Toy Story is a 1995 American computer-animated comedy film released by Walt Disney Pictures. It is Pixar's first feature film as well as the first ever feature film to be made entirely with CGI. The film was directed by John Lasseter and featured the voices of Tom Hanks and Tim Allen. It was written by John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton, Joel Cohen, Alec Sokolow, and Joss Whedon, and featured music by Randy Newman. Its executive producer was Steve Jobs with Edwin Catmull. Toy Story follows a group of anthropomorphic toys who pretend to be lifeless whenever humans are present, and focuses on Woody, a pullstring cowboy doll (Hanks), and Buzz Lightyear, an astronaut action figure (Allen).

The top-grossing film on its opening weekend,^[2] Toy Story went on to earn over $361 million worldwide.^[1] Reviews were positive, praising both the technical innovation of the animation and the wit and sophistication of the screenplay,^[3][4] and it is now widely considered, by many critics, to be one of the best animated films.^{[5][6][7][8][9][10][11]}

In addition to DVD and Blu-ray releases, Toy Story-inspired material has run the gamut from toys, video games, theme park attractions, spin-offs, and merchandise. View-Master released a three-reel set in 3D in 1995, prior to release of 3D films. The film was so successful it prompted two sequels: Toy Story 2 (1999) and Toy Story 3 (2010). Both sequels were instant hits and earned very positive reviews, similar to the first; Toy Story 3 is, to date, the highest-grossing film in Pixar's canon, as well as the highest-grossing animated film. Leading up to the third film's premiere, as part of its promotion, Toy Story and Toy Story 2 were also re-released as a double feature in Disney Digital 3-D on October 2, 2009.^[12] The film was selected into the National Film Registry as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" in 2005, its first year of eligibility.^[13]

Plot[link]

Woody, a pull-string cowboy doll, is the leader of a group of toys that belong to a boy named Andy Davis and come to life when humans are not in sight. With his family moving to a new home and having a party, both one week before his birthday, the toys stage a reconnaissance mission to discover Andy's new presents. Andy receives a space ranger Buzz Lightyear action figure, whose interesting features threaten Woody's position as Andy's favorite toy. Buzz does not realize that he is a toy when Woody attempts to convince him and thinks that he is a real space ranger. While the other toys befriend Buzz, Woody becomes jealous of him and starts to feel left out when Andy starts going to sleep with Buzz.

One evening, Andy prepares to go to a family outing at a space-themed Pizza Planet restaurant with Buzz. Still wanting to stay close to Andy, and still jealous of Buzz, he sneakily attempts to misplace Buzz behind a dresser so he will be picked instead, but his attempt starts a chain reaction that knocks him out a window instead into Andy's next door neighbor, Sid Phillips yard, making other toys resentful towards him. With Buzz missing, Andy takes Woody to Pizza Planet with him instead. However, Buzz climbs into the car and confronts Woody when they stop at a gas station. The two toys fight and accidentally fall out of the car, which drives off and leaves them behind. Woody sees a pickup truck bound for Pizza Planet and plans to rendezvous with Andy there, convincing Buzz to come with him by saying that the pickup truck can take him to his home planet. Once at Pizza Planet, Buzz makes his way into a claw game machine shaped like a spaceship, thinking that it is the ship that Woody had promised him. Inside, he finds a horde of squeaky aliens who revere the machine's claw arm as their master. When Woody follows Buzz into the game to try to rescue him, the two of them are captured by Sid, who likes to torture and destroy toys for fun.

At Sid's house, the two toys stage numerous attempts to escape before Andy's moving day, encountering nightmarish hodge-podge toys of Sid's creation as well as Sid's vicious dog, Scud. Buzz sees a commercial for Buzz Lightyear action figures just like himself and realizes that Woody was right about him being a toy. Unable to face the truth, Buzz tries to prove he is still a space ranger by attempting to fly out of the window, but falls and loses one of his arms. Buzz falls into depression over the truth, making him unable to participate in Woody's escape plan which forces Woody to try and get the other toys attention in Andy's room by waving Buzz's disconnected arm, but the other toys leave him behind as they still resent Woody for what happened to Buzz. Woody realizes that Sid's mutant toys are friendly when they fix Buzz's arm, but is still unable to make Buzz co-operate, forcing him to leave him behind and hide when Sid arrives. Sid prepares to destroy Buzz by strapping him to a rocket, but is delayed by a thunderstorm and sleeps for the night. Woody convinces Buzz life is worth living even if he is not a space ranger because of the joy he can bring to Andy, and helps Buzz regain his spirit. Cooperating with Sid's mutant toys, Woody stages a rescue for Buzz and scares Sid away by coming to life in front of him and tells him to not torture toys again. Woody and Buzz then wave goodbye to the mutant toys and try to climb onto Andy's car. However, the two miss Andy's car as it drives away to his new house.

