Toy Story

Toy Story
Promotional poster for Toy Story. From left to right: Bo Peep, Woody, Mr.Potato Head, Troll, Hamm, Buzz Lightyear, Sarge, Slinky Dog, Rex.
Directed by	John Lasseter
Produced by	Bonnie Arnold, Ralph Guggenheim; executive producers: Edwin Catmull, Steve Jobs
Written by	story by John Lasseter & Pete Docter & Andrew Stanton and Joe Ranft; screenplay by Joss Whedon & Andrew Stanton & Joel Cohen and Alec Sokolow
Starring	Tom Hanks Tim Allen Don Rickles Jim Varney Wallace Shawn
Music by	Randy Newman
Editing by	Robert Gordon Lee Unkrich
Distributed by	Walt Disney Pictures
Release date(s)	November 22, 1995 (U.S.)
Running time	81 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$30 million
Followed by	A Bug's Life (1998)
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

Toy Story is a computer-generated imagery (CGI) animation film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures and Buena Vista Distribution in the United States on November 22, 1995, and the United Kingdom on 22 March 1996.

Toy Story was the first feature-length completely computer-animated movie released by Disney. At least one earlier attempt to create a computer animated feature had been tried before Toy Story, the announced movie The Works, which was never finished. Toy Story was also Pixar's first feature film. It grossed $191,773,049 in the United States and it took a grand total of $358,100,000 worldwide. The primary characters are toys in the room of the six-year-old boy Andy, and is mostly told from their point of view. Andy, his baby sister Molly and mother have smaller roles, as do the neighbour boy Sid, his dog Scud and sister Hannah.

Before Pixar's entry into the feature film-business with Toy Story, Pixar was known for developing the Pixar Image Computer.

The sequel to Toy Story, Toy Story 2, was released in the United States on November 19, 1999.

Voice cast

Plot

The film begins from the point of view of Sheriff Woody (Tom Hanks), a cowboy doll who has been Andy's favourite toy for many years. As favorite toy, Woody is the de facto leader of all the other toys in Andy's room, including Hamm (John Ratzenberger), a cynical piggy bank, a sarcastic wise-cracking Mr Potato Head (Don Rickles), Slinky Dog (Jim Varney), Woody's best friend, and Rex (Wallace Shawn), a dinosaur with an inferiority complex.

Woody calls for a "staff meeting" among the toys to discuss Andy's family's upcoming move, due to take place in one week. As part of this meeting, Woody announces that Andy's birthday party is that day (as opposed to next week, after the move), resulting in panic and terror from the other toys. Everyone is afraid they would be replaced. Woody, of course, remains calm, since he is Andy's favorite toy and expects to never be replaced by another toy. The meeting is broken up by Hamm, who has spotted the birthday guests.

With each guest to arrive, the presents they bring for Andy come in larger and larger boxes, which does nothing to relieve the toys' concerns. To calm everyone down, Woody sends a reconnaissance group of green plastic soldiers, led by Sarge (R. Lee Ermey), who uses a baby monitor to scout the party and report what Andy gets. There are no new toys at the party until mom pulls out another box, but the soldiers are cut off and the toys can't hear what the new toy is. They hear the kids are coming upstairs. Most of the toys rush to their places before Andy returns. When Andy arrives, Woody is brushed out of his place — the middle of the bed — and onto the floor, to make space for the new toy.

Once the kids leave to play games, Woody climbs back on the bed to see who this is that could have displaced him. The mystery toy is the famous Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen) action figure, with many different features such as an LED laser, electronic voice simulation and pop-up wings. All the toys are impressed with him except Woody, who starts to grow jealous of Buzz as he shows off what he can do, such as flying around the room, which Woody calls "falling with style."

