Latest / All The Right Movies / Toy Story (1995) | Ep. 57 - Part 1

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Toy Story (1995) | Ep. 57 - Part 1 · All The Right Movies

0:04
All the right movies. OK, everybody, Coast is clear.
0:11
This holiday season, turn on your imagination.
0:16
That's using the old noodle. When toys come to life, Walt
0:20
Disney Pictures presents the first ever computer animated
0:23
feature film. Code Rep We are Code Rep Go
0:27
Infinity and beyond Toy Story rated G.
0:35
Toy Story opened in 1995 and revolutionized cinematic
0:38
animation, telling the story of a group of toys with lives of
0:41
their own. It was the first fully CGI
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feature, a cultural and box office behemoth, and established
0:47
its creators as one of the most iconic studios in Hollywood
0:50
history. My name is John and the friends
0:52
till the end with me are Matt. The word I'm searching for I can
0:56
say because they're preschool toys present.
0:59
And Westy. You are a toy.
1:02
To Infinity and beyond. All the right movies are with
1:05
Woody, Buzz and Pixar. So stick around.
1:08
We're not really podcasting, it's just talking with style.
1:31
Hello and welcome to All the Right Movies, Sad Strange Little
1:35
Men and a podcast on classic in hit films.
1:39
This time out a slightly special 1, isn't it?
1:42
Seems to be, yeah. We like to say we're telling the
1:44
story of Hollywood 1 movie a time on ATRM classic, and it's
1:48
not hyperbole to say we're talking about a film that
1:51
changes genre forever. Today, as we get into Pixar, Tom
1:54
Hanks and their groundbreaking animation that is Toy Story.
1:58
Yeah. Absolutely strange things are
2:01
happening, right? Very.
2:02
Absolutely, yeah. I mean, usually all with us, but
2:04
today that's in the film. I was going to say this.
2:06
There's nothing new there, is it?
2:09
Before we head to the Davis household and Andy's room,
2:11
though, should we plug our own toy box over on Patreon?
2:14
Let's do it it. Should.
2:15
Well, if you're a regular listener to our ATRM Classic
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podcast, you can help support what we do by joining the ATRM
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community and becoming an ATRM Patron.
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Patrons get access to our bonus podcast episodes called Double
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Feature, where we talk about movies that may not get the
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instant DATRM Classic treatment, and the Watch List, where we
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review more modern releases. And you'll get access to our
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whole podcast archive, full of bonus episodes and archive DATRM
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Classic episodes, which is the majority of them now.
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Yeah, there's so much great stuff in there.
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It's like AL's toy bond when you turn up.
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people really is. So to find out more, visit
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Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube.
3:06
Yes, back to today though, and the show and it's Toy Story.
3:10
There's long time coming, Matt. So why are we talking about it?
3:14
We you said it at the top, John, there's just not that many films
3:17
where you can legitimately say the at the very least changed
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the face of an entire genre, if not cinema itself.
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And Toy, Sorry is one of those films.
3:25
Animation was never the same after this.
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And what's really striking about this thought is that this isn't
3:31
a film that was nearly there. It wasn't a case of the
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animation is brilliant, but the story was a bit lacking or the
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story was great and the animation, it'll get better in a
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few films time. It arrived absolutely fully
3:43
formed with this stamp of individual quality running right
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through it. And because it's so iconic and
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it's the type of film just people know it from beginning to
3:50
end, I think it's a bit easy to take it for granted in a number
3:54
of ways, like just how funny it is.
3:56
And I think when you looked at the way we do, that comes across
3:59
and just how well, well written it is as well.
4:01
So yeah, change the genre for good and it's well worth
4:03
investigating. My, you've covered every point
4:06
I'm going to make in about 30 seconds.
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That's. What I mean for?
4:11
Well, I saw a Toy Story when it came out in 1995 at the Customs
4:14
House Cinema, South Shields. Oh, nice, right?
4:16
Yeah, yeah. I was 14 when with some school
4:18
friends. I remember everyone was kind of
4:20
quiet when we came out because we were like the age where is it
4:23
cool? Like animations?
4:24
Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
4:25
Yeah, until someone said they liked it, and then everyone was
4:27
like, yeah, it was awesome, Yeah.
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And it was massive at the time. I loved it and the follow-ups,
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and I've loved Pixar ever since. Yeah.
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I'm kind of in awe of Pixar, to be honest.
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And they're like mastery storytelling.
4:39
We'll talk a bit more about that as we go, but it all started
4:42
here and a size how much I liked it at the time.
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Toy Story is a film that in telling the story of Hollywood,
4:47
we have to talk about it was ground breaking, which we'll get
4:50
into incredible technical innovations which were massively
4:53
influential. We'll get into that as well.
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Announced the arrival of Pixar as an animation powerhouse and
4:59
is among the most famous film series probably ever made, with
5:02
some of the most iconic characters created as well,
5:04
animation or otherwise. So very much looking forward to
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talking about where it all began.
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Yeah, and Wesley, Toy Story for you.
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Very similar to you John. Be honest went to the cinema to
5:14
see this with a school friend, his parents.
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No, it was the matter Center Odeon.
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Posh. Yeah, obviously I'm not.
5:22
Slumming it never have wasn't dragged up John.
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We were quiet after it and his parents loved it but we both
5:29
felt like I would say kids film. Didn't really get it.
5:31
Didn't really know if I if it was cool to like it.
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I felt a bit young for me and a lot of the jokes were missed.
5:37
Now this film for me is about four different films.
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At what age you've experienced it and what you're going through
5:41
at that time? When you're a kid, it's amazing.
5:44
When you're a teenager, you kind of dismiss above it, but you're
5:47
starting to get some of the jokes.
5:48
When you're an adult, you kind of get the different jokes that
5:50
you didn't get when you were a teenager, when you were a kid,
5:52
and then when you have kids yourself, it's completely
5:54
transformative. It's a completely different film
5:56
because you're watching them watch it and you're enjoying it
5:58
on a whole new level. So it's got something for
6:00
everybody, and I think that's what's really important about
6:03
this, is that it doesn't pigeonhole itself.
6:05
It doesn't have a demographic really.
6:07
It's just for the human race. Yeah, yeah.
6:09
It is. If you don't like Toy Story,
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there's something really wrong with you.
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It's just a gold send for that. When you've got kids as well,
6:15
because you can put it on and you know they're going to be
6:16
absolutely fine for an hour and a half.
6:18
You don't have to worry about them.
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They're going to be glued to the screen.
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It's really going to work and I've seen it countless times, so
6:24
many times and I'm still not bored of it.
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That's to it's absolute credit. Like it's just a beautiful story
6:28
about friendship. So me, I'm really excited about
6:31
this one. I know Matt's really excited
6:32
about this one. I'm excited for him to talk
6:34
about it. I'm sorry for you to talk about
6:35
it, John. I'm excited to get into it
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because it is just such a joy. It's it's a joy story, if I'm
6:40
honest with you. Well, Joy Story, I mean Toy
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Story, used by Pixar Animation Studios, distributed by Buena
6:47
Vista Pictures Distribution and released on November the 22nd,
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1995. The film was directed by John
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Lasseter, written by Joss Whedon, Andrew Stanton, Joel
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Corn and Alex Sokolow, and stars Tom Hanks as Woody, Tim Allen as
7:00
Buzz Lightyear, and a host of other voice actors as crazy
7:03
characters that we'll talk about.
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Yeah, let's get in there then, shall we?
7:07
Let's do it. It's play time at Andy's in the
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beginning of Toy Story. The beginning.
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Toy Story opens in the bedroom of seven-year old Andy Davis in
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a world I think many people find the size about with children or
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toys coming to life when we're not around, we'll be talking.
7:29
The moments of the arrival of a certain space Ranger sends
7:32
everything into chaos, but we're starting with the very first
7:35
moments. We are.
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So as Andy's birthday approaches, we meet Cowboy Woody
7:40
and the rest of Andy's toys. Woody's the leader and we'll see
7:43
play time in Andy's room and then an important all staff toy
7:47
meeting. Yeah, a good way to set the
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stage for what's to come, Matt. Absolutely, As I mean, Andy's
7:52
some creative kid. Like, isn't he for seven?
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Like the effort in the building? All those sets.
7:56
I couldn't do that at 7. Don't you that now I used?
7:58
To do that as well, Yeah, Yeah, of course you did.
8:00
Well, you definitely did, yeah. We didn't have the Internet.
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What else are you going to do? But everything about this
8:05
opening is so familiar and nostalgic because it's also
8:08
recognizable because when you are a kid, that's definitely how
8:11
you behaved and played with your toys.
8:13
You did mix and match everything you didn't care for Mr. Potato
8:15
Head. Doesn't make sense being paired
8:17
with a toy cowboy because where's the front end logic at
8:20
that age exactly? You know, and Andy's head, it's
8:23
really funny that the reward is 50 bazillion dollars.
8:25
Doesn't make sense. Be you a kid and that's the kind
8:28
of thing you really respond to. But it's recognizable because
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it's also tactile as well. You can see like, the little
8:34
indentation across Mr. Potato Head skin.
8:36
Like when you see Rex, he has that joint where his tail is
8:39
attached to his body. Yeah.
8:41
You know how that twisted action feels in your hands because you
8:44
had those toys. Yeah.
8:45
Yeah. You know what, Slinky?
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He is made out of that felt feel.
8:48
And you can almost smell the plastic of the characters.
8:50
It's great. Do you play with your toys like
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you smell the matter? Just smell them out.
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I was the. Weed kid.
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I was the weed kid. The one you pray is not invited
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to your birthday eats all the crisps in the corner.
9:03
Yeah, I think watching it now they are signed, this was a
9:05
forerunner and what it was doing from the start.
9:07
I mean nowadays no major mainstreaming film, which a
9:10
pixel production certainly is, would start without a big
9:13
action-packed opener. But Toy Story doesn't.
9:15
It kind of eases us in with Andy's play time, which I find
9:18
quite interesting is it's still kind of learning the best way to
9:21
go about some things. I thought the creative
9:23
brilliance was there from the get go.
9:25
Within seconds you get the theme music.
9:27
You've got A Friend in Me by Randy Newman.
9:29
We'll talk more about that later.
9:30
But I know that Toy Story mainstay we get yeah, which I
9:32
love is the logo, which always kind of pops into the frame at
9:36
the start. One of my favorite movie logos.
9:38
It's perfect for the subject matter and barely changed for
9:41
decades afterwards. So the nailed it first time and
9:44
yellow typography again. I think you might be under
9:46
something there, Westy I. Think so.
9:48
It's been 4 years we've been talking about.
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I'm sure it's about a click sometimes.
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I mean, Pixar to me are master storytellers, specifically
9:55
visual storytelling, and that's here as well.
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The main conceit of the world is that the toys are alive, but
10:00
they only come to life when humans aren't there.
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Another film might have shoehorned that into the
10:05
dialogue in the first few minutes somewhere.
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But yeah, Andy's called away by his mother.
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He drops Woody onto the bed. There's a lifeless toy.
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The camera stays on Woody. We hear the door slam.
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Woody's eyes blink into life. He turns his head to check
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Andy's gone and then stands up. It's, like, 5 seconds, no words.
10:20
And it's like, all right, but get it.
10:22
Yeah. You only move when Andy's not
10:23
around. And it never got explained
10:25
again. So like most great family films,
10:27
it treats its audience as having brains.
10:29
Yeah. And Woody's phrases and then
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what he says when Andy pulls his string are absolutely nuts.
10:35
Somebody poisoned the water hole.
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What? Some people joke I would do.
10:42
But great music, great logo, great storytelling.
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Pixar easing into Disney's clown size shoes effortlessly.
10:50
Yeah, so we've been introduced to Woody, but now we're getting
10:53
introduced to all of the other characters, and when he starts
10:56
calling them up, it's so great because you know who everyone
10:59
is, you know the personalities, all the personalities come
11:01
across. It's a really great introduction
11:03
to all of the characters and really nice touches, like when
11:07
Mike comes up and he's like, thanks Mike, and then it feeds
11:10
back and then he has to move away.
11:12
It's just genius. Loads a little bit like that.
11:15
You see both people just as I'm a couple of blocks away and she
11:18
walks past the blocks. Love that.
11:21
And then you have the actual meeting itself where everybody's
11:23
called in and you know that this is a regular thing.
11:25
You know that Woody's in charge and it's great exposition.
11:28
You know there's going to be a move.
11:29
You know there's going to be a birthday party.
11:31
It's already set in Morton. Things are already happening and
11:34
it's in no way boring. And it's just really, really
11:37
wonderful because he finds out that Andy's parties being moved
11:40
and he's not that worried. You can kind of tell.
11:42
And he's like, the party has been moved to today.
11:47
A line delivery is absolutely fantastic.
11:49
Everybody going crazy thinking they're going to be replaced,
11:52
thinking they're going to be in a garage sale.
11:54
And you are totally bought into this.
11:55
You're like, yeah, this is probably what they would think
11:57
if it was a toy. Like, you don't want to be
11:59
replaced. He said you don't want under
12:01
your Grove. There's all of this real tension
12:03
here. There's, like, mild peril.
12:05
Great line from Woody when he tells everyone to calm down,
12:08
doesn't say calm down. He just says save your
12:09
batteries. Absolutely love that.
12:12
That's really, really brilliant. And then when the party starts
12:15
happening and you have them for you used to do this as a kid, if
12:17
someone's walking into a party, you would judge them by how big
12:20
the gifts were. You definitely would.
12:23
And The thing is now it's like the smaller the gift, the better
12:26
because my kids watch it and they'll go about what's that?
12:28
That's not an iPhone. It's just it's really relatable
12:32
for everybody. It's really familiar for
12:34
everybody. A great introduction to the
12:35
characters, a great introduction to the story, and just very,
12:38
very clever, really great writing.
12:40
I think it is as well, yeah. I mean, having established the
12:42
concept of the world, this is where the kind of developed the
12:44
dynamics of the characters. Like you're saying, yeah, what
12:47
is the leader? He's got a right cushy little
12:48
number. So someone comes in to threaten
12:52
that, which is what happens. Obviously it does feel logical
12:55
he would react in the way he does, but we can do that
12:57
character set up as well. Rex the dinosaurs like an
12:59
anxious mess which is a jokey reaction to Jurassic Park which
13:03
was massive at the time I guess. I think it's just the T Rex in
13:06
general, isn't it? It's like the ferocious Did I
13:08
scare you? Like Ham the pig is a know it
13:12
all. Slinky is a loyal dog.
13:13
Mr. Potato Head is the angriest man in the world.
13:16
He's amazing. All character traits are come up
13:18
at some point later in the narrative.
13:20
So the feeding is all this info constantly, but it's always
13:22
engaging, which is one of the keys to writing a good first
13:25
act, I think, isn't it? Yeah.
13:26
Definitely. Tell you what though, Andy has
13:29
got some terrible toys. Buddy and Buzz are cool
13:31
obviously, but when I was a kid if I went to someones house and
13:34
they pulled out Little Boar peep Mr. Potato Head in a Piggy Bank,
13:38
I'd be like what's this shit? Where's the scale extric?
13:42
Look up Mr. Spell Mr. Spell. Where's he man?
13:45
What's this? You're welcome.
13:48
And then create in the background characters in Andy's
13:50
room Pixar land into real life. So we see a truck with a Little
13:54
Tikes logo on its side. And the Tinker toy container has
13:57
the play scale logo on it. And this actually wasn't product
14:00
placement. They did it add authenticity to
14:02
the world. And the companies didn't
14:04
actually pay anything. They just had to agree to it.
14:06
And the only toy that was made of by Pixar were the troikas,
14:09
which are the eggs that nest in each of the database on Russian
14:12
tea dolls. Yeah, that's great.
14:14
Small toys at the front and they all kind of come out of each
14:16
other. Yeah, yeah, The Troika I think
14:19
are the only toys from the film that were never released by toy
14:22
manufacturers in real life, right.
14:23
There's loads of people around the world have made their own
14:25
versions online. You can find them.
14:27
Vary in quality, obviously, obviously, but not a bad deal
14:31
for those toy brands. Is it free marketing a Disney
14:33
film? OK, Yeah.
14:35
Exactly, Yeah. We also see board games like
14:37
Operation Mousetrap. Twister is in there, All
14:40
bangers. Yeah, no bookeroo,
14:42
unfortunately. Seems a bit over and over.
14:44
He gets battleship as well, doesn't he?
14:46
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, he does. And.
14:47
Speaking of famous toys as well, in the original draft of the
14:50
script, one of the supporting characters was Barbie, but
14:53
Mattel wouldn't allow her to be used in the film.
14:54
Instead, she was replaced by Ball Peep, voiced by Annie
14:57
Potts, who was probably best known at the time for playing
14:59
Janine and Ghostbust. Yeah, she's got a bit of a
15:02
softer personality here, I think than he goes Busters.
15:05
Oh yeah, absolutely. No.
15:06
What do you want? I think Pixar also used Bo Peep
15:13
as a nod to one of their inspirations.
15:14
So in 1845 there was a Hans Christian Anderson fairy tale
15:17
called The Shepherdess and the Sheep.
15:19
OK, it's about a porcelain shepherdess that comes to life
15:21
when no one's around, like in Toy Story All.
15:24
Right, OK. And are bored people and what
15:26
are you doing it or what? What's going on there?
15:28
It's insinuated, isn't it? Let's be honest.
15:30
Really flirty. But if they are she's a bit crap
15:33
because she's like I found my moving buddy when Buzz heads up
15:35
and said what you do right for the buddy.
15:39
And in the background in Andy's room, there are lots of Pixar
15:41
references. When Woody's given his speech
15:43
during the meeting, we see a book on the shelf behind him
15:45
titled Smell, Smell, Twist and Twirl.