Running down the road, they climb onto a moving truck but Scud chases them and Buzz tackles the dog to save Woody. Woody attempts to rescue Buzz with Andy's RC car but the other toys, who think that Woody got rid of RC, toss Woody off onto the road. Spotting Woody driving RC back with Buzz alive, the other toys realize their mistake and try to help them into the truck. When RC's batteries become depleted, Woody ignites the rocket on Buzz's back and manages to throw RC into the moving truck just in time before they go soaring into the air. Buzz then opens his wings to cut himself free before the rocket explodes, and he and Woody glide through the air and land safely into the car. Andy looks in the box and is relieved to have found Woody and Buzz who were in the car where he left them.

On Christmas Eve at their new house, Buzz and Woody stage another reconnaissance mission to prepare for the new toy arrivals, one of which is a Mrs. Potato Head, much to the delight of Mr. Potato Head. Woody jokingly asks Buzz "What could Andy possibly get that is worse than you?", a question which is immediately answered; Andy's new gift, as it turns out, is a puppy, and the two share a worried smile, closing the film.

Voice cast[link]

Main cast

• Tom Hanks as Woody
• Tim Allen as Buzz Lightyear
• Don Rickles as Mr. Potato Head
• Jim Varney as Slinky Dog
• Wallace Shawn as Rex
• John Ratzenberger as Hamm
• Annie Potts as Bo Peep
• John Morris as Andy Davis
• Erik von Detten as Sid Phillips
• Laurie Metcalf as Mom
• R. Lee Ermey as Sarge
• Sarah Freeman as Hannah Phillips
• Penn Jillette as TV Announcer

Additional voices

• Joe Ranft as Lenny
• Jeff Pidgeon as Squeeze Toy Aliens/Mr. Spell/Robot
• Jack Angel as Shark/Rocky Gibraltar
• Debi Derryberry as Squeeze Toy Aliens/Pizza Planet Intercom

Cast notes[link]

• Non-speaking characters include Scud, Barrel of Monkeys, Etch A Sketch, Snake, Clown, and Buster.

Production[link]

Development[link]

The entrance to Pixar's studio lot in Emeryville, California

John Lasseter's first experience with computer animation was during his work as an animator at Disney, when two of his friends showed him the lightcycle scene from Tron. It was an eye-opening experience which awakened Lasseter to the possibilities offered by the new medium of computer-generated animation.^[14] Lasseter tried to pitch the idea of a fully computer animated film to Disney, but the idea was rejected and Lasseter was fired. He then went on to work at Lucasfilm and later as a founding member of Pixar.^[15] Pixar's Oscar-winning short film Tin Toy (directed by Lasseter) and its CAPS project were among works that gained Disney's attention and, after meetings in 1990 with Jeffrey Katzenberg, Pixar pitched a television special called A Tin Toy Christmas. By July 1991, Disney and Pixar signed an agreement to work on a film, based on the Tin Toy characters, called Toy Story.^[16] The deal gave Pixar a three-film deal (with Toy Story being the first) as well as 10% of the films' profits.^[17][18]

