When “Toy Story” first hit theaters, it was a revelation. It elevated the kid’s movie genre to new heights and introduced the masses to the capabilities of digital animation. These days, there are countless fully computer-animated movies being released by a wide range of production studios. All this was made possible, however, by Pixar Studios with the release of the original “Toy Story” in 1995. For such an undertaking, it’s no surprise that there are countless facts about the film’s production and reception you may not know.
“Toy Story” follows the secret lives of toys owned by a kid named Andy. They take on their silent roles whenever Andy is around. Then they magically spring to life when left to their own devices. Woody is a kind-hearted cowboy doll who feels confident in his role as Andy’s favorite toy. All that changes, however, when Andy’s mom buys him the new Buzz Lightyear action figure. Not only does this call into question Woody’s top spot, but Buzz thinks he’s a real spaceman on a mission to his home planet. After Andy’s family moves to a different house, the toys are accidentally left behind before being picked up by the twisted boy next door, Sid. To save themselves, Woody and Buzz must work together to escape Sid’s clutches and be reunited with Andy.
When “Toy Story” entered production in the early 1990s, the undertaking was practically unheard of. Be it disputes with Disney executives, or even the entire Pixar Studios being sold off to the highest bidder, the team behind the film faced numerous challenges to bring “Toy Story” off the ground. Nevertheless, they persevered. In this article, we will explore 25 facts you may not know about “Toy Story.”(For other great animation vehicles, discover the best 20 animated films of all time.)
To compile a list of the 25 facts you may not know about “Toy Story,” 24/7 Tempo consulted a range of entertainment and movie industry publications including WDW Magazine, MTV, and Facts.net. Next, we selected facts and trivia that gave the best sense of how the movie was made, the motives that informed the inclusion of certain elements, and the audience and critical reception. After that, we confirmed aspects of each fact using IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes, and Biography.com.
Sid was based on a Pixar employee
One of the facts you may not know about “Toy Story” is that the character of Sid Phillips, the maladjusted neighbor boy who makes toy Frankensteins, came from real-life inspiration. According to IMDB, the writers based the character on a Pixar employee of the same last name. Apparently, he had a penchant for taking toys, disassembling them, and rebuilding them as increasingly strange and ghoulish designs. As for the character’s first name, Sid, this drew inspiration from notorious punk rocker and bassist for the Sex Pistols, Sid Vicious.
Sid’s dog
Another one of the facts you may not know about “Toy Story” concerns the inspiration for Sid’s dog’s name, Scud. Believe it or not, the dog’s name is a reference to scud missiles carrying biological warfare substances that Saddam Hussein used in his opening attack on the United States at the start of the Persian Gulf War in 1991.
The toy soldiers’ fancy footwork
Another one of the facts you may not know about “Toy Story” concerns the movements of the toy soldiers in the movie. At a loss on how to make the toy soldiers walk, crewmembers took to real life to help them solve the problem. To do this, they nailed a pair of sneakers to a sheet of wood and attempted to walk around while wearing them. This helped them configure the strange, jerky movements of the on-screen toy soldiers.
The crew used careful tricks to avoid complicated imagery
Though impressive for its time, the animation required to bring “Toy Story” to fruition had its limitations. Indeed, some of the 3D effects written in the script were far too complicated to execute using the available technology. Hair was tricky, so the crew gave the characters of Sid, Molly, and Andy short hair. Furthermore, Andy’s mom’s hair remained tied back. Another effect they failed to accomplish was flying water droplets, so in the scene where Woody dunks his head in a bowl of cereal, no liquid is visible.
The shortest Pixar movie
Clocking in at only 81 minutes, “Toy Story” remains not only the shortest “Toy Story” movie but the shortest Pixar movie ever made. After the release of “Toy Story,” the length of Pixar movies steadily increased. Compared to the latest Pixar offering, “Elemental,” which runs 101 minutes, it’s quite a wide margin.
Andy’s real-life inspiration
Another one of the facts you may not know about “Toy Story” concerns the name given to the owner of the toys, Andy. Indeed, he earned his name from Andries “Andy” Van Dam. As a professor at Brown University and a pioneer in the world of computer science and animation, he taught many of the crewmembers who made “Toy Story.”
Someone remade “Toy Story”
Another one of the facts you may not know about “Toy Story” concerns the monumental effort of a few amateur filmmakers to recreate the Pixar classic. In 2013, Jonason Pauley and friends remade the film shot for shot using real toys and real people. It took them over two years to accomplish.
A nod to Pixar Studios
As evidenced by this list, Pixar inserted heaps of easter eggs, references, and allusions into “Toy Story.” For example, when the Pizza Planet delivery driver enters the Dinoco gas station, he asks for directions to West Cutting Boulevard. West Cutting Boulevard was the real-life location of Pixar Studios at the time, in Richmond, California. Pixar, however, later transferred to a location in Emeryville, California.
The gig of a lifetime
Another one of the facts you may not know about “Toy Story” concerns voice actor John Ratzenberger who played Hamm. After the film’s success, Ratzenberger went on to voice a character in every Pixar movie that followed. He became something like Pixar’s “good luck charm.” Furthermore, Pixar remains the only animation studio to use the same voice actor in every movie released.
Academy Award honors
It was a triumph when Pixar’s “Toy Story” hit the big screen. So much so, that the movie was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. Though it failed to win this award, “Toy Story” earned a special achievement Academy Award for the “development and inspired application of techniques that have made possible the first feature-length computer-animated film.” Furthermore, it was the first animated film to win a special achievement Academy Award.
