Trivia / Toy Story

• Acting for Two:
  • Though credited under additional voices, the late Jack Angel voices Rocky Gibraltar and the shark.
  • Hamm, the aliens, and the robot in Pizza Planet are all voiced by Arturo Mercado in the Latin American Spanish dub.
• Approval of God: The amateur live-action remake impressed Pixar so much that they allowed the video to stay on the platform and invited the producers to the office for an afternoon.
• Awesome, Dear Boy: Tom Hanks signed up for the role of Woody when Pixar showed him a rough skit featuring a wireframe Woody. He said he knew the film was going to be unlike any other and signed on when they pitched him.
• Beam Me Up, Scotty!:
  • Woody shouting "Buzz, look! An alien!" is often misquoted as "Look, Buzz! There's an alien!" It didn't help that official toys released as tie-ins had a voice clip of Woody shouting that wrong line.
  • Also, Potato Head says, "Hey, Hamm, look! I'm Picasso!" Not "Hey, look! I'm Picasso!"
  • And the shark says, "Look! I'm Woody! Howdy, howdy, howdy!" Not "Hey, look! I'm a cowboy! Howdy, howdy, howdy!" despite the video games and novelization saying otherwise. The Far Side comic to which the line is a Shout-Out does say "I'm a cowboy!" but the movie changes it to "Woody".
• Breakthrough Hit: Toy Story put Pixar on the map as one of the industry's top animation teams. It was also an example for CGI animation as a whole, as it provided proof that the format could be widely-accessible (and has since led to CGI becoming the dominant form of animation).
• Cast the Runner-Up:
  • In the Latin American Spanish dub, Carlos Segundo originally auditioned for Buzz, but at Francisco Colmenero's request, Segundo successfully auditioned for Woody. Buzz was instead voiced by José Luis Orozco.
  • Raúl Aldana voiced Woody in the first trailer before Carlos Segundo was cast. Instead, Raúl voiced the Little Green Men in the first three films.
  • Francisco Colmenero voiced Rex in the first trailer, but the part went to Jesús Barrero. In this film, he voiced Pizza Planet's voiceover and one of the voices of the commercial promoting Buzz Lightyear.
  • Arturo Mercado voiced the Sergeant in the first trailer, even though the part was given to Raúl de la Fuente. Arturo voiced Hamm instead.
• Cowboy BeBop at His Computer: Several reviews at the time referred to Sid's dog Scud as a pitbull (although one memorably said he "looked like a carpeted killer whale") though the film never refers to his breed at all. If you look at an actual pitbull vs. a bull terrier◊, it becomes pretty obvious which one he's supposed to be.
• Creator Backlash:
  • The infamous "Black Friday" cut of the film. John Lasseter never speaks of it without first burying his face in his hands.
  • While still proud of the film itself, the creators have acknowledged just how poorly the computer graphics have aged, going as far as to call it their "ugliest film".
• Creator-Chosen Casting: John Lasseter always wanted Tom Hanks to voice Woody because he "has the ability to take emotions and make them appealing. Even if the character, like the one in A League of Their Own, is down-and-out and despicable".
• Defictionalization: This full-length recreation of the film—in real life, with Pixar's blessing.
• Deleted Scene:
  • The film was originally going to open with a Buzz Lightyear cartoon in traditional cel animation. A rocket is seen being launched into space. Buzz Lightyear has been tied up by Zurg on his ship with a timer, and describes his plan. Zurg plans to blow up a planet of orphans with the missile, and then afterwards, once the timer runs out of time, it will self destruct and blow up the ship Buzz is in. Buzz bursts free using his pop-out wings to cut through the cables, but he is then attacked by Zurg's robot, Bongo, while Zurg escapes in another ship. Buzz defeats Bongo, and escapes before the ship can explode. He uses a piece of the ship to deflect the missile back at Zurg's. He then flies into space shouting "To infinity, and beyond!" At this point, it's revealed to be a TV show, which impresses Andy, who's watching it. The scene is referenced at the end of the movie, with Buzz shouting "Not today!" as he burst free of Sid's rocket with his wings. This time around, once they're flying, it's Woody who says "To infinity, and beyond!". Though many enjoyed the scene, the tough decision to remove it was finalized because if Andy was such a fan of Buzz Lightyear, people wouldn't believe he liked Woody. It was later the basis of the opening video game scene in the second film, reusing some of the dialogue as well.
