The Secrets Behind The Success Of Toy Story

First comes the problem, then comes the solution. As you know, Pixar is one of the leading animation studios in history. Their fame began with their first film called ‘Toy Story‘. And if i just said that it is one of my favorite movies, well let’s make it even better; it is also my child’s favorite movie. My child loves to watch Toy Story and especially Buzz & Woody. Imagine how happy he was when we watched toy story 3 last year holidays together (he ran out of tears). But now let me share some facts about this wonderful movie which made us laugh and entertained us for 5 years since 1995 until 2000 by Disney (Pixar).

First comes the problem, then comes the solution. As you know, Pixar is one of the leading animation studios in history. Their fame began with their first film called ‘Toy Story’. And if i just said that it is one of my favorite movies, well let’s make it even better; it is also my child’s favorite movie. My child loves to watch Toy Story and especially Buzz & Woody. Imagine how happy he was when we watched toy story 3 last year holidays together (he ran out of tears). But now let me share some facts about this wonderful movie which made us laugh and entertained us for 5 years since 1995 until 2000 by disney (Pixar).

10. Buzz Lightyear was originally the main character

I hope that this is not a spoiler fact(lol).When pixar started creating toy story, they have their own problem to solve. They are well known for car movies, then how do they make an animation about toys without any cars in it. So what they did first was to change main character of the movie which is Buzz (originally) and make him as the protagonist of the story. What makes this even more interesting is that he changed his voice actor also; Tim Allen became new voice actor for Buzz who has done great job with Toy Story trilogy (and yes i love this trilogy very much because it contains all my favorite movies).

9. Andy’s dad resembles Pixar’s co-founder

Remember Andy’s father, you can see him on the picture above. Do you think he is only a drawing? NO my friend, he was based on actual person which is John Lasseter (Pixar co-founder). He appeared on the front page of the NYTimes when Toy Story was announced and from that time people started to notice similar appearances between him and Andy’s dad in movie. He also has a beard but i am not sure if they used motion capture technology to make this character or not. What makes me laugh about this fact is that Pixar got into a legal problem by using real human beings as the model for their character without his permission(lol). This show how different they are from other animation studios which always used cartoon character as their protagonist.

8. Buzz Lightyear almost never appeared in movie

What the hell are you saying bro, how can they create a movie about toys without buzz lightyear? I just told you that Nicolas cage will be new Superman right now(lol).There was actually a short period of time when he didn’t appear at all or less than what we expected him to be. The reason is not that Pixar wanted to remove him from the story line but it is because John Lasseter became busy with other projects after success of toy story and ask pixar co-founder Ed Catmull to complete the movie without him. So initially there was only Woody in the whole movie(can you imagine this?). And i am pretty sure that you will never watch this movie if Pixar failed to finish it on time.

7. Disney almost fired Pixar after toy story

Disney and Pixar almost broke their relationship after Toy Story was released in theaters and became a huge success. Why? It is because of the deal negotiation between them which asked Pixar to give away all rights for all future movies they will create together( can you imagine this?). So what happened then, Pixar refused to sign such an agreement with Disney and wanted 60% ownership of any movies they create including toys story trilogy (and i am pretty sure that Disney didn’t like this). What made things worse was that Disney set up direct-to-video sequels for their movies without asking any permission from Pixar(Imagine how it feels when you know your friend will do something which you don’t like without even asking for permission). So i can imagine that Pixar was pretty much fedup with Disney after these incidents. In the end they settled their problem and have been working together since then, but what wonderful revenge from Pixar.

6. There is an award-winning short film before toy story

Can you guess what this movie is? It is Tin Toy (you can watch full version in YouTube if interested to watch it), which has won 1988 best animated short film Oscar and was the first work made by pixar animation studios before toy story was released. The reason why it can be featured before toy story in the theater was because Disney had a contract with ABC about including award-winning short film before their full feature. So this is one of the biggest reasons why it is featured before toy story. I am sure you wouldn’t mind watching it and i think any age group person will love to watch it too, and I hope that you watched this movie after reading this article because it contains all necessary elements which can attract any type of audience towards itself(i mean by the way it involves the cutest character ever).

5. Tom Hanks was not first choice for Woody

Do you know who was the first choice for woody? It is Tim Allen (you were right if you guessed him for this role), but he declined to accept such an offer since he doesn’t want to play an animated character. And i am pretty sure that you already guess who was the second choice, right? It is Tom hanks because he wasn’t a super popular actor at that time and this might be a good opportunity for him to increase his market value since he has been chosen for a leading role in one of the biggest movie franchises (and now you know why toy story is always couldn’t able to beat animated feature category oscar by animation studio which makes it more special).

4. Pixar originally created toys story as a direct-to-video sequel

I’m not surprised that you do not believe me or i think any other person would not believe me if they read this piece of information first. But trust me guys,it is true because initially mickey mouse clubhouse was to be released as a direct-to-video sequel but Disney did not like the idea of mickey mouse clubhouse since it has already been considered as classic so they went for another idea which is toy story( i am sure that you watched this movie because it is best-animated feature category winner by Pixar). Pixar created 90 minutes long version of this movie and planned to release it otherwise if disney doesn’t accept their proposal. And guess what?It worked perfectly fine since disney decided to create a theatrical version after watching 45 minutes footage of this movie(and now i hope that you understand why toy story is a highest-grossing film franchise based on toys).

3. John Lasseter doodled Woody in his notebook

John Lasseter is the man who will be remembered forever for his contribution to the success of toy story(in other words, he is creative director of pixar). But do you know that he doodled woody in his notebook while studying at California institute of arts? And it was not just a simple sketch because he did it with the help of animation too. He later submitted this to disney and eventually they published under their banner(i am sure that this lil’ doodle has contributed majorly to increasing the market value of woody).

2. Pixar didn’t want toy story sequel

I don’t think anybody would argue on this one fact but i can understand if some people might argue since everyone thought that toy story 2 is the sequel of toy story and i can’t blame them since it was released as a theatrical sequel. But the truth is different because pixar did not want to make a sequel for this movie(they had their own reason like they don’t want to use same characters again and again and of course due to some financial issues too). Disney thought that they will lose majorly if they don’t release the second part of this franchise so they forced Pixar animation studios to create a sequel which eventually became toy story 2 .

1. Pixar created bugs life in one month

Do you know what happens when studio keeps on asking for sequels from the animation studio? Anxiety, pressure and frustration arises among animators, which in result lead them towards less creativity and inspiration. And this is what almost happened with pixar because disney insisted them to create a sequel for toy story, which was not even on their priority list. Finally, they created an animated feature called bugs life which ultimately became box office flop but at least it gave some benefits to studio like they got freedom over making sequels on their own terms(and i am sure that you already guessed Disney’s next request after toy story 2 become successful, right? It is of course toy story 3).