Gabby Gabby

Gabby Gabby is the main antagonist of Pixar's 21st feature-length animated film Toy Story 4.
She is a vintage pull-string talking doll from the 1950s who lived in the Second Chance Antique shop before meeting Woody and his friends and having a kid owner of her own. Despite turning on them, she reforms because of Woody's benevolence.
She was voiced by Christina Hendricks, who also voiced Zarina in The Pirate Fairy and "Officer Jaffe" in Scoob!.
== Biography ==
=== Background ===
Gabby Gabby was manufactured in the late 1950s. Her voice box broke and Gabby Gabby became useless to owners and remained in the knick-knack shop becoming bitter over never being picked. She later came to the Second Chance Antiques shop and took charge of The Bensons, whom she formed a strong bond with despite her cynical personality.
=== Toy Story 4 ===
Gabby Gabby is first introduced when Woody and Forky see her being pushed around inside a stroller by one of the Bensons. Woody and Forky explain to her that they are searching for Bo Peep as Gabby Gabby notices the pull-string on Woody's back.
Gabby tells Woody she knows Bo and offers to take the four to her in the stroller. During the ride, Gabby reveals to them her broken voice box and asks if she can see Woody's. But he refuses and wants to leave, having become increasingly disturbed by the situation. However, more Bensons soon appear as Gabby makes her intentions clear: to take Woody's voice box of herself.
Woody and Forky made a run for it and Gabby orders the Bensons to chase after them. Woody escapes, but the Bensons manage to capture Forky.
Later, Gabby Gabby returns to her cabinet with Forky and the Bensons where she spots a young girl named Harmony enter the store to play with her tea set. Gabby mimics Harmony and expresses to Forky her desire to become Harmony's toy. Gabby feels Harmony is the perfect child for her, but her broken voice box prevents her from being noticed. Gabby then asks Forky to tell her all about Woody.
Eventually Woody, with the help of Bo Peep and their allies, attempt to rescue Forky, only for it to end badly due to Woody's reckless behavior. Although the toys managed to allude the Bensons (aside from Bo's sheep), Gabby Gabby knew that they would try again and decided to set a trap for them. Sure enough, Woody and his friends made another attempt by leaping from the top of one shelve to Gabby's cabinet. However Gabby and the Bensons spring their trap and the rescue, again, goes poorly.
After having a falling out with his friends, Woody then goes back to save Forky alone and finds Gabby Gabby with the Bensons waiting for him. Gabby tells Woody that she knew he would return because she knows how much Forky means to his owner Bonnie. She also reveals that she knows (from her talks with Forky) Woody had spent most of his life with his former owner Andy and had many happy moments with him. Gabby explains that she has never had an owner of her own to be happy with, as she was defective right out of the box, and just wants to at least share one loving moment with a child. Defeated, Woody agrees to surrender his voice box in exchange for Forky.
One of the Bensons successful removes Woody's voice box and pull-string before sewing him back up, while Gabby Gabby is overjoyed to finally have a working voice box of her own. Gabby lives up to her end of the deal and releases Forky, telling him she will miss their talks before both Bonnie and Harmony suddenly enter the store. Woody races for Bonnie's backpack, but Forky stops to watch Gabby get her chance with Harmony.
Gabby Gabby pulls her own pull-string to get Harmony's attention, and the child picks her up. The store owner, Harmony’s grandmother, asks if she is interested in keeping the doll. However, Harmony tosses Gabby aside and exits the shop. Knowing how important Harmony was to Gabby, Woody and Forky decide to stay and help her.
They find Gabby Gabby lying in a basket heartbroken. She tells Woody that he can have his voice box back since she has no more use for it. Woody tries to comfort Gabby by saying there are plenty of children that would want to have and cherish a doll like her. He then convinces her with the help of Bo Peep (who had returned to the shop to help Woody), to come with them and meet Bonnie.