  • Woody dreams Andy has replaced him with Buzz and throws him out (storyboard only). Judging from where the scene fits in, it was replaced with the "Strange Things" sequence. It went unused because they thought it would make Woody look too paranoid about Buzz, however, it was still a tough decision, because they also thought it summed up Woody's fears about being replaced. The tie-in video game retains this scene as a Boss Fight against "Nightmare Buzz", and the concept of Woody having a nightmare about being thrown away was reused for the second film.
  • A storyboard sequence shows Woody's first, unsuccessful plan for getting rid of Buzz (elements are later used during the equivalent seen in the movie). Woody wakes up during the night, and tries to grab Buzz, but Buzz quickly springs into action to subdue him. Woody then tells Buzz that there's trouble; Buzz, seeing night for the first time, thinks it's the absence of the sun (Buzz and Woody's conversation in front of the night sky mirrors their confrontation at the Dinoco gas station). He then informs Woody of how Andy put his name on his boot (later used in a different scene). Woody then tells him that Andy is in danger, and it's their mission to protect him. Woody leads him over to Molly's crib, and tells him that it's his station because it's the weak point in their defensive networks. While Woody's explaining his mission, Buzz remembers Andy, and runs back to guard him. Molly then notices Woody, and takes him into her crib, drooling on him (a similar scene is in the third film). Once it's morning, Andy's mom takes Molly. Woody still has drool running down his face. He then finds out the blanket's stuck to his face, and pulls it off angrily.
  • The toys watch Sid blow up a Combat Carl through Lenny. After, they watch Sid take one of Hannah's dolls, and give it to Scud to demolish. Once Buzz talks about teaching him a lesson, a tiger rattle on a night stand speaks about his experiences with Sid. He talks about an old Rattle named Shakes who he threw across to Sid's window, much to the toys' displeasure. He's heard the screams, and has multiple theories about his death. Though, he says Shakes was lucky, because he tells of things in Sid's room that are worse than death. As he squeaks away, Woody shakes it off as a cheesy, scary story and openly mocks the tale. This scene was scrapped (or at least most of it was- the part where Sid blows up poor Combat Carl is still in the finished film) for how scary and uncomfortable the scene was.
  • In the morning at Sid's house, a deleted sequence shows Sid first torturing Buzz by spinning him on a drill bit until he breaks off and flies out of sight. Sid also notices Woody under a milk crate, and starts to interrogate him, using his pull-string. Afterwards, it goes back to the finished portion of the film where Sid tortures Woody with a magnifying glass. The scene is in early animation. It was deleted because the editors thought that the audience would like Buzz and Woody, and this torture scene would only disturb the audience. Some of the power drill sound effects can still be heard in the final film (albeit used in a different context). Woody's pull-string line "I'd like to join your posse, boys, but first I'm gonna sing a little song." ended up not being used in the film, but was eventually used in the third film.
  • We pan across Sid's room to where Buzz and Woody are on his workbench (which was cut). Woody tries to get Buzz to help him remove the toolbox that's trapping him, but all Buzz can do at this point is blankly stare back. Woody then gets angry with Buzz at this point, putting the blame on him for getting strapped to the rocket for not hiding. Afterwards, Buzz continues to ignore him. Woody tries to move the milk crate himself, but only ends up making the lid of the toolbox snap shut, which almost wakes Sid up (the sequence was later used when Buzz pushed the toolbox onto the ground). Hopeless, Woody attempts to give Buzz an apology. Slowly, his tone changes, and the final movie continues from this point. Although it was all finished animation, it was cut because the editors thought the film would drag on too much, and that it would lose its energy, however, they now think the film could've stood up as-is.
• Descended Creator:
  • Director John Lasseter and writer Andrew Stanton provided the chorus shouts for the Buzz Lightyear TV commercial.
  • Besides being the film's story supervisor, the late Joe Ranft voices Lenny.
  • Jeff Pidgeon is one of the film's animators, as well as the voice of the aliens.
• Development Gag:
  • Woody attempts to knock Buzz into the gap between the desk and wall at one point. This is a nod to an early animation test where Woody (then a ventriloquist dummy) succeeded in doing so.
  • Prior to picking Buzz, Sid's first choice of toy to strap to the rocket is Woody. Early in production of the film, that was the plan, Woody even said in the pep talk to Buzz "It's me that should be tied to that rocket".
  • Buzz's leitmotif was originally the theme for his in-universe TV show; the full version of it, with lyrics, can be heard at the start of the unused demo "Plastic Spaceman". The jingle still shows up in instrumental form in the final film's "Buzz Lightyear Commercial", while the climax of "Plastic Spaceman" was reworked into the climax of "I Will Go Sailing No More".
