But even Stinky Pete I can imagine would have gone back and pushed the button to save Woody, Jessie and Bullseye especially considering they went back and saved him. He may not have ever been played with by a child before, but I never got the feeling he was as cold hearted as Lotso.
They had conflicting views about children, as the Prospector hasn’t seen both sides, but if someone saves your life, you’d probably feel right making it back up. Again, Prospector thought what he was doing was right, so he never considered himself a bad guy. Then again, he almost killed Woody out of rage…
I’m hesitant to say that he almost killed Woody because as Lee Unkrich put it, when does an inanimate object like a toy stop living is a very philosophical question. However, I’m pretty sure that the Prospector did in fact believe that even if he had badly damaged Woody, he could still be repaired brand new. He was selfish but I don’t think he was intending to kill him, just rip him to shreds.
I was definitely surprised. I thought Lotso would have a change of heart; this was after all, his crowning moment of glory if he redeemed himself. And I was kinda expecting he would save them and sacrifice himself in the process.
But Pixar pulled the rug out from under us again. Whether this is a good or bad thing depends on your taste. While I was surprised, I was kinda disappointed that they didn’t let Lotso ‘learn his lesson’ and become a ‘better toy’ in the end. This might have been more cliched, but at least it’ll let the audience feel good about it in the end. Of course, if you really hated Lotso, you would love the original ending of him doomed to an eternal life without owners to love him anymore, transient or not.
Pixar tends to be unforgiving with regards to its villains. A bit like Disney. While they didn’t outright kill Lotso here, they did condemn him in a way, and Lotso never got the chance to change. I did read in a scriptwriter book that the heroes are the ones who change, and the villains are the ones who don’t.
I just thought it would be an interesting deviation from the trend if Lotso actually did change for the better. sigh 
Whaddya guys think?
Didn’t the Prospector say something to Woody like, “He fixed you once, he can fix you again.” Meaning, Prospector wasn’t trying to “kill” Woody, he just wanted to stop Woody/Jessie/Bullseye from escaping - he wanted to go to the Japanese museum, and needed the others to go, too. There’s another reason Lotso is such a Bad Guy - he doesn’t have to be so cruel, he just is. He could have pushed the button, it wouldn’t have done him any harm, but he’s just mean!
Nice question. I was very surprised Lotso didn’t press the button. Sure once he gets up there everybody knew he was going to run away, but while he’s climbing I was sitting there thinking: “Well this is predictable, I wonder why so many early reviews have been so harsh on the film’s dark tone?” Thankfully Pixar remembered that they were, well, Pixar, and delivered one heck of a climax to an otherwise “cheesy” movie. Even if that’s just my opinion.
yea… i thought he would hv pressed the button… n lotso become a father figure in the woody’s gang
My grandparents were surprised, but they are optimists and they try to believe the best of everybody.
I am surprised that most people voted Yes in this thread. Has no one hear ever heard of the phrase, “Leopards don’t change their spots?” Pixar has proven time and again that they know how to develop characters well. Lotso is nice because he is their first true villian. (I do not count the loser from Up because that is a terrible movie and anyway he was just a disillusioned old man…a really old man, like Dumbledore old, only not a wizard.)
If Lotso had pushed the button, Pixar would have been saying, “Hey guess what? He’s not a villian after all!” That’s what Dreamworks did in that terrible movie called Shark Tale.
In short, it was obvious that Lotso would not press the button. There was nothing unpredictable about it. What was unpredicatable was how the toys DID survive.