Toy Story is a 1995 American animated adventure comedy film directed by John Lasseter, and written by Joss Whedon, Andrew Stanton, Joel Cohen, and Alec Sokolow. The first entirely computer-animated feature film, as well as the first feature film produced by Pixar Animation Studios, it stars the voices of Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Annie Potts, John Ratzenberger, Don Rickles, Wallace Shawn, and Jim Varney. Set in a world where toys come to life, Toy Story follows an old-fashioned cowboy doll named Woody (Hanks), who becomes jealous that a space cadet action figure, Buzz Lightyear (Allen), is replacing him as the favorite toy of their owner Andy.
Following the success of the 1988 short film Tin Toy, Pixar was approached by Disney to produce a computer-animated feature film that was told from a small toy's perspective. Lasseter, Stanton, and Pete Docter wrote early story treatments, which were rejected by Disney, who wanted the film's tone to be edgier. After several disastrous story reels, production was halted, and the script was rewritten to better reflect the tone and theme Pixar desired: "toys deeply want children to play with them, and ... this desire drives their hopes, fears, and actions". The studio, then consisting of a relatively small number of employees, produced Toy Story under minor financial constraints.
Toy Story premiered at the El Capitan Theatre in Los Angeles on November 19, 1995, and was released theatrically in the United States on November 22. It set a record for the highest-grossing opening weekend and eventually grossed over $363 million worldwide, making it the second highest-grossing film of 1995. The film received critical acclaim, with praise directed towards the animation, screenplay, Randy Newman's score, appeal to all age groups, and voice performances, particularly of Hanks and Allen. It holds a approval rating on film aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes.
The film is frequently lauded as one of the greatest animated films ever made, and, due to its status as the first computer-animated film, one of the most important films in the medium's history and in film at large. The film received three Academy Award nominations—Best Original Screenplay (the first animated film to be nominated for the award), Best Original Song for "You've Got a Friend in Me", and Best Original Score—in addition to being honored with a non-competitive Special Achievement Academy Award.
In 2005, Toy Story was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". The success of Toy Story launched a multimedia franchise, with four sequels beginning with Toy Story 2 (1999); a spin-off film, Lightyear (2022); and numerous short films. Toy Story has had several theatrical re-releases, including a 3D re-release in 2009 as part of a double feature with Toy Story 2, and a 30th anniversary re-release in 2025.
Plot
In a world where toys are sentient but pretend to be lifeless around humans, a group of toys, led by Sheriff Woody, are preparing to move to a new house with their young owner, Andy Davis, and his family. During the party for Andy's sixth birthday, the toys—including Mr. Potato Head, Slinky Dog, Rex, Hamm, and Bo Peep—become concerned that Andy might receive a new toy that will replace them. Andy receives a Buzz Lightyear action figure, who believes that he is an actual Space Ranger and does not know that he is a toy. Buzz impresses the others with his electronic features and becomes Andy's new favorite toy, much to Woody's jealousy.
Two days before the move, Andy's family plans to have dinner at Pizza Planet, and Andy is allowed to bring one toy along. To ensure Andy brings him instead of Buzz, Woody tries to trap Buzz behind Andy's desk but accidentally knocks him out the window. Believing Woody pushed Buzz on purpose, the other toys rebel against Woody until Andy takes him into the car, with Buzz following. When the car stops at a gas station, Buzz furiously confronts Woody. The two fight, fall out of the car, and are left behind, but then manage to hitch a ride on a Pizza Planet delivery truck. At Pizza Planet, Buzz mistakes a claw machine for a rocket and climbs in, pursued by Woody. Sid Phillips, Andy's sadistic next-door neighbor, grabs Woody and Buzz with the claw and takes them to his house, where they encounter his mutant toys, made from parts of toys Sid has destroyed.
After evading Sid's dog Scud, Buzz sees a television commercial promoting Buzz Lightyear toys and suffers an existential crisis, finally realizing that he is a toy. He attempts to fly, but falls and breaks his arm off. After Sid's toys repair Buzz, Sid tapes him to a firework rocket, planning to blow him up the following day. Overnight, Woody helps Buzz realize that his purpose is to make Andy happy, reinvigorating him. The next morning, as Sid prepares to launch the rocket, Woody and the mutant toys come to life and frighten him.
After Sid flees, Woody and Buzz pursue the Davises' moving truck, but Scud attacks Woody. Buzz jumps off the truck and fights off Scud, while Woody climbs up and pushes RC out to rescue Buzz. The other toys think Woody is harming RC and promptly throw him out of the truck. Woody and Buzz race after the truck on RC, but his batteries run out. Woody ignites the rocket strapped to Buzz, and Buzz opens his wings to sever the tape just before the rocket explodes. Woody and Buzz glide through the sunroof of the Davises' car, landing safely inside. On Christmas in the new house, the toys happily listen to Andy opening his presents, no longer concerned over new toys replacing them. When Andy receives a puppy, Woody and Buzz nervously smile at each other.