15:48
This is a reference to Elliot Smell, who was on the Pixar
15:51
modelling team, and the rebukes called Tin Toy, Knick Knack,
15:54
Red's Dream and Luxor Junior. And these are all the names of
15:57
the animated shorts that Pixar made in the 80s.
16:00
Yeah, Knick knack's been massive.
16:01
Brilliant that. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
16:03
Well, those early shorts were kind of Pixar's testing ground
16:06
for what they would become. Yeah, you can tell.
16:07
Yeah. Yeah, we'll talk about those a
16:09
bit more later. They've always been quite big on
16:11
immortalizing their unsung heroes.
16:12
Or Pixar. There's loads of references in
16:14
this that we'll talk about. Yeah, Yeah.
16:16
And that's our opening. You've got a friend in me, a toy
16:19
community led by Sheriff Woody, and a comfortable status quo for
16:22
now. If we know anything about
16:24
movies, that's not going to last long.
16:26
Nope. Definitely won't.
16:27
Should we meet the Space Ranger from Star Command who tears it
16:30
all apart then? Recon plan, Charlie.
16:32
Execute. We've met the toys and they
16:39
quickly have to hit panic stations when they find out that
16:42
Judith Davis's moving house, Andy's birthday party has been
16:45
moved forward a week. What do you call them?
16:47
The Book of the Soldiers and the Green Army men are deployed.
16:50
Ridiculous. They infiltrate the party and we
16:54
meet Andy's main present, Buzz Lightyear.
16:56
Space Ranger called Red Westy. Yep.
17:00
How's it all going for you? This bucket of soldiers is so,
17:04
so good, so clever. It's a short film in itself,
17:07
isn't it? Yeah, this idea is absolutely
17:09
huge, and the way that it's executed is incredibly well
17:12
done. From the baby monitor coming out
17:15
to them getting to the top of the banister and jumping.
17:17
I mean, who didn't throw army men off the stairs?
17:19
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then parachutes.
17:20
Never. Always.
17:23
Slam to the crowd. You had to open them first and
17:25
then pretend. But it's just some incredible
17:28
camera work here when they jump off the banister and then the
17:31
camera just comes over the top and then the parachutes open.
17:33
It's just that one fluid motion. Yeah, the skipping rope coming
17:36
down the more Absilon down a skipping rope.
17:38
I mean, there's nothing mixed out here.
17:39
They must sit a sat round northern.
17:41
He did absil down something. It could have been anything.
17:43
Everything works but the bit that gets me as it cuts back of
17:47
the room. Andy's mom stepped on one of
17:49
them, kicked them over. The amount of times your mom's
17:51
done that. I told him to pick their mobile.
17:53
Yeah. Yeah, that's really familiar.
17:54
Again. And like, they're not lying down
17:56
on the job. Smash cut of them lying down on
17:58
the job. They all get up inside who
18:01
didn't realize at the time. And then when you find out, it's
18:03
all they hear. Me, I've just laughed for about
18:05
45 minutes. That's incredible.
18:07
I thought it was just the frighteners that did it, and it
18:09
was like, no, it's even better. It's just absolute genius.
18:14
And then again how this is for all, just for all ages.
18:17
And then Mr. Potato was just like Mr. Potato Head.
18:21
He's horny as hell, isn't he really a potato head?
18:25
Be desperate for some attention. Who's the kid who brings the
18:29
fucking bed sheets? What's going on then?
18:31
Get out. Get out.
18:34
I've got your Buzz Lightyear. I've got you the bed sheets.
18:36
Well, that's rubbish, yeah. Rubbish then.
18:39
But I'll tell you what, I fucking love that.
18:40
Now. These are lovely.
18:43
Yeah, but yeah, I mean, it's just a great, great sequence.
18:46
Really engaged, really familiar. It's exactly how you play with
18:48
them army figures. It's exactly the kind of voices
18:50
you would want them to have. It's just fantastic stuff.
18:54
I think one of the most exciting parts of writing the film.
18:56
But Pixar must have been looking at ways that can use, like,
18:59
classic toys that they knew from their own childhoods in the
19:01
film. Yeah.
19:02
And this is a great example of a the Army man on a Recon mission
19:05
is such a great idea. Yeah.
19:07
And then Serge being, like, a good soldier never leaves a man
19:10
behind. And that they comes up with a
19:11
plot point between Buddy and Buzz.
19:13
So a bit foreshadowing as well. Yeah.
19:14
Yeah. I agree, Wesley.
19:15
I think the storytelling, it's just excellent.
19:17
It's great when Andy's mom pulls out a surprise gift at the last
19:21
minute. Always happens, yeah.
19:22
Yeah, yeah, you're. Always hoping for you're a kid
19:24
like today. Is Christmas really over?
19:28
Great how the baby monitor breaks up and saw just seeing
19:30
what's happening. Then Rex smashes it like a klutz
19:32
and they get the batteries back in there.
19:33
It's like shit Andys coming in the scatter.
19:36
The excitement that they put into that moment just by hitting
19:38
certain beats is just fantastic and I love it.
19:41
Obviously just a silhouette of Buzzard ship as Andy picks him
19:44
up. So we're like, what's that set
19:46
up? The arrival of Buzz perfectly.
19:48
So, as we've said, leader of the Green Army men is called Sarge,
19:51
and as Wesley pointed out, he's inspired by Gunnery Sergeant
19:54
Hartman from Full Metal Jacket, played by Ali Ermi.
19:57
So when they were looking for voice actor, John Luster asked
20:00
Ermi to play the part needed. Except.
20:02
Yeah, you can hear his voice of my love going.
20:04
Yeah, clearly. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
20:06
The dialogues torn down a bit before Metal Jacket, thankfully.
20:08
Just a little bit. I would have loved to have seen
20:10
some outtakes where he's actually gone at it.
20:13
He could have dressed down every single toy in there.
20:15
Easily could. He would have been amazing, but
20:17
he come up with, I would love that numb nuts.
20:20
And like we said, the animation team was struggling to create
20:23
the movement of the Green Army men.
20:24
So they nailed a pair of shoes to a sheet of wood and walked
20:27
around with them on. And that's how they came up with
20:29
the way that the walk and the way that the jump and all the
20:32
ways that move, which I think is absolutely perfect.
20:34
Brilliant method animation that, yeah.
20:36
Yeah, great. You can see footage of them
20:37
online that picks officers in Point Richmond leaping about.
20:40
Yeah, in those shoes, what a terrible job.
20:42
I'd love that. Job.
20:43
Oh yeah. Great.
20:45
It looks fantastic. Yeah, it.
20:46
Does look really good, yeah, yeah.
20:48
Yes. And we've met Buzz.
20:49
And then we get this great sequence where you realize just
20:52
how much Buzz has taken Woody's place in this world.
20:55
And at first you think it's OK because you see Andy still
20:58
playing with Woody. But then you realize, actually,
21:00
Woody is now the victim or the villain and all the scenarios
21:03
that Andy is coming up with, and Buzz is the hero and he's the
21:07
one having to be rescued. And he's not doing the rescuer
21:09
now. So he's definitely in second
21:11
place. And it's also a thing, just a
21:12
great way to move the film along in terms of the passage of time,
21:15
you know, seeing the pauses get replaced on the wall.
21:18
There's that great shot where the camera pulls back to reveal
21:20
Andy now has that Buzz bedspread.
21:23
Brilliant. Yeah.
21:23
And Woody is just horrified by it.
21:25
So it's great storytelling. And even Woody's friends, who he
21:28
could rely on, it taken by this guy.
21:30
Buzz has got them helping with the spaceship repairs.
21:32
He's got them doing the exercises with him, which I
21:34
think is really funny. Buzz has helped Rex get much
21:37
scarier, which is great. And then there's that really
21:39
funny one where you see Buzz scratching Slinky's chin and
21:42
then you panel on to see his wagon tail just whacking Woody
21:45
in the face. Pissed off with.
21:47
This he's even taking. His dog from him, pushing him
21:50
off the bed. Yeah, pushing him off the bed.
21:52
You know, I mean, no one's attending the plastic erosion to
21:55
wear this seminar with buzz on the scene anymore.
21:57
That's. Not happening now.
21:58
So it's really moving the plot along well.
22:00
The song is great, which is obviously common to hitting on
22:02
the action, which is really clever.
22:04
This is how you do a great montage.
22:06
Yeah, another Randy Newman banger.
22:07
Was Strange Things playing? Yeah, I like how it's very much
22:10
from what's point of view, even though he's not necessarily
22:12
right and this perception of what's happening and the lyrics
22:14
kind of reflect that as well. And the montage doesn't just
22:17
show Buzz taking what he's place in and his eyes, he's
22:20
encroaching on what he's placed in the community by, Yeah,
22:22
teaching the toys or the things the toys do, which anyone can
22:25
relate to. Yeah.
22:26
Sibling rivalry or friendship groups, Those themes are very
22:29
much explored within the world of setting of being a toy.
22:32
But the universal themes, really.
22:34
Yeah. I think that's the Pixar genius
22:35
kind of right there, finding that real world relatability in
22:39
pretty much everything they do. Yeah, the introduction of Buzz
22:42
is probably my favorite moments in the film.
22:44
I think the visuals are like genius.
22:46
The first time we'll see him, we'll start with Woody peering
22:48
over the bed at something, then in one shot we move back through
22:51
Buzz's legs and then pan open for the big reveal.
22:55
Perfect. If Spielberg got Scorsese did
22:57
that, we'd be having a panic attack about it.
23:00
And originally after Woody opens Buzz's helmet and Buzz
23:03
suffocating, Woody was supposed to be worried that Buzz was
23:06
actually dying. But doing some early tests, John
23:08
Lester saw a version where Buzz was choking but Woody was just
23:12
stood there because they hadn't animated him yet and he thought
23:14
it looked funny, so he asked him to change it to Woody to stand
23:16
in there. Right.
23:18
It is good that, But yeah, it is.
23:19
It always kind of blows me away when animations can make you
23:21
laugh with visual comedy. Yeah, take some serious skill
23:25
that. It does, yeah.
23:26
I mean, Disney has been masters of that for years, but Pixar
23:28
pick up the button no problem was his reaction when Woody
23:31
opened his helmet is still funny.
23:34
And you're mocking me, aren't you?
23:36
Yeah, great. That's not a good line.
23:37
Yeah, it's a great line. And that's the opening active
23:39
Toy Story. We've met our leads, seen Woody
23:42
as Andy's favorite, and then see him knocked off his purge by the
23:45
arrival of Buzz Lightyear. We should turn our attention to
23:48
the man who led bringing the toys to life for a bit.
23:50
Do you think? Should indeed.
23:52
Yeah, let's do it, was the director.
24:00
John Lasseter was the director of Toy Story.
24:02
Having started his career at Disney as an animator before
24:05
being fired, Lasseter found himself at the forefront of
24:07
computer generated animation with Pixar.
24:10
He directed several acclaimed short films in the 80s,
24:13
including Luxor, Junior and Tin Toy, before being handed the
24:16
keys to the Big One, his debut feature in Toy Story.
24:20
Before we get too far with John Lasseter, we should probably
24:23
mention that his Pixar and Disney career ended kind of in
24:26
shame when he left the company in 2018 following allegations of
24:29
sexual misconduct. Idiotic.
24:32
We talk Toy Story, so won't be going into detail on that.
24:35
I still think it important to at least acknowledge to some level.
24:39
Yeah, but Matt, on that bombshell.
24:41
Yeah, thanks. Pick it all back up.
24:43
Get the joy back. Yeah.
24:44
Thanks for that. Got the right man Yeah, we.
24:47
Absolutely. Matt, how's your Lasseter's
24:49
workers Toy Story? I mean, the job that he has on
24:52
his hands here, it's unlike anything else anyone's ever
24:55
done. And he has to lead everyone to
24:58
an incredible degree behind one vision.
25:00
He has to Marshall this team of animators.
25:03
He has to make sure they believe in him and this project because
25:07
undoubtedly there would have been days where they thought
25:09
this isn't working, the technology there, this can't be
25:12
done. He's the guy that has to pick
25:14
them up. Go no, keep the faith, it will
25:16
work. We can't do this.
25:18
And at the same time that he's pushing the animation, he's got
25:21
to get that story right as well. There's something I think we're
25:23
going to come back to. This is so well written in terms
25:26
of character, in terms of plot, and he's the one that's got to
25:28
remind them. There's got to be hard behind
25:30
the graphics. It's genuinely the work of a
25:32
visionary, the way he just pushes everyone and harnesses
25:35
everyone. He gets everyone to buy into a
25:37
film being made in a way no other film has been made-up
25:41
until this point. And it could have been a
25:42
disaster. This could have been such folly.
25:45
It could have been technological advancement of a story.
25:47
And the fact that it isn't, I think that comes down the last
25:50
day, taking all that pressure on his shoulders, having to have
25:53
that answer to everything. And I'm sure there were many,
25:55
many questions along the way. And he's the guy that's got to
25:58
have a definite answer to everything.
25:59
And he's having to believe in something that people can't even
26:02
see yet. And somehow, all that pressure,
26:04
all that strain, it's nowhere to be found in the film.
26:07
Yeah. Absolutely, Yeah.
26:08
I mean, when you're talking directorial debuts, this has to
26:11
be up there. It has to be.
26:13
Yeah. To find another film maker who's
26:14
made a movie this significant, this influential on their first
26:17
attempt, you might be going back to Orson Welles, Citizen Kane,
26:21
1941. You might have to, yeah.
26:23
Yeah, I think that's the scale of the achievement.
26:25
George Lucas isn't it. It's that scale.
26:27
Star Wars, it is. It's that big.
26:29
Absolutely. Yeah.
26:29
I mean, the reason Toy Story is so beloved isn't because it was
26:32
groundbreaking, necessarily. It's because of the great
26:34
creative work. What are You and Boys are Great
26:36
leads? Brandy Newman's music, The Great
26:38
storytelling, it still stands up decades later, is an
26:41
entertaining and engaging film. I think.
26:43
I mean, that's a fee in itself, and we'll talk about it.
26:46
But when you add in that nobody had ever made a fully CGI
26:49
animated feature before, yeah, it's kind of hard to comprehend
26:52
and convey it. I think the scale of what lasted
26:54
and Pixar pulled off. Yeah.
26:55
Yeah. I mean, like you're saying,
26:57
Matt, animators and computer programmers working together on
27:00
this kind of scale, it was pretty much an alien concept at
27:02
the time. And to make that work, I know
27:04
last I came up with a philosophy that was apparently drummed into
27:07
everyone at Pixar, which was the art challenges the technology,
27:10
and the technology inspires the art.
27:13
So the thing was always the art and the technology is able to
27:15
support that and enhance it. The thing was, the people
27:19
creating the animations were like technologists.
27:21
They weren't necessarily artists.
27:23
So lastly, they had to work with these people and guide them
27:25
through the language of storytelling, the language of
27:27
film. So they were learning as they
27:28
went, and you can't tell at all. No, no, I think Toy Story's
27:32
understanding of visual storytelling is about as good as
27:35
it gets. It doesn't look the first of its
27:37
kind from that point of view, but it was nobody done this
27:40
before. So there was so much that I had
27:42
to learn coming up with just like work flows and processes to
27:44
get everything done on time and to the world fast level.
27:47
The one did going into this massive project and they were
27:49
fully away that didn't know the potential black holes and this
27:53
kind of thing because no one had done it before.
27:55
Yeah. I mean, it wasn't all John.
27:56
Last night. The whole Pixar team played a
27:57
huge role. I think the producers Bonnie
27:59
Arnold and Ralph Guggenheim to save loads of credit.
28:02
And it is a massive shame the last that seemed to spoil his
28:05
legacy with his antics later on. But that doesn't change that
28:08
this is still an astonishing piece of work.
28:10
And all this was done when they were treading new ground.
28:13
It makes Toy Story one of Hollywood's great achievements
28:15
for me. I think the reason that this
28:18
works so well is because like you guys both touched on, this
28:21
wasn't a singular vision. I think there was a lot of
28:23
people attached to this. Therefore a lot of people would
28:25
have been excited about it. And if you have people who are
28:27
excited about something, Oh yeah and see it on this scale.
28:31
And I think the great thing for Lasseter direct in this is that
28:34
you would have seen it gradually really see the introduction of
28:36
the world that gets done. You see it, you will.
28:38
Yes, wait until you see buzz that turn up that gets.
28:41
Good. Imagine.
28:41
Yeah, Yeah. And all the way to the end, it's
28:43
just every scene is more and more exciting as the story
28:46
progresses. So if the to work on it
28:47
chronologically, they're going to see a scene and go, that's
28:50
amazing. And I think it's that energy
28:52
that carries you through the film, but it's also that energy
28:55
that carried everyone through the making process.
28:57
Everyone had an input into it. And you can feel that this is
29:00
written by a team of people who all agree with the tone, all
29:03
agree with the themes, all agree with the inspirations.
29:06
I mean, there's so much in here. There's Spielberg in here,
29:08
there's Hitchcock in here. There's, there's so much.
29:10
There's action films all the way back.
29:12
You know, it really is this collaborative effort, but
29:15
someone does have to lead it. And I think that is Lasseter's
29:17
job. And to his credit, I think he's
29:20
just a very, very good organizer of people and just has that
29:24
singular vision of what it is and what it is all together.
29:27
He's the only one looking at the bigger picture, whereas all of
29:31
the animators are just looking at 1 frame at a time.
29:33
Yeah. And if they lose focus, he goes,
29:35
don't worry, it's going to be amazing because I can sing it
29:37
all. So you have to have somebody who
29:39
steps back and sees the bigger picture and leads everyone
29:41
through it. So it really, really works and
29:43
it makes it accessible for all ages because it is so
29:45
collaborative. Last at the lead in that
29:48
somebody has to do it. He did it really, really good
29:50
job. But to me, this feels like a
29:51
whole building full of people all pull in the same direction,
29:54
all rule in the same shape. Everyone's in time, everybody's
29:57
working and the last has beaten the drum.