Woody the jerk
Another one of the facts you may not know about “Toy Story” concerns just how different the original script looked compared to the final product. Producer and writer Jeffrey Katzenberg often passed notes to the crew during production asking for more “edge” in the movie. When the team presented an early draft of the film to Disney executives on November 19, 1993, the executives received it poorly.
The executives felt Woody was too much of a jerk as he spent much of the movie making fun of the other toys. Though Disney intended to take over production, Katzenberg pleaded for two more weeks to rework the movie. In response, the Pixar team rewrote the script to make Woody more endearing, avoiding the wrath of Disney executives and movie development hell in the process.
Big movie, meager staff
Another one of the facts you may not know about “Toy Story” is how small of a staff Pixar employed to bring it to the big screen. Indeed, for full production, Pixar employed only 110 people. It’s particularly impressive when compared to “The Lion King” a year before, which employed 800 people to make it happen.
Attracting talent
Pixar Studios made “Toy Story” with a meager staff of 110 people. However, attracting people to come and work for them proved remarkably easy. According to IMDB, getting animators to join the Pixar ship was smooth sailing, as even the most impressive animators sought to work on the first fully computer-animated motion picture.
Sid’s backpack
The writing scrawled on the top of Sid’s backpack reads “Julie Macbarfle has cooties!” While this may seem like a subtle dig, it was a pointed reference. Camera manager Julie M. McDonald lobbied the crew to put her name somewhere in the film. She got more than she bargained for as “Juju’s house of food” also references her namesake. (Do you think your movie knowledge is good? Try to answer these movie trivia questions.)
Overclocked
Another one of the facts you may not know about “Toy Story” involves computers. Specifically, it concerns the sheer amount of processing power required to bring it to fruition. According to IMDB, the film required 800,000 machine hours and 114,240 distinct animation frames to make the movie possible. Considering the constraints of computing and storage space at the time, this is quite astonishing.
“You’ve Got a Friend in Me”
When looking for music to accompany the film, Pixar hired legendary singer-songwriter Randy Newman to pen some music. He made short work of it, however. Newman wrote its standout song “You’ve Got a Friend in Me” in a single day. It’s pretty impressive, considering the reception and lasting appeal of the signature tune.
Selling Pixar
Another one of the facts you may not know about “Toy Story” concerns how close the movie came to not happening. After tech legend Steve Jobs acquired the computer animation division of director George Lucas’s production company, he named it Pixar. Though it planned to make animated films from the outset, the technology simply wasn’t there in the late 1980s. Even when the technology became available, Jobs had reservations about Pixar and the “Toy Story” production and considered selling the entire company. All that changed, however, as production went along and Jobs saw how important the work Pixar was doing.
Musical Toys
Disney initially wanted “Toy Story” to be a children’s musical. That way it would better reflect Disney’s output, which was mostly musical features for children. However, John Lasseter, then Chief Creative Officer of Pixar Studios and director of Toy Story, pushed back heavily against this idea.
The makings of a hit
Speaking of director John Lasseter, he knew he had a hit on his hands. Especially after he attended one of the preview screenings for test audiences. Apparently, during the scene where Buzz Lightyear lies broken on the ground, Lasseter heard numerous adult audience members sobbing. This convinced him the movie had lasting, wide-range appeal.
Impressive reception
Another one of the facts you may not know about “Toy Story” concerns its critical reception. Ensuing Pixar releases have earned a range of reviews from great to lackluster. They also earned many awards and accolades in the process. “Toy Story,” however, remains the best-reviewed movie ever released by Pixar. Indeed, the Rotten Tomatoes rating for “Toy Story,” based on 97 critic reviews, still sits, after nearly three decades, at an impressive 100%.
“Toy Story’s” villain
Another one of the facts you may not know about “Toy Story” involves its main villain. The rest of the ensuing “Toy Story” sequels feature a toy character as the main villain for the protagonists to reckon with. The original, however, reserves that spot for the tinkering yet destructive next-door neighbor boy, Sid. In the original “Toy Story,” the main characters must escape the clutches of Sid before he pulls them apart and remakes them in his twisted image.
Hints of divorce
Another one of the facts you may not know about “Toy Story” involves the circumstances of the main character Andy and his mother. Though it is never explicitly stated why, the film makes no mention of Andy’s dad as the characters never speak about him and he is never seen on screen. This led audiences to speculate that Mrs. Davis, Andy’s mom, is moving the family to a new house on account of a divorce.
Love interest Barbie
Another one of the facts you may not know about “Toy Story” concerns the inclusion of the hit toy Barbie. Originally in the movie, she served as Woody’s love interest. Though she was written into the initial script with prominent placements, the owner of Barbie, the toy company Mattel, declined to feature her in the movie. They preferred Barbie to have a more blank slate personality than as defined in the script. Plus, they expected the movie to be a failure and didn’t want Barbie connected with it. After the film met great success, however, Mattel allowed the inclusion of Barbie in “Toy Story 2.”
Woody and Buzz’s names
Another one of the facts you may not know about “Toy Story” concerns the inspiration for the two main characters’ names. Though unconfirmed, many speculate that the characters were named after Cornelius “Woody” Wood and Harrison “Buzz” Price. They were two Disney employees instrumental in the creation of Disneyland. Wood was the chief developer for the burgeoning park and Price was one of its primary economic advisers.
File Size
A final fact you may not know about “Toy Story” involves how much computer storage space was required to fit the movie. According to IMDB, the compiled files of computer animation for the whole movie took up around 600 GB of hard drive space. This was a huge storage need, as most personal computers at the time featured hard drives with 250 MB of space. Pixar studios must have figured out better compression techniques, however, as the full movie, including extras, fits on an 8 GB DVD. (For other movie facts, discover 25 facts you may not know about the Star Wars movies.)