Thread by @ATRightMovies

TOY STORY 2 was released 26 years ago today. The second entry in Pixar’s beloved series, and regarded one of the great animated sequels, the story of how it was made will make you realise you can’t rush art…

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Toy Story had released in 1995 as a smash hit, groundbreaking animation and cultural phenomenon. Production company Pixar Animation Studios had plans for a sequel a month before the release but, like most animated sequels, it was expected to be a straight-to-video film.

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John Lasseter had directed Toy Story but, busy working on A Bug’s Life, he hired young animator Ash Brannon to helm the sequel. Excited by Lasseter’s idea of Woody being hunted by a toy collector, Disney (who owned Pixar) decided to make Toy Story 2 a theatrical release.

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As pre-production developed though, Pixar grew concerned at the progress. It was decided production would be halted until Lasseter completed his work on A Bug’s Life, so he could take over directing duties on Toy Story 2.

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After some uncertainty, the two voice actor leads from the first film – Tom Hanks as Woody and Tim Allen as Buzz Lightyear – agreed to return.

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A new character is a fellow member of Woody’s Roundup Gang – cowgirl Jessie. She was originally conceived of as being a cactus – named Señorita Cactus – until Lasseter’s wife, Nancy, insisted the film have a strong female lead.

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Animator Mark A. Walsh said that Jessie was largely modelled after Doris Day’s iconic character Calamity Jane. We do get a glimpse of a Señorita Cactus character in later scenes at Al’s Toy Barn too.

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Jessie was mainly voiced by Joan Cusack, though the character’s yodelling was provided by voice actress Mary Kay Bergman. Sadly, Bergman would take her own life before the film was released.

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Another new female character is Mrs Potato Head, introduce in the final scene of the first film. Betty White, and Carol Burnett were considered to voice her, before Estelle Harris was cast. (White and Burnett would later be cast in Toy Story 4).

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Another member of The Roundup Gang is Woody’s trusty steed, Bullseye. Originally, the idea was that Bullseye would talk, and be voiced by Martin Short, before Lasseter decided to make him more puppy-like, with no dialogue.

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The inciting incident comes when penguin toy Wheezy finds himself bundled into the family’s yard sale, and Woody mounts a rescue mission. The design of Wheezy was a tribute to operation system Linux (used by Pixar) whose mascot, Tux, was a penguin.

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Woody ends up stolen by toy collector Al McWhiggin. Lasseter said Al was largely based on him, though other reports claim storyboard artis Matthew Luhn’s father (a real-life toy collector) was a key inspiration.

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One of the names considered to voice Al was George Wendt (best-known for playing Norm in Cheers). After seeing Wayne Knight play the duplicitous Denis Nedry in Jurassic Park though, Lasseter felt him perfect as the stealing toy merchant.

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The second antagonist is the final member of The Roundup Gang, Stinky Pete. He was inspired by Walter Huston’s character, Howard, in classic western The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre and, after Joe Pesci reportedly turned the part down, Kelsey Grammer was cast.

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Buzz’s nemesis (and father) – Zurg – shows up, too. A clear parody of Darth Vader, the design of the character was inspired by Zoltar from classic cartoon Battle Of The Planets, and the “Look Here” feature was from a real toy robot from the 60s called Big Loo.

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Emperor Zurg was voiced by Andrew Stanton, co-writer of every Toy Story movie. Other Pixar employees have cameos to. John Lasseter and Lee Unkrich (who served as Lasseter’s co-director) are the voices of the Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em robots we see in Al’s Toy Barn.

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There are further references to the two directors. In the airport finale, we hear an announcement made for Lasset Air (as in ‘Lasseter’) and another for "Passenger Leon Krich", a play on Lee Unkrich.

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In the original story for the direct-to-video version was different. The film ended with Woody and Buzz stealing Al’s car, and Al pursuing them in a Pizza Planet truck. The roles were switched, so much of the animation could still be used.

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Randy Newman, who composed music for Toy Story, returned this time, too. He composed the score as well as two original songs – When She Loved Me (performed by Sarah McLachlan) and Woody’s Roundup (by Riders in the Sky).

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The Toy Story classic You’ve Got A Friend In Me is heard twice, though not sung by Newman. There’s a version sung by Hanks as Woody, and also by Robert Goulet, who provides the singing voice of Wheezy.

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When Lasseter came back in to take over direction duties, Disney told him he could change what he liked, but the release date couldn’t budge. Lasseter brought back almost the entire team that world on Toy Story; they had 9 months to finish the film.

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Because of such a tight deadline. Crew members later reported of working 36 hour shifts. Some animators suffered Carpal tunnel syndrome. And Lindsey Collins (Head of Editing) said her team would frequently be in tears through sheer exhaustion.

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Catastrophe struck midway through production when an animator, while routinely removing some files from the server, accidentally deleted 90% of the film. Luckily, Technical Director Galyn Susman was on maternity leave, and had a copy of the film to work on at home.

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Susman’s copy saved the day and instead of losing 2 years work (which Pixar co-founder Edwin Catmull said would’ve taken 30 people a year to replace), they only lost a few weeks’ work.

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The video game opening sequence references some classic sci fi. Sound effects are lifted from Star Wars, and the robotic scanner is based on the gatekeeper droid in Return of the Jedi. And we also hear classical piece Also Sprach Zarathustra from 2001: A Space Odyssey.

