Stinky Pete

Stinky Pete (or simply known as the Prospector) is one of the two main antagonists (alongside Al McWhiggin) of Disney•Pixar's 1999 animated film Toy Story 2. He is a vintage pull-string prospector ragdoll from the 1950s TV series Woody's Roundup. He is still inside his original box. His accessories include a pickaxe and a gold pan.
== Background ==
Stinky Pete was never bought or played with by a child and spent a lifetime on a dime-store shelf, watching every other toy be sold to their new owners, which caused him to grow bitter, selfish, and angry. He was later sold to Al McWhiggin, who never took him out of the box, likely to avoid damaging him. Since Al was grown up, he planned to sell Stinky Pete to a toy museum in Tokyo. Stinky Pete found this to be good news, thinking if kids didn't want him, then being in a museum meant people would admire him and be filled with nostalgia for a toy they never owned. However, Pete had to wait as Al attempted to sell the entire Woody's Roundup collection to the Konishi Toy Museum. After he met Jessie and Bullseye, Stinky Pete befriended them while they waited for Woody.
=== Personality and Traits ===
When he first appeared, Stinky Pete was initially a kind, wise, well-spoken, and grandfatherly mentor-like character, giving support and advice to Woody, Jessie, and Bullseye throughout the first half of the film. However, this merely hid his true nature, which was intelligent, sneaky, and embittered. This was most likely caused by the years of emotional pain he had endured during a lifetime in a dime-store shelf and not being sold to any children because of their preference of space toys after the launch of Sputnik, as well as the fact that his character was the least popular Woody's Roundup character. Along with the shift of interest to space toys, the fact that this resulted in Woody's Roundup getting cancelled further contributed to his own hatred of space toys and children. Even while he shrouded his nature, he secretly planned to prevent Woody from returning to his owner Andy at any cost, sabotaging Woody's escape by secretly turning on the television to wake Al up and putting the blame on Jessie without hesitation.
When Woody finally decided he would return to Andy and take the other Roundup toys with him despite the warning Stinky Pete gave him about Andy outgrowing and forgetting him, this finally prompted the Prospector to snap and reveal his true nature and intentions. The fact that he was willing to spend years of eternity sealed inside a museum away from contact with children also showed that he had developed solitariness traits due to spending most of his time within his box. He was also hypocritical, as he was willing to harm or tear apart other toys so his goal of toys escaping harm from children in the eternal museum life would be fulfilled, as evidenced by him reopening the old rip in Woody's arm and threatening to tear him apart.
His own inexperience of being played with by a child, along with hearing Jessie's story of being outgrown by her previous owner Emily lead to him feeling that children were only destroyers of toys whose ultimate fate will be spending an eternity rotting in landfills. He also believed that rare, unpopular, and collectible toys like him and the other Roundup toys were doomed to either always ending up in storage or remaining unsold to any children similar to his fate before Al found him. These beliefs further motivated his desire to spend an eternity in the museum, accepting it was the only salvation for all toys.
Despite his villainous nature, he has redeemable traits, as the character stated in his online interview after the film that he liked his new owner Amy's face paint decorations, even though he initially feared it after Andy's toys placed him in Amy's backpack. This can demonstrate that Stinky Pete was wronged by rejection and unappreciation and that he most likely would not have ever been bad if he had simply been owned by a child from the start.
Stinky Pete's TV counterpart on Woody's Roundup was a regular recurring protagonist. Though depicted mostly as an accident-prone, stereotypical, simple-minded hillbilly and comic relief, Pete was established on the show as an overall good-natured friend and ally of Woody, Bullseye, and Jessie.
==Role in the film==
This Prospector is still "mint in the box," making him sought after by collectors. He always carries a pick around like a real prospector and had lived his entire life in his box, which has never been opened. Thus, he was greatly valued for still being in mint condition. He spends much time in storage with Jessie and Bullseye and eventually meets Woody after Al stole him. Stinky Pete is excited as this meant he and the gang could finally reside in the Konishi Toy Museum without the fear of destruction by children. Unfortunately, Woody still had an owner, prompting Stinky Pete to stop him from returning to Andy at any cost.
When Woody tries to retrieve his severed arm from Al, Stinky Pete secretly leaves his box, steals the remote, and turns on the television, waking up Al. He frames Jessie with the remote so he could not be blamed for the incident. When Woody and Jessie begin to fight, Stinky Pete breaks it up, saying he does not know how the television turned on, but fighting about it will solve nothing. After getting repaired, Woody decides to leave the gang for home, but Stinky Pete convinces him to make amends with Jessie first. After hearing Jessie's sad story of how she was abandoned by her former owner Emily, and learning from Stinky Pete that Andy would eventually grow up as well, Woody decides to stick with the gang to join them in the museum.
