“Andy’s Coming!”

General Information about Item:

Informant Data:

Nandita Kasireddy is a female Dartmouth student in the class of 2021. She is majoring in Neuroscience. She intends on pursuing a career in medicine. She grew up in Bow, NH. She has one older sister. She has visited Disney World in Orlando, Florida five times with her family. She loves Disney and her favorite Disney movie is the Little Mermaid. When she is at the park, she tries to find the park characters, Ariel, Jasmine, and Minnie Mouse. Nandita would stay on the park premises during her visits to Disney World. She is also a Disney Vacations Club Member.

Contextual Data:

Cultural Context: Toy Story is a popular Disney movie that features toys that come to life when their owner, Andy, is not present. The main characters in the movies are Buzz Lightyear, Woody, and Jessie. In the movie, all the toys talk and go on adventures together when their human owners are not present. If a human is coming, they fall to the ground and pretend that they are “only” toys and not alive. The main characters from the movie can often be found in Magic Kingdom at Disney World. At the Disney parks, the employees, who are dressed up as the Disney characters, have a specific set of rules that they must follow to maintain a certain authenticity for park visitors. The Disney employees’ jobs are to make sure that they appear as true to character as possible when interacting with park visitors.
Social context: The informant first participated in this game when she visited Disney World for her second time in 2011. Nandita and her older sister decided to yell the phrase “Andy’s coming!” when they saw the Toy Story character, Buzz Lightyear, in Magic Kingdom. Nandita and her sister were active participants in this game, but they learned the rules of the game by watching other park visitors partake in it.

Item:

The informant states that when any park visitor yells the phrase “Andy’s coming!” at the park, the Toy Story characters, in proximity, will drop to the ground to pretend that they are inanimate objects. This is a type of folklore game. The main rule in the game is Toy Story characters must drop to the ground and pretend that they are not alive when a park visitor yells the phrase, “Andy’s coming!” If the rule is broken, the park employees will face some negative consequences. This is a game that all park visitors can participate in.

Transcript:

“My sister and I just came out of the Buzz Lightyear ride in Tomorrowland, and we saw Buzz and Woody. We had heard from other park visitors about what happens when you yell the phrase, “Andy’s Coming!” We decided to try it out and it was super funny cause once we yelled the phrase, both Buzz and Woody dropped to the ground, and they got up only as we were leaving.”

Collector’s Comments:

This item was unique to me because I usually go Disneyland and I have not heard about this game. I wonder if it holds true in California parks or if it is more of a tradition in Orlando. My little brother loves Buzz Lightyear so we always try to take a picture with him, but now I want to try yelling this phrase and see what happens.

Collector’s Name: Meghana Reddy

Tags/Keywords:

Dartmouth Folklore Archive