29:59
The love for what they're doing jumps off the screen still.
30:02
Just the excitement for what they're achieving.
30:04
If you're trying to get something, it's born in front of
30:06
your eyes. You've got to say, I'm rendering
30:08
these 362 frames tonight. Yeah.
30:10
You come back the next day, you sit with a cup of coffee and you
30:12
see them frames rendered and you go.
30:14
It works. Yeah.
30:15
So you buzz move for the first time or something, Yeah.
30:17
It must have been unbelievable. So we can't tell the story of
30:21
Toy Story without kind of telling the story of how Pixar
30:24
came to be. The two tales are intertwined
30:27
and mad. I think you're chomping in a bit
30:28
to tell us all about that. Like I've never been before.
30:33
Yeah. Put some gusto on that.
30:36
So. Yes, the first film to ever
30:38
feature a full computer animated sequence.
30:40
That was 1982's Star Trek 2, The Wrath of Khan, which he
30:44
obviously loved John because that used CGI to create the
30:47
simulation of the Genesis effect and this was done by Lucasfilm
30:50
and by 1985 that created the first ever fully CGI character
30:54
in a film when they created the stained glass night in young
30:57
Sherlock Holmes. That's right.
31:00
If you've not seen that night, check it out.
31:01
It still holds up. It does be good, right?
31:04
And even going back, the 1973 Westworld incorporated basic CGI
31:08
graphics and Tron 1982 as well. Obviously another John Lasseter
31:12
is the first time you saw Tron. He knew it was the future,
31:15
right? And believe it or not, this is
31:17
not the last time we're going to mention Star Trek 2 with the
31:19
wrath of God, I'm sure. All the last podcasts we're
31:23
going to fucking mention on. And that CGI division of
31:28
Lucasfilm was called the Graphics Group.
31:30
And at that time Steve Jobs had just left Apple and he saw CGI's
31:33
The Next Big Thing and bought the Graphics Group from
31:36
Lucasfilm for $5,000,000. He rebranded it, called it Pixar
31:40
Animation Studios, and the goal was creating the first ever
31:43
fully CGI feature film. Pixar's a much better name.
31:46
Surely? Much better name.
31:48
The graphics group. Do you think George Lucas
31:50
regretted selling it later on? He must have.
31:53
He'd love Toy Story on his TV, wouldn't he?
31:55
Yeah. Yeah, I think.
31:57
So it wouldn't. And then, after he'd been fired
31:59
as an animator by Disney in 1983, Lassiter got a job at the
32:02
graphics group. He became one of the driving
32:04
forces of Pixar and directed most of their first projects
32:07
which were animated shorts like Luxor, Junior Red Stream and
32:11
Knick Knack. So Luxor Junior, that's the
32:14
Pixar lamp. You know, the desk lamp that
32:16
hops about on their logo identity?
32:18
Yeah, and looks so Junior. Also features the ball from Toy
32:21
Story, the yellow one with the orange star that buzz like
32:24
bounces on. Yeah, it was 1986.
32:26
Looks so Junior and that still holds up as well.
32:28
It still looks good. Yeah, it does does great.
32:31
And then in 1988 lasted it directed Tin Toy, and that's a
32:34
short film about a tin toy soldier trying to escape an
32:37
angry baby. It was the first CGI film to win
32:39
an Oscar Best animated Short. Yeah, I think it was at this
32:43
point that people began to take notes of Pixar.
32:45
It was like, hang on, this is a bit new and it looks really
32:49
good. Yeah, well, one of the companies
32:51
taking notice was Disney, who had fight last five years
32:54
earlier. They often dropped to go back
32:56
and work for them and head up their CGI animation division.
32:58
But he said no and decided to stay at Pixar.
33:02
Yeah, apparently, he said to Ed Catmull, 1 of Pixar's Co
33:04
founders, something like I could go to Disney and be a director
33:07
or I could stay here and make history.
33:10
So they did know where things were headed.
33:12
Like you were saying, Westie, they knew how exciting it was
33:14
what they were doing. Yeah, CGI animation division.
33:18
Imagine going to have a war against them guys.
33:21
No threat whatsoever with the CGI animation division, so just
33:26
loads of bags of crisps. But Disney was so keen on
33:31
working with Pixar that they offered them a deal of $26
33:34
million to produce 3 CGI animated features.
33:37
Pixar were going through some financial struggles at the time,
33:40
so I accepted the deal and said they wanted the first film in
33:43
the deal to be Toy Story. Right.
33:46
So before 1993, every Disney film had been produced entirely
33:49
in house by themselves. But then they worked with Tim
33:52
Burton on The Nightmare Before Christmas.
33:54
Yes. When that was a success, that
33:56
became open to the idea of making deals with other studios
33:58
like Pixar. And the rest is kind of history,
34:01
yeah. Yeah, so Disney initially set a
34:04
budget at $17 million, but that had to increase.
34:08
Pixar did a 32nd animation test as proof of concept and realized
34:11
they had massively underestimated what was
34:13
involved. Steve Jobs and Ed Campbell went
34:16
back to Disney and told them the budget had to be 30 million and
34:19
Disney agreed. Through gritted teeth, no doubt.
34:24
Yeah, Steve Jobs, he's got a way of talking to people.
34:26
He's very persuasive, I guess. Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure.
34:29
Yeah. Well, last I said that, Steve
34:30
Jobs told him don't hold back. You've got a chance to do
34:32
something. Yeah.
34:33
That'll last forever. Yeah, exactly.
34:35
He knows a thing or two about that.
34:36
And absolutely, it turns out he was kind of right.
34:38
Yeah, yeah, enough to spend in the next few months working on
34:41
the film. Pixar presented their first
34:43
draft of Toy Story to Disney in November 93, but it went so
34:46
badly that it's become known within Pixar as Black Friday.
34:50
Disney said the film was watchable and that Woody was a
34:53
sarcastic jerk, and we're ready to just shut down production
34:56
entirely, right? You've had a few Black Fridays
34:59
and see him, I bet, Matt. Oh, more than one.
35:01
Yeah. Every Friday.
35:03
Definitely being a sarcastic jerk.
35:07
There is footage of the Black Friday version of Toy Story out
35:09
there and it is pretty bad. Woody looks quite a bit
35:12
different and worse than what we know now, and he is a bit of an
35:15
asshole to the other toys. It feels like really mean
35:17
spirited. Yeah, really, right.
35:20
Well, Laster then asked Disney to give them time to rewrite the
35:23
script before they made a decision.
35:25
Disney agreed as long as Pixar paid for it.
35:27
So Steve Jobs had to fund all the rewrites personally.
35:30
Laster and his team sort of putting in 100 hour work weeks
35:34
where they redo storyboards, attended storytelling seminars,
35:37
and rewrote the script almost entirely changing the tone and
35:41
making Woody more likeable. Yeah, they attended Robert McKee
35:44
seminars, apparently. You know, storytelling.
35:47
Yeah, I've read a couple of his books.
35:49
Yeah. I didn't realize he played a
35:50
part in Toy Story. Wow.
35:52
And we'll talk more about somebody that changes in a bit.
35:54
There was quite a few, but imagine the stress of that whole
35:56
situation. 100 hour workweek, mental.
36:00
No fans. That's impossible.
36:02
Yeah. Definitely is.
36:04
Last time I saw Toy Story as a pretty personal project and he
36:07
brought in a few elements from his own childhood toys.
36:10
When he was a kid he had Casper the Friendly ghost doll which he
36:12
had like a pulse string as a talking feature that influenced
36:15
the same feature on Woody. And he also loved Etcher sketch
36:18
as a kid, which is why etches in the film.
36:20
Yeah, I love that. Always shit the hell out of it
36:22
clear on the screen. Etch draw.
36:27
Brilliant. Laster also said that he used to
36:30
write Johnny on all of his own toys, which is where the idea of
36:33
Andy writing his name on Woody and Boz came from.
36:35
Right? OK.
36:36
Right. Before we finish up on John
36:38
Laster and this direction on Toy Story, we have our first ATRM
36:41
Patreon question. OK, so the benefits of becoming
36:44
an ATRM Patreon keep rolling in and one of them is that will
36:47
answer your questions on the show.
36:49
We have the first of those now, and it comes from Roger poor
36:52
Doctor. Hello, Roger.
36:54
Hello, Roger. Which sounds a bit like Roger
36:56
Podcaster it. Does.
36:58
Yeah. Roger says fun to finally get
37:01
into the arena of animated movies.
37:03
Very true. Roger.
37:05
Wondering what each of you say is your favorite animated movie
37:07
of all time? My choice would be Disney's
37:10
classic version of Robin Hood. All right.
37:12
The voice acting is outstanding, it's hilarious, and Maid Marion
37:15
is 1 hot. Fox she is.
37:17
He's not wrong. Again, very true, Roger.
37:19
I love that badminton scene. What do you think, Matt?
37:23
Your favorite animated movie? Oh, where to start?
37:26
I'll try and make this quick. If we're talking Pixar, I think
37:30
Up, Wally, Inside Out, Coco, Monsters, Zinc.
37:33
They are top tier. Studio.
37:35
Shapely, we have to talk about them.
37:36
Spirited Away, that's a real favorite of mine.
37:38
Yeah, different kind of animation, but I have to mention
37:41
Artman with Wallace and Gromit, particularly The Wrong Trousers
37:45
because that packs more ingenuity and genuinely great
37:48
action and hard into 30 minutes more than most of the 2 1/2 hour
37:52
blockbusters. Yeah, yeah, and it's hilarious.
37:54
And it's hilarious. It's fantastic.
37:56
Robot dreams, which if you watch it, that will break your heart
37:59
into 1000 pieces. Fantastic.
38:01
Have you seen it? I've seen it, yeah.
38:03
Brilliant. But Roger mentioned Robin Hood
38:05
there, which I totally agree. I've always loved that since I
38:07
was a kid. It's so funny.
38:08
The songs are great. I love The Jungle Book for
38:11
pretty much exactly the same reasons, but if I have to pick
38:13
just one. I was going to say all of this.
38:17
This is like me answering the question totally rubbing off on
38:20
you here. If I had to pick just one note
38:21
to represent what this medium can do brilliantly, a would go
38:24
classic Disney and I'd have to see a Dumbo.
38:26
Nice. Just because that's got emotion,
38:29
it's got hilarity and it's got psychedelic sequences in it as
38:32
well, all in 60 minutes. It's.
38:34
Brilliant. And a flying elephant, I mean.
38:36
What more do you want? Yeah, Toy Story would be in that
38:39
conversation for me, as with Toy Story Two.
38:41
Yeah, I love classic Disney in the 100 animations.
38:44
And yeah, The Jungle Book, The Lion King, Up Brilliant, Snow
38:46
White and the Seven Dwarfs. That was groundbreaking.
38:48
Yeah. My favorite in terms of how it
38:49
looks is probably 101 Dalmatians.
38:52
Yeah, the animations are stunning, right?
38:53
Yeah. Yeah, still holds up.
38:55
But yeah, it does, yeah, really good.
38:57
I also think Pixar basically like storytelling geniuses, as I
39:00
keep saying, and they've done loads of incredible stuff.
39:02
Finding Nemo as a joy Court War totally blew me away when I saw
39:06
that. Yeah, it's amazing.
39:07
Yeah. And yeah, I agreement Studio
39:08
will give Lee. Spirited Away is extraordinary.
39:11
No spoilers, but watch it if you haven't seen it.
39:13
Great with the Fireflies. If you've seen that award drama.
39:16
One of the most harrowing things you could ever see.
39:19
Yeah, yeah. And from anime.
39:20
Akira, obviously. Massively influential.
39:22
Still one of the coolest films I've ever seen.
39:24
And the most copied shot of a motorbike slide they will ever
39:27
be, surely. Yeah, yeah.
39:30
And Rusty, how about you with animations?
39:32
I mean is there any left? Should have killed you first,
39:36
shouldn't I? Sorry.
39:37
No, I've only got 3. One of them is me being like,
39:40
well Wesley, what's your favorite animation?
39:42
It would be great with the fireflies of.
39:45
Course it would. Yeah, because it was one that
39:49
really, really hit home for me, was inside out.
39:52
I thought that was just so intelligent, so well made, so
39:54
important. And even the second one as well,
39:56
you know, teenage daughter makes perfect sense.
39:58
She watches that. She feels better about herself.
40:00
We all feel better about everything that's going on.
40:02
It really, really works. And the other one the Blues were
40:05
is Ratatouille. I never, I never get sick of
40:07
that guy. Oh.
40:08
Yeah, great. I never get sick of that film.
40:10
It's fantastic. Just when he eats it at the end
40:12
and he goes back to his childhood and then comes back
40:14
again. Yeah, brilliant.
40:16
Absolutely inspired. Yeah, Them 3 for me.
40:18
Lovely. Well, back to John Last Dad and
40:20
Toy Story and despite the ground breaking work, there was no
40:23
Oscar recognition in the Best Director or Best Picture
40:26
categories. Probably unsurprising, but do
40:28
you know what wasn't that yet? Same film for both.
40:31
Which is 96. Braveheart.
40:34
It was Mel Gibson, Best director, Best picture to
40:37
Braveheart. Toy Story's probably a bit more
40:39
realistic. Factually accurate, yeah.
40:43
Factually accurate, yeah. John Lass I did, though, receive
40:45
a special achievement Academy Award for They said it inspired
40:48
leadership of the Pixar Toy Story team, resulting in the
40:51
first feature length computer animated film.
40:54
Yeah, yeah. It was the first animated film
40:56
to get an award like that since Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,
40:58
also Disney in 1937. Wow.
41:00
Yeah. And that was their first, wasn't
41:01
it? So it's a first for everybody.
41:03
Yeah, Yeah. And after Toy Story, Pixar last
41:06
that went from strength to strength.
41:07
Last that I looked at the second Pixar feature film, A Bug's
41:10
Life, in 1998. And Pixar went on to produce hit
41:13
after hit and become one of the most beloved and successful
41:16
studios in Hollywood. And it all started with Toy
41:19
Story. Yep.
41:20
It really did, and I also like Shrek.
41:24
Nobody mentioned that. Don't care the.
41:30
Cast. John Lasseter was making history
41:34
with Toy Story, and he had a stellar voice cast to help bring
41:37
the plastic characters to life. We're about to dive in the
41:40
detail on our two main leads. That's Tim Allen's Space Ranger,
41:44
Buzz Lightyear, but we're better to start than with the old
41:47
sheriff himself. Definitely.
41:49
Yeah, definitely. So Tom Angus plays Woody, a Paul
41:52
string cowboy doll who's been Andy's favorite toy for years.
41:56
The leader in Andy's room? Woody's life's turned upside
41:58
down when Buzz Lightyear arrives.
42:00
We watch Woody's struggles with jealousy and attempted murder.
42:04
Outrageous. Before you change us to learn
42:07
the true value of friendship. Yes, a sad, strange little man,
42:11
Matt, but thanks. How was Woody and Tom Hanks?
42:13
Not you, OK. That sounded really loaded that
42:16
I. Really did.
42:17
Like Woody in the original cut. Black Friday, John, what a
42:21
bastard. Sarcastic jerk.
42:25
I think if you're launching an entirely new genre of animation
42:29
and you need someone on board to help you sell it, be the literal
42:32
leader. In many ways, it makes complete
42:36
sense. In the 90s, you get Tom Hanks to
42:37
do it. I mean, the single most
42:39
dependable, trustworthy actor out there.
42:42
Absolutely believe that he would be the voice of a cowboy doll,
42:45
absolutely believe he would be your boy's best friend, and
42:47
absolutely believe he would be the leader of the rest of the
42:50
toys. But what I love about Woody, and
42:52
This is why he's such a great character, all that
42:54
dependability goes straight out the window as soon as Buzz
42:57
arrives on the scene. He's such a petty little man.
43:00
As soon as Buzz turns getting in, all those little digs at
43:04
Buzz's name, calling them light beer and light snack.
43:08
Light snack, I love that. That's so funny.
43:11
Making jealousy his defining trait for most of the time is so
43:14
effective at one thing driving the narrative because it's easy
43:18
for kids to understand that they know what it's like to be
43:20
jealous. And when it's all coming out of
43:22
the mouth of Tom Hanks, you don't judge Woody for it.
43:24
No, he is in the wrong, but you also understand why he behaves
43:27
like that. I think it's perfect casting
43:29
getting Hanks in. Yeah.
43:31
It is, yeah. I think Woody's like the heart
43:32
of the film to me. And really his argues he learns
43:35
to compromise, essentially a theme that you might say is
43:38
something aimed at children. But I've met more than a few
43:40
adults who benefit from the lessons of what he does, to be
43:42
honest. He learns that he doesn't have
43:45
to have others dependence or obedience to have their respect.
43:48
He does have some not so great character at the beginning.
43:50
He's controlling a bit, power hungry, quite selfish.
43:53
And he's not like that by the end.
43:55
And I think it's a perfectly plotted arc done bit by bit.
43:59
Even at the start, though, what he has to be likable to some
44:01
extent. So he is redeemable.
44:02
So who bad a cast? And Tom Hanks, one of our most
44:05
popular actors. And this was the first time he'd
44:07
done voice acting in an animation.
44:09
But it doesn't show. No, not at all.
44:11
I think there's something in Hanks, his voice that always
44:14
kind of radiates decency to me, even when he is being petty with
44:18
balls. Like you're saying, Matt, I
44:19
never dislike Woody no, and I think it's an anxious delivery
44:22
when he's like both like an alien where ridiculous when all
44:27
these created comedy. Obviously I like it when the
44:29
shark has Woody's had on and he's like howdy howdy howdy and
44:32
Woody does the most sarcastic laugh I've ever heard.
44:39
It's great. My kids love that.
44:42
That's his favorite bit. Give me that.