However, Buzz and his friends arrive in the apartment room to save Woody from being sold. Buzz and the others leave Woody to contemplate his decision, saying he would never be loved again if he spent eternity behind glass. Stinky Pete tries to commend Woody after they leave the room, but is unable to cheer him up, as he is hurt about what he had said to Buzz and the other toys. Stinky Pete watches Woody, who comes to realize his mistake and declares to Buzz he would return with him and the others. While Woody invites an uncertain Jessie and an eager Bullseye to come along, Stinky Pete decides to take the matter into his own hands, so he leaves his box, traps Woody and the others by shutting and sealing the grate leading to the air vent, and reveals he was the one who turned on the television the night before to sabotage Woody's escape. He then swears that Woody and the gang are to go to Japan with him, where they would spend eternity with him in a protected exhibit, away from children's reach.
Woody and Jessie try to stand up to Stinky Pete, only to learn he was never sold to anyone after he had spent a lifetime on a dime-store shelf and was therefore resentful. Stinky Pete declares that the museum is his only chance of finally becoming appreciated and he would have no "hand-me-down cowboy doll" mess up his only chance of going. When Woody yells for Buzz's help, Stinky Pete discourages Woody by making fun of Buzz's name, telling him he cannot help him as Woody angrily corrects him. He also reveals how much he hated space toys. Al then arrives and packs his Roundup collection, including Woody, into his case and heads out of his penthouse. In the elevator, Buzz and the gang try to help Woody out of the case but Al steps out of the elevator on the first floor and Stinky Pete angrily pulls Woody back into the case.
At Tri-County International Airport, when Buzz finds and opens the case to free Woody, Stinky Pete angrily punches him off the ramp. Furious by this, Woody fights back for harming his friend. Using his pickaxe, Stinky Pete reopens an old rip on Woody's arm (which Woody can still move this time because it is just a little rip) and offers him a choice of going to Japan together or in pieces, assuring if he has been fixed once, he can be fixed again. He orders Woody to get back into the case, to which Woody angrily protests, leaving an infuriated Stinky Pete now with no choice but to raise his pick, ready to tear him to pieces. But before he can, Buzz (who has gotten up from the fall) and the others manage to save Woody's life by stunning Stinky Pete with flash cameras that they had acquired from another luggage where they had accidentally found them earlier.
After Buzz grabs him, Stinky Pete calls them idiots and warns them they would be tortured by children, abandoned, and end up spending eternity rotting in a landfill. Woody (who has had enough of Stinky Pete's villainy behavior) decides he needs to learn "the true meaning of playtime" to prove his assumptions wrong and he and the others shove him into an off-screen luggage, which turns out to be a Barbie backpack belonging to a young girl named Amy, who loves to paint the faces of her toys. At that point, Amy decides to give Stinky Pete a makeover. Horrified at this thought (especially after seeing her Barbie's face), Stinky Pete sobs in defeat as he is taken to his new owner's home as Woody happily bids farewell to him.
==Video games==
===Kinect: Disneyland Adventures===
Stinky Pete appears in the game as a meet-and-greet character along the Big Thunder Trail in Frontierland. At one point, he gives the player a fishing rod as a gift. He also asks the player to help track down some rustlers that are supposedly in the area.
==Disney Parks==
Though Stinky Pete does not make any live appearances, he does appear in some attractions and merchandise and has appeared in one of the Parks.
===Disneyland Resort===
A picture of Stinky Pete can be found on the mural behind Jessie's Critter Carousel. He can be seen sitting on an oversized gold nugget being carried by a donkey that somehow ended up on the tip of a mountain pillar.
===Tokyo Disneyland===
On the Happiness is Here Parade, the back part of the Toy Story-themed float is made up of a Woody's Roundup record player. Being Woody's Roundup-themed, a picture of Stinky Pete, along with the other three main characters of Woody's Roundup can be seen on the record player.
===Toy Story Midway Mania!===
He makes an appearance in Toy Story Midway Mania! in the mineshaft game. His personality and voice are based more on what it is in "Woody's Round Up" than the one that Woody meets. Impressed by all the gold they score, he suggests they look at the player's score.
==Gallery==
==Trivia==
*His nickname, Stinky Pete, is also a colloquialism of Saltpeter, a primary ingredient in making gunpowder and explosives.
*In the film's credits and various tie-in books, he is simply credited as "the Prospector".
*He is only referred to as "Stinky Pete" twice in the film and only by Woody as a way of mocking him. Throughout the rest of the film, he is just called "Prospector" by the characters.
