably and unsympathetically evil. Despite his tragic backstory and any admiration he may have had towards Daisy, Lotso shredded it all up by taking his hatred and rage on other toys that had no involvement with him getting replaced. Furthermore, he refuses to accept the fact that he was the only one who was replaced as he insisted to let his former friends suffer with him, Lotso is more than willing to let other toys suffer or get broken simply out of his hatred of Daisy.

Moreover, he happily caused great harm to Woody and his friends, despite the fact that Woody risked his life to save his own fur, and he would not hesitate to betray his own minions or throw away any shed of redemption all for the sake of power and sadism, and by extension, it turns his horrendous treatment of the other toys into his way of angrily lashing out at everyone else with the mindset that if he can't be happy no one can. All this makes Lotso the worst, and by far, the most hated enemy of Woody and his friends.

Trivia[]

• In a viral marketing campaign, Pixar posted two commercials, for a "real" Lotso teddy bear manufactured in 1983 (perhaps even longer), on YouTube. One was a typical American toy commercial from the '80s, and the other was done in Japanese. Both feature the "Toy Story Collection" version of Lotso and are included on the bonus disc of the Toy Story 3 Blu-ray.
• Despite the fact that Lotso is the villain in Toy Story 3, the "Toy Story Collection" version of him doesn't say any villainous phrases. He says all sorts of kind phrases. This was probably done so fans of the franchise wouldn't find out that he was the bad guy.
• The truck Lotso ends up on reads "KRUMM". This same word was on Al McWhiggin's suitcase in Toy Story 2.
• Lotso is the representative for Toy Story 3 in the 10-Disc Ultimate Toy Box Trilogy set containing Blu-ray, DVD, and Digital Copies of Toy Story 3 and the first two Toy Story movies.
• In the Toy Story 3 book with Woody's POV of the film, Lotso has more lines when he confronts Andy's toys at the dumpster.
• The film tie-in book The Art of Toy Story 3 includes these interesting facts about Lotso's development.
  • He was originally conceived as a teddy bear from the early 80s Care Bears toy line. This idea was not dropped until after the storyboard was completed and can be seen in the final version.
  • The animators also admitted that they increased Lotso's cruelty in the final version of the film in order to ensure that people understood that he deserved what happened in the end, as the test screenings had some kids still sympathizing with him after his backstory was revealed.
  • The film's director, Lee Unkrich says that he got the inspiration for Lotso's backstory when his niece left her favorite toy — a doll named "Peggy" — at a Burger King restaurant, and had replaced her with a new doll named Peggy. He wondered what the old Peggy would think if she came back and discovered there was a new Peggy.
  • In addition, Unkrich also mentioned the reason for Lotso's defeat. He refused to send him through the shredder or the incinerator because it would be sad*stic. But he definitely deserved being stuck to the front of the truck.
• Lotso made a cameo appearance in Up, the last Pixar movie released before Toy Story 3. He was spotted next to Dee's bed when Carl's house flies past her window outside.
• When Lotso is helped to the emergency stop button on the trash conveyor belt, instead of pushing the button to stop the belt and save the other toys, he glares at them and yells, “WHERE'S YOUR KID NOW, SHERIFF?!” This is a wink to the Internet meme “Where is your God now?”, a sarcastic way of inducing fear in a victim (the internet meme, in turn, originates from a line in a Billy Crystal routine making fun of the incongruity of Edward G. Robinson being cast in The Ten Commandments (1956): “Where's your Messiah now, Moses?”).
• Lotso's defeat is fitting because it has given him two things he had been asking for: First, the true meaning of love, which he got from the garbage man, who remembered having a Lots-o'-Huggin' Bear toy as a kid. And second, a fitting end to a considerably miserable life, which he would face from the elements, bugs, and mud; and/or from eventually being thrown away again, leading him to die in the shredders or the incinerator. However, this is also a bad ending for him, since one of the movie's themes involved characters finding their purpose in the changing world or perishing.