• Directed by Cast Member: The Latin American Spanish dub was directed by Francisco Colmenero, who also voiced minor roles.
• Dueling Movies: With the Disney Animated Canon's own Pocahontas. It proved to be a little more destructive than one might have thought; see "Genre-Killer" below.
• DVD Commentary: Director/story writer John Lasseter with producers Ralph Guggenheim and Bonnie Arnold and co-writer/story artist Andrew Stanton, along with supervising animator Pete Docter, art director Ralph Eggleston and supervising technical director Bill Reeves.
• Executive Meddling: Disney Studios head Jeffrey Katzenberg continually pushed for Pixar to make the film more adult, edgy and cynical, which led Woody into being a Jerkass and the main form of humor being based off of insults. When it was shown to Disney, everyone hated the sketches for the first half of the movie and Tom Hanks complained of how much of a jerk Woody was as he recorded the lines for the story reels, but the result backfired in a positive way; after a screening for the Disney executives known as "The Black Friday Incident" on November 19, 1993, Roy Disney declared it the worst thing he'd ever seen, while company president Peter Schneider wanted the entire film scrapped. Katzenberg realized that he had a negative effect on the film's production after a discussion with Thomas Schumacher, and Pixar was given two weeks to rewrite the film as they saw fit.
• Genre-Killer:
  • Much to the chagrin of its creators, the film was the first of a long domino effect that resulted in hand-drawn American animated features going out of style. Disney's Pocahontas was released around the same time to lackluster reviews and, combined with Jeffrey Katzenberg's resignation from the company a year prior, it was taken as the beginning of the end for The Renaissance Age of Animation. The next ten years would see subsequent box office dropoffs of other hand-drawn features, which Pixar's films would run circles around both critically and financially, until, by 2005, both Disney and its competitors had given up in the medium for good. Despite John Lasseter's best efforts in the late 2000s, when he took over as CCO of Disney, the company's efforts to return to form proved fruitless and 2D American animated features remain far and few between.
  • It was also (perhaps more deservedly) the final nail in the coffin for the "kid empowerment" trend that had begun after Home Alone. Toy Story features a perfectly normal kid doing perfectly normal things and received greater widespread critical acclaim than the films which were either wholesale knockoffs like 3 Ninjas or placed kids in absurdly powerful situations like Cop and a Half. As a result, such films have similarly since been far and few between.
• Kids' Meal Toy:
  • In the US, Burger King not only sold defictionalized versions of Woody and his friends in their kids meals, but also hand puppets.
  • In Asia, McDonald's released a set of four figures in their Happy Meals; Woody, Buzz, Bo Peep, and Rex. Europe had these same four figures, plus a figure of Hamm.
• Orphaned Reference:
  • Woody being an Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist for the first half of the film is a leftover of the "Black Friday" reel where he was much more of a jerk. Likewise, Woody's claim that the bed is his when he's introducing himself to Buzz is a reference to this reel wherein Woody claimed the bed for himself and got upset if anyone else was on it but the first time we see him in the finished film, Woody is quick to slide off the bed to interact with everyone.
  • After Sid receives The Big One in the mail, he looks around for Woody in order to blow him up, and decides to check underneath a milk crate. While that is where Woody was hiding, this was actually going to be a call back to the deleted scene of Sid "playing" with Buzz and Woody, where Sid had placed Woody under the milkcrate. Woody even said in the pep talk to Buzz "It's me that should be tied to that rocket" as a Development Gag.
• Prop Recycling: Many of the film's assets were recycled from other Pixar shorts and commercials they worked on, especially many of the toys in Andy's room. One infamous example is the Teddy Bear on Andy's top shelf is recycled from a 1991 Toys"R"Us commercial.
• Real-Life Relative: In the Latin American Spanish dub, actress Karla Falcón and her mother Olga Donna-Dío provided the respective voices for Hanna and her mother, respectively.
• The Red Stapler: Done with every single character in the film. Particularly Buzz Lightyear, whose action figure, with Toy Story just a few short weeks in theaters, became such a hot commodity he was sold on the black market.
• Role-Ending Misdemeanor: The Black Friday cut was one of two boners that ultimately led to Jeffrey Katzenberg resigning from Disney following the death of Frank Wells in 1994.
• Scully Box: The difference in height between Woody and Buzz meant animators occasionally had to resort to tricks to keep the two in frame. In scenes where their feet aren't visible they sometimes had Woody's model deliberately clip through the floor, which was given the nickname "trenching", so they could still face each other.