44:46
And you can do drama Hanks by the end when Woody goes back to
44:49
save Buzz. Totally bias, totally sold on
44:51
the transformation. And they give us a better plot
44:54
arc in 80 more minutes than 99% in movies do in two hours or
44:57
more. Yeah, exactly.
44:59
I think Woody's one of Hollywood's great animated
45:01
characters. And the Tim, the Tom Hanks, one
45:03
of the great roles in a great career, I think.
45:05
Yeah. I think it's really important
45:07
that the cast, both of the leads around the same age because the
45:12
dynamic between them is so fresh and so exciting, even though
45:16
that dynamic is really old fashioned, You know, the cowboy
45:19
and the spaceman. Yeah.
45:20
Yeah. If Disney had done this story
45:22
like after Snow White, late 40s early 50s, James Stewart would
45:26
have been Woody. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
45:28
He's the next best person to do that, 95 Tom Hanks, obviously,
45:31
and that's what he brings to it. It's that classic charisma and
45:35
that classic charm. But through the film you see him
45:37
mature and grow and he learns as much as everybody else does.
45:41
I mean, he's got a great plan. We'll get to the end of it, but
45:43
that plans absolutely incredible.
45:45
It's unbelievable. It's.
45:46
Unbelievable that it that it works, but I think like you
45:49
said, I think the the range of Hanks here is kind of forgotten
45:53
about. And I think the impact of the
45:55
film, at the end of the day, it didn't need Tom Hanks.
45:57
It was just a bonus that it was Hanks, really.
46:00
Yeah, it doesn't need him, does it?
46:01
Doesn't. Need that.
46:02
I don't think it needs him at all.
46:03
It needs him for that range and the range that he brings to me,
46:06
because it doesn't feel like it's a classic Tom Hanks
46:07
performance. It feels like he's very loose
46:09
and he's doing whatever is needed for the character and he
46:12
becomes Woody. It's a completely different
46:15
performance. I think he changes his voice, he
46:16
changes his persona, and he becomes the character, and
46:19
that's what Tom Hanks is really, really great at doing.
46:21
But again, it's got that really traditional vibe, that all
46:23
American vibe, that good guy, and Hanks nails all of that
46:27
really, really well. It's really well done.
46:29
Brilliant performance. Absolutely.
46:31
But originally the main character in Toy Sobby wasn't
46:34
going to be Woody, he was going to be Tinny, the drummer boy
46:36
leading tin toy that we talked about.
46:38
But lastly, I realized Tinny was just too old fashioned a toy to
46:41
resonate with audiences in the 90s so changed to his space
46:45
based all. Right, yeah, I think the story
46:47
was apparently that Tinny had been taken on a family vacation
46:50
with his owners and then got left behind it at rest stop and
46:52
they got found by a junk man. He escapes and ends up at a
46:55
children's play home where you'll never, like, grow out of
46:58
favour, right? So some of the themes in the
47:00
Beats were there from the start, but it did change a lot.
47:02
But that story sounds kind of like Toy Story 3 with the
47:05
children's play home. And a bit like 4 as well.
47:07
Yeah, and a bit like 4, like a lot of the themes that they came
47:10
up with weren't thrown away, they were just put on the shelf
47:12
because they're all good ideas. Yeah, it does this work for
47:15
this. That just couldn't fit them all
47:17
in one. Exactly.
47:18
Yeah. So they're cherry picking
47:19
exactly what works, and that's why this film's that good.
47:21
They're not scared to say no to an idea.
47:23
Yeah, Yeah. And then the Woody character was
47:25
then going to be ventriloquist dummy.
47:27
And it was a Pixar designer called Bud Lucky who suggested
47:29
the last day that they change Woody to a cowboy doll.
47:32
One of the reasons was because the thought a cowboy doll would
47:35
contrast well with the more modern space figure they already
47:37
had. Yeah, yeah.
47:39
Doing research, it's difficult to pinpoint exactly when these
47:42
changes were made, but the Black Friday incident we talked about,
47:44
that played a big part. Yeah.
47:46
Apparently in that version, would he deliberately push both
47:49
out the window? And I mean, it's hard to come
47:51
back from that. It's a little bit like get out.
47:54
It's more like Chucky. What's next?
47:56
Like a lasso around his neck and just throw it over the curtain
47:59
ball? It's to pull them up.
48:01
I poisoned the water hole. You piece of shit.
48:06
And the first designs of Woody still look like eventual crystal
48:09
with this mouth separated. But you can see the concept are
48:11
gradually changing what we know now.
48:13
Yeah, yeah, I think it looks really good, Woody.
48:16
Yeah. Massive head, huge head, And
48:20
there's a shot early on when Woody's on the bed talking with
48:22
Slinky. There's a drawing on the wall
48:23
behind him of a cowboy. That's early concept art for
48:26
Woody. Right.
48:27
Great. And it's never mentioned in the
48:29
film, but the editor on the film, Lee Unkrich, he later said
48:32
Woody's surname is Pride, which is something picks on you early
48:35
on. And that's inspired by Woody
48:37
Strode, a real life NFL footballer turned actor.
48:40
Right, yeah. I think it was a bit of a
48:42
trailblazer in terms of being a black player in the NFL, what he
48:45
strode. And he was in loads of films as
48:46
well. He was in Spartacus.
48:47
He was, yeah. And he was in westerns, which I
48:49
guess inspired Woody, the man who shot Liberty Violence, Once
48:52
Upon a Time in the West. The Crook and the Dead was his
48:54
last film. All right.
48:55
Yeah, he's great in that as well.
48:56
So once I had the concept set of the two leads being a cowboy and
48:59
a space Ranger, Pixar knew who they wanted to voice them.
49:02
They wanted Paul Newman to play Woody and Jim Carrey do the
49:04
Voice of Buzz, but couldn't afford the salaries.
49:07
Course, I couldn't imagine Kerry ludicrous flailing arms
49:11
everywhere. Robin Williams was the genie in
49:14
Aladdin. It would have just been like so
49:16
much ad Lib. Yeah, you need to stick to this
49:18
script, Jim. I mean, Robin Williams is
49:19
brilliant as the genie. Of that change the animation for
49:22
what you just don't yeah. But yeah, I think Newman and
49:27
Kerry were apparently to reflect the idea of old Hollywood being
49:29
taken over by newer Hollywood, which is a good idea, to be
49:32
fair. It's a great idea, yeah.
49:34
And Pauline was in cause a few years later, so the budget must
49:36
have went up obviously. Yeah, his salary went down,
49:39
Yeah. Yeah, maybe.
49:41
But last I only ever wondered Tom Hanks to play Woody, but
49:44
Hanks was one of the biggest stars in Hollywood at the time
49:46
and had never done an animation before so wasn't sure about
49:49
doing it. So to convince him last, I had a
49:51
short proof of concept made, which was a short film of Woody
49:54
animated to some of Hanks's dialogue from Turner and Hooch
49:57
and Ron Hanks saw that it just convinced him it could work and
49:59
he was straight in. Oh, nice.
50:00
Yeah. Yeah, I've seen that the
50:02
dialogue from Turner and Hooch is the Don't eat the car.
50:06
But. Yeah, Yeah, yeah, right.
50:08
What do you like hitting the ground?
50:09
It's really fun, right? So Hanks was already signed up
50:12
to work on 4 films and had to figure out where to fit in Toy
50:15
Story. He didn't want to record a comic
50:17
role while he was making Philadelphia.
50:18
I mean, obviously, yeah, imagine that.
50:21
He shouldn't lose this in Jurassic Park at the same time,
50:26
so he decided to record the part of Woody and Bricks and filming
50:28
of Sleepless in Seattle and A League of Their Own.
50:31
That makes more sense. Yeah, a bit more light hearted
50:33
than once. A league of their own doesn't
50:35
make more sense. I'd love to see a proof of
50:36
contract for Woody with There's no crying in Baseball was work
50:42
as the voice of Woody, Tom Hanks received widespread praise but
50:45
no major award nomination. Voice acting was still
50:47
overlooked by major awards at the time.
50:49
Yeah. For us, though, we think Tom
50:51
Hanks brings Woody to life pretty expertly.
50:53
And Toy Story among his biggest films.
50:56
Yeah, Custom. Yeah, definitely.
50:57
He's part of the ensemble and it works really well.
51:01
The other main lead is Buzz Lightyear, voiced by Tim Allen,
51:05
a Space Ranger action figure who believes he's the real Buzz
51:08
Light year. We follow Buzz's journey from
51:10
deluded hero to accepting his status as Andy's toy, forming a
51:13
bond with Woody along the way. Yes, the world's greatest
51:17
superhero is now the world's greatest toy.
51:19
Westy he is. How's Tim Allen?
51:21
How's Buzz Light? Yeah.
51:23
Space Ranger, he's fantastic, absolutely fantastic because he
51:30
totally gets the different levels that this character has
51:33
to go through, the different arcs that he has to go through.
51:35
He's he finds out that he doesn't necessarily exist and
51:39
that's terrifying for everyone. That could be really
51:41
heartbreaking, but it's just his nonchalance and his absolute
51:45
belief in the fact that he is a space Ranger and he's reading
51:48
out the blurb on the back of that box with such conviction.
51:52
And even when he breaks down, he's like years of Academy
51:55
training for nothing. That bit's amazing.
51:59
He's fall from grace is amazing. Believing he can fly the cock
52:02
sureness of it, but it could have been overplayed and being a
52:05
little bit cheesy. But I think it's just a really
52:08
great twist on it, and I think it's one that you get when
52:10
you're more grown up in that he is the representation of acting
52:14
like an adult. When you want to act like a kid,
52:16
you can let it all go. You don't have to be your job.
52:19
Like, you can just be a toy if you want.
52:21
You can just relax. And the physical animation of
52:25
Buzz perfectly matches the personification that he brings
52:28
to the voice. You know when he's like, he hits
52:31
the laser and his feet are crossed over and he's walking
52:33
around the bed. Yeah, I love it.
52:36
It's just that and then you just when you go right, well, when
52:38
this guy talks, it's got to match that.
52:40
It's like you don't want to be around.
52:41
My laser goes off, the voice matches that walk, do you know?
52:46
What I mean? The whole personality just
52:47
matches everything that animation matches.
52:49
It's the same with what do you be fair?
52:51
And same with all the characters.
52:52
But I think it's such a surprise that Tim Allen's in there
52:55
because it wasn't a big name for me, but he really brings it
52:58
here. And there's some really, really
53:00
wonderful bits of acting from Tim Allen that I would never
53:02
have expected. Just really, really good, really
53:06
funny. Just when he picks him up and
53:08
he's at that tea party and he's like, you see the hat?
53:11
I am Mrs. Nesbitt. Yeah, when I saw that in the
53:14
cinema, that got one of the biggest laughs I think I've ever
53:16
heard in the cinema. It's amazing.
53:18
It's so good. It's so well done, so well
53:21
voiced. I still don't quite believe it's
53:22
Tim Allen. I think it's somebody completely
53:24
foreign, someone completely different.
53:26
I actually believe it's Buzz like you.
53:30
Yeah, I love Buzz Light year. He's great.
53:32
Love him again, it starts in the writing.
53:34
Just the idea of having him believe he's the real Buzz Light
53:36
year is just genius. It is genius.
53:39
Elevator dynamic between Buzz and Woody by like tenfold and it
53:42
makes Buzzes arc massive. He does lose your identity, like
53:45
you're saying, Rusty. He goes through depression,
53:47
which is crazy, but they pull it off and he comes out the other
53:50
side by learning that happiness comes in being who you are and
53:53
focusing on the people around you rather than the opinions of
53:55
people you'll never meet or who won't ever care about you Yet
53:58
again. Universal stuff within the world
54:01
of being a toy. So they both have Ox and it's a
54:04
buddy story. I know that one of the writers,
54:06
Andrew Stanton, he said the reason they decided to do a
54:08
buddy story was just because it had never been done before in an
54:11
animation. Yeah.
54:12
And Toy Story is one of the best body stories out there for me.
54:14
Yeah. Two totally different people
54:16
don't get on, get thrown together on an adventure, have
54:19
to work together and then both change to meet in the middle.
54:22
Classic stuff. The kind of difficulty you've
54:24
got is you're going to come up with not one great character,
54:26
but two. Yeah.
54:27
And if you cope with Woody and Buzz Lightyear, you're doing all
54:30
right. Yeah.
54:31
I think it's fantastic character writing.
54:33
And Tim Allen playing him. I haven't always been a massive
54:35
fan of my that Westy. Yeah, but he's perfect.
54:38
There's deadpan delivery set against the huge vocals of
54:41
Hanks, works great, and he plays it straight.
54:43
He never winks at the audience, He never acts like he's on the
54:46
joke. Buzz believes everything he
54:48
said, which is essential to me at the moment that he realizes
54:51
land as powerfully as it does. The only thing I'm not sure why,
54:55
if Buzz believes he's the real Buzz, he also pretends to be
54:59
anonymous when Andy's around. Is that a plot hole?
55:02
Yeah, that's a good point, yeah. Yeah, it's a good point, Yeah.
55:04
But then again, if you're going to go down that rabbit hole,
55:07
there's so much to do. I mean, how do the no Andes
55:09
coming back? Yeah, Yeah.
55:10
You know, how many times is he going to catch them?
55:12
Did you leave your present on the bed in your birthday party?
55:16
No, you don't. You take it with.
55:17
Something right in the middle of the private bed in.
55:19
The middle of the buffet just level and say there's loads that
55:22
you can kind of tap into. So I mean, maybe I think people
55:25
have said, oh, it's based on the child's love and all this kind
55:28
of thing. And yeah, again, it doesn't have
55:29
to explain that. I think it's Miles Neeta that he
55:32
just falls over of. Course, Yeah, it's great.
55:34
Brilliant. I mean, it's not often you get
55:36
to say Tim Allen is the absolute equal of Tom Hanks in the film,
55:40
but it's 100% true in this case. It's just more perfect custom
55:44
because Alan gets what Buzzes character is, which is pompous
55:48
and praying and full of himself and the performance.
55:51
For me, it's this beautiful combination of William Shatner
55:53
and Roger Moore at the same time.
55:55
Oh hey, ignore the BTF. Exactly which is perfect.
55:59
Listen to me. So many line deliveries have
56:01
done with this little like self satisfied smirk or a raised
56:04
eyebrow. Like you're all mocking me
56:05
aren't you? It's the sincerity of it all.
56:08
Imagine if Shatner and more of a buzz and woody.
56:12
How are you talking it? Would have been too much for the
56:15
average person. But Alan, he's just constantly
56:17
hilarious. I suppose it it will never not
56:20
be funny how seriously he takes his lasers.
56:22
That's brilliant. And that journey to discover and
56:25
accept who he really is, that's just as compelling as Woody's
56:29
journey to stop being jealous of Buzz.
56:31
Like, Buzz could have easily been an idiot of the bad guy
56:34
here, but he's not, Neither is Woody.
56:35
They're both written with this nuance like you really get in
56:38
kids animations. And Tim Allen is as iconic and
56:41
as important in the film as Tom Hanks is, and that says a lot.
56:44
Yeah, I think you're right. I think he is.
56:46
As we mentioned, the idea of one of the leads being a space
56:48
action figure came about before the other one being a cowboy
56:51
did, but he went through changes.
56:53
He was originally called Luna, Larry and then Tempest from
56:56
Morph. Ridiculous for the settled.
56:59
I called him Buzz Lightyear after Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz
57:02
Aldrin. Yeah, yeah.
57:03
Not Buzz from Home Alone. Then obviously calling Woody
57:06
flemward. Life-size Michael Jordan at the
57:10
back of Andy's room. I mean, it's an incredible name
57:15
for a character, isn't it? Buzz Lightyear.
57:17
Buzz Lightyear, it's amazing. It's unbelievable.
57:19
When they came up with that, it must have just been like, all
57:21
right, fair enough that the lunar Larry.
57:27
And Buzz was designed by a Pixar production designer called Bob
57:31
Pauly and he took inspiration from classic real life action
57:34
figures like Jai Jaw and Major Matt Mason.
57:37
And in the first designs he was dressed in a red spacesuit and
57:40
it was much smaller than Woody, but he then changed the dress in
57:43
a white suit with green and purple trim and that's because
57:45
that's lasted it in his wifes favorite colours.
57:48
Something I've thought since I first saw Boys when I was 14 and
57:51
still think now. How good does he look?
57:53
Yeah, the design work is magnificent.
57:56
It's great. Looks like the coolest toy in
57:58
the world. Top to bottom he looks great.
58:00
Yeah, it was a cool toy. I had the actual toy.
58:02
Did you? Yeah, still got it.
58:04
Have you really? Yeah, Yeah.
58:06
Oh wow like 95 they were selling out and I was buying this
58:09
because of nice All me past experiences mean I'm giving away
58:11
a loads of me Star Wars figures. I'll post a picture on paper and
58:16
if anyone's interested. Let's get it up there for sure.
58:18
And Paulie said one of the biggest challenges he had in
58:21
designing Buzz was his face. Eventually, he based him on John
58:24
Lasseter. Face.
58:25
Buzzes, eyebrows, cheekbones and chin dibbles in his chin were
58:28
all taken from Lasseter. If you're going to base on
58:31
someone just based on the director, not going to go wrong
58:34
there. Get signed off.
58:36
That looks great. He does look totally different
58:40
than Woody, but all the contrast between the characters.
58:42
Buzz has a button that says Buzz Light year to the rescue, which
58:45
is pretty cool. What he's got upholstering,
58:47
saying there's a snake in my boots, which is not cool.
58:51
All the way down to woodies, like made of cloth, buzzes, hard
58:54
plastic. I think it's all so well thought
58:56
out and thought through. Yeah.
58:59
And an early test. Buzz was voiced by a Pixar
59:01
animator called Pete Doctor. He had a story writing credit on
59:04
Toy Story and helped come up with the character of Buzz by
59:07
bullying Buzz style faces it himself in the mirror.