• His thick Southern accent, initially soft-spoken demeanor, and many of his iron fist policies as "Warden"—including throwing uncooperative prisoners into "the box"—are clear references to "The Captain", Strother Martin's character from Cool Hand Luke (as well as Lotso's voice actor, Ned Beatty's previous character, Sheriff J.C. Conners, from White Lightning).
• According to the official movie magazine for Toy Story 3, Lotso was originally created for A Tin Toy Christmas (which later became Toy Story).
• Lotso also appeared in every version of the Toy Story 3 video game. He appears in the Sunnyside level of the Wii, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC versions with Ned Beatty reprising the role. He is also seen in the enchanted glen in their toy box. In these versions of the game, his fate is not revealed or seen. He has a silent appearance in the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable versions, and his fate is not revealed or seen here either. He also has a silent appearance in the Nintendo DS version. In that version, his fate is revealed and seen.
• Lotso's voice actor, Ned Beatty later voiced Tortoise John in Nickelodeon's Rango, which was released a year after Toy Story 3. Coincidentally, both films won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature.
• The way Big Baby throws Lotso into the dumpster mirrors the way Darth Vader killed Darth Sidious in Star Wars: Return of the Jedi.
• Lotso appears in three of the LEGO Toy Story 3 sets.
• Lotso's true colors may be hinted at before the release of the film in the LEGO Toy Story 3 playset based on the scene where he leaves Andy's toys to die. The set included Lotso trying to kill Woody and Hamm in an incinerator with the Aliens trying to save them.
• Lotso's voice actor, Ned Beatty, died the same year as Jack Angel who voiced Lotso's minion, Chunk.
• In 2012, the Disney Store released a talking plush toy of Lotso with a talking Woody doll.
• Test audiences who sympathized with Lotso for his backstory wanted him to push the button in the incinerator scene to redeem himself.
  • However, according to the DVD commentary, director Lee Unkrich explained that the filmmakers decided to drop Lotso's chance for redemption in order to make the audience who had gotten to know Andy's toys over the past fifteen years in three movies care about the characters even more as they went to the fire when it looked like the end for them before the Squeeze Toy Aliens rescued them with the claw.
  • Another reason is that they did not want Lotso to get off so easy, so they just increased his cruelty to ensure to the audience that he deserved what he got in the end (being strapped to the grille of a garbage truck).
• Some people blame Daisy's parents for Lotso's villainous demeanor, as they could have gone to look for their daughter's lost toys, instead of replacing Lotso. It is likely that by the time they went back to where they left Lotso, he was already on his way home.
• Lotso is considered by some as one of the darkest and most sinister villains in Pixar films because of his cruel and traitorous personality. Plus, he turns a daycare for toddlers and small kids into prison for toys. He's also considered to be the evilest Toy Story villain.
• Lotso's later knowledge of Woody and his friends' escaping in the first place is not revealed, but it is likely that the Monkey managed to free himself and alert Lotso, leading to Lotso beating up the Chatter Telephone for information on Woody's whereabouts.
• An advertisem*nt for a Lotso bear appears in Tokyo in Cars 2, the first Pixar film released after Toy Story 3.
• Lotso was originally supposed to appear in the first film (possibly as the main antagonist), but the technology needed to create his fur had not existed until the third film so the role went to Sid Phillips.
• In the Disney Cruise Line show Villains Tonight, hosted by Hades from the Disney film Hercules, Hades is looking for villains to call, when he mentioned Lotso. However, he doesn't call Lotso as he “always brings that baby with him.”
• Lotso appeared on stage during the D23 Expo 2015 for Toy Story 4, but he didn't appear nor was mentioned in the finished film. It's currently unknown if Lotso's stage appearance was just coincidental and a celebration for the twentieth anniversary of the first Toy Story movie or if there were once plans to indeed bring him back in the fourth film as an antagonist, considering that the fourth film's screenplay was reworked many times during the years Pixar worked on it. It is possible that Lotso was originally going to return in the fourth film to seek revenge on Woody for getting him kicked out of sunnyside. If he and Woody were to find a common enemy in a toy far eviler than Lotso was, then Lotso would have likely redeemed himself to help Woody take down this enemy. Ultimately, Lotso (and his revenge and possible redemption) were written out of the story and the main villain in Toy Story 4 was a doll named Gabby Gabby, who is actually far less evil than Lotso.