Toy Story's script was strongly influenced by the ideas of screenwriter Robert McKee. The script went through many changes before the final version. Lasseter decided Tinny was "too antiquated", and the character was changed to a military action figure, and then given a space theme. Tinny's name changed to Lunar Larry, then Tempus from Morph, and eventually Buzz Lightyear (after astronaut Buzz Aldrin).^[19] Lightyear's design was modeled on the suits worn by Apollo astronauts as well as G.I. Joe action figures.^[20][21] Woody the second character, was inspired by a Casper the Friendly Ghost doll that Lasseter had when he was a child. Originally Woody was a ventriloquist's dummy with a pull-string (hence the name Woody). However, character designer, Bud Luckey suggested that Woody could be changed to a cowboy ventriloquist dummy, John Lasseter liked the contrast between the Western genre and the Sci-Fi genre and the character immediately changed. Eventually all the ventriloquist dummy aspects of the character were deleted, because the dummy was designed to look "sneaky and mean".^[19] However they kept the name Woody to pay homage to the Western Actor Woody Strode.^[19] Unlike other Disney films of the time, Lasseter did not want the film to be a musical, saying it was a buddy film featuring "real toys", with the story department drawing inspiration from films such as Midnight Run, The Odd Couple (film) ^[22], 48 Hrs. and The Defiant Ones.^[19] Joss Whedon agreed saying, "It would have been a really bad musical, because it's a buddy movie. It's about people who won't admit what they want, much less sing about it. ... Buddy movies are about sublimating, punching an arm, 'I hate you.' It's not about open emotion."^[23] Disney also appointed Joel Cohen, Alec Sokolow and, later, Whedon to help develop the script.^[19] In addition, Disney wanted the film to appeal to both children and adults, and asked for adult references to be added to the film.^[23] Disney gave approval for the film on January 19, 1993, at which point voice casting could begin.^[23]

Lasseter always wanted Tom Hanks to play the character of Woody. Lasseter claimed Hanks "... has the ability to take emotions and make them appealing. Even if the character, like the one in A League of Their Own, is down-and-out and despicable."^[23] Early test footage, using Hanks' voice from Turner & Hooch, convinced Hanks to sign on to the film.^[23][24] Billy Crystal was approached to play Buzz, but turned down the role, which he later regretted, although he would voice Mike Wazowski in Pixar's later success, Monsters, Inc.^[25][26] Katzenberg took the role to Tim Allen, who was appearing in Disney's Home Improvement, and he accepted.^[19] Toy Story was both Hanks and Allen's first animated film role.^[27]

Pixar presented an early draft of the film to Disney on November 19, 1993.^[23] The result was disastrous. It presented Woody as a "sarcastic jerk." This was because Katzenberg kept sending notes to Pixar saying that he wanted more edge. Katzenberg took Walt Disney Feature Animation president Peter Schneider in the hall during the screening and asked him why it was so bad. Schneider responded that it "wasn't their movie anymore."^[28] Schneider wanted to immediately shut down production, fire all recently hired animators and move the key writers (John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton, Pete Docter and Joe Ranft) into the Disney Studio, pending a new script approved by Disney. Pixar refused and said that the entire story will be changed in two weeks.^[29] As promised, two weeks later a new script had been written that made Woody a more likable character. It also included a more adult-orientated staff meeting amongst the toys rather than a juvenile group discussion that had existed in earlier drafts. Buzz Lightyear's character was also changed slightly "to make it more clear to the audience that he really doesn't realize he's a toy" as John Lasseter remarked.^[29] After the second screening Katzenberg restarted production.^[19] The voice actors returned in March 1994 to record their new lines.^[23]

It was Whedon's idea to incorporate Barbie as a character who would rescue Woody and Buzz in the film's final act.^[30] The idea was dropped after Mattel objected and refused to license the toy. Producer Ralph Guggenheim claimed that Mattel did not allow the use of the toy as "They [Mattel] philosophically felt girls who play with Barbie dolls are projecting their personalities onto the doll. If you give the doll a voice and animate it, you're creating a persona for it that might not be every little girl's dream and desire."^[23] Barbies did, however, appear in the film's sequels, Toy Story 2 and Toy Story 3. Hasbro likewise refused to license G.I. Joe (mainly because Sid was going to blow one up) but they did license Mr. Potato Head.^[19][23] The only toy in the movie that was not currently in production was Slinky Dog, which was discontinued since the 1970s. When designs for Slinky were sent to Betty James (Richard James's Wife) she said that Pixar had improved the Toy and that it was "cuter" than the original.^[31] The film's related toys were produced by Thinkway Toys, who secured the worldwide master toy license in 1995.^[32]