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The canyon Buzz flies through during the opening was originally the riverbed created for A Bug’s Life but adapted. It was re-purposed for this film. Also, Heimlich the caterpillar has a cameo when we see him chomping on some leaves.

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One of the books in Andy's room is called Castle Cagliostro, and is written by H.M. This is a reference to Hayao Miyazaki's classic 1979 anime Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro. Miyazaki was a major influence on Pixar generally.

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An animation record was set in the first act. When Wheezy coughs up a load of dust particles, and each particle was individually animated. There were reportedly over 2,000,000 in total.

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The car yard sale was an idea for the first film, but didn’t make it into the film. And in the sale, we see a nod to one of Pixar’s founding fathers, Steve Jobs. His profile is on the one dollar bill in the Toy Story universe.

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Al's car was based on the Ford Mystere, a concept that was never actually produced. It is a near exact replica, and it took over a month for the Pixar team to digitally paint the car.

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When Hamm is flicking through the TV channels looking for the Al's Toy Barn ad, we see several shorts and ads created by Pixar, including: Luxo Jr., Red's Dream, Tin Toy, and Knick Knack. There is also a logo for the NeXT computer, developed by Steve Jobs.

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When Jessie meets Woody, she yells "Sweet mother of Abraham Lincoln!" This is a Tom Hanks in-reference. Abraham Lincoln's mother was called Nancy Hanks Lincoln, and was a cousin of Hanks’ direct ancestors.

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Recording the scene where Woody sees the Woody's Roundup merchandise, mock-ups of the toys were given to Hanks in the recording booth. His ad-libbed reactions to the toys were recorded, and are in the film as Woody’s dialogue.

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The inspiration for Woody’s Roundup was Four Feather Falls – a 1960s show created by Gerry Anderson (who went on to make Thunderbirds). Kids’ TV classic Howdy Doody was also a major influence.

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It’s been reported that the Woody's Roundup footage was filmed with real puppets, which isn’t the case. The same digital models of the characters were used, but modified to look puppet-like and then applied a ‘Kinescope effect’ to add scratches and grain to the footage.

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We see an issue of Life Magazine which has Woody on the cover. It’s dated January 12th, 1957, the birthdate of John Lasseter.

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At one point, Buzz gives a speech, and the background fades to the stars and stripes. This was the US version of the film – worldwide it was changed to a spinning globe and fireworks.

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Perhaps to save animation time, the cleaner who Al hired to fix Woody is the title character from Pixar’s award-winning short, Geri’s Game. We see some of the chess pieces from the short in Geri’s bag too.

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There are numerous references to classic films once we enter Al’s Toy Barn. The shot where the toys walk into the store is very similar to the final shot from Raiders of the Lost Ark. And when Rex chases the toy car, it mirrors the T.Rex chase scene from Jurassic Park.

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Pixar had wanted Barbie to appear in the first film. Mattel said no, however, so Bo Peep was used instead. This time, Mattel agreed for Barbie to appear; she was voiced by Jodi Benson, who also provided the voice of Ariel in The Little Mermaid.

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Barbie delivers a meta joke when she says "Back in 1995 short-sighted retailers did not order enough dolls to meet demand". This references the shortage of Buzz Lightyear action figures retailers and consumers were faced with at Christmas 1995.

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Etch-A-Sketch knocks up a map to Al’s Toy Barn and gives its address as 1001 West Cutting Boulevard. In real life, this was the address of Pixar in Richmond, California. This is also why Zurg’s toy box states "Printed in Point Richmond.”

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When Randy Newman heard his song When She Loved Me would be played in its entirety, he said he didn’t think young children would sit through the whole thing. When Hanks and Tim Allen heard it though, it brough them to tears, and was left in the film in full.

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At one point in the script, the alternate Buzz’s story ended with him carrying off the body of Zurg, saying he was going to bury him. Lasseter decided this was too morbid, so it was changed to Buzz and Zurg playing catch instead.

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The scene in the airport baggage area was so detailed that each frame took an average of 70 hours to render.

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The baggage handler at the airport who yells "Hold it! There's a couple more bags coming!" right before the door slams shut was voiced by British TV presenter Andi Peters. He didn’t have a US work permit, so had to record the line from London via satellite link.

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As the toys leave the airplane, Woody slips and Jessie saves him. It was originally the other way round, but Joan Cusack suggested the change. Lasseter loved the idea and had it altered.

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During the end credits, we see some ‘outtakes’ featuring the main characters. Woody gets stuck in a roll of sticky tape, which is a nod to the Hanks film The Money Pit. In that film, Hanks’ character, Walter, gets stuck in the floor of his new house.

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One of the outtakes sees Stinky Pete telling two Barbies “I'm sure I could get you a part in Toy Story 3" rather flirtatiously. After the MeToo movement gained traction, this scene started to hit differently, and Pixar removed it from the cut in 2019.

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Despite the very tight deadline, Toy Story 2 was released on time, and was another mega-hit. Produced for $90m, it grossed $511.4m worldwide, making it the third-most successful animation ever at the time.

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Finally… When Toy Story 2 released on DVD, there was an issue with certain editions. Costco sold some copies that featured a scene from High Fidelity randomly playing in the middle of the film; a scene that featured several F-Bombs.

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If you liked our making of story of TOY STORY 2, please share the opening post.

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