Inside the Lost Version of Toy Story

Taking a look at Pixar's original version of Toy Story, where Woody was a mean ventriloquist dummy and Buzz was named Lunar Larry, as well as some early test animation.

0:00 Intro
0:42 George Lucas
1:52 John Lasseter
3:08 Steve Jobs
4:08 Tin Toy
5:28 Original Toy Story Treatment
6:34 Buzz Lightyear
7:34 Billy Crystal
7:58 Pizza Planet
8:16 Woody
9:06 Musical
9:56 Barbie and G.I. Joe
10:38 Original Opening
10:59 Black Friday

Early Woody and Buzz models in Thumbnail created by Eugene Napadovsky

#toystory #pixar

[HumanThing-fmxt]

“ I dunno man, Lunar Larry is just a little too ridiculous for a character name”

“How about Tempus From Morph?”

“Yeah that works”

[Omar-wqdz]

Speaking of Toy Story, the original version of Toy Story 4 could make a good What Could Have Been. It was about finding Bo Peep, Forky was not in it, and ended with Bo coming back with the toy gang at Bonnie’s house

[nonaborhan]

Slightly unrelated, but this a great reminder of how influential people like George Lucas & Steve Jobs were to the technology behind the entertainment industry. They saw something in teams like Pixar and by giving them a platform to execute their vision, they forever revolutionized the industry.

These sorts of stories are always fascinating to me, it's that perfect mix between art and tech coming together to create something extraordinary. That original Pixar team were just cooking!

[cinemaarts]

It always amazes how masterful at storytelling the people at Pixar are (especially during 1995-2010) including the "plot hole" of Buzz freezing whenever people are around, even though he thinks he's real. Pete Doctor revealed that the screenwriters did try to think of an explanation but they realized that it always stopped the story cold and ultimately wasn't needed.

[TB-vzxg]

It's crazy that Pixar on their first film was able to land Tom Hanks during his run of back-to-back Best Actor Oscars, arguably the biggest male T.V. star at the time in Tim Allen, and one of the all-time great comedians in Don Rickles. Pretty astonishing.

[nicks]

My favourite thing about toy story are all of the real life toys featured among all the characters.

The Etch-A-Sketch, Slink the dog, Mr. And Mrs. PotatoHead.
Even Mike, the Little Tykes brand cassette player with the microphone attached.

These were all toys I had as a kid, if not was handed down by my older brother.

There's a level of innocence in those toys being characters in these movies.
It's comforting.

[stsolomon]

To Infinity and Beyond! Pixar in the 90s- early 2010s was peak pixar.

[Omar-wqdz]

Good thing the Pixar team ignored Jeffrey Katzenberg’s ideas to make it edgier to the point Woody became really unlikable

[JStryker]

Bill Murray was also approached for the role of Buzz, but he lost the producer's phone number, which he regrets because he claims he would've accepted the role.

And more specifically, it was the skyrocketing Mr. Potatohead sales from the film's success that made Mattel change their minds and let them use Barbie in the sequels.

[HerbCoswellBornAgain]

Hard to believe that Toy Story went through so many revisions. Truly tells how much work, care, and effort goes into these films. Also, thank christ the Black Friday Reel was not the final version of the film, and I will never, EVER, understand what Jeffrey Kaitzeberg was thinking when he try pivoting the film into that direction. Then, again, he allowed Shark Tale to be made, a film that mine as well be Finding Nemos own equivalent to the Black Friday Reel, so, idk.

[spews]

A rare case of executive meddling not being allowed to ruin a film. And only because they were able to stop the executive from meddling.

[matterstoyou]

The most brilliant story beat was them deciding to contrast B + W. It explains the story in a metaphorical sense without even exploring it yet; the juxtaposition of an old west cowpoke and futuristic spaceman.

[oftenseen]

It's absolutely crazy how much of all 4 sequels took a page from the original Toy Story script that got rejected by Disney. "Going on a road trip and becoming a lost toy in the process", sounds a lot like the plot to TS4. Plus, the other 2 you pointed out.

[grzegorzgarbaciak]

speaking of Toy Story, original version of Toy Story 2 when the film was supposed to be a direct-to-video sequel would be a good What Could Have been.

[YEAR--RELICS]

Coolest thing is that they did in fact create the coolest toy that everyone did want. It wasn't just a generic interpretation of what one concept artist thought could suffice for what a kid would want. The whole world wanted a buzz lightyear.

[blondesummer]

I've heard a lot about "Jerk Woody" but never knew it was a single person's idea...

[thedarkestknight]

I love how everything comes back George. A true visionary

[KingToll]

I feel like this has been your best video to date yet. I had no idea that George Lucas, Joss Whedon and Steve Jobs were so heavily involved and that Pixar was already around during the 80s.

[Rock-Child]

Crystal was so respectful to Tim Allen

[safebox]

It still bewilders me that not only did Steve Jobs co-found Pixar, but it also helped get his CEO role back at Apple after being ousted from the company some years prior.
Even more surprising / unnerving is that the company was spun off from a small animation team at Lucasfilm. And eventually both would come into the hands of Disney 6 years apart.