According to Lee Unkrich, one of the original editors of Toy Story, a scene was cut out of the original final edit. The scene features Sid, after Pizza Planet, torturing Buzz and Woody violently. Unkrich decided to cut right into the scene where Sid is interrogating the toys because the creators of the movie thought the audience would be loving Buzz and Woody at that point.^[33] Another scene, where Woody was trying to get Buzz's attention when he was stuck in the box crate, was shortened because the creators felt it would lose the energy of the movie.^[33] 2 more deleted scenes, abandoned at the story reel stage^[33], were actually seen as active scenes in Toy Story 2. The first scene was an opening sequence as a Buzz Lightyear cartoon, which ended up as a video game, and the second was the famed "Woody's Nightmare" scene, where Woody is thrown out, as he fails to glow in the dark and destroyed by cockroaches, but in Toy Story 2, he was thrown out because his arm was broken, and he was sucked in by other broken toys.

Animation[link]

Toy Story was completed on a $30 million budget,^[35] using a staff of 110;^[35] in comparison, The Lion King, released in 1994, required a budget of $45 million and a staff of 800.^[35] Lasseter spoke on the challenges of the computer animation in the film: "We had to make things look more organic. Every leaf and blade of grass had to be created. We had to give the world a sense of history. So the doors are banged up, the floors have scuffs."^[23] The film began with animated storyboards to guide the animators in developing the characters. 27 animators worked on the film, using 400 computer models to animate the characters. Each character was either created out of clay or was first modeled off of a computer-drawn diagram before reaching the computer animated design.^[36] Once the animators had a model, articulation and motion controls were coded, allowing each character to move in a variety of ways, such as talking, walking, or jumping.^[36] Of all of the characters, Woody was the most complex as he required 723 motion controls, including 212 for his face and 58 for his mouth.^[23][37] To sync the characters mouths and facial expressions to the actors' voices, animators spent a week per 8 seconds of animation.^[36] After this the animators would compile the scenes, and develop a new storyboard with the computer animated characters. Animators then added shading, lighting, visual effects, and finally used 300 computer processors to render the film to its final design.^[36][37] During post-production, the film was sent to Skywalker Sound where sound effects were mixed with the music score.^[37] In total, the film required 800,000 machine hours and 114,240 frames of animation, with 2–15 hours spent per frame.^[23][36][38]

Release[link]

Theatrical release[link]

Toy Story premiered on November 19, 1995, in Hollywood, California. For its theater run, it was released on November 22, 1995, at the beginning of a 5-day Thanksgiving weekend. The film opened in 2,281 theaters (before later expanding to 2,574 theaters). The film remained in theaters for 37 weeks.^[1] The film was also shown at the Berlin Film Festival out of competition from February 15 to 26, 1996.^[39] It then came out in the UK on March 22, 1996.

Upon its release, Toy Story was the only Pixar film that was branded with only the Disney logo above its title despite the film's dual collaboration. However, after the complete acquisition of Pixar by the Walt Disney Company in 2006, the film along with the rest of the films produced by Pixar now feature the Disney·Pixar brand.

Prior to the film's release, executive producer Steve Jobs stated "If Toy Story is a modest hit—say $75 million at the box office—we'll [Pixar and Disney] both break even. If it gets $100 million, we'll both make money. But if it's a real blockbuster and earns $200 million or so at the box office, we'll make good money, and Disney will make a lot of money." Upon its release on November 22, 1995, Toy Story managed to gross more than $350 million worldwide.^[38] Disney chairman Michael Eisner stated "I don't think either side thought Toy Story would turn out as well as it has. The technology is brilliant, the casting is inspired, and I think the story will touch a nerve. Believe me, when we first agreed to work together, we never thought their first movie would be our 1995 holiday feature, or that they could go public on the strength of it."^[38] Marketing for the film includes $20 million spent by Disney for advertising as well as advertisers such as Burger King, Pepsico, Coca-Cola, and Payless ShoeSource paying $125 million in tied promotions for the film.^[40] A marketing consultant reflected on the promotion: "This will be a killer deal. How can a kid, sitting through a one-and-a-half-hour movie with an army of recognizable toy characters, not want to own one?"^[41]

[edit] 3-D re-release

On October 2, 2009, the film was re-released in Disney Digital 3-D.^[42] The film was also released with Toy Story 2 as a double feature for a two-week run^[43] which was extended due to its success.^[44][45] In addition, the film's second sequel, Toy Story 3, was also released in the 3-D format.^[42] Lasseter commented on the new 3-D re-release:

"The Toy Story films and characters will always hold a very special place in our hearts and we're so excited to be bringing this landmark film back for audiences to enjoy in a whole new way thanks to the latest in 3-D technology. With Toy Story 3 shaping up to be another great adventure for Buzz, Woody and the gang from Andy's room, we thought it would be great to let audiences experience the first two films all over again and in a brand new way."^[46]

Translating the film into 3-D involved revisiting the original computer data and virtually placing a second camera into each scene, creating left-eye and right-eye views needed to achieve the perception of depth.^[47] Unique to computer animation, Lasseter referred to this process as "digital archaeology."^[47] The process took four months, as well as an additional six months for the two films to add the 3-D. The lead stereographer Bob Whitehill oversaw this process and sought to achieve an effect that impacted the emotional storytelling of the film:

"When I would look at the films as a whole, I would search for story reasons to use 3-D in different ways. In 'Toy Story, for instance, when the toys were alone in their world, I wanted it to feel consistent to a safer world. And when they went out to the human world, that's when I really blew out the 3-D to make it feel dangerous and deep and overwhelming."^[47]

Unlike other countries, the United Kingdom received the films in 3-D as separate releases. Toy Story was released on October 2, 2009. Toy Story 2 was instead released January 22, 2010.^[48] The re-release performed well at the box office, opening with $12,500,000 in its opening weekend, placing at the third position after Zombieland and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.^[49] The double feature grossed $30,714,027 in its five-week release.^[49]

Reception[link]

Ever since its original 1995 release, Toy Story received positive reviews from critics; Review aggregate Rotten Tomatoes (which gave the movie an "Extremely Fresh" rating) reports that 100% of critics have given the film a positive review based on 74 reviews, with an average score of 9/10. The critical consensus is: As entertaining as it is innovative, Toy Story kicked off Pixar's unprecedented run of quality pictures, reinvigorating animated film in the process. The film is Certified Fresh.^[4] At the website Metacritic, which utilizes a normalized rating system, the film earned a "universal acclaim" level rating of 92/100 based on 16 reviews by mainstream critics.^[3] Reviewers hailed the film for its computer animation, voice cast, and ability to appeal to numerous age groups.

Leonard Klady of Variety commended the animation's "... razzle-dazzle technique and unusual look. The camera loops and zooms in a dizzying fashion that fairly takes one's breath away."^[51] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times compared the film's innovative animation to Disney's Who Framed Roger Rabbit, saying "Both movies take apart the universe of cinematic visuals, and put it back together again, allowing us to see in a new way."^[52] Due to the film's animation, Richard Corliss of TIME claimed that it was "... the year's most inventive comedy."^[53]

The voice cast was also praised by various critics. Susan Wloszczyna of USA Today approved of the selection of Hanks and Allen for the lead roles.^[54] Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times stated that "Starting with Tom Hanks, who brings an invaluable heft and believability to Woody, Toy Story is one of the best voiced animated features in memory, with all the actors ... making their presences strongly felt."^[55] Several critics also recognized the film's ability to appeal to various age groups, specifically children and adults.^[52][56] Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly wrote: "It has the purity, the ecstatic freedom of imagination, that's the hallmark of the greatest children's films. It also has the kind of spring-loaded allusive prankishness that, at times, will tickle adults even more than it does kids."^[57]

In 1995, Toy Story was named eighth in TIME's list of the best ten films of 1995.^[58] In 2011, TIME named it one of "The 25 All-TIME Best Animated Films".^[59] It also ranks at number 99 in Empire magazines list of the 500 Greatest Films of All Time. .^[60]

In 2003, the Online Film Critics Society ranked the film as the greatest animated film of all time.^[61] In 2007, the Visual Effects Society named the film 22nd in its list of the "Top 50 Most Influential Visual Effects Films of All Time".^[62] In 2005 the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry, one of five films to be selected in its first year of eligibility.^[63] The film is ranked ninety-ninth on the AFI's list of the hundred greatest American films of all time.^[64][65][66] It was one of only two animated films on the list, the other being Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. It was also sixth best in the animation genre on AFI's 10 Top 10.

