- “Sunnyside could be cool and groovy if we treated each other fair! It's Lotso! He's made us into a pyramid, and he put himself on top!”
- ―Ken redeeming himself[src]
Kenneth "Ken" Carson is one of the secondary antagonists of Disney•Pixar's 2010 animated film Toy Story 3. He is a toy based on the popular Barbie toy line made by the company Mattel, as well as Barbie's love interest.
Background[]
Personality[]
Ken is one of the toys from Sunnyside Daycare. He is Lotso's second-in-command but is considered a weakling and constantly teased by the other toys, who don't seem to like him much, though this does appear to change at the end of the film when Ken and Barbie are put in charge of Sunnyside likely since he realized that Lotso is a liar when he bullied the other toys.
Ken loves fashion, dance, and bright colors, just as much as his girlfriend Barbie. He resents being called a "girl's toy", as a human male might have with their masculinity being put into question. He also rather dislikes attention being drawn to the fact that he's essentially an accessory to Barbie.
Originally, he is at first as ruthless and arrogant as his friends as shown when he turns on Barbie after she broke up with him. however, despite his loyalty to Lotso, Ken reforms off-screen and is one of the people who convinces the others to turn against Lotso. This shows that despite his initially ruthless nature, Ken did not feel comfortable with his employer's message, or ended up reforming because of Barbie's influence. This is proven when he rules Sunnyside besides her at the end.
Appearances[]
Toy Story 3[]
Ken and Barbie, when they first meet.
Ken is first introduced when his boss Lotso tells him that Andy's toys have arrived. Shortly afterward, Ken catches sight of Molly's old Barbie doll and falls in love with her. Little do Molly and Andy's toys know that Ken is a member of Lotso's gang. Ken then shows his Dream House to the toys and expresses his desire to share it with someone else, making Barbie more lovestruck.
Later that evening, when Buzz exits the Caterpillar Room to go ask Lotso to transfer them to the Butterfly Room where the older kids are located, he spots Ken spending some more time with Barbie, declaring love for each other before he is taken away by Chunk and Twitch so they can go gambling in their hideout. Following them into the vending machine, Buzz spies on Ken and the other Sunnyside toys at the top of the machine but is thrown onto the gambling table by Big Baby. Ken then orders his cohorts to capture him and take him to the library. Buzz demands Ken to let him see Lotso, but Ken refuses, telling Buzz that he has no right to see Lotso. After Buzz is restrained to a "timeout chair" by Lotso's henchmen, Ken whistles for Bookworm to give Lotso a Buzz Lightyear instruction manual so that Lotso and his henchmen can reset Buzz.
With Buzz being reset to his demo mode and brainwashed to become one of Lotso's helpers, Ken and the rest of Lotso's gang have Buzz capture Andy's toys and lock them up in their cells in the Caterpillar Room. Barbie, whom Ken told to wait at the Dream House, goes to the Caterpillar Room to find him but catches sight of her friends being imprisoned, causing her to become angry with him and subsequently break up with him (she snatches her scarf away). Barbie is then locked up alongside the rest of Andy's toys.
Ken showing off in his various outfits.
The next night, Ken and Buzz take roll call to make sure that all the toys are there. Seeing that Mr. Potato Head is not in his cell and trying to run away without being seen, the two go off with Big Baby to bring him back, but Mr. Potato Head attempts to stand up to Ken and kicks him in the shin, prompting Ken to have Big Baby imprison Mr. Potato Head back in the sandbox. When Ken returns to the Caterpillar Room, Barbie calls out to him and begs him to let her be with him in his Dream House in the Butterfly Room. As Barbie begins sobbing, Ken gives in to Barbie's plea and makes her promise to do what he says.
At Ken's Dream House, Barbie is awestruck at Ken's vast collection of clothes, but Ken, thinking that Barbie is still mad at him for what he has done to her friends, tries to talk Barbie out of it by bitterly saying how no one appreciates those clothes, only for Barbie to sweet-talk him into modeling a few outfits for her. This brightens up Ken, who hasn't heard Barbie talk to him like that before, and he shows off his various outfits to Barbie, to which she applauds. As Ken dons his Kung Fu Fighting outfit and displays his martial arts moves, he sees that Barbie is gone. Suddenly, she tackles Ken from behind his clothes rack, taking him by surprise. Barbie demands Ken to tell her what Lotso has done to Buzz and how to get Buzz back to normal. Seeing that it is a ploy by Barbie, Ken defiantly refuses to talk but decides to let her try nonetheless.
Ken is then left in nothing but his underwear and tied up to a paddle by Barbie, who interrogates him by mocking his outfits as she tears them in half one by one. At first, Ken tries to keep his cool as much as he can, but when she brings out his Nehru jacket, he begs her not to rip it. As Barbie starts to rip the jacket apart, Ken, not wanting to see it being sabotaged, finally gives in and mentions the instruction manual. Falling over in the paddle, Ken confesses to Barbie that Lotso had switched Buzz from play to demo mode as he starts bawling, ashamed. When Barbie demands Ken to tell her where the manual is, Ken directs her to Bookworm, who subsequently gives her the book, allowing Woody and the rest of Andy's toys to switch Buzz to Spanish mode so that he allies himself with them as they make their escape.
Ken stands up for Barbie and Andy's toys.
