Toy Story Villains: Every Bad Guy in Each Movie, Ranked

Sid Phillips is a villain because he is Andy's destructive neighbor who loves to wreck toys, and Toy Story (1995) drops Woody and Buzz straight into his house. Voiced by Erik von Detten, Sid snatches the pair at Pizza Planet, and later he straps a rocket to Buzz. His menace is aimed at toys rather than at a grand scheme, so he reads as a boy with a talent for breaking things.

The film then turns him into a lesson. Sid's strange, patched together toys look frightening but turn out to be gentle, and they help the pair. Woody uses them to scare Sid into treating his playthings kindly, which means the threat ends with Sid changed rather than defeated. His house also hurts Buzz in a different way, because a TV ad there shows Buzz that he is only a toy. The film is rated G in the US and Australia and PG in the UK.

Al McWhiggin counts as a villain in Toy Story 2 because he is the one who takes Woody, although greed drives him far more than malice. Wayne Knight voices him as the owner of a toy store and a serious collector. He notices Woody at a yard sale, right after a ripped arm has left the cowboy parked on a shelf, and he simply walks off with him.

Back at Al's apartment, Woody finds out that he once headlined a TV show called Woody's Roundup. Al wants to sell the entire Roundup set to a toy museum in Tokyo, and the collection only counts as complete with Woody in it. Al never intends to smash anything (a museum shelf is the whole point), but display behind glass would end play for good, and that is the real danger of his scheme.

When Woody picks Andy over Tokyo, the deal collapses, and the rescuers slip past Al and through the airport baggage system. So, is Al a villain? Yes, as the man who starts the whole chase, though Stinky Pete is the one who fights Woody face to face.

The main villain in Toy Story 2 is Stinky Pete the Prospector, the Roundup toy voiced by Kelsey Grammer, even though Al starts the trouble. Jessie and the others urge Woody to come to Japan, where they would be on display and never be outgrown. Woody is tempted, but he finally decides he wants to go back to Andy, and Stinky Pete tries to stop him while the rescuers, Buzz especially, push on to reach him.

His threat works because his argument is a real one: Andy will grow up one day, and the film does not pretend otherwise. Woody accepts that, and chooses to enjoy the time he has with Andy. Jessie and Bullseye leave with him and join the toys in Andy's room.

Was 90 percent of Toy Story 2 deleted? The film began as a direct to video project and was announced as a theatrical release in 1998, according to Animation World Network, and it opened on November 24, 1999. No percentage of deleted material is attached to that history, so the 90 percent figure is not confirmed.

Lotso is the chief antagonist of Toy Story 3, a pink teddy bear who smells of strawberries and is voiced by Ned Beatty. His welcome at Sunnyside Daycare feels warm, but he runs the place as a dictator, and anyone new gets sent to the rough toddler room. Buzz is put into demo mode and begins to follow Lotso's orders.

Woody walks away from Sunnyside, spends time with Bonnie, and hears the truth about Lotso from her other toys. He then returns for his friends. After Lotso's gang recaptures the group, the toys are carried by garbage truck to a landfill that holds a recycling and incinerator plant, and they nearly burn before the Aliens lift them out with a crane. Lotso is left strapped to the front of a garbage truck.

Is he evil or broken? What he does on screen is tyranny, and whether his history softens that is a fair argument, one the Lotso character page explores. The film earned more than $1 billion worldwide, according to Box Office Mojo.

The bad guys in Toy Story 3 are Lotso, who rules Sunnyside Daycare, and his gang, which catches the toys again after their escape attempt. Ken, voiced by Michael Keaton, is part of the Sunnyside story, and the closing sequence shows Barbie, Ken and Big Baby helping make Sunnyside a better place for the toys there.

That closing sequence matters because it shows Sunnyside outliving Lotso's rule. For the full voice cast, see the Toy Story cast page.

Gabby Gabby looks like the antagonist of Toy Story 4 until her motive comes out: she longs for a child to love. Christina Hendricks voices the doll, and she holds Forky as leverage, offering his safe return if Woody hands over his voice box.

The girl she had set her heart on, Harmony, turns her away. Woody sends Forky back to the RV and talks Gabby into hoping for Bonnie, with Bo and her friends helping. Gabby instead settles on a lost girl at the carnival, whom she comforts, and the girl takes her home. In my opinion, that gives her the gentlest arc of any opponent Woody meets. The Gabby Gabby character page goes further into her story.

Zurg is the antagonist of the spinoff Lightyear, with James Brolin in the voice role. His Zyclops robots attack the world Buzz reaches after a final test jump that lands him 22 years later. The big reveal comes when Zurg takes Buzz prisoner and says he is an older Buzz from another timeline, hoping to return and reverse the stranding on T'Kani Prime.

His plan needs the fuel crystal, and Buzz says no, since using it would wipe out Alisha's life and everyone who followed her. During the crash landing, Zurg seizes the fuel, Buzz fires on it, and the blast seems to finish him. A scene during or after the credits suggests he lived.

The Toy Story 5 credits end on a child holding a high tech Zurg toy, though they do not confirm a sequel. Nothing published gives Toy Story 6 a release date or an official greenlight. Lightyear is rated PG.

Lilypad is the latest name on the list of Toy Story villains, yet Toy Story 5 keeps steering away from calling her one. Greta Lee voices the frog shaped tablet, whose app showers Bonnie with attention and approval. As Bonnie spends more time with it, her toys drift out of the picture, particularly once classmates mock her for still playing with them.

Jessie leads the effort to pull Bonnie away from the screen, and the toys clash with Lilypad, who sincerely thinks she is doing good. Once she realizes she has left Bonnie isolated, guilt takes over and she hurls herself onto a donation truck. The toys give chase, and the army of next generation Buzzes, able to become drones, carries everyone out of danger.

Blaze brings Jessie and Bullseye back to Bonnie, and Lilypad ends up joining the play rather than competing with it. The film is rated PG in the US and UK and G in Australia.

This is my ranking of the Toy Story villains from most evil to least evil, and in my opinion it should be judged by what each one is willing to do to other toys, not by how loud the scene is.

1. Lotso. He smiles while he runs Sunnyside, sends newcomers to the toddler room, and his gang catches Andy's toys again before they end up in a garbage truck and then a landfill with an incinerator plant. Cruelty with a friendly face is hard to beat.
2. Zurg. He would erase Alisha and everyone after her to fix his own mistake, which is the largest harm anyone proposes in the series.
3. Stinky Pete. He tries to stop Woody leaving, and it could be argued that his bitterness is the most believable in the saga.
4. Sid Phillips. He is a danger to toys, but the film treats him as a boy who can learn, and he does.
5. Al McWhiggin. He steals Woody for money, yet he wants the toys preserved, not destroyed.
6. Gabby Gabby. She bargains for Woody's voice box out of longing, and she ends up with a child.
7. Lilypad. She hurts Bonnie's playtime by trying to help, and she throws herself onto a donation truck out of guilt.

If you want one pick for the best written, I would say Lotso, because Toy Story 3 lets you enjoy him and fear him in the same scene. If you are starting with a young child, begin with Toy Story (1995) or Toy Story 2, both rated G, and see where the films land on our Toy Story movies ranked page.