Tin Toy

Name	Tin Toy
Caption	Tinny, the star of the film
Director	John Lasseter
Producer	John Lasseter
Writer	John Lasseter
Studio	Pixar Animation Studios
Distributor	Buena Vista Distribution Co, Inc.
Released
Country	United States
Awards	Academy Award for Animated Short Film

Tin Toy is a 1988 Pixar Animation Studios short film using computer animation. It was directed by John Lasseter and won the 61st Academy Award for Animated Short Film, and was also the first testing of PhotoRealistic RenderMan. This was the only Pixar short rendered on the RM-1 computer, which was never sold to the public and was based on an earlier rendering machine named the Reyes Machine, an ambitious hardware project meant to develop a RenderMan specific computer (ILM also tested it in a ride film). The short was attached in the home release of Toy Story. In 2003, Tin Toy was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

Plot

The film takes place in one room and stars the toy of the title, a mechanical one-man band named Tinny, and a baby named Billy. At first Tinny is delighted at the prospect of being played with by Billy until he sees how destructive he can be. Fleeing beneath the couch, Tinny discovers dozens of other old toys who are too terrified to come out as they went through the same experience. But then Billy falls flat on the hardwood floor and starts crying, and Tinny decides he has to help no matter what. His antics succeed in cheering Billy up, to the point where Billy picks him up and shakes him violently before throwing him away. Once the toy has recovered from this ordeal, he is annoyed to see that Billy has forgotten about him and is now playing with the cardboard box and bag that he came out of. Billy walks off with the bag on his head, wandering around the room with Tinny following while the credits roll. At the end of the credits, Billy and Tinny walk out the door of the room and a few other toys come out of hiding to run across the floor.

References to other media

Puffin' Billy, the theme song from Captain Kangaroo, is used at the beginning. The Price Is Right opening is also heard with announcer Rod Roddy saying "You are the first four contestants on The Price Is Right!" on a television in the background.

Initial drafts of Toy Story had cast Tinny of this short in the lead, and was considerably more of a road movie, as Tinny endeavored to find a place to call home. After a cowboy-themed ventriloquist's dummy was inserted into the story (the precursor to Woody) and began taking more focus in the plot, Tinny's role morphed into that of Buzz Lightyear.

In Toy Story 3, a group of toys hide under a desk shaking with fear. This is a reference to the toys under the couch.

In Toy Story 2, when Hamm flicks through the channels, a clip of Tin Toy can be seen.

In Toy Story, when Woody is holding a staff meeting, one of the books behind him is called 'Tin Toy.'

Legacy

A sequel to Tin Toy called "A Tin Toy Christmas," was originally planned as a half-hour long television special to be used to convince film studios that Pixar was capable of producing a feature film. This idea was brought to the table at the initial talks with Disney for Toy Story, but Disney was uninterested in the concept and urged Pixar to produce a feature immediately.

Roboticist Dario Floreano stated that the concept of uncanny valley is taken seriously by the film industry due to negative audience reactions to Billy, the animated baby in Tin Toy.

Notes

External links

Tin Toy at Pixar

Category:1988 films Category:Animated short films Category:Best Animated Short Academy Award winners Category:Pixar short films Category:United States National Film Registry films Category:Toy Story Category:Films directed by John Lasseter