59:11
Andy Wilmes, direct up and inside out.
59:14
Pete, Doctor. Right.
59:15
Yeah. Yeah, another big name it picks
59:16
up. Lassiter always wanted an
59:19
established actor though, and apparently considered Mel Gibson
59:22
and Bruce Willis before deciding he wanted to cast Billy Crystal.
59:25
Wow. They did the same thing as with
59:27
Hanks and created a proof of concept with Buzz alongside some
59:29
Crystal dialogue from When Harry Met Sally.
59:32
But Crystal said no, and he's later said turning down Buzz was
59:35
the biggest mistake of his career.
59:37
Yeah. Is that why he wanted to do
59:39
Monsters Inc you think? It definitely was.
59:41
Yeah, that's not so. Yeah.
59:43
Well, that's what I called Crystal again a few years later.
59:45
I'd offer him the part of Mike Wazowski Monsters Inc.
59:47
And Crystal said that his wife was like John Lasseter on the
59:50
phone for you. And Crystal just picked up the
59:51
phone and went, yes, I'll do it. Lovely.
59:54
Amazing. But at that time, Home
59:56
Improvement was one of the biggest sitcoms in America.
59:59
John Lasseter was a big fan of that, and it star Tim Allen.
1:00:02
He said he knew Alan could play a macho guy with a soft
1:00:04
underbelly, so asked if he'd be interested in playing Buzz and
1:00:07
Alan said yes. Apparently, it wasn't until they
1:00:10
heard Tim Allen's test as Buzz and heard his deadpan delivery.
1:00:13
Then they came up with the idea of having Buzz believe he's not
1:00:16
a toy. Oh, really?
1:00:17
He was so good at the Space Ranger stuff.
1:00:18
Yeah, Yeah. For that alone, it's an
1:00:20
incredible piece of casting. Wow.
1:00:22
I mean, that story beat. It makes the narrative like
1:00:24
seeing us It does. So what was the script?
1:00:27
The whole film's based around that.
1:00:29
Yeah, yeah, I guess he knew it was a toy, right?
1:00:31
OK, definitely not as good. Voice actors in animations often
1:00:35
record their parts by themselves, but because Hanks
1:00:37
and Alan had never worked in animations before, they decided
1:00:40
to record their parts in the studio together at the same time
1:00:43
so they could bounce off each other.
1:00:45
While judging by the results, it worked the treat it is, the
1:00:47
chemistry between Woody and Buzz is about, I think, as good as it
1:00:50
gets. Between 2 lead characters.
1:00:52
Yeah, and you can see four of them recording the part in the
1:00:54
studio as well. And even that is just a bit of a
1:00:56
joy bet. It is, yeah.
1:00:58
Doing the meet up like once a month still now just for lunch.
1:01:01
Do they really? Yeah, I think they do, yeah.
1:01:03
Kind of mad, yeah. Really, really close.
1:01:05
Our first performance as Buzz Lightyear, Tim Allen, also
1:01:08
received acclaim but no awards nominations.
1:01:10
He did return the voice pause in every Toy Story feature follow
1:01:13
up though. And again, for us, pretty great
1:01:16
piece of voice casting. Perfect again.
1:01:18
Wonderful came from Norway and it's here today.
1:01:23
Woody and Buzz are our leads, of course, but it's not about them
1:01:25
100% of the time. We mentioned Bo Peep earlier,
1:01:28
and there are a plethora of supporting characters in Toy
1:01:31
Story, mostly at that. Toys and Andy's room, yes.
1:01:34
So which of the toys do we think are worth discussing?
1:01:37
I mean, lots of great support and voices.
1:01:39
I do love Wallace. Sean is Rex, but I'm going to
1:01:42
talk about John Ratzenberger, his ham.
1:01:44
Nice one Matt, that's using the old noodle.
1:01:47
Yeah, that's me, because I won't suggest that none of these toys
1:01:52
may be, with the exception of Rex, none of them have the
1:01:55
personality of a child. They're all adults.
1:01:57
And Ratzenberg, obviously, for people of a certain generation
1:02:00
will always be Cliff Clavin from cheese.
1:02:02
Of course he will. And there's definitely an
1:02:04
element of that. He he's such a know it all.
1:02:07
When he saw about like the cup of wiring, it was a ship.
1:02:09
Like he knows about it all of a sudden, so it's a really funny
1:02:13
character performance. And then Ratzenberger.
1:02:15
He then became a Pixar lucky charm because his voice featured
1:02:18
in every one of their films for the next 25 years until.
1:02:21
Saul. Wow.
1:02:23
Yeah, He was mostly known as Cliff the Mailman, obviously.
1:02:25
So a bit of a left field casting choice, but I think he's great.
1:02:28
And it's almost like a mini. You start like when you hear him
1:02:30
in a Pixar film, like, oh, there he is.
1:02:32
There's Cliff, Yeah. And Rex.
1:02:34
Yeah. Well, Shawn, you mentioned
1:02:35
there, Mark, that's the inconceivable guy from The
1:02:38
Princess Bride. Yeah, apparently lasted.
1:02:40
I wanted Ricky Moranis to play Rex all.
1:02:42
Right, I could say that. Yeah.
1:02:43
What have been great, yeah. Teaming back up with any pots.
1:02:46
Yeah, yeah, that would be wonderful.
1:02:47
Yeah. And Jim Varney plays Slinky.
1:02:49
He's best known for playing Ernest P Worrell.
1:02:51
As in like, Ernest goes to camp and goes to jail, all that
1:02:55
stuff, right? Yes, apparently for Slinky
1:02:56
though. Lasted.
1:02:57
I originally wondered John Cleese.
1:03:00
Right. It's just furious all the time,
1:03:02
yeah. Give him a damn good.
1:03:04
Thrashing, getting the fire extinguisher out.
1:03:11
I'm doing it. I'm doing it now.
1:03:15
And Rusty, I think we'll save the best last for you.
1:03:18
Don Rickles as Mr. Potato Head, what a piece of shit sometimes.
1:03:22
This guy is. And one of the funniest bits is
1:03:25
that what you know, was said that Tim Allen totally makes it
1:03:27
and everything that Buzz Lightyear does really matches
1:03:30
the voice. But everything that Mister
1:03:32
Potato Head does matches Don Rickles personality.
1:03:35
He does not become Mr. Potato Head.
1:03:38
It's just Don Rickles in that form.
1:03:40
It's almost like he's been injected into a toy.
1:03:43
That's like child's play. But it's just Don Rickles soul
1:03:45
inside Mr. Potato Head. It's so good because you can do
1:03:49
anything with it. You know, he's gambling over
1:03:51
battleships and when Slinky's trying to stick up for what, he
1:03:54
takes his lips off and he's kissing his arse and he's like,
1:04:00
that's so funny. He's selfish, he's ignorant
1:04:03
right to the very end. Throw him overboard.
1:04:06
Like he doesn't stop. He doesn't stop to think of any
1:04:08
compassion whatsoever. And he's just so funny and so
1:04:12
cutting. I honestly think this is
1:04:16
possibly the reason why anyone would prefer 2 / 1 because he
1:04:19
has that companion and Mrs. Potato Head have that dynamic.
1:04:23
He's a great addition. Yeah, and that edition really
1:04:25
does help Rickles just soften a little bit.
1:04:29
And this is just pure Don Rickles.
1:04:31
And I think a lot of his dialogue was what happens in the
1:04:34
scene. I'll just say something.
1:04:36
Yeah. Feels like it's just Don Rickles
1:04:38
just riffing on. It does have a feeling.
1:04:41
And the fact that he's such a bastard at times, when stuff
1:04:45
happens to him, it's like when I say, hits him at the end, it's
1:04:47
just, yeah, it's like, good, yeah, you need someone in there
1:04:54
who gets smacked about a bit and it really works.
1:04:56
But his first joke was like, I'm Picasso as I don't get it.
1:04:59
It's so good, so funny. Don Rickles is always, always
1:05:03
funny. And I have him in what's
1:05:05
predominantly a kids film. There's nobody better than done
1:05:08
right to do that for me. Yeah, absolutely.
1:05:10
And he does get trapped like shit Potato Head, doesn't he?
1:05:13
Does, but he deserves it though. That's the best thing about it.
1:05:15
At the store, when Molly and his sister gets hold of him, she's
1:05:18
bashing him against the grave, bites his arm off.
1:05:21
That's really funny when you watch your back and you know,
1:05:23
Potato Head. You know he's going to be sick.
1:05:25
He'd be like, yeah. I'm not sure why he's so horny
1:05:28
though, constantly wanting to get in there with the ladies.
1:05:31
Yeah, when Buzz turns up, Potato Head says to him.
1:05:33
The dolls must love you. Can you teach me that?
1:05:36
And talk about laser envy. Yeah.
1:05:38
Yeah. And Lassiter had always wondered
1:05:42
Mr. Potato had to be a toy with a chip on his shoulder, which
1:05:45
we've been talking about. And he did always want stand up
1:05:48
comic Don Rickles to play him in Potato heads line.
1:05:50
When he says what are you looking at you hockey puck?
1:05:53
That's one of Rickles signs he used to shout on hecklers when
1:05:55
he's doing stand ups. Like Wes, he says he's probably
1:05:58
revising a lot of his own lines here and.
1:05:59
Then they're like, well, let's make a hockey puck that would
1:06:01
never see you again just for that one.
1:06:07
And last I said that he visited Rickles home in Malibu to offer
1:06:10
him the pot. He turned up with a Mr. Potato
1:06:12
Head toy and when he went to give it to him, he said all the
1:06:15
parts fell off and he said it looked just like him.
1:06:18
So kind of got to say yes, it's like fit.
1:06:22
So that's our main cast, some great supporting characters and
1:06:25
voice actors, but it's mostly our leaves that sell it.
1:06:28
And Tom Hanks is Woody and Tim Allen, Buzz Light year two
1:06:31
performances that bring the kind of heart that makes Toy Story
1:06:34
more than just a technical milestone.
1:06:36
Definitely. Yeah, when they did it again and
1:06:38
again. All the right movies will be
1:06:47
back shortly. Thank you for supporting us by
1:06:49
listening to this episode. Sponsors.
1:06:54
Thanks for listening to our sponsors.
1:06:56
Now back to the show. The middle.
1:07:05
Heading into the middle of Toy Story and things are getting
1:07:07
pretty serious. For our Child's Play things,
1:07:09
we're going to be looking at the scenes across the road from
1:07:11
Andy's in Sid's House of Horrors.
1:07:14
But first, it's pizza time. Everyone loves pizza time.
1:07:17
Always. So I want pizza time.
1:07:21
Absolutely. So Woody's jealousy gets the
1:07:23
better of him and he accidentally inverted commas
1:07:25
knocks put out the window, leading to both toys being left
1:07:28
behind when Andy and his family go out for food to their
1:07:31
favorite restaurant. Yeah, West York there to enter.
1:07:34
Yeah. Welcome to Pizza Planet.
1:07:36
Thank you so very much. How's it all go for you?
1:07:38
It goes really well for me. I love this scene.
1:07:40
I love this whole sequence. First of all, Pizza Planet.
1:07:43
You know when your mum comes in and goes?
1:07:45
How about lunch it Pizza Planet? Yes.
1:07:49
Man, and I love doing that, like with the kids, like I know this
1:07:53
is going to make them happy. It's just an ace of your sleeve.
1:07:55
It really works. You know that joy?
1:07:56
Yeah. But just outside the house, the
1:07:58
virtual Realty, that's not lost on me.
1:08:01
Yeah, yeah. Nice.
1:08:02
Wonderful. But this sequence has just got
1:08:04
that classic 80s action movie all over it.
1:08:08
It's fantastic. And then he gets the idea is
1:08:10
just going to put Buzz behind the desk so he can go to Pizza
1:08:12
Planet, right? And he's just cooking this plan.
1:08:15
And he's like, boss, boss, we've got trouble, trouble way.
1:08:17
And he's just so excited to help that one in trouble whatsoever.
1:08:21
And then he's looking there. And I think the great thing
1:08:23
about RC is RC doesn't really say much, but he's got this real
1:08:26
moral compass. Yeah.
1:08:27
And you get the tax from the cork board that falls down.
1:08:30
Really Indiana Jones, really Raiders of the Lost Dog.
1:08:32
Then the globe falls. The globe chases him, really
1:08:35
Raiders of the Lost Dog. And then rolls out the way on
1:08:37
the windowsill. Really Raiders of the Lost Dog.
1:08:39
Yeah. Yeah.
1:08:40
It's absolutely brilliant. And Buzz gets knocked out by the
1:08:43
lamp. He falls down and then it turns
1:08:45
into like a whodunit. It turns into a Hitchcock film
1:08:48
all of a sudden and everyone's pointing the finger and
1:08:50
everybody's looking at the crime scene and then the turn around.
1:08:52
Is that kind of like pushing Woody as I he did it And the bit
1:08:56
that I love about this sequence and watch it again and you'll
1:08:58
see how clever the writing is. But your classic three act
1:09:00
structure are all described as Act one introduction.
1:09:04
We've got that already. Act 2 confrontation, Act 3
1:09:07
resolution, right? So this is the start of Act 2.
1:09:09
That was shadow of a doubt. This is the start of the
1:09:12
confrontation and I ask Rex what he thinks and he goes I don't
1:09:15
like confrontation. Very nice.
1:09:19
So well done, so well written, such a nod to cinema.
1:09:22
Not not Hitchcock and Spielberg in the same 2 minute sequence
1:09:26
doesn't get better for me. It's just wonderful at this
1:09:28
point. Yeah, it is great.
1:09:30
What, are you sick of his life by this point?
1:09:33
Yeah, he is. Yeah.
1:09:34
But I do enjoy the writing as well.
1:09:35
It was going out the window. It was planned by Woody, but
1:09:37
also an accident, which works perfectly with his arc because
1:09:40
he's able to tell himself it was an accident but then comes to
1:09:42
accept he was in the wrong. Yeah.
1:09:44
And Toy Story is famous for Easter eggs.
1:09:46
And the first one I think is. Yeah.
1:09:48
You mentioned it was the obviously Raiders of the Lost
1:09:50
Ark when the globe rolls towards Buzz.
1:09:52
Yeah. Yeah.
1:09:53
The music changes to be very India Jones desk as well, so it
1:09:56
must be intentional. Yeah.
1:09:57
Do you think you wanted to put behind where the air ball was
1:09:59
behind the desk? I think so, yeah.
1:10:00
I think so. He didn't want to go out the
1:10:02
window. No.
1:10:02
Not. Definitely not.
1:10:03
That's a bit too, you know, Black Friday buzz, isn't it?
1:10:06
Yeah, but my favorite moment of the whole fallout is definitely
1:10:10
worrying buzzers argument slash fight at the gas station.
1:10:13
Yeah, buses, even though you're trying to terminate me.
1:10:16
Revenge is not an idea we promote on my planet and what
1:10:18
he's like for you. And then Buzz goes.
1:10:20
But we're not on my planet, are we?
1:10:24
Buzz, buzz, buzz. Like you're the rescue, that is.
1:10:26
So funny. That's probably my favorite bit
1:10:28
in the whole film. Do you reckon?
1:10:30
Probably, but the drama is there as well.
1:10:32
When Andy's car drives away and Woody's devastated, it's great.
1:10:34
It's funny, but I feel it as well, and one of the most famous
1:10:37
lines of the film. You are, you said, strange
1:10:39
little man, and you have my penny.
1:10:41
Farewell. Good riddance you looney.
1:10:43
I love that bit as well. So at the gas station we hear
1:10:50
the Pizza Planet delivery boy asked for directions to West
1:10:52
Cotton Blvd. West Cotton Blvd. is the street
1:10:55
where Pixar was located in Richmond, CA at the time.
1:10:59
I bet they had a few pieces delivered there with those late
1:11:01
nights. I did, yeah.
1:11:03
I wonder if that's why they added that in the pizza boy
1:11:05
looking for their office. Bit of an in joke.
1:11:07
Maybe. Yeah, yeah.
1:11:08
I wouldn't be surprised. Sound stoned as well.
1:11:10
Probably got that. And then after this, they get a
1:11:16
pizza planet and Buzz sees a spacious boy, thinks he does.
1:11:19
So obviously it's the most excited he's ever been.
1:11:22
Goes rush in the waters and those aliens in that pit.
1:11:25
I mean, again, it's just something else in this film
1:11:26
where you go that's not only iconic and absolutely part of
1:11:31
this Toy Story universe from the get go, but the soul
1:11:33
recognizable as well and familiar.
1:11:36
Like it's another one where I think I know what that toy feels
1:11:39
like in my hand. I know like the pressure I need
1:11:41
to do to make that noise. But also characters where we've
1:11:44
kind of mentioned like other like logic holes in this, where
1:11:47
if you think about it a bit too much, it gets a bit wobbly.
1:11:49
Because do they know they're toys or do they think the
1:11:52
creatures because they've got this concept of religion somehow
1:11:55
and they think they're being more to a better life somewhere?
1:11:58
If that's too wide, some toys know and some don't.
1:12:01
But I'm probably overthinking it.
1:12:02
Just a bit, just a bit I'm. Not going to go too far down the
1:12:05
rabbit. Hole.
1:12:07
I think it's a very reflection of a group dynamic.
1:12:10
And when you're in a group dynamic like that, under so much
1:12:12
pressure, you kind of start having God like delusions, don't
1:12:14
you? There must be something else.
1:12:15
Yeah. We can't be stuck here forever.
1:12:17
It kind of has that vibe for me. Yeah.
1:12:19
Yeah. We don't think I really like
1:12:20
this. It's that really funny line you
1:12:22
get from Woody when he's trying to get out of the pit and just
1:12:24
go stamped you zealots. Yeah, I'm just like, you've got
1:12:27
zealots in the kids film. What are the kids?