As the week progresses, a conflict between Woody and Buzz develops. Andy spends more and more time with Buzz, and many of the cowboy posters around the room are replaced with Buzz Lightyear posters. Buzz also earns the admiration and respect of the other toys, who start to ignore Woody. What irritates Woody most is that Buzz seems to be oblivious to what he's doing. Unlike the other toys, who know what they are and what they were made for, Buzz does not know or believe he is a toy; he thinks he's the one and only Buzz Lightyear, on a mission against the evil Emperor Zurg.

Two days before the move, Andy's mom offers to take him to Pizza Planet, with the condition that he can only take one toy. Fearing that Andy would choose Buzz over him, Woody sets a trap for Buzz to knock him between Andy's desk and the wall, ensuring that Woody is picked. The plan goes awry and Buzz ends up falling out of the window. Woody is reviled by most of the toys for this act of treachery, and although Andy picks Woody due to Buzz's absence, Woody couldn't feel worse. Buzz, however, survived the fall, and sneaks aboard Andy's mom's SUV.

Andy's mother stops at a Dinoco gas station, while Woody laments over the fate that awaits him back in the room. Buzz suddenly appears, looking none-too-pleased. The two fight, Buzz knocking Woody out of the Van. As the scrap continues, Andy and his Mother get back in the van and drive away, Andy's excitement over Pizza Planet meaning he doesn't notice Woody's absence at first. Buzz starts to enter these events in his "mission log". Woody argues with him, but neither can see eye to eye, Woody blaming Buzz for taking away everything important to him, and Buzz blaming Woody for interfering with his mission against Emperor Zurg. Woody insists that Buzz is only a toy, while Buzz remarks on his rival's eccentricity.

Woody spies a Pizza Planet Delivery Truck, which he can use to reach Andy. Realising that there's no point in returning home without Buzz, Woody convinces him to board the "cargo spaceship" to get to the "spaceport" so they can find transport home. They sneak aboard the truck and reach Pizza Planet, but just as Woody is about to jump into Andy's sister's perambulator, Buzz climbs inside a spaceship-shaped crane game, intending to commandeer it to Zurg's location. To make matters worse, both Buzz and Woody are "won" in the game by Sid (Erik von Detten), Andy's next-door neighbour, who takes pleasure in breaking and mutilating toys.

Sid takes them home, where they see that Sid often took toys apart and grafted their parts onto others; these are known as the "mutant" toys. They include a male doll's head and arms on a rolling cylinder, long fashion-doll legs attached to a fishing rod, a combination of duck, man, and coiled spring, and a spiderlike body made of Erector pieces, possessing a battered "Babyface". Horrified, Buzz and Woody watch as they drag the parts of a doll and a toy pterodactyl, which Sid has just "improved", out of sight.

Back at Andy's house, the toys are still searching for Buzz in the bushes where he fell, when Andy returns home, commenting that he can't find Woody. Deeming this "running away" as a clear sign of guilt, Mr. Potato Head and Hamm walk smugly away. Slinky Dog and Bo Peep (Annie Potts), Woody's paramour, still believe in his innocence and hope he's alright.

The next morning, Sid is playing roughly with Woody and Buzz. Using a magnifying glass, Sid intends to burn Woody as means of torturing him, but is interupted by his mother calling him for breakfast. In his haste, he leaves the door open, which Woody sees as a way to freedom. He is suddenly surrounded by the mutant toys. Buzz attempts to shoot them with his laser which, much to his confusion, doesn't work. Woody hi-jacks Buzz's karate chop action and uses it to fight his way out of the room, with Buzz wondering how it is done. The way downstairs, however, is barred by Scud, Sid's vicious dog. While they try to sneak across the landing, Woody's pull-string catches and one of his catch-phrases starts up, waking up Scud. Woody hides in a closet, while Buzz runs into a den. Scud initially follows him in, but upon seeing a large man fast asleep on a recliner, presumably Sid's father, Scud backs away.

