﻿Hello, and welcome back to Animation Movies Revisited, where we look back at some of the
greatest animated films and rediscover why they've left a lasting impression throughout the years.
This time out, we're going back to where it all began for Pixar Studios,
with an investigative look into their first animated feature film, Toy Story.
The year was 1995. Pogs were all the rage, Seinfeld was one of the most popular shows
on television, and the world's first computer-animated film had arrived to
revolutionize the industry and summon a sea change that would trap classic animation methods in a
powerful undertow. One of the benefits of being an "old" is that I got to experience many of the
films we talk about for this series in theaters firsthand. I remember being mesmerized by the
evolutionary leap that Toy Story represented and hearing the excited chatter of my fellow audience
members as we exited the theater, surprised and delighted by what we'd just witnessed.
Toy Story wasn't a garden-variety animated romp. It was a game-changer. From this point forward,
nearly every animation studio under the sun needed to rethink its strategy if
it hoped to weather the oncoming storm and embrace the medium's future.
How It All Began To understand where Toy Story came from,
we have to go back to 1974, when the New York Institute of Technology's founder,
Alexander Schure, established the Computer Graphics Lab, whose computer scientists hoped to
create industry-changing animation with the push of a button. After spending upward of $15 million
on developing their technology, CGL decided they needed the help of a major film studio
to realize their potential. Enter Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas, who escorted six of
GCL's employees over to Lucasfilm, where they eventually joined the Graphics Group
at the famed Star Wars-related studio. As members of the Graphics Group,
the team helped lay the foundational bricks for CG technology, including the alpha channel,
which determines how pixels are rendered and combined to achieve partial or total transparency
with a desired image. Eventually, John Lasseter was hired by Lucasfilm as an interface designer
and served as an animator on the animated short film The Adventures of André & Wally B.
Several projects later, the department changed its name to Pixar and was eventually purchased
by Apple's Steve Jobs in 1986. Lasseter was hired to produce the
short film Tin Toy to kick things off for the newly-established outfit.
Told from the perspective of a toy soldier, Tin Toy tells the tale of a musically-gifted
military man and his harrowing encounter with a destructive infant. While the short
depicts a level of parental negligence beyond my comprehension and features crude character
models and animation by today's standards, it was seen as a monumental achievement by Disney.
They wanted Lasseter to be their next star director for an animated feature film,
but Lasseter's loyalty to Pixar was unwavering. Unwilling to let someone with so much potential
escape their grasp, the Walt Disney Company's CEO Michael Eisner and chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg
offered a production deal that preserved Pixar's independence but carried the Disney brand.
At first, Pixar offered to create a holiday special titled A Tin Toy Christmas. However,
Katzenberg thought the concept wasn't ambitious enough and proposed making a big splash with a
feature-length animated film. It's well-documented that Katzenberg's "go big or go home" attitude was
so that he could gain access to Lasseter's talents and that the deal would come with stipulations
for all involved. He explained to Pixar that maintaining their independence meant playing
nice with the House of Mouse and that they'd be micro-managed throughout production. While this
might sound harsh, the reality was that Pixar was in debt and needed Mickey's money in a big way.
Naturally, the negotiations were contentious, but eventually, both groups agreed to combine
their efforts for an animated feature based on Tin Toy with the working title Toy Story.
The original plot for Toy Story revolved around Tinny, Pixar's nickname for their wind-up toy
soldier character, going on vacation with his owner. After Tinny gets left behind at a truck
stop, a junk collector discovers him and tosses the toy into the back of his pick-up truck.
In the back of the vehicle, he meets an old-timey ventriloquist's dummy. After becoming
fast friends, Tinny and the dummy embark on a quest to find a place where they'll be valued.
After a series of mishaps, the duo arrives at a "toy heaven," also known as a preschool. It's
there that Tinny and his friend never get lost or outgrown. They've found their Nirvana.
Eventually, Lasseter and his team realized that they would have to change the project's
characters and settings. One of the primary reasons for this was that no one would ever
believe that a wind-up soldier was a child's favorite toy. Thus, the team began working on
a toy character that any young child would die to have. Lasseter, Andrew Stanton, Pete Docter,
and Joe Ranft came up with a spaceman character provisionally named Lunar Larry. After a few
tweaks to the character's design, the group decided that the name Lunar Larry was too "wacky"
and began tossing space terms into their think tank. Eventually, they solved the problem by
naming the character Buzz Lightyear. He was named so in honor of the Apollo 11 astronaut
Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin and the astrological unit of distance known as a light-year.
At first, the team wanted to pair Buzz with a ventriloquist's dummy complete with a top
hat and tails, but Bud Lucky had the idea of making the toy a cowboy. Shortly after that,
an attitudinal cowpoke mosied onto the scene with a design inspired by Lasseter's old Casper doll.