1:12:29
You want us to put that in there?
1:12:31
Oh, where would he's heard that? Oh.
1:12:32
Where would he said that? Yeah, I see the question and
1:12:35
then a lot, obviously, even though no one at Pixar would
1:12:37
kind of think of this at the time.
1:12:39
What's great in retrospect is this sets up the big rescue from
1:12:42
the furnace and Toy Story Three. Yeah, yeah, which is 1A hell of
1:12:45
a callback. I like how we're somewhere into
1:12:47
the story here. There's been lots of evidence,
1:12:49
but Buzz hasn't even entertained the thought that he might not be
1:12:52
the real Buzz. Like yeah, but.
1:12:54
I want to go. To Pizza Planet.
1:12:57
It looks great. That shot, that puns around the
1:12:59
whole place always reminds me of Jack Robert Slims in Pulp
1:13:02
Fiction. Yeah, establishing shot there.
1:13:04
There was one in Florida when I went.
1:13:05
I beat the Pizza Planet. Oh, really good was it?
1:13:08
Yes, of course it was. Well, we talked about real as
1:13:11
before, and there's another blinking you'll miss in
1:13:13
reference to a classic film in Pizza Planet when we've talked
1:13:16
about 4. Okay, so when we first see said
1:13:19
he's playing on whack an alien, which is basically a sci-fi
1:13:22
whack A mole and the game is national lying on a table and
1:13:25
the aliens are bursting out of his chest like alien big
1:13:27
gruesome for a family film. Yeah, yeah.
1:13:29
Exactly. First episode said yeah.
1:13:31
I was like, is that Will Porter? Yeah.
1:13:34
Yeah. Well, he set up a little bit
1:13:37
earlier than this stage when we see the toys watching him
1:13:39
blowing up. Comeback call.
1:13:40
Yeah, that's right. Yeah, that's a comeback call.
1:13:42
Yeah, that was meant to be GI Joe.
1:13:44
But when Hasbro heard the planet blow him up, they said no
1:13:46
chance, obviously. But the toys are terrified, they
1:13:49
said. So it sets them up and we see
1:13:50
him laughing like a total psychopath and buzzes like who?
1:13:53
That happy child. Look like there's hardly any
1:13:58
grass because he's blown up so many.
1:13:59
Toys. Yeah, yeah.
1:14:00
Scotched Earth everywhere. Yeah, yeah.
1:14:03
The original ID for the pizza restaurant was that it would be
1:14:06
part pizza parlour, part crazy golf course and be called pizza
1:14:10
put. It was changed to tie in mall
1:14:12
with Buzz and the space theme. And the pizza planned delivery
1:14:14
truck is another Pixar regular. It's appeared in some way in
1:14:17
almost every Pixar movie since. Yeah, pizza put.
1:14:22
I once had an idea for a Star Wars themed crazy golf course
1:14:25
called Jabba the Put. Nice they didn't go.
1:14:29
Anywhere not going Dragons end with that one, did you not?
1:14:32
Imagine that I'm out. I'm out.
1:14:37
Some major plot points there. Then what are you in Buzz lose
1:14:39
Andy? And then said finds them.
1:14:41
Should we find out what he's got in store?
1:14:43
Let's do it, yeah. The Claw is chosen, and having
1:14:49
won double prizes, we follow say that he takes Buddy and Buzz and
1:14:52
the hapless little Green Man back home.
1:14:55
We're thrust into the disturbing world of Sid's room, where toys
1:14:58
are dismembered and rebuilt in pretty horrifying ways, and Buzz
1:15:02
finally finds out what's what. I don't know about you, Matt,
1:15:06
but I don't believe that man's ever been to medical school.
1:15:08
He definitely hasn't. What do you make of Sid's House
1:15:11
of Horrors? I mean, it's horrifying, to be
1:15:14
honest, isn't it? It's just an absolute IMF from
1:15:16
beginning to end. And then you get that scene
1:15:18
where Buzz gets out of the room and he's that advert playing on
1:15:22
the TV. And I think it's just kind of
1:15:23
amazing that you can have this knock about really funny kids
1:15:26
cartoon just being really pretty light hearted up to now.
1:15:29
And in the middle of it you have a character having a full blown
1:15:31
existential crisis all of a sudden, like but it's done with
1:15:35
such a light touch as well. It doesn't bring the rest of the
1:15:37
film down with it. I mean I think the seeds have
1:15:40
been sewn for Bus to make this realization.
1:15:42
Like his laser obviously didn't work on sits toys.
1:15:45
Woody knows to push the button on his back to make him do the
1:15:48
karate chop action. How?
1:15:49
Do you know that? Brilliant.
1:15:50
Yeah, so. I think by the point he sees the
1:15:53
advert, I don't think it's too convenient, which you could have
1:15:56
felt if it hadn't been written as well.
1:15:57
It does feel like it's built, not really to this point.
1:16:00
And the torn is balanced so well because it is funny to a point.
1:16:04
Because he's been so pompous about himself.
1:16:06
It's funny to see that picked a little bit, but I think it's
1:16:08
just weirdly poignant at the same time.
1:16:10
You are quite good at form. And when that feeling comes
1:16:13
across just through the way he's animated his face with no
1:16:15
dialogue, the way he just kind of closes his eyes and realizes
1:16:19
he's just covered in stickers, it is just a little light
1:16:22
blinking on and off that tells you how amazing the animation is
1:16:25
working to convey all that. I mean, you're right, Matt.
1:16:28
Existential crisis for Buzz. Yeah.
1:16:30
They go deep Pixar, don't they? Yeah.
1:16:32
I think the TV ad for Buzz the toy is great, really authentic.
1:16:36
And he does it like a cool toy. Yeah.
1:16:38
And the moment he tries to fly, how sad is that?
1:16:40
How good is it? Yeah.
1:16:42
Yeah. Randy Newman's song.
1:16:43
I will go silly no more. Yeah, I know the song.
1:16:45
Perfect to score it, yeah. Gives it all such a melancholy
1:16:48
feel. And then the way they execute
1:16:49
it, the filmmaking is excellent. Buzz leaps off the banister,
1:16:53
slow motion as he falls. Then it cuts back to normal
1:16:55
speed when he hits the floor. And then there's that overhead
1:16:57
shot that spins open away from him.
1:16:59
He's lying there, broken. Just fantastic.
1:17:02
Yeah. I mean, it does have some goods.
1:17:03
It's a big theme and identity crisis mental.
1:17:06
But the brilliance is not the presenter in a way that works
1:17:08
for kids and has layers for adults.
1:17:10
Buzz has built his entire agenda around being a space Ranger, and
1:17:13
that's taken away. So it's exploring a pretty major
1:17:16
loss. And he takes it well, doesn't
1:17:18
he? Or Buzz stays in there.
1:17:19
Mrs. Nesbitt. After the business, Nesbitt a
1:17:25
few times, yeah, I'm going to go for the bit where the
1:17:31
realization is set in. He has the opportunity to leave,
1:17:35
but he realizes that there's more.
1:17:37
And there's a kid over there who needs Woody as well as he needs
1:17:40
Buzz, and he can't be left behind.
1:17:42
And it's just that bit where Woody tells me you can go if you
1:17:44
want to get out while you can. And then it cuts to the next day
1:17:47
and it's completely empty desk and you think, well, he's gone
1:17:51
and that slow head down from Woody this like.
1:17:54
Yeah, it's really sad. But Buzz is still Buzz, even
1:17:58
though he knows the truth. He's still keeping this real
1:18:02
pride, not necessarily with the same role, but he's still just
1:18:05
as courageous in that new role. And I think he's excited about
1:18:09
being an individual. I think he's excited about not
1:18:11
being this space Ranger, this Buzz Light year that he has to
1:18:14
be. And there's a real light heart
1:18:16
and this to it, which is quickly switched on its head.
1:18:19
Sid wakes up, the alarm goes off.
1:18:22
To be honest, really exciting, strapping a rocket, fly away and
1:18:26
explore. I'd love to do that.
1:18:28
That would be great. But all of the other guys come
1:18:31
out now. I really want to highlight this
1:18:33
bit because this is really, really important and I think
1:18:35
it's really well played, said. How inspiring is this for any
1:18:39
kids who feel that they're different, who feel like they
1:18:42
don't fit in I. Think that's the idea, Yeah.
1:18:44
And what they do here, not only with the revelation of everybody
1:18:48
working together, but the way they work together uses their
1:18:52
disability and inverted commas, is something that's uniquely
1:18:56
positive. Nobody else can do this but you.
1:18:58
Yeah, yeah. Legs, you're with Ducky, but
1:19:02
Doug is the only one who can swing.
1:19:04
She's the only one who can get them down.
1:19:05
They all have to use the disabilities as a positive
1:19:08
thing. That hit me much later on as an
1:19:11
adult. And it'll hit kids and go, yeah,
1:19:13
you think you're wrong. You think you've got something
1:19:14
wrong with you. You're not uniquely positive.
1:19:17
And that's the message just in this whole House of horrors at
1:19:20
Sid's house. Such positivity.
1:19:22
A beautiful subliminal message for kids out there who don't
1:19:26
feel like the fame. It elevates this film 10 rooms
1:19:30
up the ladder for me. Just putting things in like
1:19:32
that, it really, really makes a difference.
1:19:34
Yeah, I think you're right, Wesley.
1:19:35
He does have like more depth than it needs to have.
1:19:37
Really. Definitely.
1:19:38
And something I get from it as well is it said is insane,
1:19:41
obviously, But I also think he's pretty sad.
1:19:43
He's sad. Hannah, his sister is a
1:19:45
sweetheart. But Said doesn't seem to have a
1:19:47
great home life. His room is an absolute dump,
1:19:51
sleeps fully clothed with his trainers on where his parents,
1:19:54
and when Buzz sees the TV out and finds out he's a toy in the
1:19:57
living room where Sid's dad's asleep on the chair, he's
1:19:59
surrounded by empty cons. Even Skoda the scary dogs are
1:20:02
free to go in there. So is that implying anything?
1:20:05
Is that the idea? I think it is.
1:20:07
I think it's just Sid being the way he is.
1:20:08
Maybe it's down to his personality and they've kind of
1:20:10
given up on him a little bit. Yeah.
1:20:12
I mean, he turns his channels over on his telly with a wrench.
1:20:14
I don't know if you've noticed that a wrench on the channel
1:20:17
changer, but I honestly think it's the relationship because
1:20:19
you don't necessarily see the parents.
1:20:20
But Sid can't ask his man where the matches are, which I find
1:20:25
really bizarre. Yeah, man, where's the matches?
1:20:28
Or doesn't matter. I found them.
1:20:29
Like there's a real underlying neglect where the daughter
1:20:33
rooms. Lovely.
1:20:33
She's got all the toys and he's craving attention.
1:20:36
Yeah, it seems to be intentionally written into it as
1:20:38
well. Doesn't.
1:20:38
It, I think so. There's a real undertone there,
1:20:40
really nasty undertone that's very nicely done.
1:20:43
But it doesn't paint him as the victim.
1:20:45
I think it paints his parents as the reason he is the way he is.
1:20:48
Yeah, yeah. And Sid's full name is Sid
1:20:50
Phillips. He was named after Sid Fishers
1:20:52
from the Sex Pistols and voiced by a 13 year old actor called
1:20:55
Eric von Detten. And he was known to American
1:20:58
audiences at the time for playing Nicholas Alamein in the
1:21:01
classic TV. So, Days of Our Lives.
1:21:04
Right. Yeah, that's the soap that Julie
1:21:06
Tribbiani stars in in Friends. Yes, that's right.
1:21:09
Yeah, I thought that soap was made-up for.
1:21:11
Years. I did for years.
1:21:13
Yeah, I did until the last 20 seconds.
1:21:19
I think he does really well as Sid though.
1:21:20
Eric von Denton. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
1:21:22
It's great. Right little swine.
1:21:23
Really memorable. Brilliant.
1:21:24
Yeah. Lastly, I said that the idea for
1:21:26
Sid came from Pixar brainstorming sessions where
1:21:29
some animators said they used to destroy their own toys.
1:21:31
As kids once said, he used to melt green army men with the
1:21:34
magnifying glass, which is why Sid uses a magnifying glass to
1:21:37
torture Woody. Hilarious from Woody leaps up
1:21:40
with that burning dot in his forehead.
1:21:42
Sticks his head in the dog's water or something.
1:21:45
But then again, that leads to the end as well.
1:21:47
It's like how that's solved. Everything is kind of linked
1:21:49
together. Oh yeah, the writing is just
1:21:51
insanely good, yeah. It's really good.
1:21:54
And that's what I've said. There are references to other
1:21:56
movies without Toy Story and there's a few in Sit's house.
1:22:00
Laster said when they were creating a dismembered toy
1:22:02
Sidders butchered that took inspiration from Todd Browning's
1:22:05
classic pre Court horror Freaks, which is from 1932.
1:22:09
Yeah. Yeah.
1:22:10
The way some of the toys like crawl along the floor, I think
1:22:12
you can see the influence. Yeah, with that, yeah.
1:22:15
Yeah, and then to highlight Sid's home has been a House of
1:22:18
horrors that animators gave his landing the same carpet as the
1:22:21
famous hexagonal pattern that the Overlook Hotel has in The
1:22:24
Shining. Very nice.
1:22:26
One of the best Easter eggs ever.
1:22:27
Yeah, that's brilliant, That one.
1:22:29
Yeah. Also apparently the scene when
1:22:31
the toys attack bulls, I think they were talking bulls.
1:22:33
And the fix is on in some in the national versions.
1:22:36
Hannahs doll Janie, she says Red Room 0.
1:22:39
Really. Really.
1:22:40
Yeah, another shining reference. OK.
1:22:42
And then when Buzz rescues Woody from the crate, we see a can
1:22:45
that says Catmull Root Beer. And that's enough to add Catmull
1:22:48
Co, founder of Pixar and the toolbox that Buzz pushes.
1:22:51
That is Binford, which is the same Brad that Tim Allen's
1:22:54
County uses in home improvement. Right.
1:22:57
OK, nice. Great when Buzz pushes the
1:22:59
toolbox off and it just lands on Woody.
1:23:01
Yeah, really funny. Are you OK?
1:23:03
Yeah, OK, really dazed. I think the funniest lie in the
1:23:08
film for me comes at SIDS when buzzers like I've changed my
1:23:11
laser from stun to kill, you know, Woody goes, oh great, if
1:23:15
anyone attacks we can just bring him to death.
1:23:18
And that's the middle of Toy Story, a wild ride from Pizza
1:23:21
Planet to the terrors of SIDS bedroom.
1:23:23
We've seen a desperate Woody and a broken Buzz.
1:23:26
Signs they may be able to work together to escape SIDS
1:23:29
clutches, though. Let's hope so, the crew.
1:23:38
The creative team behind Toy Story was breaking ground left
1:23:41
and right, bringing together technological innovators with
1:23:43
artistic storytellers to create history tinkering away behind
1:23:47
the scenes. We'll be talking Randy Newman,
1:23:49
creating the soundtrack and the team behind the visuals.
1:23:52
But first, let's look at the folks who crafted the story.
1:23:55
Should we? Absolutely.
1:23:56
Has Randy Newman ever tinkered? I don't know.
1:23:59
We'll find out. The Tinker Man.
1:24:02
Yeah. So the screenplay of A Toy Story
1:24:04
was written by Joss Whedon, Andrew Stanton, Joel Corn, Not
1:24:08
That one. And Alex Socolor, with a story
1:24:11
by credit going to John Lasseter, Pete Doctor, Andrew
1:24:14
Stanton and Joe Ranfs, A collaborative effort.
1:24:17
Lord of them. Yeah, yeah, massively.
1:24:19
So, Matt, what do you make of Whedon, Stanton Corn, Socolor,
1:24:22
Lasseter Dr., and Ranfs work in writing Toy Story?
1:24:26
Well, I'm glad you said it and I didn't have to.
1:24:28
That's good to say. Go through them one by one,
1:24:30
Matt. The thing about the writing for
1:24:34
me, and I'm sure Wesley will agree because we're both
1:24:37
parents, because when you repaired, you sit through so
1:24:40
many kids films, great way to kill 90 minutes with them.
1:24:44
And when you've seen a lot, it really stands out how
1:24:46
predictable and obvious the writing is.
1:24:48
For a lot of them, it's like here we go.
1:24:50
He's the big moral of the story, the big speech at the end.
1:24:52
This is the lesson that the need take away be nice right around
1:24:55
blah, blah, blah. And that's all fine.
1:24:57
But the flip side to that is then you really appreciate
1:25:00
something that is as well written as this is for a kids
1:25:03
animation. Because yes, there are lessons
1:25:06
and need for kids to learn, but they're never just hammered home
1:25:09
like Woody's jealousy of buzz arriving on the scene.
1:25:11
That will resonate with so many kids who suddenly have to
1:25:14
contend with a little brother or sister who's came along.
1:25:18
But that's never overtly on the nose.
1:25:19
It's it's never actually kind of put into the script in a line,
1:25:22
the jealousy, it just powers the narrative instead.
1:25:25
And you can tell they've gone over and over and over this with
1:25:28
a fine tooth comb in a writers room, refining it to the NTH
1:25:32
degree to the point where you go, yes, the plot points are
1:25:35
predictable to a certain degree. Obviously Woody and Buzz are
1:25:38
going to get over the differences and become friends,
1:25:41
but they're written with such intelligence and such finesse
1:25:44
and such a lack of talking down to the audience.
1:25:46
You don't care if it's predictable because it just
1:25:48
works superbly and every kid will recognise something in
1:25:51
this. And having said that as well, I
1:25:53
mean, Andy has got a new born sister.
1:25:56
She's just a toddler. Yeah.
