5 Things You Didn't Know About the 'Toy Story' Trilogy

Though it’s become impossible to picture anyone other than Tim Allen voicing the Buzz Lightyear, Billy Crystal was originally approached to step into the now-iconic character’s space suit. The Analyze That actor was shown a test of what Buzz would look like at Jeffrey Katzenberg’s house, yet Crystal wasn’t convinced. As he told ABC News in 2001, “It's the only regret I have in the business of something I passed on." Fortunately, Crystal didn’t have to stew over this missed opportunity for long, as the performer was subsequently offered the role of Mike Wazowski in 2001’s Monsters, Inc – a character that, he says, “is a better fit for me.”

Despite the incredible success of the first film, Toy Story 2 was initially planned as an hour long sequel that would have premiered on home video. Ash Brannon, one of the film’s co-directors (alongside Lee Unkrich and John Lasseter), told Animation World Magazine in 1999, “When we started the film in 1996, the thing to do was to make a direct-to-video sequel. That's the way Disney did it and we follow suit. Nobody was making animated theatrical sequels.” It wasn’t until Disney executives saw completed footage that they decided to send Toy Story 2 to cinemas, although this required the Pixar team to essentially start from scratch to ensure that the movie would match the high level of quality set by the original film.

Way back in its earliest stages, Toy Story was planned as a big-screen vehicle for one of Pixar’s very first characters, Tinny. Tinny made his debut in Pixar’s third short film, 1988’s Tin Toy, and the plot of Toy Story would have followed the mechanical one-man band as he attempted to find his way home after losing his owners during a family trip – with Tinny’s journey eventually partnering him up with a smart-alecky ventriloquist’s dummy. Tinny eventually transformed into Buzz Lightyear, while that dummy became Woody the cowboy. (Other names considered for Buzz: Lunar Larry and Tempus from Morph.)

Even though Pixar and Disney have become as synonymous as peanut butter and jelly, there was a time when the two studios came dangerously close to severing their legendary (and profitable) relationship. Back in 2004, contract talks between Disney and Pixar became so contentious that it seemed as though Pixar was getting ready to take their business to a rival studio – which meant that Disney would have had the right to make a Toy Story sequel without Pixar’s involvement. In the months leading up to Disney’s legendary $7.4 billion acquisition of Pixar, the Mouse House announced plans for a Pixar-less Toy Story 3 that would have followed Andy's toys as they attempt to rescue Buzz after he's shipped to Taiwan as part of a massive recall.

In one of the original drafts of Toy Story, Barbie would have played a pivotal role in rescuing Woody and Buzz from the clutches of Sid’s vicious dog (and would also have acted as Woody’s love interest). Mattel, however, refused to allow their iconic character to be featured in the film, as they felt that, as producer Ralph Guggenheim told Entertainment Weekly in 1995, “girls who play with Barbie dolls are projecting their personalities onto the doll.” (Of course, once Toy Story became a smash hit, Mattel allowed Barbie to appear in both Toy Story 2 and Toy Story 3.) Likewise, G.I. Joe’s planned appearance in Toy Story was rejected by executives at Hasbro (yet they allowed the character to headline a subpar summer movie in 2009).