To be honest, I saw Jessie in TS2 as mainly a catalyst of the plot and a marketable female character (although I did sympathize with her and cry at the Sarah McLachlan song). Ouch, that’s harsh! No, not really, I didn’t dislike her, but she didn’t impress herself much upon me either.
It wasn’t until TS3 that I began to like her a whole bunch. She’s really climbed the charts and may even be my favorite character now. I wasn’t quite sure why at first, but I think one thing I love is seeing where she actually fits in with the rest of Andy’s toys (“the family”). It’s a whole new dynamic that wasn’t able to be explored in TS2.
I like how she is willing to make decisions and assert her position (often contra Woody), much more so than Buzz is. And these are the only three characters with any leadership power over the rest of the toys. It makes the dynamic much more interesting than if it were just Woody and Buzz "pal"ing around all the time.
I also like that Jessie is sort of a masculine personality who has no qualms about being made most feminine [spoil]in the very “gendered” Buzz-courtship scenes[/spoil]. Too much of the time these days, “statements” are made about gender identities being this way or that way, but Jessie is comfortably alternately masculine and feminine in a very natural way. She’s just quietly who she is, I think. (“Quietly” in a metaphorical sense, all you yodel-detractors!) It’s rare in my experience to see a female character (especially one of the romantic leads ) just laying out her personality without some kind of artificiality or angst about it.
So yeah, this post turned into my defense of Jessie, I guess.
She is certainly not the most likeable character in my opinion anyway, but I believe that her role in the story as a whole fits in very well with both Toy Story 2 and Toy Story 3.
She seems to have a really varied ‘hot and cold’ personality. At times she is really kind, outgoing and full of energy (like when she first meets Woody) but when things don’t go the way she wants them to go, she turns bitter and very cold to others. She often seems to think of herself at times despite Woody having an owner, like when she wouldn’t take no for an answer when Woody initially refused to go to Japan. By the end of the film, we do realise that she was only trying to protect Woody from being thrown away from Andy, as it is showed that Jessie was thrown out by her owner Emily all those long years ago. She really couldn’t bare knowing another toy going through what she went through.
I used to like Jessie but about a year ago when watching Toy Story 2 she started to piss me off. Her backstory wasn’t sad at all btw. After seeing Toy Story 3 I started to like her again and she proved to be a great character.
P.S. Jessie doesn’t have leadership over the other toys. Only Woody and Buzz do.
Sure she does. [spoil]The Sunnyside box? Putting her foot down about staying at Sunnyside in the face of Woody’s decision to leave? (Buzz wouldn’t have had the guts to stand up like that to Woody, in my opinion.) Later, I take her apology (and Potato Head’s snark about it) to mean that she was really at the forefront of that decision, even if it’s what all the rest of the toys kinda wanted to do.[/spoil][/spoil]
The only time I haven’t liked Jessie is in TS3 when [spoil]They make it into Andy’s garage and she’s whining that “It’s Emily all over again!”. She’s lucky to have found herself with a new owner in the first place after simply being outgrown before, not like Emily or Andy mistreated her in anyway (except for her thinking Andy tried to throw her out, but still)[/spoil]
Back when TS2 was released, I just LOVED her. She was my favourite character for a couple of years. I was 13-15 at that time, and - well, I know this sounds ridiculous, but still - I dyed my hair red because of her (i was red haired for about 5 years, then grew it back into my own colour, then it was blue, then black. And yep, this summer it’s red again. I’m no longer ashamed). And even braided them. In fact, I was a Jessie-wannabe.
Later I became very very ashamed of that period. And started hating her - and thus myself at that time.
But now I don’t care anymore. And I LOVE her again (though surely not that much). Yes, she is my favourite character. I think she’s a complex and rather interesing character. She can be hyperactive and has that fits, but at the same time she has a sad story behind. She reminds me of myself again, yep, now even more. Though I’m surely not a wannabe.
Interesting point. I definitely see what you mean here, but I thought it was more that [spoil]she was blaming herself for allowing herself to put too much faith in a child again. She should know already that the essential nature of kids is that they grow up, but she had been drawn in and had let herself forget that.[/spoil]
I did not like Jessie in Toy Story 2 in the first 2/3 of the film. She was very annoying during the earlier parts. However, I really start to enjoy her during the finale of Toy Story 2 and Toy Story 3. She stopped being annoying and started to really develop, starting with her back story and her song, which I loved.
I do like Jessie, but was I the only one who was a little surprised at[spoil] just how unsentimental she was at the start of TS3 about the prospect of being permanently separated from Woody? Before Woody showed up in the back of the car, I mean. When Woody is brought up, she just handwaves the issues away with, “He’s fine, Andy’s taking him to college.” [/spoil] I can understand that the toys were shaken after what had just happened to them (in part due to their misunderstanding over Andy’s intentions) and eager to get away while they still had the chance, but c’mon, didn’t she care that she’d most likely never see her friend again?
Jessie is marked by having a very strong sense of pride, I think. When she thinks she’s right, it may come at the expense of other considerations. (Her apology to Woody later shows her regret for this.)
It isn’t a big sticking point for me, but I can certainly see how this would make Jessie unlikable to some people.
) just laying out her personality without some kind of artificiality or angst about it.