1:25:57
And that's in there and that's obviously he's been relegated to
1:26:00
the back seat when they're moving, you know, you can see
1:26:02
there's all these themes in there.
1:26:03
It's amazing. Yeah, yeah.
1:26:05
I mean, Pixar are a CGI animation studio, obviously with
1:26:08
a reputation as being the best there is.
1:26:10
And the design and animation work, it is world class.
1:26:13
But the thing that sets them apart from other great animation
1:26:15
studios, to me is the writing. That's where they're like a
1:26:18
class above, I think. And it was there from the start
1:26:21
in Toy Story. We talked about how they don't
1:26:24
shy away from some big themes a tackle jealousy, betrayal,
1:26:28
attempted murder, identity crisis.
1:26:30
Sounds mad, but that's all there.
1:26:32
Yeah. The narrative, an outstanding
1:26:34
body story, like we said. And we've seen through great
1:26:36
explorations of friendships in movies, Stand by Me or Thelma
1:26:39
and Louise or Shawshank, And I think this is right up there
1:26:42
with them. I think where Pixar are like
1:26:45
Master, right? As though it's creating
1:26:47
relatable characters in an unrelatable world.
1:26:50
Like I mentioned before, the concept's great, obviously.
1:26:53
I mean, the idea of toys coming alive wasn't original.
1:26:56
Babes in Toyland with Laurel and Hardy, that was like 1934.
1:26:59
So not original. But Toy Stories now,
1:27:02
undoubtedly, I think the definitive version of that idea.
1:27:06
And they're not presented as humans, the characters.
1:27:08
They're presented as toys with the kind of motivations and
1:27:11
issues toys would have. Their purpose is to be played
1:27:13
with by a child. That's their biggest joy.
1:27:16
Their worries come from being thrown away or lost.
1:27:19
But Pixar will eat all of it back to being human, being alone
1:27:23
or not, wanted or unpopular. Those are all things that in a
1:27:27
totally different way, we as humans can totally relate to.
1:27:30
Yeah. I think it's just like,
1:27:31
incredible writing, creating humanity in non human
1:27:34
characters. It's something that pixel nail
1:27:36
to the wall time and time again. Yeah.
1:27:38
I think they teach children how to be good humans and adults for
1:27:41
that matter. Yeah.
1:27:42
While telling these exciting, funny tales.
1:27:44
They're among the greatest cinematic storytellers we've had
1:27:47
for me. Yeah.
1:27:47
And it all started here. I think Toy Story still among
1:27:50
their best pieces of writing. Yeah, I think there's so many
1:27:52
layers to this. Like I've said over and over
1:27:54
again, it appeals to so many people.
1:27:56
It appeals to everybody because you can find something that you
1:27:59
find familiar in this, if not everything for me really.
1:28:02
But that's how close this is to the story of, let's say,
1:28:05
Pinocchio. It's a toy that believes it's a
1:28:07
human, but nobody references that.
1:28:10
It seems to be so fresh and so new and so up to date that all
1:28:15
of its influences are there and the very clear to see.
1:28:19
But the homages to this story, the kind of the building blocks
1:28:22
to this story, everyone can get something from this.
1:28:25
There's the action set pieces, there's the humor that's written
1:28:28
into it that doesn't feel crowbar in.
1:28:30
All the gags help move the story forward, help the characters
1:28:33
develop. Shows their immaturity, then
1:28:36
shows the maturity. All of the characters are
1:28:38
lovable and they're all stand out, but they all work together
1:28:41
and I think that's great writing as well.
1:28:43
It's very much like Cuckoo's Nest in that vibe.
1:28:46
Everyone's got a personality and everyone's stuck in the same
1:28:48
position, but everybody's different and that's really
1:28:51
clever. It's just really well handled,
1:28:54
really multi layered. And like what Matt said, we've
1:28:56
sit through so many of these kids films and it's such a joy
1:29:00
for us to see something that breaks that blueprint.
1:29:04
And it's also great for the kids because they don't expect it and
1:29:07
they don't see it coming, and they know it's different and
1:29:09
they know it's new and they know it's fresh, but they don't know
1:29:11
why. It's for us to figure out when
1:29:13
we're older. That's why I like this so much.
1:29:15
It's such an innovation in its technique, in its animation, but
1:29:19
also a real innovation in its writing.
1:29:22
Absolutely, yeah. The reason there were so many
1:29:24
credited writers on Toy Story is because of the Black Friday
1:29:27
incident that we mentioned earlier.
1:29:29
So the screenplay was originally written by Andrew Stanton based
1:29:32
on a story by him Last Day, Pete Doctor and Joe Ranft who were
1:29:36
all Pixar employees. But after Black Friday, Lassiter
1:29:39
decided they needed some experienced screenwriters.
1:29:42
So Joel Coen and Alex Sokolow were writing partnership and
1:29:46
they had sent a spec script to Disney called The Wooden
1:29:48
Policeman and based on that they were high to rewrite Toy Story.
1:29:52
Right. Yeah, The Wooden Policeman was
1:29:54
never developed into a film, but apparently the thing that
1:29:56
grabbed Pixar's attention in the script was a scene in there when
1:30:00
a kid opens a Christmas present. He thinks it's a toy gun, but
1:30:03
it's real, and he accidentally kills his entire family.
1:30:06
Wow. What?
1:30:07
Get those guys in to write Woody and Buzz.
1:30:10
Yeah, that sounds about right, yeah.
1:30:12
I mean, that's really good. So Corn and Sokolow wrote about
1:30:16
6 drafts. They took it much closer to the
1:30:19
film we see now, and they're responsible for coming up with
1:30:21
Buzzers, Catch Phase to Infinity and Beyond.
1:30:23
But Pixos still thought it was too dark.
1:30:26
Yeah, apparently in Corn and Sokolow's version, after I, Buzz
1:30:29
found out he wasn't a toy, he jumped off the band instead.
1:30:31
Not to fly, but to try and kill himself.
1:30:34
Big grim. Wow.
1:30:37
To Infinity and beyond. Or do you know where they took
1:30:39
that from? That phrase.
1:30:40
No, I don't. So it's from the 3rd chapter of
1:30:43
2001, the Space Odyssey. That's called Jupiter and beyond
1:30:46
the infinite, right? OK.
1:30:48
And they took it from there, yeah.
1:30:49
I'm so pleased that wasn't more obvious.
1:30:51
I was kick myself, never noticed.
1:30:54
Yes, Chapter 3 to Infinity and beyond.
1:30:56
What? It's a great catch phrase
1:30:59
though, isn't it? Yeah, it's brilliant.
1:31:01
Yeah. Oh, it's great.
1:31:01
Yeah. So Cohen and Sokolow left the
1:31:04
project, and Pixar hired Joss Whedon, who had written Buffy
1:31:07
the Vampire Slayer, and he'd also done rewrites on Speed and
1:31:10
Waterworld. So he lightened the Torn, and he
1:31:13
came up with Rex the dinosaur. And he came up with what sounds
1:31:16
like a really good idea for the end of the film, which Pixar
1:31:18
wanted to do but couldn't. So stick around for that at the
1:31:21
end. OK.
1:31:22
But yeah, I think he's probably the most well known of the
1:31:24
writers. Joss Whedon went on to create
1:31:26
the Buffy TV show and he wrote and directed a couple of The
1:31:29
Avengers films later on. Yeah, that's right.
1:31:31
He did. Yeah.
1:31:31
The working title for Toy Story was Toy Story from the start,
1:31:34
but Leon Krich later said that there were 200 other titles
1:31:37
considered 200. Wow, that's a lot.
1:31:40
Wow. Like we say, there's probably
1:31:42
loads of these on the shelf and they're just working through
1:31:44
them. The Cowboy and the Spaceman
1:31:46
sounds like an Elton John song. Great to Infinity and beyond.
1:31:52
Made in Taiwan Bring me the arm of Buzz Lightyear and Toys in
1:31:56
the Hood is me favorite. Toys in the hood, Yeah.
1:32:00
I mean, Toy Story, surely taken from Tokyo Story, the classic
1:32:04
Japanese drama, I think. Yeah.
1:32:05
Maybe, yeah. They made the right choice.
1:32:07
I think Toy Story is a great title, yeah.
1:32:09
Joy story is bad, self reasonable.
1:32:16
And we've talked about the books on Andy Shelf having inside
1:32:18
references to Pixar, and there's lots of others in the film.
1:32:21
So Andy is named after Andreas Van Dam and he's an animation
1:32:25
pioneer and he taught many of the Pixar animators at Brown
1:32:28
University. Right.
1:32:31
Yeah, no relation to Jean Claude Van Dam, sadly.
1:32:33
I mean, presumably, maybe there is.
1:32:35
I don't know. I don't know.
1:32:36
Hopefully not. And on the back of the Pizza
1:32:41
Planet truck, there's a sticker that says Krat FM, and this is
1:32:44
reference to TW Kratter who was a digital painter on the film.
1:32:48
Right. Yeah, Her job description was
1:32:50
imperfectionist. Apparently it was her job to
1:32:53
make things look more realistic by adding scuff Marks and
1:32:56
scratches and like, dirt to surfaces.
1:32:58
Right? Something that everybody else
1:32:59
started doing like. Straight away, I'll bet.
1:33:01
My dream job that. Sits backpack had a message
1:33:06
written on it. Julie Mcbaughle house cooties
1:33:09
and this is reference to Julia McDonald, a camera manager, and
1:33:12
she asked to be referenced in the film.
1:33:15
Yeah, presumably she asked for it to be done in a playful way.
1:33:17
Otherwise, Julia Mcbothell is a bit harsh.
1:33:21
We've got you in there. Look out for it.
1:33:23
And the day of his family car's license plate registration is a
1:33:26
113. And a 113 was the number of her
1:33:29
classroom at California Institute of Arts.
1:33:31
And that's where lots of Pixars animators studied.
1:33:34
That's in lots of films that isn't it.
1:33:36
There's loads of references to that.
1:33:37
It's in Lords, Yeah. John lost us to be there.
1:33:39
Yeah, you're right. You're Finding Nemo or Monsters
1:33:41
University, Wally. It's in Lords of Them, yeah.
1:33:44
Yeah. And then lastly, the removal
1:33:46
company who helped the Davises move, they are called Eggman
1:33:49
Movers and that's named after the art director Ralph
1:33:52
Eccleston. And the license plate of the
1:33:54
removal van is ML Y1K9 and that means Molly 1K9, a reference to
1:33:59
the Pixar office dog at the time.
1:34:01
Oh nice. And Molly's also the name of
1:34:03
Andy's sister, isn't it? It is, yeah.
1:34:05
So go work at Pixar. Not just a cool job, but they'll
1:34:08
probably put you in one of the films as well.
1:34:09
Immortalized. Yeah.
1:34:11
Yeah, I want to live with a musician.
1:34:14
For their work in writing Toy Story, Joss Weed and Andrew
1:34:17
Stanton, Joel Coen and Alex Socolow were nominated for Best
1:34:20
Original Screenplay at the Academy Awards, the first
1:34:23
animated film to ever be nominated for that award.
1:34:25
Which is some going, yeah. Wow.
1:34:27
They lost out to Christopher Mcquarrie for The Usual
1:34:29
Suspects, right? Which right, Losing with style
1:34:32
at least. Yeah, fair enough.
1:34:33
Yeah. And for us, in creating the
1:34:35
world, the characters, the narrative of Toy Story, the
1:34:38
screenplay here is pretty timeless, brilliant.
1:34:41
Yeah, it's incredible. From the writing we moved to the
1:34:46
music and the composer on Toy Story in Randy Newman.
1:34:49
Yeah. Already established as a pop
1:34:51
singer-songwriter and film composer, Newman had released 8
1:34:55
studio albums by this point and composed scores for films like
1:34:58
The Natural, Parenthood, Awakenings, and Maverick.
1:35:02
Yeah. Yes, the music and Toy Story.
1:35:05
It's got a friend in you, I bet, Matt.
1:35:06
Oh, definitely does anyway, because this is another element
1:35:10
where it's just astonishing how pretty much perfect it sounds
1:35:13
straight off the bat and you just think this just simply
1:35:17
couldn't have sounded any other way.
1:35:19
How else would you score this apart from this way?
1:35:21
There's a warmth and a likeness to the music.
1:35:24
I think the songs are really cleverly used as this kind of
1:35:27
Greek chorus on what the characters are feeling, so you
1:35:29
don't have to have exposition in the script.
1:35:31
I mean, to start off with, You've got a friend in Me.
1:35:34
I mean, that works on the level of it's the relationship between
1:35:37
Woody and Andy, it's the relationship that Woody and Buzz
1:35:40
will develop by the end, but it's also the relationship
1:35:43
between Pixar and the audience. It's saying you're going to be
1:35:45
all right with us, we're going to hold your hand, we're on your
1:35:48
side, and everything's going to be OK through this film.
1:35:50
It's just yet another perfect element to the film.
1:35:53
Yeah. You already had this, like,
1:35:54
folksy Americana sound in the solo stuff, Brand new human.
1:35:58
So a great choice to write music about this classic part of
1:36:01
Western culture. Toys, specifically toys based on
1:36:03
a cowboy and a spaceman, which is about as American as you can
1:36:06
get. Yeah.
1:36:07
And I think he achieves this great kind of balancing act in
1:36:09
the music. It's nostalgic without being
1:36:12
overly sickly or sweet. It's childlike, but never
1:36:15
childish. Yeah.
1:36:16
And there's like, a bounce and a playfulness of the background
1:36:18
music all the way through, which works perfectly.
1:36:21
And I think his versatility shines.
1:36:23
Scoring drama when Buzz tries to fly, tension when they're
1:36:26
trapped in SIDS room, action in the climax.
1:36:29
And it does it across genres. It's Western, The times for
1:36:32
Woody, based in the times for Buzz.
1:36:34
And it's all of a piece. It all kind of fits together.
1:36:36
Yeah. And you've got a friend in me.
1:36:39
As songs written for films go, you can't ask for much more from
1:36:42
your composer, I don't think. Not really, no.
1:36:44
Is there a more heartwarming piece of music than the opening
1:36:46
bars? If you've got a friend in me,
1:36:48
you're. In it's just beautiful.
1:36:50
He's managed to grab it. The she'll record the film into
1:36:54
like 3 minutes. It's about friendship, obviously
1:36:57
a major theme of the film, but also represents Woody's ark.
1:37:00
The first time we hear the song in the opening, it's about Woody
1:37:03
and Andy. When we hear it again in the
1:37:04
closing credits, I think it's about Woody and Buzz, yeah.
1:37:07
Yeah, it is. Yeah.
1:37:08
He was already really successful, Randy Newman, but I
1:37:10
think now he's probably most well known as the guy who did
1:37:13
Toy Story I. Think so, yeah.
1:37:15
Yeah, and for good reason. Great work I think.
1:37:18
The thing about the songs on Toy Story, right, is that the songs
1:37:21
on Toy Story, if you've got a best friend, you wouldn't send
1:37:23
them. You've got a friend in me.
1:37:25
No. It'd be like, this is our song
1:37:27
because it belongs to Toy Story. It belongs to that world.
1:37:32
Strange things are happening to me, like someone's having a bad
1:37:34
time to listen to this. This song will get you through
1:37:36
it. You're like, no, because that's
1:37:37
not my song. That's what he's song.
1:37:39
He's written songs that absolutely live in this universe
1:37:43
in the same way that the dialogue does, in the same way
1:37:45
that the animation does, in the same way that the voice actors
1:37:48
do. And I've heard when do you get
1:37:51
some, you know, shit over time? And I don't understand why.
1:37:55
And they're like, oh, well, his voice isn't that good.
1:37:57
Or it's just nonsense and it's just overly nonchalant.
1:38:00
I totally disagree with that. I think that was the whole
1:38:03
point. It's supposed to sound
1:38:05
nonchalant. It's supposed to sound like a
1:38:07
guy at a piano in a saloon at some points, and to me it is the
1:38:13
ball on this package. It ties it all together and it
1:38:16
just helps reinforce the scenes, reinforce the feel of the film,
1:38:20
which is the most important thing.
1:38:22
But having said that, I don't listen to these songs away from
1:38:26
the film. No, no, no.
1:38:28
They're not going to be massive hits on the radio.
1:38:29
That's not going to be like Bryan Adams at #1 for 12 weeks
1:38:34
or whatever. Wait, wait, wait, wait.
1:38:37
Then you think, well actually what films that are.
1:38:39
This is ingrained in the film. If you hear that song on the
1:38:42
radio when it finishes, the have to talk about Toy Story.
1:38:46
Yeah, it doesn't feel complete without the film being with it,
1:38:48
does it? Exactly.
1:38:49
It's just part of the package. Yeah.
1:38:51
And Brandy Newman ties all that together for me.
1:38:54
And Disney animations were known for usually being musicals at
1:38:56
the time, and the plan early on was for Toy Story to be a
1:38:59
musical too. But Lasseter didn't want to make
1:39:01
a musical. So Pixar and Disney came to a
1:39:03
compromise, which was that it wouldn't be a musical, but music
1:39:06
would be used as a major part of the storytelling instead.
1:39:10
And it is. Imagine what are you just
1:39:12
bursting into strange things? A buzz actually singing I will
1:39:15
go sailing no more to jumps off the bandstand.
1:39:17
That's what it would have been. Yeah, with a little mic coming
1:39:19
out of his helmet like Madonna. John Lasseter said he wanted the
1:39:25
music for Toy Story to be touching and witty, and he liked
1:39:28
the music. Randy Newman had written for The
1:39:30
Natural, the sports film with Robert Redford, and told Disney
1:39:33
he was perfect composer. Newman wrote the score.
1:39:36
And also three songs that we've talked about strange things.
1:39:38
I will go sailing no more. And you've got a friend of me.
1:39:42
And I agree with you, Westie. I think these vocals are really
1:39:43
good. Randy Newman.