On the way to Bonnie's RV, Gabby Gabby spots a lost girl behind the carnival stalls crying and desires to help her. The other toys help Gabby get noticed by the girl and the doll comforts her enough to go ask for help. The child is soon reunited with her parents and she keeps Gabby Gabby, finally giving the toy the love she longed for.
=== Lamp Life ===
Gabby makes a brief silent cameo in the Disney+ short film, Lamp Life.
== Personality ==
Gabby Gabby is a very complex character. When Woody and Forky first meet her, she seems like a very nice toy. However, right after meeting her, Woody and Forky soon learn that she is a bitter toy who is determined to get Woody's voice box, so she can finally be taken in by her dream owner.
However, she had some redeeming qualities even before she became good, as she honors her deal with Woody that she would let him and Forky go after he lets her take his voice box. She also treated the Bensons with respect implying that her kindness wasn't a mere front. After seeing that Harmony rejected her, Gabby still tries to be adopted by a child, which eventually causes her to redeem herself after Woody gives her his voice box. Gabby Gabby is also very intelligent and persuasive, using the information she got from Forky to convince Woody into giving up his voice box.
Overall, Gabby Gabby is more misunderstood than evil. While her methods of getting taken in by Harmony weren't excusable, she was a very kind toy who redeemed herself after she realized the true meaning of play time.
== Trivia ==
* Gabby Gabby is the second main Pixar movie villain who redeems herself after Mor'du from Brave. However, Mor'du redeemed himself after his defeat, whereas Gabby Gabby redeemed herself by choice.
** Gabby Gabby is also the only main villain in the Toy Story film series to redeem herself, at least onscreen (Sid Phillips, the main antagonist of the first Toy Story film, is implied to have changed his ways for good as later seen in Toy Story 3, but his apparent reform takes place offscreen).
* She is also the second main Pixar movie villain to be a female, the first being Screenslaver from Incredibles 2. Unlike Screenslaver (or Evelyn Deavor), Gabby Gabby was redeemed while Screenslaver wasn't.
* Unlike Sid Phillips, Stinky Pete and Lots-o'-Huggin' Bear, the main antagonists of the first three Toy Story movies, Gabby Gabby does not have any interactions with Buzz, if Sid's apparent redemption in the third film does not count. She is also the only main antagonist of a Toy Story sequel who doesn't meet or interact with Jessie and Bullseye. Most of her interactions are just with Woody. From all three, indeed, Gabby Gabby is the least villainous from the franchise not counting Sid who didn't know toys were alive and turned his life around.
** According to several psychologists, Gabby Gabby's lack of malevolence is because the fourth film is the most psychological of the series, where there's no true villain, as the real obstacle is within each one (much like how Woody insists on returning to Bonnie until he realizes that he failed to see that with Bonnie he does not have the same bond as with Andy).
* In some ways, Gabby Gabby proved to have some similarities to Stinky Pete and Lotso:
** Like Stinky Pete, Gabby Gabby was manufactured during the mid-20th century and went unsold for many years. They also interacted with Woody and ended up being adopted by girls. However, Stinky Pete came to resent kids for never being played with and thus became determined to be exhibited in Mr. Konishi's toy museum of Japan, while on the other hand, Gabby Gabby nearly lost all hope of being played with after being rejected by Harmony and it was Woody and his friends that helped her to move on and try with another little girl. The help and love of Woody and his friends to aid her into seeking another chance and not to lose all hope of ever being played with are what kept Gabby Gabby from becoming like Stinky Pete. However, both Stinky Pete and Gabby Gabby enjoyed their lives after being adopted (Stinky Pete admitted in his interview that he grew fond of his owner Amy, and Gabby Gabby finds herself at peace after comforting the crying girl who decided to adopt her). The only difference is that Gabby Gabby was a kind toy despite committing some serious crimes while Pete would have stayed evil if not for Amy.