• Serendipity Writes the Plot
  • In the early 1990s, everything CG was still kinda plastic... so Pixar did a film starring plastic characters.
  • The reason Mrs. Davis is a single mother was simply because the budget wouldn't allow for another human character to be designed and rendered (even the brief glimpse of Sid's dad is just a disembodied arm and leg, while the Pizza Planet driver has no visible face) and the kids in the film (except Sid and Hannah) are altered versions of Andy with different hair and wearing different clothes (and even having different names on their models).
• Shrug of God: The writing team spent multiple brainstorming sessions trying to come up with an explanation as to why Buzz froze up around Andy despite not believing himself to be a toy. After a while they decided it wasn't important to the plot and made the conscious choice to not address it in the movie.
• Throw It In!: In the gag where Buzz gasps for air after Woody accidentally opens his helmet, Woody was supposed to look around, concerned. However, at a screening of the layout version, John Lasseter burst out laughing at how the expressionless stand-in model of Woody looked so bored, and the gag was changed to Woody impatiently waiting for Buzz to finish his spiel.
• Troubled Production: The film was subject to constant Executive Meddling, pushing to make it more adult and cynical. Pixar, this being their first feature, dutifully followed the notes from the executives, even if they didn't agree with them. When a preview cut was declared unwatchable, Jeffrey Katzenberg, then head of animation at Disney, asked with some concern why on earth Pixar had followed all the notes he and others had sent. Production was shut down for two weeks, while Lasseter and the others basically rewrote the entire movie, into pretty much what they wanted in the first place. The movie would survive and get finished in time for release, though Katzenberg's job did not (he ended up quitting Disney a year before the movie's release to start up DreamWorks Animation).
• Voices in One Room: Tom Hanks and Tim Allen recorded most of their dialogue together, notably the gas station scene.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Paul Newman was the first choice for Woody, but Pixar couldn't afford to cast him since they were given a lower budget for the movie. Newman would eventually go on to voice Doc Hudson in Cars.
  • Billy Crystal was approached to voice Buzz Lightyear, but Crystal wanted nothing to do with then-creative chief of Disney Jeffrey Katzenberg, whose recklessness in promoting Aladdin had permanently strained Disney's relationship with Crystal's friend Robin Williams, and turned down the role. He later said it was the biggest mistake of his career and later jumped at the chance to voice Mike Wazowski in Monsters, Inc..
    • Jim Carrey, Chevy Chase, Bill Murray, Mel Gibson, and Bruce Willis were considered for Buzz Lightyear as well.
  • John Cleese was considered to voice Slinky and Rick Moranis was considered to voice Rex.
  • During the production of the movie, Steve Jobs made a private call to producer Ralph Guggenheim one night, trying to convince him to get Bob Dylan to write and perform the soundtrack.
  • In the topic about dubs, in the Japanese version, Kōichi Yamadera and Tesshō Genda were cast as Woody and Buzz, but were replaced by comedians Japanese comedians Toshiaki Karasawa and George Tokoro respectively; they've been the characters' permanent VAs ever since. This becomes being ironic since Genda voiced Zurg in the Buzz Lightyear: Star Command animated series, who is Buzz's sworn enemy.
  • In the Brazilian Portuguese version, Malu Mader was initially approached to do Bo Peep's voice, but her schedule prevented that. She later went on to do the voice of Neera in the Brazilian version of Dinosaur.
  • Originally, a Barbie doll (owned by Hannah) in a Pimped-Out Dress who acted like Sarah Connor from the Terminator movies was supposed to have been Woody's love interest after she rescued him and Sid's mutant toys from Scud the dog (per the DVD commentary, Woody was even going to utter the line "I wish I was anatomically correct!" upon seeing her). Mattel refused to give Pixar the rights to use Barbie (fearing that the movie wouldn't be successful and sales of Barbie dolls would plummet because of the movie's supposed failure), so Woody's love interest was changed to the Little Bo Peep figurine and Woody hatched a plan with Sid's mutant toys to trick Scud the dog during the escape to the backyard. It wasn't until the first Toy Story became popular enough for a big-screen sequel (and a third installment) that Mattel decided to let Pixar use Barbie as a character.
  • At one point in early development, Woody was a ventriloquist dummy who used his large size to bully the other toys.
  • We of course have the "Black Friday" reel that was screened for Katzenberg and Roy Disney, as seen above. That one got shot down in the end, and it almost made the movie itself this.