Director Terry Gilliam would praise the film as "a work of genius. It got people to understand what toys are about. They're true to their own character. And that's just brilliant. It's got a shot that's always stuck with me, when Buzz Lightyear discovers he's a toy. He's sitting on this landing at the top of the staircase and the camera pulls back and he's this tiny little figure. He was this guy with a massive ego two seconds before... and it's stunning. I'd put that as one of my top ten films, period."^[67]

Box office performance[link]

Toy Story's first five days of domestic release (on Thanksgiving weekend), earned the film $39,071,176.^[68] The film placed first in the weekend's box office with $29,140,617.^[1] The film maintained its number one position at the domestic box office for the following two weekends. Toy Story was the highest grossing domestic film in 1995, beating Batman Forever and Apollo 13 (also starring Tom Hanks).^[69] At the time of its release, it was the third highest grossing animated film after The Lion King (1994) and Aladdin (1992).^[18] When not considering inflation, Toy Story is 96th on the list of the highest grossing domestic films of all time.^[70] The film had gross receipts of $191,796,233 in the U.S. and Canada and $170,162,503 in international markets for a total of $361,958,736 worldwide.^[1] At the time of its release, the film ranked 17th highest grossing film (unadjusted) in domestic money, and worldwide it was the 21st highest grossing film.

Accolades[link]

The film won and was nominated for various other awards including a Kids' Choice Award, MTV Movie Award, and a BAFTA Award, among others. John Lasseter received an Academy Special Achievement Award in 1996 "for the development and inspired application of techniques that have made possible the first feature-length computer-animated film."^[71] The film was nominated for three Academy Awards, two to Randy Newman for Best Music—Original Song, for "You've Got a Friend in Me", and Best Music—Original Musical or Comedy Score.^[72] It was also nominated for Best Writing—Screenplay Written for the Screen for the work by Joel Cohen, Pete Docter, John Lasseter, Joe Ranft, Alec Sokolow, Andrew Stanton, and Joss Whedon making Toy Story the first animated film to be nominated for a writing award.^[72]

Toy Story won eight Annie Awards, including "Best Animated Feature". Animator Pete Docter, director John Lasseter, musician Randy Newman, producers Bonnie Arnold and Ralph Guggenheim, production designer Ralph Eggleston, and writers Joel Cohen, Alec Sokolow, Andrew Stanton, and Joss Whedon all won awards for "Best Individual Achievement" in their respective fields for their work on the film. The film also won "Best Individual Achievement" in technical achievement.^[73]

Toy Story was nominated for two Golden Globes, one for "Best Motion Picture—Comedy/Musical", and one for "Best Original Song—Motion Picture" for Randy Newman's "You've Got a Friend in Me".^[74] At both the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards and the Kansas City Film Critics Circle, the film won "Best Animated Film".^[75][76] Toy Story is also among the top ten in the BFI list of the 50 films you should see by the age of 14, and the highest placed (at #99) animated film in Empire's list of "500 Greatest Movie of All Time".^[77] In 2005 Toy Story, along with Toy Story 2 was voted the 4th greatest cartoon in Channel 4's 100 Greatest Cartoons poll, behind The Simpsons, Tom and Jerry and South Park.

Home media[link]

Toy Story was released on VHS and Laserdisc on October 29, 1996, with no bonus material. In the first week of release VHS rentals totaled $5.1 million, debuting Toy Story as the number one video for the week.^[78] Over 21.5 million VHS copies were sold in the first year.^[79] Disney released a deluxe edition widescreen LaserDisc 4-disc box set on December 18, 1996. On January 11, 2000, it was released on VHS in the Gold Classic Collection series with the bonus short, Tin Toy, which sold two million copies.^[79] Its first DVD release was on October 17, 2000, in a two-pack with Toy Story 2. This release was later available individually. Also on October 17, 2000, a 3-disc "Ultimate Toy Box" set was released, featuring Toy Story, Toy Story 2, and a third disc of bonus materials.^[79] On September 6, 2005, a 2-disc "10th Anniversary Edition" was released featuring much of the bonus material from the "Ultimate Toy Box", including a retrospective special with John Lasseter, a home theater mix, as well as a new picture.^[80] This DVD went back in the Disney Vault on January 31, 2009, along with Toy Story 2. Also on September 6, 2005, a bare-bones UMD of Toy Story was released for the Sony PlayStation Portable.