The duo represented a classic East meets West setup. The spaceman and the cowboy, an unlikely
pair, would have to learn to work together if they hoped to survive the adventure of a lifetime.
Now that Woody and Buzz were the film's dynamic duo, Pixar began working on test footage to wow
executives. The samples demonstrated how far the team could push the technology
and gave investors a taste of things to come. Directed by John Lasseter, the concepts,
characters, and plot for Toy Story were co-created by Lasseter, Pete Docter, Andrew Stanton,
and Joe Ranft. The final narrative revolved around an eclectic group of toys who encounter
a state-of-the-art action figure named Buzz Lightyear, who unwittingly sews a seed of disorder
among the group. When Andy's favorite toy, a pull-string-operated cattleman named Woody,
feels threatened by Buzz's arrival, the possessive cowpoke executes a plan to take Buzz out of the
picture. When Woody's scheme backfires, he and Buzz must work together if they're to return home
before Andy and the rest of the toys move to their new home. During their adventure, Woody and Buzz
encounter alien creatures, a sadistic destroyer of toys, an unrelenting bull terrier, and the harsh
realities of their plastic existence for a story as human as it is fictional and fantastic.
During the casting phase of the project, Paul Newman, Clint Eastwood, and Robin Williams
were all considered for the part of Woody. Eventually, Pixar went with Lasseter's top choice
and Academy Award-winner, Tom Hanks. Hanks was fascinated by Woody immediately, especially
after Pixar showed the actor an animation demo of Woody reciting dialogue from Hanks' 1989 comedy
Turner & Hooch. Disney often used demos like these to butter the talent before making a deal
to join the production. Some people say that flattery won't get you anywhere,
but it worked like a charm in Hanks' case. Billy Crystal was offered the role of Buzz
Lightyear but turned it down because he didn't think the animation style would go
over well with audiences. He was incorrect, but Crystal also regretted his decision
and later accepted the role of Mike Wazowski for Pixar's fourth CG-animated feature,
Monsters Inc. When Crystal passed on the opportunity, Chevy Chase,
Bill Murray, and Jim Carrey were considered for Buzz's part. Ultimately, Lasseter brought
the character to Tim Allen, who at the time was the star of Home Improvement. Buzz was
more superhero than space cop initially, but Allen brought maturity to the character that
the filmmakers did not anticipate. Joining Hanks and Allen for Pixar's
ground-breaking feature debut were Don Rickles as Mr. Potato Head, Jim Varney as Slinky Dog,
Wallace Shawn as Rex, John Ratzenberger as Hamm, Annie Potts as Bo Peep, with John Morris as Andy,
Erik von Detten as Sid, and Laurie Metcalf as Mrs. Davis, Andy's mom. With an assortment
of Hollywood heavy-hitters and seasoned voice actors committed to helping Pixar make history,
Toy Story was well to become a reality. One of the most significant changes to Toy Story
came when Katzenberg asked Pixar to change its approach to the film's main characters,
Woody and Buzz. Disney wanted Toy Story to appeal to children and adults alike,
so they asked that mature themes be added to the story. At first, Pixar was unsure of
pushing its star players into more adult and existential situations. Even Tom Hanks was
uncertain of the request, saying that the changes to Woody made him into a self-serving jerk.
There was also the "Black Friday Incident," which refers to an early film screening of Toy Story
for executives. The showing was such a calamity that Disney's head of animation, Peter Schneider,
pressed pause on the film's production. Dismayed by the results, Lasseter did his best to explain
that Disney had altered the DNA of the movie by changing the characters. They were no longer
flawed; they were mean. They invested in the wrong project if Disney wanted something edgy
instead of wholesome and nostalgic. Thankfully, Katzenberg gave Lasseter's writing team another
crack at the screenplay, and eventually, both parties arrived at a happy medium.
With the tone of the characters and story finally settled, the crew increased from 24 to 110,
with specialized animators making up the lion's share of the new hires.
The rewrites to the script saw Woody going from a conniving "devil-on-the-shoulder" sort
to a respected member of the toy community. The revised screenplay also added a new scene, which
saw the toys holding a town meeting before the big move. This moment in the film helped establish
Woody's place as a leader in the toy community and introduced a workplace comedy angle to the story.
After making a reluctant budgetary adjustment, a few significant changes to the script, and
enduring many sleepless nights, Toy Story would change the animation landscape at any cost.
Pixar was sailing in uncharted waters when they made Toy Story in terms of animation. They were
pioneers on the verge of developing an animation method that would become the industry standard.
The tools they'd developed were so new that animators hired for the film needed to learn them
from scratch. Everything was a learning process, and they'd soon discovered that they needed
all kinds of artists for the job. The world of Toy Story needed to be believable. The film required
meticulous attention to detail, as every asset was created and animated to perfection.