*He was a long-time member of the Roundup gang on television and was often the butt of many humiliating jokes, including having the sharp end of his pickaxe stuck in his rear end and not realizing it.
*Stinky Pete was marked by his severe hatred for "space toys", whom he had blamed for causing the cancellation of the show, which ran on television until the launch of Sputnik, which led to children's subsequent loss of interest in cowboy-themed toys.
**This is somewhat similar to when Woody was overshadowed by Buzz as Andy's current favorite in the first film. Woody himself even empathizes Stinky Pete by subtly bringing this up.
*Though he appears to be kind and fatherly, some of his true nature is revealed early in the film when discussing the cancellation of Woody's Roundup due to the launch of Sputnik and showing his resentment toward space toys and his feeling of being let down by children.
*He is very similar to Buster, Waternoose, Lotso, and King Candy, as all five started out friendly at first, but later revealed their true evil colors.
*If Stinky Pete was ever able to get to the Konishi Toy Museum with the rest of the Roundup gang, it would have been worse for them, due to museums having security cameras and security guards to avoid any kind of theft. This means that the Roundup gang would have been forced to never move again, and because of that, they would more than likely regret their choice (even Stinky Pete himself, who was enforcing all of them in the first place).
*After Toy Story 2 was released, there were interviews with all the characters on the website, including Stinky Pete, who stated that he had grown accustomed to having Amy decorate him, and he liked it, having reformed with a change of heart.
*Though Stinky Pete does not appear in Toy Story 3, he appeared in Toy Story 3: The Video Game as a minor character (this time more like Woody's Roundup version). However, Stephan Stanton replaced Kelsey Grammer's voice role as Stinky Pete because Grammer was unavailable due to scheduling conflict.
*Stinky Pete predicted some of the events in Toy Story 3:
**In Toy Story 2, he asked Woody if he thought that Andy was going to take him to college or on his honeymoon as it was unlikely an adult would do so. While in Toy Story 3, his prediction on that turned out to be true, with Andy ultimately handing Woody and his other toys (including Jessie and Bullseye) over to Bonnie. However, it should be noted that Andy was indeed initially planning on taking Woody with him to college, therefore almost defying the Prospector's expectations.
**He said, "Children destroy toys!", foreshadowing the rough play scene in the Caterpillar Room at Sunnyside Daycare.
**Before Buzz, Woody, and the gang stuffed him into Amy's backpack, he said that the toys would end up in a landfill, and they did, though it is caused by Lots-o'-Huggin' Bear dragging Woody into the rubbish bin by his ankle.
*Stinky Pete's pull-string voice box is never heard. However, according to his box, he says nine different phrases, which probably went for the rest of the gang as well (except Bullseye). Some of them included: "There's Gold in them 'ther Hills", "Help! I think I'm stuck!", "Aw...Shucks-A-Roo", and "Oh Boy!...Beans for Dinner."
*Despite being neither one of Andy's toys nor one of Bonnie's toys, Stinky Pete makes a cameo in Toy Story Mania!. Again, like the Toy Story 3 video game, Grammer did not reprise his role.
*Stinky Pete is the only one of the Woody's Roundup characters whose voice sounds completely different between his TV appearance and his toy self. The former depicts him with a high-pitched Southern accent while the latter has him with a deep, sophisticated voice. However, it should be noted that Jessie loses her Western accent in several moments.
*In the 2017 DuckTales episode "The Outlaw Scrooge McDuck!", Scrooge McDuck dresses like him when he is prospecting.
*In the outtake reel for Toy Story 2, During the outtake of the scene where Stinky Pete reveals his true colors, he was talking to two Barbie dolls about getting one of them a part in Toy Story 3. Oddly enough, one Barbie appeared in the third film.
**It should be noted that in 2019, the film's 20th anniversary (which is also the same year Toy Story 4 was released), this outtake was removed to reflect the #MeToo movement and the ousting of Toy Story filmmaker John Lasseter as head of animation amidst sexual harassment allegations.
*In another in-universe outtake of Toy Story 2, this time the scene when the Prospector tells Woody he can either go back to Andy or stay with them, he ruins the moment by farting loudly. He then humorously apologizes for the fart and feels rather embarrassed by it and says This was the "reason" they call him "Stinky Pete".
*For unknown reasons, Stinky Pete never got released as a full size toy like in the films.
*In the read-along version of Toy Story 2, Stinky Pete was thrown into a green backpack full of creepy-looking dolls caused by Amy's poor decorating instead of being put into a pouch on Amy's Barbie backpack with Barbie.
==External links==
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ar:بيت المنقب
es:El Oloroso Pete
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it:Stinky Pete
pt-br:Pete Fedido
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