Pixar reintroduced Bo Peep in Toy Story 4 after she was absent from Toy Story 3, but the new movie ruined her as a character. Bo Peep is one of the original toys from the beginning of Toy Story. She's a porcelain figure who detaches from a lamp, along with her sheep. She belongs to Andy's sister Molly, but Andy frequently plays with her, usually using her as a damsel-in-distress to be rescued by Woody.

Bo Peep is caring, flirtatious, and more pragmatic than the other Toy Story movie toys. She and Woody are in a romantic relationship, and she repeatedly comforts him throughout Toy Story and Toy Story 2. She also has a good relationship with the other toys. In Toy Story, she's seen frequently trying to calm confrontations between them, especially between Woody and Mr. Potato Head. However, she never goes on adventures outside the house, maybe because of her porcelain nature. She's distressed when the other toys are in danger, but avoids physical situations—including when Mr. Potato Head and the other toys throw Woody out of the moving truck.

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Bo Peep and most of the other toys are gone as of Toy Story 3, given away as Andy and Molly grew up and no longer needed so many toys. In Toy Story 4, Bo Peep returns, starting with a flashback that explains what happened to her. But the flashback and the rest of Toy Story 4 do a disservice to her already established character.

Toy Story 4 Shouldn’t Have Had a Flashback

Bo Peep Toy Story

The flashback takes place nine years before Toy Story 4, not long after the events of Toy Story 2. It puts Bo Peep in the middle of the action as the toys try to rescue RC from a stream of mud during a storm. In this flashback, Bo is presented as a co-leader with Woody, reciting operation names and giving orders. Bo holds Slinky Dog's backside in place on the windowsill as Woody uses Slinky to descend the side of the house. Buzz Lightyear, the Toy Story deuteragonist, barely does anything during the rescue. This is a stark contrast to Toy Story 1 and 2, when Bo Peep yelled at Buzz to get off the windowsill, screamed at the sight of his detached arm, and didn't accompany him on a rescue mission for Woody.

The flashback retcons Bo Peep's personality in an attempt to make her a more stereotypically "feminist" character instead of a damsel-in-distress, but the change wasn't necessary. The adventurous Bo Peep is who the audience sees ten years later, living in the wild as a "lost toy." It would have been more effective for Toy Story 4 to skip the flashback, and let the audience and Woody meet this new version of Bo Peep naturally. Instead of implying she was always an action hero, Bo Peep could have changed as a person during her ten years away. This would have taught the children watching Toy Story 4, and Woody, a lesson about change. This Bo Peep retcon also implies that Bo and Woody make a better couple because they are similar leaders and adventurers. But originally, they made a good couple because they were so different.

Toy Story 4 also changes Bo Peep's appearance. The update to her outfit makes sense: it's her old clothes reworked to be more practical for life outside. However, her face and body are changed slightly, too. Toy Story 4 also changes Andy and it's not unheard of for characters to be updated as animation technology progresses. But Bo's new look makes her more cutesy and similar to Disney's recent popular protagonists—Rapunzel, Elsa, and Anna. She also looks and moves less like fragile porcelain and more like plastic. It would have been a breath of fresh air to see a female protagonist with a more unique appearance. Unfortunately, Toy Story 4 just couldn't get Bo Peep right.