“I prepared for the role by playing in my room”: The making of Toy Story over 30 years | toy story

WWhen Pixar Studio was casting a Toy Story movie, children were invited to bring one toy to the audition. Seven-year-old John Morris showed up with 20 cases of beloved X-Men action figures. He got the part.

He played Andy, a young boy whose toys include cowboy Woody and spaceman Buzz Lightyear, and was the first voice ever heard in a Pixar animated feature film. Toy Story was released 30 years ago Saturday, but for Morris the memory of the premiere is as fresh as ever.

“I still get goosebumps when I think about it because it started and then there was Andy, and everyone turned to look at me and I said, ‘Oh my God, here we go,'” the 41-year-old voice actor says by phone from San Francisco. “I couldn’t believe what we were watching because it was so groundbreaking. I grew up watching cartoons — Disney on VHS with my younger brother — and it just seemed new and different.”

Toy Story was one of the most influential films in modern cinema. Directed by John Lasseter and produced by Pixar with a release through Disney, it was the first fully computer-animated film, prompting studios around the world to turn away from hand-drawn animation.

The story features toys that come to life when humans aren’t looking, particularly Woody (Tom Hanks), a cowboy string puppet, and Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen), a flashy new space ranger who threatens Woody’s status as Andy’s favorite. Their rivalry turns to friendship as they try to reunite with their owner after being lost in the wider world.

This idea grew out of Tin Toy (1988), a five-minute short that won Pixar its first Oscar in the days when it was part of a hardware company run by Apple’s Steve Jobs. Disney approached Pixar to produce a computer-animated film told from the perspective of a small game.

The initial story followed the relationship between Tinny, Tin Toy’s one-man band toy, and a ventriloquist’s dummy named Dummy. Christine Freeman, Pixar’s founding historian, says: “The idea was a buddy movie, which had never been done in animation before, so they had these two characters and it was interesting but it didn’t work.”.

“We were lucky because we got good feedback from the people at Walt Disney. They said, ‘We don’t think this tin toy is going to be an eight-year-old’s favorite toy and this other guy’s going to be?’ He’s really mean. One of the amazing animators and creatives who worked on Toy Story was a guy named Bud Luckey. He said, ‘Could this ventriloquist’s dummy be a cowboy?'” That’s how Woody was born from this fictitious character.

Tinny would evolve into Buzz Lightyear, but even then the path was winding and winding before he reached his original destination. When asked about the 30th anniversary during a recent episode of CBS’s The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Hanks responded: “Actually, it’s been over 30 years, because me and Tim Allen and everyone involved in that movie, we recorded Toy Story, about 80 minutes of it, which was completely scrapped. We had the animation, all the part of it. We had the animated movie, every part of it.”

“The people who were running the studio — not Pixar, the Pixar people are great — the people running the studio said, ‘Look, it’s an animated movie. Let’s make them wise. Let’s let them improvise and insult each other and come up with goofy things, which we did for a while. They showed it, and quite frankly, it didn’t work. It wasn’t Toy Story. “It wasn’t what Pixar was going for.”

Hanks, 69, added: “John [Lasseter] He called us and said, “We’ve looked at it and it doesn’t work, and we’d like to start from scratch.” We’ve been working on the film for about two years. And then we start the process all over again, which takes about two and a half to three years, which is why in the credits on the Toy Story movies, they always say “Production Babies.”

The stakes were too high for Pixar to take their time and get it right. The company has gone through various iterations as a hardware company, software company, and television ad producer but was struggling to make ends meet.

“If Toy Story had not been successful, I’m pretty sure Pixar would not have been able to survive so long as a company,” says David A. Price, author of The Pixar Touch: Themaking of a Company, of Richmond, Virginia.

“First of all, Pixar was going through very difficult financial times in 1995 when the film was released. Steve Jobs had been investing money in the company for 10 years at this point, and the amount was up to $50 million cumulatively over the years. When they needed to make payroll, it wasn’t often that senior executives would come to Steve Jobs and ask them to write their check. Without Toy Story, there was no clear way for the company to move forward as a going concern. “

Second, it was a watershed moment for the new medium. “It was necessary for Toy Story to succeed just to legitimize computer animation,” Price adds. “It’s hard to appreciate now, but at the time, computer animation was more of a novelty than anything else.”

“It was a real question whether computer graphics would be acceptable to audiences, and if Toy Story had been a failure, people financing films would certainly have turned away from it as a medium. On the other hand, because Pixar was successful, it stimulated enormous interest in computer animation and a golden age for computer-animated films.”

Toy Story’s animators had the basic vision of setting the film in a recognizable world that audiences could relate to, using virtual cameras that behaved like real cameras. The winning formula also included a witty screenplay, a perfect cast, and Randy Newman’s song “I’ve Got a Friend in Me.”