Suddenly, a voice claiming to be from Star Command calls for Buzz Lightyear. Excited at finally reaching Star Command, Buzz begins to respond, when a child's voice interrupts him. He then sees where the voice is coming from: a TV advertisement showing off the new Buzz Lightyear action figure, which ends in a disclaimer saying the toy doesn't fly. Buzz looks at the panel which protects his "communication system", to see the words "Made in Taiwan". Reeling from this revelation, Buzz initially denies it, and climbs to the top of the stairs and attempts to fly out the window, only to fall and tumble down the stairs, an arm breaking off in the process. Catatonic, he just lies there until Hannah, Sid's sister, finds him.

Woody tumbles out of his hiding spot and looks for Buzz, finding him in a pink apron, having tea with Hannah and her headless dolls. Woody distracts Hannah and goes up to Buzz, who is hurt by the revelation of his real nature. Lamenting that he can't even fly out the window, this gives Woody an idea. He grabs Christmas tree lights out from the closet and heads back into Sid's room.

Mr. Potato Head and Hamm are playing Battleship by the window of Andy's room, which is directly opposite from the window of Sid's room. Woody calls out to them, attracting the attention of Bo, Slinky and Rex. He throws the lights to them, asking them to tie it to something so he can escape. Mr. Potato Head refuses, citing what Woody did to Buzz. Woody tries to prove them wrong by getting Buzz up to show he's okay, but Buzz is still in a state of shock. With nothing else for it, Woody uses Buzz's arm as a decoy, pretending that they're now best of friends. The ruse is broken when he accidentally reveals he only has Buzz's arm; even Bo and Slinky give up hope, closing the window.

Lamenting the loss of his last chance, Woody suddenly notices Buzz is surrounded by the mutant toys. He tries to beat them back with Buzz's arm, but they grab it off him. Fearing the worst, Woody fights his way to the middle of the crowd, only to find Buzz's arm reattached. They then see the two toys from earlier, their missing parts sellotaped back on. Suddenly, Sid can be heard racing up to his room excitedly. Woody tries to drag Buzz to a safe hiding place, but Buzz doesn't move. Sid bursts in, excitedly holding a large firework rocket and wondering what he could blow up. He initially thinks of Woody, but while looking for him, accidentally steps on Buzz. He straps Buzz to a rocket and plans on launching him "into outer space."

However, a sudden rain storm gives Buzz a reprieve, with Sid delaying the launch to the next morning - on which Andy will be leaving his house. In Andy's room, Andy falls sadly asleep as neither Buzz nor Woody can be found. Bo looks on sadly. In Sid's room, Woody, now trapped in a crate weighed down by a tool box, tries to get Buzz to snap out of it so they can escape. Buzz is still lamenting the loss of his identity as a great hero, feeling like a "stupid little insignificant toy". Woody tells him that to a loving owner, a toy is never insignificant, and that being played with by a kid is a noble purpose. Buzz contemplates this, then looks at his left boot, where Andy wrote his name. Snapping out of his despair, he helps Woody out of the crate. But before they can run for it, Sid's alarm clock wakes him up. He grabs Buzz and takes him outside.

Woody recruits the help of the "mutant" toys to help Buzz. A plan takes effect, where in many rules against toys coming to life in a human's presence are broken. Scud is distracted while Woody allows Sid to take him. Woody begins speaking to Sid, and tells him to take better care of his toys, at which point the toys reveal themselves from their hiding spots, scaring Sid away and giving him a fear of toys. Woody frees Buzz, and chases after the moving truck. Woody gets on, but at the price of Buzz jumping off to save him from Scud. He rummages through the toy boxes and finds Andy's radio-controlled car, RC, and shoves him off the back of the truck. The other toys, still angry with him for what he did to Buzz, assume the worst as he drives RC to rescue Buzz. They throw him out the back of the truck. Woody meets up with Buzz and RC and they use RC's turbo to catch up with the truck. Lenny the Binoculars (Joe Ranft) spots Woody and Buzz and the toys realise Woody was telling the truth. Bo organises the lowering of a loading ramp, while Slinky jumps on it and grabs Woody's hand. However, RC runs out of battery power, and Slinky has to let go, leaving Woody, Buzz and RC stranded. Woody realizes that Buzz's rocket, still duct-taped to his back, can be used to reach the truck. Woody lights the rocket, and Buzz gains altitude with it before cutting the tape by extending his wings. The rocket explodes, and Buzz proceeds to "fall with syle" over the moving truck and into the car.