  • Different action prologues were written and storyboarded, including one that showed Buzz defeating Zurg in an episode of his TV series (which Andy would be watching with Woody at home) and another where Andy would play a Wild West duel with Woody and pretend to get shot (Andy would knock over a vase while falling down, which Woody would catch, revealing that he was alive this way). Andy was consistently drawn with glasses in this time, by the way (which is why he wears them in the photo with his father). The movie novelization combines the finished film's opening with the "Wild West duel" opening, with Woody "shooting" Mr. Potato Head/"One-Eyed Bart" instead of sending him to jail, and with Andy knocking Bo Peep off her lamp only for Woody to catch her – this may have been yet another variation the screenwriters toyed with.
  • Originally Sid was going to blow up a G.I. Joe, but Hasbro objected to this use of their property and so the Joe was replaced with an original toy, Combat Carl.
  • The Buzz Lightyear toy commercial was originally planned as a cheesy 50s-style TV ad, but Tom Schumacher thought a more modern ad would work better, resulting in the Totally Radical assault on the senses which made it into the final film.
  • Buzz was originally going to be delivered via FedEx as a last-minute birthday present from Andy's father, implying that his parents were divorced as justification for him not being in the movie (in reality, the film simply didn't have a budget to include him, and Word of God would later confirm Andy's mother was a widow).
  • In the original storyboards for when Woody spots Sid at Pizza Planet, Sid is seen laughing at a guy in a large Squeeze Toy Alien costume being carried away by little kids, while in the film it was changed to him violently playing the Whack-a-Alien game. However, most of the dialogue was still used in the final cut (including Sid's line "Hey Bozo, you got a brain in there?", which in the storyboards included the sound of him knocking on the head of the costume saying "Hello?").
  • The original climatic scene where the toys reveal they are alive had Buzz being aware of the plan and threatening Sid himself. Woody would also animate completely from the beginning and blow out the rocket's fuse, instead of luring and scaring Sid with his voicebox.
  • Early sketches and storyboards show that Sid originally straps a rocket to Woody instead of Buzz, intending to blow him up. Not much else is known about this sequence; however, another unknown boy is present with Sid when he's about to light the rocket. This gets a Shout-Out in the finished film, where Woody is Sid's first choice to blow up and he only switches to Buzz after Woody hides.
  • Sid's comeuppance was different. Woody and Sid's toys wait for him outside as Sid is about to light the rocket when the match is blown out. It's then that Woody reveals himself to Sid and castigates the boy as he picks up a match and puts it in his holster (which provides a scrapped explanation for how he got the match). While most of Woody's dialogue in his confrontation is different, it's basically the same message to "play nice" which scares the juvenile back into his house. He tells Hannah what has happened but she just sighs as she sees the toys being inanimate. Buzz questions Woody about the plan but the cowboy plainly states: "What harm could it have done? It just screwed him up for the rest of his life that's all!" as they see Sid's toys further confronting their owner in his room as they close the blinds as Sid continues raving.
  • In an earlier version of the climatic chase Woody drops the remote for RC (in this version a joystick remote) as he's thrown out of the van into the street as Scud is catching up to Buzz and RC. Woody (after avoiding oncoming cars) grabs the remote and starts RC up just as Scud was about to pounce on Buzz (which ends up with Woody being rammed by RC which causes the remote to land in Buzz's hands and Woody hanging onto the back of RC for dear life). The toys see Buzz on RC and realize the truth. Slinky lower the ramp and our duo get closer just as Scud bites on Woody's boot to which he replies, "Don't they feed this animal?!" as they both are launched into a bush. Buzz stops RC and wonders what to do as the truck gets farther when Woody comes out riding Scud like a cowboy and ropes the dog to a bus with the sign: "See you at the Alaskan Sled Dog Races!" and rejoins Buzz on RC. As they get to the truck and grab to Slinky the batteries die out and leaves them in the middle of the road. Woody starts losing hope but Buzz has the idea of using the rocket.
• Working Title: You Are A Toy, Moving Buddies, Made in Taiwan, The Cowboy and Spaceman & Toys in the Hood.
• Write Who You Know: Sid Phillips is said to be inspired by a former Pixar employee of the same last name who was known to disassemble toys and use the parts to build bizarre creations.
  • On a broader note, most of the key creators of the film noted that they were all more like Sid with their toys as kids rather than Andy, to the point that they often joked that Sid was the kind of kid who would grow up to be an animator.

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