• Lotso acts as a darker reflection of the following characters:
  • Woody. Both were in charge of the toys at their location (Woody, Andy's House, and later Bonnie's House; Lotso, Daisy's House, and later Sunnyside), and both ended up abandoned by their former owner. However, Woody never gave up on Andy, while Lotso gave up on Daisy. Coincidentally, Lotso's behavior was very similar to Woody's original rendition in Toy Story, specifically his characterization in the Black Friday reel. Also by coincidence, both characters also ended up toned up/toned down for the final version due to unexpected events during a test screening (Woody was originally an immense jerk and lacked compassion, but was toned down after the Black Friday reel nearly shut down production of Toy Story; likewise, Lotso had his cruelty amplified after test audiences sympathized with him and wanted him to push the button to show that he deserved his punishment). Lotso is an example of what Woody would have become if he let his fear of being replaced get to him. Lotso also served as a lesson for Woody in the film, because if Woody didn't move on with his life and decided to remain with Andy instead of his friends, then he would've ended up being like Lotso.
  • Jessie. Lotso's backstory is similar to Jessie's backstory. Jessie was abandoned by her first owner Emily, while Lotso was replaced by Daisy's new bear. Both toys were heartbroken and spent years without an owner. However, unlike Lotso, Jessie didn't resort to a life of crime. Lotso is a perfect example of what Jessie could have become if she let her heartbreak get the best of her.
  • Stinky Pete, the main antagonist of Toy Story 2: both seemed to be loving at first but were eventually revealed to be cruel tyrants in the end. This is mainly because of a sense of feeling rejected or unloved, which was clearly seen in both Pixar villains. Coincidentally, the music that played during Lotso's defeat was the same music heard during Stinky Pete's defeat. However, while Stinky Pete has a tragic backstory and a few redeeming qualities (he was a very kind friend to Jessie and Bullseye during their time in storage at Al's apartment), Lotso is far more despicable as he simply wants other toys to get hurt and tries to get Woody and his friends killed in the incinerator even though they freed him from the golf bag. Lotso is an example of the kind of toy that Pete could've become if he allowed his past to consume him with the belief that all toys have no purpose but to be thrown away.
  • Gabby Gabby; both were toys who no longer had owners at the beginning of their respective movies, and had henchmen who worked for them. They also took management of different locations (Sunnyside for Lotso, the Second Chance Antiquities Store for Gabby). However, unlike Gabby (who was affable and was particularly kind to her henchmen and even her captives, moved on in life after being rejected by Harmony, and can be sympathized with), Lotso feigned kindness and treated his henchmen with disrespect, never accepted the fact that he was replaced by Daisy with another Lotso, and removed any sympathy with everything he's done. Lotso is an example of the kind of toy Gabby could've become if she didn't move on with life nor accepted that Harmony rejected her, and instead allowed it to consume her with anger and violence.
• The truck that drove Lotso to Sunnyside was a Pizza Planet truck, which has appeared in almost every Pixar movie.
• In the Read-Along version of Toy Story 3, Lotso's final scene on the garbage truck is omitted, leaving it unknown if he was retrieved by the garbage man or if he escaped from the dumpster successfully.
• After Toy Story 3 was released on June 18, 2010, Universal Pictures released Ted on June 29, 2012, in which the titular protagonist of the same name was loosely modeled after Lotso.
  • Interestingly enough, Ted seems to be the opposite of Lotso. While Lotso appears to be warm and caring on the outside but actually cruel and pure evil on the inside, Ted is a trash-talking, selfish jerk on the outside, but deep down he dearly cares for his friends despite his wrongdoings.