The toys celebrate Christmas at Andy's new house. Bo Peep kisses Woody, showing once and for all that she reciprocates his desire to be with her. The toy soldiers are once again conducting reconnaissance, although with a more positive attitude to new toys than before. Buzz seems worried, but Woody remarks "What could Andy possibly get that is worse than you?" He finds his question answered: Andy is getting a puppy.

Characters

Main article: List of Toy Story characters

The main toy characters:

• Woody - an old-fashioned pull-string cowboy doll. He is Andy's favorite toy, with a special spot on the bed, and as such is the leader of the toys.
• Buzz Lightyear - a Space Ranger from Star Command. A new plastic toy with an electronic voice, spring-loaded wings, laser (a blinking LED) and a rocket ship box. Buzz was a gift at Andy's birthday party from his mother.
• Mr. Potato Head - a Mr. Potato Head doll by Hasbro, Inc. He is outspoken and sarcastic. The audio commentary on the 10th anniversary DVD jokes that he is an Irish-Catholic. Oddly, Mr. Potato Head states that he is from Playskool in the movie.
• Rex - a plastic Tyrannosaurus with a lot of anxiety from an inferiority complex.
• Slinky Dog - a toy wiener dog with a slinky for a mid-section. Very loyal to Woody.
• Hamm - a wise-cracking plastic piggy bank.
• Bo Peep - a porcelain shepherdess doll from Molly's Little Bo Peep lamp, Woody's romantic interest.
• Sarge - a gung-ho commander of an army of plastic toy soldiers. Sarge and his troops frequently help out their fellow toys.
• Squeeze Toy Aliens - toy aliens that you could win as a prize in a crane machine at Pizza Planet.
• Lenny - a pair of wind-up walking binoculars.
• RC - a radio-controlled car.
• Etch - an Etch-A-Sketch.

Human characters:

• Andy - a six-year-old boy, owner of Woody and the rest of the toys.
• Sid - a hyperactive ten-year-old boy who delights in torturing toys.
• Mrs. Davis - Andy's thirty-eight-year-old mom, typical "soccer mom".
• Hannah Phillips - Sid's frail little sister. Often gets her toys snatched away and tortured by Sid, usually by his removing their heads (as shown in her tea party, in which all characters but herself and Buzz are headless).
• Molly Davis - Andy's baby sister who is two, called Molly.

Other Characters:

• Scud - Sid's Bull Terrier and toy eater.

Awards

Director John Lasseter received an Academy Special Achievement Award in 1996 for this film.

In 2005 the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. It is the most recently-made film to receive this honor.

Sequels

• Toy Story 2 was released in 1999
• Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: The Adventure Begins (spin-off movie to Toy Story)
• Buzz Lightyear of Star Command (spin-off TV show)
• Toy Story 3 (Pixar halted the solo Disney-production, but production resumed after Pixar took over) Expected to be released in 2008 or 2009.

