Toy Story (franchise)/Trivia

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As a series, these films provide examples of:

• Defictionalization: Prominent with Woody and Buzz, but every toy that didn't exist in real life before the films were made have received this treatment.
• Executive Meddling:
  • Mattel would not allow the first film to have a Barbie doll because they didn't want Barbie to be seen with a definitive personality. The writers reworked it so that way a Little Bo Peep figurine would be the love interest instead. However, after the huge success of the first one, Mattel allowed her to appear in the sequels.
    • Not that her personality is very deep -- all the Barbies featured seem to be pretty ditzy.
    • Though it should be noted that the Barbie featured in Toy Story 3 ultimately turns out to be very moral, brave and resourceful, once she realizes her friends are being abused. Not to mention much smarter than she acts -- she comments at one point about the nature of political power stemming from the consent of the governed. In those words.
    • Well, considering all she's done in her long career...
  • Then-Disney exec Jeffrey Katzenberg wanted Toy Story to be "edgy", which resulted in more adult humor and a Jerkass version of Woody. A story reel version was shown to Roy Disney, who called it "one of the worst things I've ever seen." The Pixar boys started from scratch and the rest is history. Not to mention that Toy Story production was almost completely canceled as a result of Katzenberg getting exactly what he asked for and not liking it. Legend has it that Pixar intentionally made the reel obnoxiously bad in hopes of changing the execs' minds. It worked almost too well; Disney almost killed the movie outright, and it took a drastically revised script to convince them to give it a second chance.
  • And don't forget the reason why Pixar ended up merging with Disney in the first place.
  • In the first film, the "Strange Things" montage was not originally planned. Woody's world was going to change more gradually over a few scenes. Then Tom Schumacher, a VP at Disney, suggested it be done in a montage, to which John Lasseter thought, "Ding! I could have had a V8!" and put a montage in.
• Hey, It's That Voice!: Al in the second film is played by Newman (who later voiced Zurg in Buzz Lightyear of Star Command).
  • The major roles all have very familiar voices. Pixar mainstay John Ratzenburger is Hamm the piggy bank, Rex is voiced by Wallace Shawn from The Princess Bride and A Goofy Movie (the latter being Principal Mazur), Mr. Potato Head is voiced by Don Rickles, Mrs. Potato Head is voiced by Estelle Harris and Sarge is voiced by R. Lee Ermey. Barbie is Jodi Benson.
  • Michael Keaton voices a Ken doll. Yes, that Michael Keaton.
    • And Timothy Dalton as a German-made hedgehog toy named Mr. Pricklepants.
  • Don't forget Jackie (Laurie Metcalf) from the first as Andy's mom and Frasier (Kelsey Grammer) in the second as Stinky Pete.
  • There's also Ernest P. Worrell (Jim Varney) as the Slinky Dog, knowhutimean?
    • In the first two films, that is, Vern.
  • Kristen Schaal as a Triceratops.
  • Bo Peep is voiced by Annie Potts, best known for playing Janine Melnitz on the live-action movie version of Ghostbusters, or the wacky record store owner in Pretty in Pink.
    • Don't forget that she was also fairly well known for her role on Designing Women.
  • Jessie is voiced by Joan Cusack (Lloyd Dobler's sister in Say Anything -- and Real Life -- and a former cast member of the NBC sketch show Saturday Night Live)
  • Same goes with some of the background characters. The kid in the Buzz Lightyear commercial in the first movie was Ryan O'Donahue, who was also in Recess and the Lion King II: Simba's Pride; Debi Derryberry, who did some background kids, was also Jimmy Neutron; and Danielle Judovits, who did some other background kids, was in Naruto as well as Ka Blam!!.
  • Chunk in Toy Story 3 and the shark ("Hi! I'm Woody! Howdy howdy howdy!") in the first movie are voiced by Jack Angel, better known for playing a number of Transformers, fittingly enough.
  • THE Robert Goulet plays the singing voice of Wheezy the penguin--Listen!.
  • And of course, Tom Hanks and Tim Allen as Woody and Buzz
  • Also in the third movie, Whoopi Goldberg as Stretch, the octopus.
  • Why is the Jackalope voicing a Clown?
    • He talks so much, it's almost like Rick Dicker or Eeyore voices him.
  • Lex Luthor's bumbling sidekick that had to squeal like a pig is Lotso.
  • Jeff is Buttercup the unicorn.
  • Sally is Dolly.
  • Penn Jillette is the TV Announcer of the Buzz Lightyear commercial that resulted in Buzz's humiliating Heroic BSOD.
  • Canderous Ordo is Twitch the muscular bug.
  • British viewers who grew up during The Nineties should recognise TV presenter Andi Peters as Male Package Handler 1 in the second film. ("Hold it! There's a couple more bags coming from the terminal!")
  • The Japanese-dubbed version uses many alumni from many series from the Gundam saga and the Mecha genre:
    • Rex is Hyoma Aoi and Virgo Shaka
    • Bo Peep is Matilda Ajan
    • Slinky Dog is Happosai and Degwin Zabi
    • Hamm is Yagyu Jubei and Capt. Synapse
    • Jack-in-the-box is Lelouch Lamperouge, Kraft Lawrence and Hideto Washiya
    • Dolly is Motoko Kusanagi, Claudette and Juca Meilasch
    • Barbie is Diana Sorell
    • Ken is Lasse Aion
  • In Sweden, Andy was Cody and D.J. in the first film; in both sequels, he was another Total Drama contestant: Duncan!
• Refitted for Sequel: The dream sequence from Toy Story 2 and the idea of opening on a Show Within a Show version of Buzz Lightyear were scenes that had originally been planned from the first film.
• What Could Have Been: Probably a good thing this didn't happen. Part 2 was originally meant as a low-budget straight to video release, as per usual of Disney at the time. However, the Pixar leadership decided not to sully their studio's reputation by releasing an inferior movie, then petitioned to make it a full-featured theatrical release instead.
  • The original Toy Story 3 developed by Circle 7, which was about Buzz getting shipped to Taiwan due to a massive recall, and his friends having to go save him.

Tropes in the first Toy Story

• Breakthrough Hit: Toy Story put Pixar on the map as one of the industry's top animation teams.
• What Could Have Been: In the original treatment Woody was a Jerkass and intentionally threw Buzz out the window, and the other toys threw Woody out the window after he insulted them all.
  • That treatment was written deliberately over the top because of repeated Executive Meddling demanding Woody to be less kid friendly and more of a jerk. Pixar was secretly hoping the Disney execs would be so horrified with Woody’s unlikable character that they would order them to rewrite the film as they pleased. Fortunately, this is exactly what happened.
  • In the topic about dubs, in the Japanese version, Koichi Yamadera and another, unknown voice actor were considered to voice both Woody and Buzz respectively. Instead, they were voiced by the Japanese comedians Toshiaki Karazawa and George Tokoro respectively.

Tropes found in Toy Story 2

• Talking to Himself: Tim Allen plays both Buzzes.

Tropes unique to Toy Story 3

• Casting Gag: In Hindsight. Pixar didn't realize that they actually casted the voice of the Spanish Buzz toy for Spanish Buzz until after the fact.