Toy Story Trivia

Pixar’s Toy Story premiered November 22, 1995 in Hollywood, California. It was based on a 1988 Pixar short story called “Tin Toy”. Can you believe it was that long ago that we first heard Buzz Lightyear proclaim "to infinity and beyond!"?

Toy Story 2 was released November, 24, 1999.

The official release date for Toy Story 3 in Disney Digital 3-D was released on June 18, 2010.

• 1st fully computer-generated full-length feature film

• Each frame took 2-15 hours to create

• Woody began as a ventriloquist’s dummy before becoming a stuffed cowboy pull-string doll. He was named after actor Woody Strode from the westerns.

• Starting out as Tinny, then Lunar Larry, then Tempus from Morph, the new toy on the scene finally became Buzz Lightyear. He was named after U.S. astronaut Buzz Aldrin and his suit was modeled after Apollo astronauts with a little GI Joe thrown in.

• Hanks was the preferred choice for Woody. Billy Crystal was asked to play Buzz, but turned it down. He later realized how big of a mistake that was. He later played Mike in Monster, Inc.

• The first draft was ditched when Disney officials did not like it and they had to restart and re-record new lines for the movie.

• Barbie was to have appeared in the first movie as Woody’s love interest, but Mattel refused because they wanted Barbie to be unique to every little girl that played with her. They felt giving her a voice and animation would ruin it for little girls everywhere. Once Mattel saw the success of Toy Story, they agreed to allow Barbie to be included in Toy Story 2 and 3. Funny how that works, isn’t it?

• Hasbro refused to allow the use of GI Joe as well, but they did allow Mr. Potato Head.

• The carpet in the hallway at Sid’s house (the boy that creatively rearranged toys) is the same carpet in Steven King’s The Shining. Sid Phillips was named after a former Pixar employee who was known for disassembling toys and making bizarre creations.

• Woody was the most complicated to create. He required 723 motion controls of which 212 were for his face and 58 for his mouth.

• Toy Story used 27 animators and 4000 computer models to animate the characters.

• Animators spent a week per 8-second frame detailing the facial expressions and mouth movements to match the voice recordings provided by the actors

• In the scene where Woody is urging everyone to get a moving partner, there is a book on the shelf behind him. It is “Tin Toy” by “Lasseter”. “Tin Toy” is the Pixar movie that Toy Story is based on and Lasseter is the director of Toy Story. There are other books that refer to other Pixar films such as "Red’s Dream: and "Knick Knack" as well.

• Randy Newman developed Toy Story’s signature song “You’ve Got a Friend in Me” in one day.

• The animators were creative in learning how to mimic the movements of the toy soldiers. They glued tennis shoes to wooden planks to figure out how they would walk.

• If you notice, the toolbox that Buzz pushes off the milk crate says “Binford Tools”. You may recognize Binford Tools as the sponsor for Tim Allen’s “Home Improvement”

• There are lots of instances where names and license plate numbers refer to various people working on the movie. “Julie Macbarfle” on Sid’s backpack and “JuJu’s house of food” refer to one of the camera managers, “Eggman Movers” is named after one of the art directors, “MLK1K9” refers to Molly (a canine) the Pixar sheepdog.

• Whenever a character's eyes blink, they never blink together, but one at a time.

• Jim Varney, also known as the character Ernest P. Worrell, was the voice of Slinky Dog and they adopted Ernest’s catchphrase “Gollybob Howdy" in one scene. Jim Varney passed away between Toy Story 2 and 3.

• Andy’s character is named after Andries "Andy" Van Dam, a Brown University Professor and computer science and animation pioneer who taught many of makers of Toy Story.

• Pizza Planet was originally going to be called Pizza Putt, a combination pizzeria/mini-golf course. That would have been a cute play on words for Pizza Hut.

• Various sources, including Tim Allen, say Jim Carrey, Chevy Chase and Bill Murray were considered for Buzz Lightyear. He’s also said Paul Newman was considered for the character of Woody.

• This is one of only 3 Disney movies to win a Golden Globe for Best Picture. The other two are Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King.
• The dust in the scene where Woody meets Wheezy set a record for number of particles animated for a movie by computer.
• There is many references to A Bug’s Life in Toy Story 2. There is A Bug's Life calendar hanging in Andy's room. There are toys from A Bug’s Life on display in Al’s Toy Barn. Mrs. Potato Head is reading A Bug’s Life to the Little Tykes. Heimlich, a caterpillar from A Bug’s Life is crawling up a branch right before Buzz cuts through it.
• Toy Story 2 was originally supposed to be released straight to video, but its early tests indicated it was going to be a bigger hit than anticipated. Some say it was better than the original Toy Story.
• Barbie's dance steps in Toy Story 2 were based on the moves of Ann-Margret inViva Las Vegas with Elvis Presley.
• When Jessie first meets Woody (Tom Hanks), she exclaims, "Sweet mother of Abraham Lincoln!" Abraham Lincoln's mother was Nancy Hanks, who happens to be an actual blood relative of Tom Hanks. He is a direct descendant of Abraham Lincoln’s great uncle.
• Barbie tells the gang when they’re driving down the Buzz Lightyear aisle at Al’s Toy Barn, “back in 1995 short-sighted retailers did not order enough dolls to meet demand". This is direct poke at how toy retailers lacked belief in the success of the original movie released in 1995 and did not order enough Toy Story toys to meet demand.

Toy Story was first released to DVD along with Toy Story 2 in October 2000. They were later released individually. An "Ultimate Toy Box" 3-disc set was released at the same time that contained bonus materials.

In September 2005, a 10th Anniversary 2-disc edition was released featuring the bonus material from the 2000 Ultimate collection and some more extras, but was put back in the Disney Vault in January 2009.

The first two Toy Story movies, Toy Story and Toy Story 2 were re-released as a double feature in Disney Digital 3-D. on October 2, 2009.

A Special Edition on DVD and Blu-Ray is came out in March 2010.

Toy Story 3 was released on June 18, 2010 in Disney Digital 3-D .

This time, the movie revolves around Andy going off to college and the toys are accidentally thrown away rather than stored in the attic. The toys end up in a day-care and find adventure in surviving some rowdy pre-schoolers.

Mattel and Lego are among those who will make toys to promote the film.