Toy Story in pop culture

• Debian (a Linux distribution) releases are named after characters from this movie. (Sid, Buzz, Rex, Bo, Hamm, Slink, Potato, Woody, Sarge, Etch, Lenny).
• In one scene of Finding Nemo, another Pixar film, a Buzz Lightyear toy can be seen on the floor of a dentist's office.
• The line "You are a sad, strange little man," uttered by Buzz is referenced in The Santa Clause 2, where Tim Allen (the voice actor of Buzz Lightyear) says the same line.
• In the Illbleed video game, one of the stages, Toy Hunter, heavily parodies Toy Story, among other movies and video games.
• This movie has also coined the (oxymoronical) phrase, "To Infinity and Beyond!" (though the term "Beyond the Infinite" was prominently used in 2001: A Space Odyssey of 1968).
• This movie was referenced twice on Tim Allen's sitcom Home Improvement. The first time, two trick-or-treaters come to the door of Tim's house, one dressed as Simba from The Lion King, and the other dressed as Buzz Lightyear. Randy answers the door, and gives the Simba more candy than the Buzz. Note that Jonathan Taylor Thomas, who plays Randy, voiced the young Simba in The Lion King and via archival footage, Kingdom Hearts II. The second time, Tim and his niece Gracie played with a Buzz Lightyear doll. In one of the outtakes during the credits, Tim repeated Buzz's built-in phrases.
• During the end credits of Pixar's 2006 film Cars, a scene from Toy Story is reenacted by toy car versions of Buzz and Woody, playing a toy spaceship car and a Ford "Woody" Wagon, respectively. Tim Allen and Tom Hanks reprised their voices. The last line by Woody, however, sounds as though it might be directly lifted from the original film
  • Woody: You are a toy car!
  • Buzz: You are a sad, strange little wagon, and you have my pity. Farewell.
  • Woody: Yeah, well, good riddance, you loony!
• Shortly after that in the credits of Cars, a scene with Hamm (voiced by John Ratzenberger, who has appeared in every Pixar film to date) is shown, and Mack (Ratzenberger's character in Cars) comments on how good the guy who voiced the piggy bank car is.
• Also in Cars, the Lightning McQueen's number 95 represents the year Toy Story came out.
• In Cars, Lightning McQueen gets sponsored by Dinoco, a gas station in Toy Story
• Lightning McQueen's tires in Cars, and those of the RC car in Toy Story, say Lightyear, a parody of Buzz Lightyear and Goodyear Tires.
• An episode of What's New Scooby-Doo? is entitled "Toy Scary Boo", a reference to Toy Story 2.
• In the film Barnyard, there is a bratty boy who likes cow-tipping so the cows "boy-tip" him while he's asleep and he gets a fear of cows like Sid gets a fear of toys.

Trivia

• The Pixar logo with the hopping Luxo Jr. is absent before the film. He is present at the very end of the credits instead.

• The name and age of the character Andy is possibly a reference to the horror film, Child's Play (1988), in which a toy also comes to life.

• Sid's outfit is identical to that worn by Chris Cornell in the 1994 Soundgarden video "Black Hole Sun". To view this video, go to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWeW_8ljmCM. Both shirts resemble, if not are in fact, the skull logo used by Zero Skateboards.

• Andy's father never appears in the movie. This has led fans to speculate that Andy's mother is single.

• The "Hand" in the Box in Sid's room plays the same music that the toy did from Tin Toy (1988), the short movie that inspired Toy Story.

• When Woody jumps through the window of the Pizza Planet truck, there is a sticker on it that appear's to be Herbie's famous number 53.

• Rex tells Buzz that he's from Mattel, before correcting himself and saying that technically he's from a smaller company that Mattel purchased in a levereged buy-out. This may be a reference to Mattel's refusal to let Pixar use a Barbie doll in the film as Woody's love interest.

• Andy Davis was originally offered the chance to voice Buzz Lightyear.

• The toy shark, wearing Woody's hat, proclaims, "Look at me, I'm Woody! Howdy howdy howdy!" This references a cowboy-eating vulture in one of Gary Larson's "The Far Side" daily comic strips from the early 1980s: "Hey everyone, look at me, I'm a cowboy! Howdy! Howdy! Howdy!"

• The toolbox that Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen) pushes off the milk crate bears the name "Binford Tools," the name of the company which sponsors Allen's character's show in Home Improvement (1991).