The film was available on Blu-ray for the first time in a Special Edition Combo Pack which included two discs, one Blu-ray copy of the movie, and another DVD copy of the movie. This combo-edition was released on March 23, 2010, along with its sequel.^[81] There was a DVD-only re-release on May 11, 2010.^[28] Another "Ultimate Toy Box," packaging the Combo Pack with those of both sequels, became available on November 2, 2010. On November 1, 2011, along with the DVD and Blu-ray release of Cars 2, Toy Story and the other two films were released on each Blu-ray/Blu-ray 3D/DVD/Digital Copy combo pack (4 discs each for the first two films, and 5 for the third film). They will also be released on Blu-ray 3D in a complete trilogy box set.

Soundtrack[link]

Lasseter was against making the film a musical, similar to prior Disney films such as Aladdin and The Lion King.^[18] However, Disney favored the musical format, claiming "Musicals are our orientation. Characters breaking into song is a great shorthand. It takes some of the onus off what they're asking for."^[23] However, Disney later agreed with Lasseter and decided to select Randy Newman to score the film, which would be Newman's first animated film. Lasseter claimed "His songs are touching, witty, and satirical, and he would deliver the emotional underpinning for every scene."^[23] Newman developed the film's signature song "You've Got a Friend in Me" in one day ^[23] although the tune is closely based on his song "I love to See You Smile" from the 1989 film Parenthood

The soundtrack for Toy Story was produced by Walt Disney Records and was released on November 22, 1995, the week of the film's release. Scored and written by Randy Newman, the soundtrack has received praise for its "sprightly, stirring score".^[83] Despite the album's critical success, the soundtrack only peaked at number 94 on the Billboard 200 album chart.^[84] A cassette and CD single release of "You've Got a Friend in Me" was released on April 12, 1996, in order to promote the soundtrack's release.^[82] The soundtrack was remastered in 2006 and although it is no longer available physically, the album is available for purchase digitally in retailers such as iTunes^[85]

Tracklisting^[83][85]

All songs written and composed by Randy Newman. 

Charts

Impact and legacy[link]

Toy Story had a large impact on the film industry with its innovative computer animation. After the film's debut, various industries were interested in the technology used for the film. Graphics chip makers desired to compute imagery similar to the film's animation for personal computers; game developers wanted to learn how to replicate the animation for video games; and robotics researchers were interested in building artificial intelligence into their machines that compared to the lifelike characters in the film.^[86] Various authors have also compared the film to an interpretation of Don Quixote as well as humanism.^[87][88] In addition, Toy Story left an impact with its catchphrase "To Infinity and Beyond", sequels, and software, among others.

"To Infinity and Beyond"[link]

Buzz Lightyear's classic line "To Infinity and Beyond" has seen usage not only on T-shirts, but among philosophers and mathematical theorists as well.^[89][90][91] Lucia Hall of The Humanist linked the film's plot to an interpretation of humanism. She compared the phrase to "All this and heaven, too", indicating one who is happy with a life on Earth as well as having an afterlife.^[88] In 2008, during STS-124 astronauts took an action figure of Buzz Lightyear into space on the Discovery Space Shuttle as part of an educational experience for students while stressing the catchphrase. The action figure was used for experiments in zero-g.^[92] It was reported in 2008 that a father and son had continually repeated the phrase to help them keep track of each other while treading water for 15 hours in the Atlantic Ocean.^[93][94]

Sequels, shows, and spin-offs[link]

Toy Story has spawned two sequels: Toy Story 2 (1999) and Toy Story 3 (2010). Initially, the first sequel to Toy Story was going to be a direct-to-video release, with development beginning in 1996.^[95] However, after the cast from Toy Story returned and the story was considered to be better than that of a direct-to-video release, it was announced in 1998 that the sequel would see a theatrical release.^[96] The sequel saw the return of the majority of the voice cast from Toy Story, and the film focuses on rescuing Woody after he is stolen at a yard sale. The film was equally well-received by critics, earning a rare 100% approval rating at Rotten Tomatoes, based on 125 reviews.^[97] At Metacritic, the film earned a favorable rating of 88/100 based on 34 reviews.^[98] The film's widest release was 3,257 theaters and it grossed $485,015,179 worldwide, becoming the second-most successful animated film after The Lion King at the time of its release.^[99][100]