Asked about the success of Toy Story, Price said: “The easy answer is, well, it’s all nostalgia. 30 years ago when they were kids they saw the movie and now they’re bringing their kids to it. But it’s so much more than that. In my opinion, the classic elements of the movie’s greatness are part of the story.”

“Not only was it fusing new technology with old elements, it was rooted in a subgenre that was popular at the time — or had recently become popular — which was the buddy comedy. In the ’80s, you had 48 Hours, Lethal Weapon, and movies like that where very different characters start to dislike each other, and circumstances force them to work together, and their respect for each other grows. Toy Story was intentionally written in that mold. That made it more appealing then and now.”

Furthermore, he finds that Toy Story works on different levels for both children and parents. “Friendship is something that’s very important to kids, and friendship is a key element of the story, and it’s something that kids respond to. But for parents, it’s a powerful portrayal of status anxiety. On one level, you have children’s problems, and on the other level of the film, you have adult problems being addressed, so it’s a film that brings generations together in a powerful way.”

The role of Andy came naturally to Morris, who grew up creating fantasy worlds via X-Men action figures, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and the Lego and Sylvanian families. “I think the bear equivalent to Woody would be this bear that I still call Sunny Bear. That was my first favorite thing, and then I got that experience over the holidays of getting new toys and the excitement surrounding that, Buzz-style,” he recalls.“.

When he was six years old, Morris took an acting class called Kids on Camera in San Francisco and got an agent. He began working as a child actor, appearing in commercials. Toy Story was his first voice-over test.

“I was very young and young, and they asked us to bring our favorite toy to the audition and I brought all my X-Men figures in a box. My mom even said, ‘I think that’s too many toys.’ I said, ‘No, I have to bring them all.’” I can’t just bring Storm. “I have to get Professor X, Wolverine, and all the rest of them.”

“I started playing with them and creating the sounds and then, of course, that’s how we see Andy play. I prepared for the role by playing in my room, basically, and using my imagination and creativity.”

This was invaluable for recording the role of Andy without the kind of demands that a stage actor or live action actor might expect. “They give you what they can in terms of storyboards, character drawings, performances, little sculptures, etc., but you have to use your imagination. That’s the key to voiceover.”

“I teach voice-over now and this is something I talk about a lot: flood your imagination with images because that’s what you should tap into, especially when you have black-and-white text in front of you. But I remember the first time I saw Andy early in the process and I thought, ‘Oh, he sounds really nice and warm,’ and then it helped me: ‘Okay, I’ll try to bring warmth to his voice.’

Morris set up the production around the school, pulling away for individual recording sessions that did not include other cast members. “I couldn’t talk about it while I was working on it. It can be hard for a kid to keep a secret like that. I’m leaving mysteriously, I guess like kids who leave to see the doctor or something.”

“I said I was working on a project, working on a film, but I didn’t say what it was. But then when it came out, there was a lot of excitement and some disbelief. To this day, people say: ‘You’re kidding?’ I’m like: ‘No, I’m not kidding.’ Or people are like, ‘Is this true?’ ‘Yes, it’s true.’“

It was a children’s film that somehow captivated adults, and Machine Made an artifact that was somehow as big-hearted as a Dickens novel. The film cost approximately $30 million and grossed $401 million worldwide, becoming one of the biggest hits of 1995. Morris, who was 11 at the time of its release, was as surprised as anyone by its success.

How does he explain that? “At the heart of it is friendship and the idea of ​​’You’ve got a friend in me’ and the fact that toys for Andy, and later for Bonnie, are like friends. They’re almost human in the way they are and the way we treat them. They’re so relatable and lovable.”

“It was the first computer-animated film, so it has a place in film history as well. And I have to say I’ve never met someone who didn’t love Toy Story and haven’t seen it. Everyone has seen it and everyone loves it. I’m so honored to be a part of it, and I’m so grateful. You brought Andy to life: I mean, how incredible he is!”“‘

Morris returned in 1999 for Toy Story 2 and in 2010 for Toy Story 3, which culminates in college-bound Andy donating his toys to a girl named Bonnie; Woody watches Andy leave and says quietly, “So long…mate,” a scene about the bittersweet passage of time that has reduced many adult fathers to painful wrecks.

Toy Story 4 came out in 2019, and Toy Story 5 is scheduled to be released next June. Morris would be happy to return to the franchise one day. “I’m hearing from a lot of fans that they’re interested in Andy. What did he focus on in college? Does he have kids? Is he married? I’m like, well, what do you think? It’s open.”

“As we know, the story could go in any number of directions. A lot of fans have told me that it would bring the whole thing back if Andy were an adult and had kids; maybe he had Andy Jr. and maybe Bonnie is babysitting them and maybe some toys are missing and Andy is a little surprised by that. I would of course love to go back and voice Andy as an adult.”. That would be a full circle moment for me too.