Toy Story 4 is out as of June 20, 2019!!! See it in theaters today. Here are 10 facts about Disney Pixar’s Toy Story:
When Toy Story first came out in 1995, it was the highest grossing film of the year. It made around $373.6 million in the box office! It was also a nominee for two Golden Globe awards and one BAFTA film award.
Toy Story took 2.5 years to produce. It took so long to make because of the advanced computer generated animation that was incorporated in the film. In its most productive week, only 3.5 minutes of animation was made.
The Toy Story franchise is probably the highest rated franchise in existence! Toy Story 1 and 2 have a 100% certified fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, while Toy Story 3 and 4 have a 98% rating.
Main character Woody was originally imagined as a very mean ventriloquist doll. Luckily, the character was considered to be too intense for children. Woody was instead reimagined as a milder and significantly nicer wind-up cowboy doll.
Woody isn’t the only character who was reimagined. Buzz Lightyear was originally inspired by Tinny from Tin Toy by Pixar. He was then known as Lunar Larry, Tempus from Morph, Tempest, and finally- a spaceman named Buzz Lightyear in memory of astronaut Buzz Aldrin.
Barbie was turned down by Mattel to feature in the first Toy Story movie. She made an appearance alongside boyfriend Ken in the second and third movies. And it was some appearance- Ken took advantage of the spotlight and changed his outfit 21 times in Toy Story 3.
Toy Story decided to use toy soldiers in the film after their request to use G.I. Joe was denied by Hasbro. The animators then strapped wooden boards on their shoes to mimic the construct of a Toy Soldier. They walked around like that all day in order to figure out the movements of a toy soldier for the film.
The Pizza Planet truck is featured in every Pixar film besides for The Incredibles. The store was named Pizza Planet over its original name, Pizza Putt, so that Buzz Lightyear would think he was returning home. The aliens from the movie even wear a pin of a pizza with a Saturn-like ring around it!
Pixar’s merchandise of the toys for the movie was in a bit of a dilemma. Both Hasbro and Mattel decided that it would be nearly impossible to manufacture and produce so many toys in just 11 months. Fortunately, Thinkway Toys, a small Canadian Toy manufacturer offered their services and got the license. They produced the toys in time for the movie’s release!
Toy Story was originally supposed to be a musical! Disney introduced 6-7 songs to Pixar Studios for the film. The songs were rejected by John Lasseter and only one song made the cut. Randy Newman’s “You’ve Got a Friend in Me” was the only song in the movie.