• "Hakuna Matata" from the Lion King can be heard in Andy's mother's car on the way to their new home, although when Woody and Buzz fall into the van, it stops playing.

• The original character for Woody was written to be sneaky, mean and borderline evil. He was also supposed to be a ventriloquist dummy, but as it has always been odd for children to play with these dummies, and in fact more common for kids to be scared of them, he evolved to a pull-string cowboy.

• During the staff meeting at the beginning of the movie, some of the books on the shelf behind Woody are named after some of Pixar's short films, such as Tin Toy and Knick Knack.

• When Buzz demonstrates flying, he bounces off the ball from Luxo Jr., and is later knocked out of Andy's bedroom window by Luxo, father of Luxo Jr.

• In the movie's opening scene, Mr. Potato Head says "What are you looking at, you hockey puck?" This is one of Don Rickles's (the voice of Mr. Potato Head) trademark insults.

• In Hannah's tea party, her teapot is the Utah Teapot, famous in the computer graphics community.

• The moving truck company is called Eggman Movers. Eggman is a nick name of Pixar Art Designer Ralph Eggleston

• The license plate number on Andy's minivan is A113.

• This is the only Pixar film to not feature a previous Pixar short in the standard edition. However, the Toy Box and Gold Collection editions of this film feature Tin Toy.

• There are numorus references to Star Wars including when Buzz tells Woody that Zurg was building a space station powerful enough to destroy a planet and that he (Buzz) was trying to take the top secret plans that revealed its one weak spot to Star Command.

• Hidden Mickeys:
  • In a wall in Andy's room, you can see a giant Wrist watch with a Mickey Mouse inside.
  • On the wall in Sid's room, is a poster with a rocker named "Mega Dork" which has Mickey Mouse tattoo on his arm.
  • One of Sid's Mutant toys named "Jingle Joe" has a Mickey Mouse arm.

• This movie was spoofed in MADtv as "Sex Toy Story", about a sex doll named Woody being replaced by a vibrator named Buzz Light-Touch and Buzz finding out that he's not a real sex toy after his batteries fall out.

• When Buzz gets knocked out the window, a nearby toy emits the Wilhelm Scream.

• For the UK and Australian theatrical release, the animated short Roller Coaster Rabbit featuring Roger Rabbit was played before the main film. The plot involved Roger chasing after Baby Herman at a theme park. Like the cartoon at the beginning of Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, it is revealed to be a set in the real world.

• This movie was originally planned to represent how new Hollywood was taking over old Hollywood. The original casting choices were Paul Newman for Woody (representing old Hollywood) and Jim Carrey for Buzz Lightyear (representing new Hollywood)^{[verification needed]}

• In 2003, the Online Film Critics Society ranked the film as the greatest animated film of all time.^[1]

Soundtrack Listing

1. You've Got A Friend In Me
2. Strange Things
3. I Will Go Sailing No More
4. Andy's Birthday (Instrumental)
5. Soldier's Mission (Instrumental)
6. Presents (Instrumental)
7. Buzz (Instrumental)
8. Sid (Instrumental)
9. Woody And Buzz (Instrumental)
10. Mutants (Instrumental)
11. Woody's Gone (Instrumental)
12. The Big One (Instrumental)
13. Home Together (Instrumental)
14. On The Move (Instrumental)
15. Infinity And Beyond (Instrumental)
16. You've Got A Friend In Me (Duet)

Video games

Three video games based on the film came out on Sega Genesis,Super NES, Game Boy and PC as well as the Sony PlayStation and the Nintendo 64.

See also

• Toy Story 2
• Toy Story 3
• A113
• Tin Toy
• List of Toy Story characters

References

External links

• Pixar's official homepage for Toy Story
• Toy Story at the Internet Movie Database
• Toy Story at the Big Cartoon DataBase
• Toy Story at Rotten Tomatoes
• Toy Story at Metacritic
• Toy Story at Box Office Mojo

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