Voice cast
Tom Hanks as Woody, a cowboy doll and Andy's favorite toy Tim Allen as Buzz Lightyear, a Space Ranger action figure Don Rickles as Mr. Potato Head, a cynical Mr. Potato Head toy Jim Varney as Slinky Dog, a dachshund slinky toy Wallace Shawn as Rex, a nervous Tyrannosaurus figurine John Ratzenberger as Hamm, a smart-talking piggy bank Annie Potts as Bo Peep, a porcelain shepherdess doll John Morris as Andy Davis, the six-year-old boy who owns all the toys Erik von Detten as Sid Phillips, Andy's mischievous next-door neighbor who destroys toys for fun Laurie Metcalf as Mrs. Davis, Andy's mother R. Lee Ermey as Sergeant, the leader of a troop of green plastic army men Sarah Freeman as Hannah Phillips, Sid's younger sister Penn Jillette as the Buzz Lightyear commercial announcer Joe Ranft as Lenny, a toy pair of binoculars Jeff Pidgeon as the Aliens, a group of green squeeze-toy aliens
Production
Development
John Lasseter's first experience with computer animation was during his work as an animator at Walt Disney Feature Animation, when two of his friends showed him the light-cycle scene from Tron. It was an eye-opening experience that awakened Lasseter to the possibilities offered by the new medium of computer-generated animation. Lasseter tried to pitch The Brave Little Toaster as 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 in 1986, he became a founding member of Pixar. In 1986, Pixar was purchased by entrepreneur and Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Jobs. At Pixar, Lasseter created short, computer-animated films to show off the Pixar Image Computer's capabilities. In 1988, Lasseter produced the short film Tin Toy, which was told from the perspective of a toy, referencing Lasseter's love of classic toys. Tin Toy won the 1989 Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film, the first computer-generated film to do so.
Tin Toy gained Disney's attention, and the new team at The Walt Disney Company, CEO Michael Eisner and chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg in the film division, sought to get Lasseter to come back. Lasseter, grateful for Jobs' faith in him, felt compelled to stay with Pixar, telling co-founder Ed Catmull, "I can go to Disney and be a director, or I can stay here and make history." Katzenberg realized he could not lure Lasseter back to Disney and therefore set plans into motion to ink a production deal with Pixar to produce a film. Disney had always made all their movies in-house and refused to change this. But when Tim Burton, who used to work at Disney, wanted to buy back the rights to The Nightmare Before Christmas, Disney struck a deal allowing him to make it as a Disney film outside the studio. This allowed Pixar to make their movies outside Disney.
Both sides were willing. Catmull and fellow Pixar co-founder Alvy Ray Smith had long wanted to produce a computer-animated feature, but only by the early 1990s were the computers cheap and powerful enough to make this possible. In addition, Disney had licensed Pixar's Computer Animation Production System (CAPS), and that made it the largest customer for Pixar's computers. Jobs made it apparent to Katzenberg that although Disney was happy with Pixar, it was not the other way around: "We want to do a film with you," said Jobs. "That would make us happy."
Catmull, Smith, and head of animation Ralph Guggenheim met with Walt Disney Feature Animation president Peter Schneider in the summer of 1990 to discuss making a feature film, but they found the atmosphere to be puzzling and contentious. They later learned that while Katzenberg was pushing the idea of working with Pixar, Schneider did not want to bring in a non-Disney animation studio. Katzenberg arranged to meet directly with the Pixar contingent, this time including Lasseter and Jobs. The Pixar team proposed three separate ideas for their first major project, including an original idea entitled Bob the Dinosaur, an adaptation of James and the Giant Peach, and a Christmas television special entitled, A Tin Toy Christmas. Disney greenlit the third idea, but Katzenberg countered that as long as they were gearing up to transition from 30-second commercials to a half-hour special, they might as well go all the way and make a feature-length film.
Katzenberg also made it clear that he was only working with Pixar to get access to Lasseter's talents, and that the Pixar team would be signing up to work with a self-described "tyrant" and micro-manager. However, he invited them to talk with Disney's animators and get their opinions on working under him and Lasseter was impressed with what he heard. The two companies began negotiations, although they disagreed on key points including whether Disney would get the rights to Pixar's animation technology or whether Pixar would retain partial ownership of the films, characters, and home video and sequel rights. As Pixar was nearing bankruptcy and desperate for funds, they settled on a deal that would allow Disney to have complete ownership and control of the films and characters, including the rights to make sequels without Pixar's involvement, while Pixar would get approximately 12.5% of ticket sales. These early negotiations became a point of contention between Jobs and Eisner for many years.
An agreement to produce a feature film based on Tin Toy with a working title of Toy Story was finalized, and production began soon thereafter.
Writing