Toy Story is one of the biggest animated film franchises in the world, raking in around $3 billion since the first film in 1995. Spanning five films, a bunch of shorts, a spin-off (Lightyear), and over three decades, the movie franchise has become a firm favourite with audiences across the globe. Now, the fifth instalment in the series, Toy Story 5, is in cinemas today. The movie has split opinions among critics but is set to be another box office hit, adding to Disney's domination of the box office.
However, many fans may not realise that the film and its characters could have been very different. From personality shifts to a near total deletion of the second film, there have been moments that could have changed the course of the movie forever. Here are some of the hidden secrets behind the franchise.
Buzz Lightyear's Alternate Look
Buzz Lightyear is a name immediately associated with Toy Story, thanks to his heroic catchphrase, "To infinity and beyond". However, old sketches of the character show he was going to look very different. Released to mark the 25th anniversary of the first film, Pixar animators showed they had experimented with Buzz's face, outfit, and designs, even throwing around different names. Though he ended up an astronaut, some designs looked incredibly different from his eventual look. Speaking on the changes, Pixar historian Christine Freeman explained: "Even his name changed over time – from Tempus of Morph to Lunar Larry, to Buzz Lightyear. You can see the LL belt buckle for Lunar Larry in a few of these early designs."
Near Deletion of Toy Story 2
After the success of the first film, production immediately began on the sequel to Woody and Buzz's adventures. However, as the film neared completion, one Pixar employee did the worst thing possible and deleted most of the nearly finished flick. In total, 90% of the film had been deleted after the employee ran a delete command on the film's servers. The folder containing pieces of the finished film dropped from 40 to just four, made worse by Pixar not creating a backup on its faulty servers. Eventually, things were salvaged thanks to technical director Galyn Susman, who had been working from home with her newborn baby. Having saved every version of the film as she went along, she accidentally preserved the missing files, which then went on to save the project.
The Black Friday Incident
After months of work on the first film, Toy Story was presented to Disney for the first time in 1993. However, Disney was not impressed at all, branding the film unwatchable, calling Woody 'a jerk', and announcing it would shut production down. The fiasco was eventually dubbed the "Black Friday incident", as everything was on the verge of being scrapped. Versions of the characters have slowly emerged over the years, proving how mean Woody got, including one scene where he throws Buzz out of the window. Screenwriter John Lasseter pleaded with Disney for more time to rewrite the script, with the company agreeing on the condition that Pixar had to pay for it themselves. Steve Jobs ended up funding the rewrite, overhauling the story and bringing it to the version we know today.