Toy Story 3 centers on the toys being accidentally donated to a day-care center when their owner Andy is preparing to go to college.^[101][102] Again the majority of the cast from the prior two films returned. It was the first film in the franchise to be released in 3-D for its first run, though the first two films, which were originally released in 2-D, were re-released in 3-D in 2009 as a double feature.^[101] Like its predecessors, Toy Story 3 received enormous critical acclaim, earning a 99% approval rating from Rotten Tomatoes.^[103] It also grossed more than $1 billion worldwide, making it the highest-grossing animated film to date.^[104]

In November 1996, the Disney on Ice: Toy Story ice show opened which featured the voices of the cast as well as the music by Randy Newman.^[105] In April 2008, the Disney Wonder cruise ship launched Toy Story: The Musical shows on its cruises.^[106]

Toy Story also led to a spin-off direct-to-video animated film, Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: The Adventure Begins, as well as the animated television series Buzz Lightyear of Star Command.^[107] The film and series followed Buzz Lightyear and his friends at Star Command as they uphold justice across the galaxy. Although the film was criticized for not using the same animation as in Toy Story and Toy Story 2, it sold three million VHS and DVDs in its first week of release.^[108][109] The series ran for 65 episodes.

There were also short films before Cars 2 titled "Hawaiian Vacation" centering around Barbie and Ken on vacation in Bonnie's room, and the 2011 film The Muppets entitled Small Fry, centering on Buzz being left in a fast-food restaurant.

Software and merchandise[link]

Disney's Animated Storybook: Toy Story and Disney's Activity Center: Toy Story were released for Windows and Mac.^[110] Disney's Animated Storybook: Toy Story was the best selling software title of 1996, selling over 500,000 copies.^[111] Two console video games were released for the film: the Toy Story video game, for the Sega Genesis, Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Game Boy, and PC as well as Toy Story Racer, for the PlayStation (which contains elements from Toy Story 2).^[112] Pixar created original animations for all of the games, including fully animated sequences for the PC titles.

Toy Story had a large promotion prior to its release, leading to numerous tie-ins with the film including images on food packaging.^[41] A variety of merchandise was released during the film's theatrical run and its initial VHS release including toys, clothing, and shoes, among other things.^[113] When an action figure for Buzz Lightyear and Sheriff Woody was created it was initially ignored by retailers. However, after over 250,000 figures were sold for each character prior to the film's release, demand continued to expand, eventually reaching over 25 million units sold by 2007.^[50]

Theme park attractions[link]

Toy Story and its sequels have inspired multiple attractions at the theme parks of Walt Disney World and Disneyland:

• Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin at the Magic Kingdom casts theme park guests as cadets in Buzz's Space Ranger Corps. Guests ride through various scenes featuring Emperor Zurg's henchmen, firing "laser canons" at their Z symbols, scoring points for each hit.^[114]
• Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters at Disneyland, is very similar to Space Ranger Spin, except that the laser canons are hand-held rather than mounted to the ride vehicle.^[115]
• Buzz Lightyear's Astroblasters at DisneyQuest in Walt Disney World, despite the nearly identical name to the Disneyland attraction, is a bumper car style attraction in which guests compete against each other not only by ramming their ride vehicles into each other, but also by firing "asteroids" (playground balls) at each other.^[116]
• Toy Story Mania at both Disney's Hollywood Studios in Walt Disney World and Disney's California Adventure Park in Disneyland features a series of interactive carnival-type games hosted by the Toy Story characters. Guests ride in vehicles while wearing 3D glasses, and using a pull-string canon to launch virtual rings, darts, baseballs, etc. Disney announced an update to the attraction to add characters from Toy Story 3 several months before the film's release date.^[117][118]
• World of Color at Disney California Adventure is a large night time water and light show. Some of the scenes projected on the water screens feature animation from the Toy Story films.^[119]
• Toy Story Playland at Disneyland Paris and Hong Kong Disneyland, opening in August 2010 and 2011 respectively. The area is designed to create the illusion of "shrinking the guest" down to the size of a toy, and to play in Andy's backyard in several themed rides.^[120]
• Toy Story Character Greetings are located at almost all Disney Parks. Three of the main characters, Buzz Lightyear, Woody and Jesse are normally the characters you would meet. Sometimes you can even meet Bullseye, the Green Army Men and Mr. Potato Head.

References[link]