Much later, as Lotso and his henchmen corner Andy's toys at a dumpster outside the daycare grounds, Lotso orders Stretch to push Barbie and Andy's toys into the dumpster, but then Ken appears, having come for Barbie, and tries to stop Lotso from disposing of Barbie. Lotso senses Ken's love for Barbie and mocks him, thrusting his face into Ken's as he states that there are a hundred million Barbie dolls everywhere. Turning to Barbie, Ken simply says not like the one who he has met, having realized Barbie is smarter and more complex than she has initially seemed through her understanding of civics, and wins back her affections.
Angered by Ken's attachment to Barbie, Lotso grabs Ken and throws him across the dumpster to make him join her, disowning him as a gang member. Woody catches Ken and pulls him up to the chute with help from the other toys. Ken then speaks up in support of Barbie's view of authority and address Lotso's gang, telling them how Lotso has used his own goons to bring himself to the top. After Big Baby throws Lotso into the dumpster and slams its lid shut, Ken helps Barbie and the other toys escape the daycare, but the toys end up being loaded into a garbage truck. When Barbie wants to save her friends, Ken holds her back from risking her life, not wanting to lose her again.
Ken and Barbie, new leaders of Sunnyside.
Ken and Barbie later reconcile and become boyfriend and girlfriend once again. Together, the two revolutionize Sunnyside, turning the daycare into a true toy paradise for all toys, and become its new leaders. Under Ken and Barbie's leadership, the daycare toys now rotate their time between the Butterfly Room and the Caterpillar Room, hold beach parties at the sandbox, and gather together for disco parties in the Butterfly Room.
The next day, the toys that have formerly belonged to Andy and now living at Bonnie's house as her new toys receive a message informing them that Sunnyside has become sunny once again thanks to them. They read the message, thinking that Barbie has written it (as remarked by Buzz about the fancy handwriting), only to find Ken's signature at the end, much to their dismay, but the signature suggests that Ken is, at least, now on friendly terms with Bonnie's toys.
Toy Story Toons[]
Ken is saddened and horrified to find that he and Barbie have ended up in Bonnie's room instead of Hawaii.
Ken is now one of the protagonists in his and Barbie's own short film, "Hawaiian Vacation". As Bonnie's toys get ready for a week of relaxation, Ken and Barbie unexpectedly reveal themselves as they unzip Bonnie's backpack and step out into the room. Thinking they have landed in Hawaii, they unload their supplies.
As Ken takes a picture of Barbie in "Hawaii", Woody calls to the pair, and Ken is elated to see Woody and the other toys and reveals that the two have stowed away in Bonnie's backpack. Thinking that Bonnie's toys are also in Hawaii, Ken asks them how they have arrived, only for Woody to reveal that Ken and Barbie are in Bonnie's bedroom, making Ken dismayed that vacation plans for him and Barbie have been disrupted. After realizing he has missed their "flight" to Hawaii, Ken sinks back into Bonnie's backpack in depression.
Later, Barbie calls for Ken to come out, and when Ken opens the backpack, he is greeted by Jessie's enthusiastic "ALOHA!" then finds himself standing in "paradise" with Barbie. Woody and his friends recreate "Hawaii" for the couple, such as deep-sea diving, guided nature walk, and entertaining dinner. After their various adventures in "Hawaii", Ken and Barbie share their first kiss in the snow at sunrise, as Woody and his friends watch through a window, but then the two fall off the deck into the snow, prompting the toys to come to their rescue by digging them out and releasing them from a block of ice.
Trivia[]
- He is the first incarnation of Ken to be portrayed as a villain, with the second one being Ken (a.k.a. Beach Ken and Mojo Dojo Ken) from the 2023 Warner Bros. live-action film Barbie.
- Unlike the other Ken, however, this Toy Story version of Ken does reform and gets together with Barbie in the end.
- His hairstyles have changed over the years. The first Ken doll ever manufactured had short, blond hair.
- In the movie, Ken wears 21 different outfits.
- Ken is based on a real toy from the Barbie toy line back in 1988 called "Animal Lovin' Ken".
- According to Mattel toy line history, Ken has a younger brother named Tommy.
- When Buzz gets caught spying on Lotso's gang, Ken says, "Take him to the liberry!" (a mispronunciation of library), which was an intentional ad-lib by Michael Keaton. Director Lee Unkrich found it so funny that he kept it in.
- Ken gets offended whenever people call him a girl's toy (also happens in his promo and his interview), similar to Francis from A Bug's Life when he is mistaken for a girl. This is likely an adult joke associated with denying homosexuality.
- Despite popularity by fans and Barbie's small cameo, Josh Cooley confirmed that Ken would not be returning in Toy Story 4 because he's still running the Sunnyside Daycare with Barbie and the toys wouldn't be visiting that place in the film.[1]
- Though he doesn't appear in the fourth installment, Ken's Dream House can be seen in the Antique Store during the chase with Dragon.
- Ken was Michael Kenton's second voice role for a Pixar film after voicing Chick Hicks in Cars.
- One of the dresses Ken owns says K-State. This could be referencing three universities in the United States: Kansas State University in Kansas, Kent State University in Ohio, or Kennesaw State University in Georgia.
- In Toy Story 3, Stretch refers to Ken as "Mr. Softy". This is possibly a reference to the American ice cream truck franchise Mister Softee.
Gallery[]
Screenshots[]
Miscellaneous[]
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References[]
External links[]