Like any other animated film, Toy Story began as a series of storyboard images before moving on
to animation. A total of 27 animators created 400 character models to manipulate throughout
the adventure, each coded with a complex level of articulation. With eight separate
teams assigned to perfect each shot, the project welcomed several cooks into one kitchen.
In addition to animating characters, Pixar was tasked with bringing audiences into an authentic
world. The design team smoothed many of the film's straight edges, making particular objects more
aesthetically pleasing. While pleasurable shapes were all well and good, the film also required
realistic lighting and shading. These elements helped give characters and their environment a
level of semi-realism, establishing an uncanny valley as deceptive as it was mesmerizing.
Something that sets Toy Story apart from other animated films in Disney's classic library
is that it is not a musical. The decision to have Toy Story be devoid of song and dance numbers was
a conscious one and made some team members nervous about the film's ability to appeal to audiences.
Disney has a long history of introducing audiences to marketable earworms but instead gave them Randy
Newman. Newman composed the soundtrack for Toy Story, which included the memorable track "You've
Got a Friend in Me." While the film failed to include car trip-worthy bangers like "A
Whole New World" from Disney's Aladdin or "Under the Sea" from The Little Mermaid,
Newman's folksy songs were charming and emotional. Some people could argue that Newman's
soundtrack helped pave the way for a different approach to soundtracks for animated films,
and parents were thrilled about the change to Disney's well-worn formula.
Due to the divide between Disney and Pixar, Toy Story had two premieres. The Disney
premiere screened at their El Capitan Theatre in Los Angeles on November 19, 1995. Meanwhile,
Pixar's debut happened at the Regency Center in San Francisco the following evening. When Toy
Story opened to general audiences across 2,281 screens, it earned over $244 million during
its theatrical run. Disney and Pixar spent an additional $20 million in marketing materials
to promote Toy Story to its target audience. I'm talking about Burger King kids' meals,
Woody and Buzz slapped onto soda pop cans, and signature sneakers featuring the film's most
beloved characters. As it turns out, Toy Story was a problematic film to promote,
given that the rights to several of its characters belonged to competing toy companies.
No one involved in the making of Toy Story had anticipated the film's overwhelming success.
Investors were wiping their asses with Benjamins, and Pixar had established
itself as a force to reckoned with practically overnight. The film went on to win several awards
for its outstanding excellence, including eight Annie Awards. The whole world was captivated by
what Pixar achieved with its first feature film. Meanwhile, competing studios were busy
rethinking the lasting appeal of 2-D animation and whether or not they were a dying art form.
I've already peppered this episode with details about the legacy of Toy Story. However,
what Pixar and Disney were able to accomplish with this wholly original and unorthodox film
cannot be understated. Toy Story marked the beginning of an industry-wide shift
in the art of animation filmmaking. It introduced characters that reside in the hearts and minds of
fans to infinity and beyond. Since the original's release, the Toy Story franchise has expanded to
include three theatrical sequels, several short films, video games, and theme park attractions.
This Summer will see the release of a Toy Story spinoff titled Lightyear, starring Chris Evans
as the voice of the fearless space ranger, Buzz Lightyear. I believe Toy Story is ever-lasting
and that we'll see these characters represented and reintroduced for generations to come.
Despite earning a place of prominence in the annals of animation history,
I do not think Toy Story is a perfect film. Is it endearing? Absolutely. Did it
introduce the most remarkable change in animation filmmaking in several decades? You bet. However,
the technological seams of Toy Story look a might frayed after so many years. Some human character
models border on the brink of grotesque, and select movements appear jerky and unnatural.
While I admire the craftsmanship and creativity that went into the making of Toy Story,
I find aspects of the film's environments to be aesthetically unappealing.
Toy Story excels in its ability to connect us to toy characters that feel human in every way that
the filmmakers intended. I felt anger when Woody allowed his jealousy to jeopardize Buzz's safety
and Andy's happiness. I experienced a sense of righteousness when Woody, Buzz, and their newfound
friends revealed their sentient nature to Sid, Andy's sadistic, toy-torturing next-door neighbor.
I was comforted when Andy discovered Woody and Buzz on the way to his new home.
Every emotional beat hits like an Eggman Movers truck, and Pixar has been demolishing heartstrings
with every subsequent film after that. For what I feel is the second-best entry in
Pixar's flagship franchise so far, I'll be giving Toy Story eight Buzz Lightyears out
of ten. Few films throughout animation history can say they changed the game like this one can,
and we as audience members have been reaping the rewards ever since.
It's been a pleasure to grow up alongside Toy Story franchise, and it warms my animation-loving
heart to know that Woody and Buzz will be entertaining generations to infinity and beyond.