** Like Lotso, Gabby Gabby ran the Second Chance Antiquities Store to the point of being feared by the other toys present there and had The Bensons at her disposal to follow her orders, much like how Lotso ran the Sunnyside Daycare with an iron fist to the point of being feared by all other Sunnyside toys and having fellow daycare toys to follow his orders. However, Gabby Gabby was not as cruel like Lotso, and when she was rejected, she ultimately opted to move on to be played by someone other after being encouraged by her friends, while Lotso did not move on after finding that Daisy replaced him and turned on his friends despite their help. Furthermore, she was a kind-hearted toy despite her misguided nature, while Lotso, though kind at first, became a monster who didn't even care about anyone but himself. Like him, she temporarily joins the protagonists, however she doesn't backstab them: instead she chooses to leave them for another child. Finally, Gabby Gabby redeemed herself before she did worse than steal Woody's voice box, while Lotso refused to reform.
** There is a key difference between them as Stinky Pete and Lotso try to hide their true colors after Woody and his friends meet them while Gabby, despite acting nice after meeting Woody and Forky, immediately tries to put her plans for the former into motion and even holds Forky hostage to make Woody come back. The key difference is that Gabby Gabby and Stinky Pete weren't diabolical (though Stinky Pete did showed his true colors, especially from having wrongfully framed Jessie to nearly tearing Woody into pieces), while Lotso was much worse than the two.
*** Ironically, her artworks depict her as a true villainess.
* Mandy Moore, Bryce Dallas Howard, Karen Gillan, Emma Stone, and Isla Fisher were all considered for the role of Gabby Gabby before Christina Hendricks was chosen.
* The film's art book revealed that Gabby Gabby was originally intended to be a blonde doll with pink bows and a necklace. However, her design was changed to that of a redhead doll with yellow bows and no necklace. The book also contains a drawing of Gabby Gabby's box.
* Gabby Gabby is the third main antagonist of the fourth film in a computer-animated film series after Rumpelstiltskin in Shrek Forever After and Captain Gutt in Ice Age: Continental Drift and followed by Jonathan Loughran in Hotel Transylvania: Transformania. However, Gabby Gabby is the first main antagonist of a fourth film in a computer-animated film series to be a female. She is also the first main antagonist of a fourth film in a computer-animated film series not to be the master of any of the heroes in her film. She is also the first main antagonist of a fourth film in a computer-animated film series to be redeemed.
* Gabby Gabby is the only female main antagonist in the Toy Story franchise. She started out as an antagonist to anti-hero and later tragic hero.
* Gabby Gabby is one of the four main Pixar villains to actually succeed in her plans, with the other three being Chick Hicks from Cars, Chef Skinner from Ratatouille, and Ernesto de la Cruz from Coco (despite his plan being foiled). Out of the three villains, however, Gabby Gabby possessed very little to no antagonistic traits towards Woody and his friends and her plans were succeeded with their help. In addition, Gabby Gabby succeeded in her plans the way she expected.
* Despite her appearing malevolent, she was not intentionally evil throughout the film, as she neither abused nor tortured Forky or Billy, Goat and Gruff. Also, she did not hurt Woody while she got his voice box, as the Bensons worked carefully with him. Gabby also kept her promise to him as she released Forky and Bo Peep's sheep after she received his voice box. In return, Gabby helped Woody return to Bonnie, but not before changing their plans by being with a kid, who is lost at the carnival, further cementing her redemption.
* Gabby Gabby's color design is the exact reverse of the Grady Sisters in The Shining. Gabby wears a pastel yellow polka dot dress, while the Grady Sisters wear pastel blue polka dot dresses.
* Gabby Gabby is the third most recurring villain in the Toy Story franchise after Sid and Emperor Zurg.
* Gabby Gabby represents what Woody could've become if he allowed his insecurity consumed him and let his reckless decisions destroyed his friendship with Bo Peep and other toys.
* Gabby Gabby was inspired by Talky Tina, the evil doll in the Twilight Zone episode "Livin' Doll," as well as Vito Corleone.
Category:Female
Category:Toys
Category:Humans
Category:Villainesses
Category:Disney characters
Category:Toy Story characters
Category:Antagonist