20 facts you might not know about 'Toy Story'

Computer animation had been used before in movies, including Disney’s own “Tron.” However, “Toy Story” took things to a whole new level. When it came out, it was the first completely computer-animated feature film ever.

“Toy Story” was effectively a follow-up to the short film “Tin Toy” from 1988. It was also directed by John Lasseter, who made his feature directorial debut with “Toy Story.” That movie made history as well, as it was the first computer-generated movie to win Best Animated Short Film at the Oscars.

Pixar was founded in 1986 and was soon thereafter bought by Steve Jobs. Yes, that Steve Jobs. These days, Pixar is owned by Disney – like so much of the entertainment industry – but that wasn’t the case when the time came to start producing “Toy Story.” Pixar was able to maintain autonomy at the time, which led to “Toy Story” being Pixar’s first feature film.

Some movies have one writer or at least one credited writer. Animated movies are often a bit different. “Toy Story,” though, has more writers than most. Four different people are credited with the screenplay: Andrew Stanton, Joel Cohen, Alec Sokolow, and Joss Whedon. On top of that, four people get a “story by” credit as well: Stanton, Lasseter, Pete Docter, and Joe Ranft.

Andy is the human lead of “Toy Story,” though he definitely falls by the wayside behind Woody and Buzz. The toys just call him Andy. His mom just calls him Andy. As such, you might not recall his last name. His full name is Andy Davis. Sid, by the way, has the last name of Phillips.

There were originally two lead toys in “Toy Story,” but not Woody and Buzz. Oh, Woody was there, but there was no Buzz. Instead, Tinny, the tin musician toy from the short film “Tin Toy,” was the lead. Eventually, he was nixed.

We mentioned that Woody was part of the “Toy Story” plan from the beginning. However, it was an entirely different character. For starters, he was a ventriloquist dummy, not a talking cowboy toy. Secondly, Woody was the villain. Yes, in the original iteration of “Toy Story” it was Woody who was the bad guy, and the toys all rallied together to defeat him.

Eventually Tinny got the ax and the story changed a bit. Once they decided on a space-themed character, it took them a few tries to figure out the name. First, he was Lunar Larry, and then they pivoted to “Tempus from Morph,” which is a real whiff. Wisely, they got to Buzz Lightyear, a name chosen in homage to astronaut Buzz Aldrin.

Eventually “Toy Story” became about the mismatched pair of Woody and Buzz. Once they settled on that, they began to look to other buddy comedies for inspiration. Weirdly, that included some hard-R movies such as “Midnight Run” and “48 Hrs.”

In the film we see some real toys, such as Mr. Potato Head. Originally, though, there would have been more. They wanted Barbie to play a key role in the movie, but Mattel would not license her for the movie. That would change for “Toy Story 2,” though. Additionally, while there are little green army men in the movie, there are no G.I. Joes as was initially planned.

Some other names were considered for Woody, including Paul Newman, but from the beginning, Lasseter wanted Tom Hanks. To try and get Hanks to sign onto what was then an unconventional idea – computer animation – they created test footage using dialogue Hanks said in “Turner & Hooch” as a proof of concept. It got the actor to sign on.

Actors like Bill Murray and Jim Carrey were considered for Buzz Lightyear, and one actor was even offered the role. That would be Billy Crystal. Crystal, though, was concerned about the animation and turned down the role. At the time Tim Allen was starring on “Home Improvement,” which was produced by Disney, so he was given a shot. Crystal later said he regretted turning down Buzz, and he would of course end up playing Mike in “Monsters Inc.”

A lot of the time, voice actors in animation record by themselves. They hop in a booth, say their lines, and head home. However, Hanks and Allen had never done animation voiceover work before. They decided to record their parts together so that they could play off each other and develop chemistry.

Prior to “Toy Story,” Disney’s animated films were almost entirely musicals. Characters breaking into song and so forth. Lasseter did not want to make a musical, though. In fact, he wasn’t interested in music being in the film at all. Disney still wanted a musical, though. Eventually, they settled on a compromise. Characters wouldn’t break into song, but music would be used to help tell the story. Thus, Randy Newman was hired.

“Toy Story” received three Oscar nominations, two of them going to Randy Newman. However, it did not win a single award. In fact, Newman’s “You Got a Friend in Me” lost to a song from Disney’s “Pocahontas.” At the time, there wasn’t a category for “Best Animated Feature,” by the way. That being said, owing to the massive creative leap that “Toy Story” made technologically it was awarded a Special Achievement Oscar.

The many writers of “Toy Story” were nominated for the Best Original Screenplay Oscar. While they didn’t win, they still made history. This was the first time an animated movie was nominated for a screenplay award.

These days, it seems like every film is over two hours long. Heck, the last couple of “Avengers” movies pushed three hours. “Toy Story,” though, is a different story. The movie is a mere one hour and 21 minutes long, quite short for a feature film.

A toolbox is seen in the movie that is branded for Binford Tools. This is a shout-out to Allen’s show “Home Improvement.” On that show, Tim “The Toolman” Taylor’s show “Tool Time” is sponsored by Binford.

If you are a toy, you don’t want to end up in the possession of Sid. He has a penchant for breaking toys, mangling them, reconfiguring them, and so on. His house is a scary play for a toy to be, and you can get a sense of that from the décor. The carpet in Sid’s house matches the carpet from the Overlook Hotel from “The Shining.”

It took a lot of time and man-hours to make “Toy Story.” Production began in 1993 for a film that came out in November 1995. That’s a distinct difference from Newman’s work on the soundtrack. He wrote his hit song “You’ve Got a Friend in Me” in a mere one day.