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The hidden history of Toy Story! Posted On 19 June 2019

Toy Story

With the third sequel out this Friday, let’s look back at the history of the ground-breaking first film, which was released 24 years ago!

The film, which first introduced us to Woody, Buzz and the gang, was the highest grossing film of 1995. And, because of its success, we have the likes of Despicable Me, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles and many more, well-loved animated films.

Toy Story 4 will follow the adventures of the gang as they go on a road trip with Bonnie, meeting new characters on the way such as Duke Caboom and Forky. Tom Hanks and Tim Allen are joined by A-listers such as Jordan Peele, Christina Hendricks, Timothy Dalton and Keanu Reeves, with Randy Newman on music duty again.

The first film made history as the first ever full-length computer-generated film. Steve Jobs, of Apple fame, owned Pixar. And, the success of a collaboration between Disney and Tim Burton on ‘A Nightmare before Christmas’ prompted Disney to take a chance with a partnership with Pixar, who were doing things with animation which had never been done before.

However, Pixar didn’t want to make a fairy-tale or a musical, opting instead for a film based around the relationship of its two main characters. At one point, on a test screening, Disney pulled the plug on the film, when it turned out that Woody wasn’t a likeable hero, (he was a sarcastic bully!) The original film also had a different title, ‘You are a Toy,’ and Buzz Lightyear was called Tempest, and wore a bright red spacesuit.

Pixar carried on regardless, making a couple of changes and taking on a young scriptwriter by the name of Joss Whedon to fix the script. Whedon would later write and direct hits such as Avengers Assemble, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Serenity and Justice League. The idea was to put the story before the art and create a film with a big heart. Disney came back on board and they released Toy Story in 1995.

Upon release, Toy Story was a massive success with grown-ups and children alike and stayed top of the charts for three weeks. Toy Story 2 follow four years later and brought in over half a billion dollars and 11 years later Toy Story 3 was released and grossed over $1 billion worldwide.

Disney would later buy Pixar from Steve Jobs for $7.4 billion; not bad considering he paid only $10 million for the company!

 Toy Story fun facts:

  • Tom Hanks’ brother, Jim, voices Woody for computer games
  • Tony Hale, who plays Forky is best known as Buster in Arrested Development
  • Bo-Peep is back and voiced by the same actress as in the 1995 original
  • Woody was a ventriloquist’s dummy in original artwork
  • The Pizza Planet truck has appeared in every Pixar film, except The Incredibles

 

 

 

 

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