1:39:45
Yeah, the grace. He's got this kind of
1:39:46
insincerity in this delivery, which someone makes a song sound
1:39:49
more sincere, which is weird. Yeah, it's almost like a drunk.
1:39:53
It's like, yeah, yeah, yeah. Sincere when I want to be.
1:39:56
But then, like tomorrow morning, not be the same guy, but on a
1:39:59
night time, he's Randy Newman. Like we're here.
1:40:02
And the second version of You Got a Friend in Me that were
1:40:04
here on the end credits, that's a duet with Lyle Lovett, the
1:40:06
country singer, presumably to represent It's not just Woody
1:40:09
song now, it's Woody and Buzzers.
1:40:11
Exactly. In Newman said that last two was
1:40:13
keen on him coming back with his own ideas, but he said he never
1:40:16
sought to write music for moving until he's got enough of a brief
1:40:19
from the director. He said he eventually managed to
1:40:21
get out of Gloucester that the main theme should be about
1:40:24
friendship, it should be witty and it should probably be slow.
1:40:27
And based on that, he wrote, You've got a friend in me in one
1:40:29
day. Based on that.
1:40:31
In one day as well. Ridiculous.
1:40:33
Yeah. I mean, yeah, like we've been
1:40:35
saying, I think in any setting it's a good song.
1:40:37
It's catchy, nice sentiment. You couple it with Toy Story and
1:40:40
the visuals and the characters you think of, that's when it
1:40:42
becomes a great song. Yeah.
1:40:44
Yeah. For his work on Toy Story, Randy
1:40:46
Newman was nominated for not one, but two Academy Awards Best
1:40:49
Original Musical or Comedy Score and Best Original Song for
1:40:53
You've Got a Friend In Me. He lost both to Alan Menken and
1:40:56
Stephen Schwartz for Pocahontas and Colours of the Wind from
1:40:59
Pocahontas. Right, OK, right.
1:41:01
Neither of them I can remember. No.
1:41:04
Neither can I, not at all, but. That's whatsoever.
1:41:06
Yeah, I can't even remember Pocahontas.
1:41:08
Still, I watch Avatar, obviously.
1:41:12
But yeah, over the years, Randy Newman's music for Toy Story has
1:41:14
grown in reputation and now among the most recognisable
1:41:18
movie music from the 90s. Very much, yeah.
1:41:20
Even the 1st 2 bars you know where you are.
1:41:22
Instantly. Yeah, yeah.
1:41:25
Last but not least, in the crew section, we are looking at the
1:41:28
visuals of Toy Story, which as we've been saying, we're
1:41:30
breaking new ground. At the time, there was no
1:41:33
director of photography as such, with it being a new venture, but
1:41:36
some key contributors were lighting supervisor Sharon
1:41:39
Callahan, supervising layout artist Craig Goode and director
1:41:43
John Lasseter overseeing everything.
1:41:45
Yeah, the visuals in Toy Story. Westie, how does it all look for
1:41:48
you? I mean, it all looks great for
1:41:49
me. I think it's just has a really
1:41:51
bold, really colorful, really energetic look to it.
1:41:54
It's really accessible. I mean, there's some frames you
1:41:57
look at this and go, Oh, yeah, Rex is a bit pixelated there or
1:42:01
that desk doesn't look as good as it should.
1:42:04
But anyone who does that, it would just be like, shut up,
1:42:06
man. There's no room for that because
1:42:09
at the time it was incredible. I saw this at the cinema and saw
1:42:13
nothing wrong with it. In 1995.
1:42:16
It was absolutely flawless. It was so clean, it was so
1:42:20
clear. There was whip pans, there was
1:42:22
crash zooms. Everything felt very cinematic.
1:42:26
And we grew up watching cartoons.
1:42:27
Now, if you watch Tom and Jerry, they run from left to right,
1:42:31
right to left, and you go slightly there, but you're never
1:42:34
in the world. The background just repeats.
1:42:36
It's running. Yeah.
1:42:37
And you just, there's this need to get it done quickly.
1:42:40
There's no laziness to this. Like everything in that frame is
1:42:43
definitely there for a reason, because it has to fill that
1:42:45
frame. This is a lesson in miss on
1:42:47
scent is like if you're going to put something in front of the
1:42:50
camera or behind the camera, it needs to be there for absolute
1:42:53
reason. But they didn't overuse that.
1:42:55
They didn't fill it with things. The backgrounds work really
1:42:58
well, but it has its own look. And I'm always baffled looking
1:43:02
back at this, that it wasn't done with the mix of live action
1:43:06
because we've got who friend Roger Rabbit, you know, Stuart
1:43:09
Little came out in 99. This could have been Stuart
1:43:12
Little where you've got live action and then the toys are
1:43:14
basically Stuart Little running around doing stuff.
1:43:16
I'm amazed that that didn't happen and they just went, no,
1:43:19
we are creating a whole world. Like we've said, we're going to
1:43:23
probably say this about everything when it comes to the
1:43:25
crew and when it comes to the execution is that everyone's
1:43:28
created something water tight and the visuals needed to be as
1:43:33
good as everything else. But I think everything stepped
1:43:36
up because the visuals are so good.
1:43:38
Yeah. I mean, the visuals of the time
1:43:39
1995 that were groundbreaking. Like we've been seeing the first
1:43:43
fully CGI animated feature film that's significant itself, but
1:43:47
it's not just that no one did it before.
1:43:48
That makes it special. I don't think it's still kind of
1:43:51
sets the standard. I mean, the animations evolved
1:43:54
obviously with technology over the years, but in terms of just
1:43:56
CGI animated storytelling, the Toy Story IP is still the
1:44:00
benchmark. It is.
1:44:02
One of the best decisions I think they made early on is that
1:44:04
at the time, lots of CGI animators, like you said,
1:44:07
Westie, they were using CGI to create things that looked real,
1:44:10
like ILM used it in Jurassic Park, Terminator 2.
1:44:13
Pixar didn't go that route. They leaned into making it look
1:44:16
like an animation with the tropes and the rules and the
1:44:19
limits that come with that, and then work kind of towards
1:44:21
realism from there. That was sensible with how far
1:44:23
they aimed, and that just made it look kind of like light years
1:44:27
ahead of its competitors. What are you?
1:44:29
And Buzz don't look real necessarily, but they still
1:44:31
didn't look like like anything we'd seen before.
1:44:33
Yeah. Yeah.
1:44:34
And it picks up understanding of animation and visual
1:44:36
storytelling just shines. I said Sharon Callahan was
1:44:39
lighting supervisor. What you ever see is an
1:44:42
incredible the texture and the depth on the images is like
1:44:45
nothing we'd seen. He just couldn't really do that
1:44:47
to that level than hand roll animation.
1:44:49
Yeah. And lighting can convey emotion.
1:44:50
Can't, as we often talk about. No, Absolutely, yeah.
1:44:53
Pixar tapped right into that from the star.
1:44:55
Yeah, some of the visuals still blow me away.
1:44:57
I mentioned the shot when Buzz first arrives on the bed and
1:44:59
also in that scene we get that Buzz POV looking inside his
1:45:03
helmet. Yeah, yeah, it's great.
1:45:05
It's amazing. There seems to be no sign of
1:45:06
intelligent life anyway. Hello.
1:45:10
It's just the sound of the breathing as well.
1:45:12
Yeah, it's great. But I think it's the contrast
1:45:14
ratios that they're really taking on board, and it looks
1:45:16
like real life because you've got shadow in there.
1:45:18
Like we've talked about when Andy's holding up buzz and
1:45:20
there's a silhouette, it's not a pure black silhouette.
1:45:23
Yeah, yeah. You still see some detail in
1:45:25
there, so it looks realistic. So there's them contrast ratios
1:45:28
that really work. Absolutely, Yeah.
1:45:30
I mean, the technology did obviously advance a lot in the
1:45:32
years and the decades after Toy Story.
1:45:34
But I think that visual language, they established the
1:45:36
kind of exaggerated cartoons with realistic elements like the
1:45:40
shadows and the lighting, but defined Pixar's approach
1:45:43
instantly. And CGI animation as a whole,
1:45:45
everyone just followed suit. And I think it still looks
1:45:49
great. It probably always will, yeah.
1:45:51
Yeah. I mean, ground breaking's the
1:45:52
word, isn't it? And I completely agree with what
1:45:54
you're saying, Yeah. If you look at later Pixar
1:45:57
films, yes, they definitely get better at animating humans in
1:46:00
particular. I think maybe you could say some
1:46:02
of the faces in this are a bit stiff and a bit generic when
1:46:05
they kind of compare them to the other ones.
1:46:08
But you know, the starting from scratch here.
1:46:10
So any criticism you have, I think it's OK to kind of dismiss
1:46:13
it like Wesley's saying. But for me, it's the way that
1:46:15
they kind of replicate the way that the camera moves in the
1:46:17
scene. You know, a lot of previous
1:46:19
animations could be a bit static, but this one shots like
1:46:22
the POV of Woody being pushed down the banister or going round
1:46:25
and round and round on the swivel chair.
1:46:27
You know, that's taking the idea of movement in animation to
1:46:30
another level entirely. And it's also a film that's not
1:46:33
just content to just have day and night animation, which I
1:46:36
would guess is probably easy. You know, that's seen before
1:46:38
Pizza Planet. It's dusk, and evidence is
1:46:41
bathed in that orange glow. And it looks incredible.
1:46:44
Yeah. So yes, he could argue they will
1:46:46
improve the visuals as they develop as a company, but that
1:46:49
doesn't take away anything from how good they are here.
1:46:52
Absolutely, for sure. Yeah, and John Lasseter said the
1:46:55
intentionally drew storyboards and created animations as if
1:46:58
they're all being filmed by somebody with a camera.
1:47:00
So the camera moves at times like on a crane, like said, and
1:47:03
other times like it's on a steady Cam.
1:47:05
Really, really excellently done. Yeah, yeah, that show we talked
1:47:08
about with Buzzers duvet, yeah, the camera kind of spins, but
1:47:11
like it's on a crane. Yes, it's kind of strange
1:47:14
because I think it kind of messes with us subconsciously a
1:47:17
bit. It does with me.
1:47:18
It does a little bit, yeah. Well, you're kind of thinking I
1:47:20
know this wasn't filmed by a cameraman, but it looks like it
1:47:22
was. But it looks like it was, yeah.
1:47:24
And the camera going over the top with the Marines jumping
1:47:26
down with the parachutes, it's just how would you do that?
1:47:30
And one thing to mention is that Andy's dad has never seen or
1:47:32
mentioned in the films and there's been a lot of online
1:47:35
speculation about the reason why.
1:47:37
Is he at work? Did he leave, abandoned the
1:47:39
family? Is he dead?
1:47:40
And Andrew Stanton said the actual reason we don't see Andy
1:47:43
Sadd is actually very simple and not as interesting as a
1:47:45
theories. It just would have taken too
1:47:47
long and being too expensive to animate another human being.
1:47:51
And for the same reason all the human characters have short hair
1:47:54
and Andy's mum has hair. Hair tied up in a ponytail.
1:47:57
Yeah, it was. Woody won it.
1:47:58
That's Andy's dad. That's why he's called Woody.
1:48:05
Well, that's the same reason it's only 84 minutes long,
1:48:07
Presumably. Yeah.
1:48:08
I mean, they're dipping their toes in the water a bit.
1:48:09
I'll get cost. Yeah.
1:48:10
Yeah. And similar to that is the
1:48:12
birthday party we talked about. When we look through Sergey's
1:48:14
binoculars, we'll see the kids. And if you look, you can see
1:48:16
they all look very similar to Andy.
1:48:18
Yes they do. We just got different colour
1:48:20
skin. Different colour hair.
1:48:21
Yeah, because they use the same model.
1:48:23
Yeah, time is money, I guess. Well, Disney did that.
1:48:25
Didn't know with Jungle Boot, Robin Hood it's all repeated.
1:48:28
Of course. Yeah, of course they did.
1:48:30
Yeah. The team that created Toy Story
1:48:32
was relatively very small. Pixar employed 100 written 10
1:48:35
people in total to make the film.
1:48:37
To make The Lion King, which came out in 94, Disney had a
1:48:40
team of 800 employees working on it.
1:48:42
Well, yeah, this is before the days of the Internet has been
1:48:45
known today. And because the team was so
1:48:47
small, they didn't have runners like a big Disney production
1:48:49
like The Lion King usually would.
1:48:51
Yeah. So when an animator finished a
1:48:52
shot, apparently they would put it on a videotape and then
1:48:55
someone would jump on a scooter and shoot around the Pixar
1:48:57
office to take it to the editors.
1:49:00
Not why these people need to a Plank award.
1:49:01
Hopefully that would. Have been fine on a moped
1:49:06
though, yeah. Yeah, that's alright.
1:49:09
And Lassiter said the animators had to overcome huge challenges.
1:49:12
Every leaf and blade of grass had to be created individually.
1:49:15
The character of Woody alone had 723 motion controls, including
1:49:20
212 for his face and 58 for his mouth, and 300 computers we used
1:49:25
to render the final movie. It took 800,000 hours and
1:49:29
114,240 frames of animation in total.
1:49:34
That's about 91 days to render. And you've noticed as well, when
1:49:37
the toys blink, their eyes always open and close one or two
1:49:40
frames apart, which was to make it look more realistic.
1:49:42
Yeah. Made your attention the detail
1:49:44
in there. Yeah.
1:49:45
Blades of grass individually done know.
1:49:47
Mental. Imagine that was, you know, W
1:49:49
you're in charge of the grass in California Sound.
1:49:52
No, no, no, no. No, the Toy Story grass.
1:49:56
The technology and animation goes hand in hand today, but
1:49:59
Lasseter said that at the time they were so different that find
1:50:02
an animator who knew how to use computers was pretty much
1:50:05
impossible. So they had the higher hand
1:50:07
drawn of stop motion animators and teach them how to use
1:50:10
technology. Andrew Stanton said he would
1:50:12
regularly come across animators trying to draw on the screens or
1:50:16
move the screen models by hand as it didn't really understand
1:50:19
it. Like Armageddon teaching a bunch
1:50:21
of drillers how to fly a spaceship.
1:50:24
This makes more sense. Yeah.
1:50:27
You can't teach an animated how to draw, can you?
1:50:30
Yeah, I understand that the Pixar last star setting, these
1:50:32
people who are learning on the job are still like sky high.
1:50:36
But I guess if you pull it off, you end up with greatness.
1:50:38
And that's kind of what they did, yeah.
1:50:40
Yeah, definitely. Yeah, no direct Oscars
1:50:42
recognition for the visuals on Toy Story.
1:50:44
It didn't exist as a category at the time, but by 2002 there was
1:50:48
a Best Animated Feature award, right?
1:50:50
Secure with no small part of Pixar, I think.
1:50:52
Absolutely, yeah. The first winner, though, wasn't
1:50:54
a Pixar film. Do you know what it was?
1:50:56
Matt Well 2. 1002. Shrek.
1:50:59
It was Shrek. Some boy you like.
1:51:03
Unbelievable. And in doing pioneering work,
1:51:05
Toy Story did help establish a visual language that would kind
1:51:08
of define computer animation for years to come.
1:51:11
Oh. Definitely.
1:51:11
Oh, absolutely, yeah. So some people who worked on Toy
1:51:14
Story there, the writers, and there was a few of them bringing
1:51:17
the script to life, Randy Newman creating the famous soundtrack
1:51:20
and the animation teams setting new standards.
1:51:23
All in all, pretty impressive stuff from the Pixar crew.
1:51:26
Very impressive. Yeah.
1:51:31
The end. The final active Toy Story sees
1:51:37
Woody and Buzz facing their biggest challenges yet.
1:51:39
The climax where our heroes chase down Andy in a death
1:51:42
defying car pursuit is coming, but first it's the final
1:51:45
confrontation with Sid. Yeah, it is.
1:51:48
So with Buzz accepting he is a toy after all, and deciding to
1:51:51
help Woody escape potential disaster strikes with Sid
1:51:56
planning to launch Buzz skyward on a firework at 8:25 AM, Woody
1:52:00
and the other dismembered tour is Hatch your plan?
1:52:03
Yeah, you set the alarm for 8:25 and it goes off at 7.
1:52:07
Bit of an error, but what do you make of the show down in SIDS
1:52:09
backyard Westie I mean. It's fantastic, isn't it?
1:52:13
It's just a great, great plan from Woody.
1:52:16
It is. It's ingenious, I'll be honest
1:52:19
with you. When he puts his little temper
1:52:20
aside, he's really got a intelligent brain there and it
1:52:23
really works. But that's excellent that the
1:52:25
match goes in the holster. But I love this revenge that
1:52:28
happens on said. This is where it goes from, you
1:52:30
know, the action films of the 80s.
1:52:32
And now we're in the horror movies.
1:52:34
There's Night of the Living Dead in there.
1:52:36
Hell raises in there. There's an excellent not with
1:52:40
the Exorcist which that head spin.
1:52:42
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Which has been done so many
1:52:44
times before and it's always made me give it a bit of an eye
1:52:47
roll of like. But it works so well here
1:52:51
because of the speed that it's done and the dialogue that
1:52:54
accompanies in that those toys, we see everything and that must
1:53:00
freak them out. That would freak them out at the
1:53:03
time, but then I think that would be enough.
1:53:06
But then when he comes to life and he's just really in his face
1:53:09
and he becomes a real life toy and they're closing in on them
1:53:12
and he's just that's it. He's had enough.
1:53:14
Sid gets a pretty bad rap. I'm going to say that he's quite
1:53:19
inventive, but he does it from the wrong spectrum.
1:53:22
So he does it from the wrong side.
1:53:24
He does it from a side of aggression and a side of
1:53:27
destruction, which is never good.
1:53:30
But if it was done in a playful way, I think it would have been
1:53:32
nice to see a bit more of a resolution for Sid's character
1:53:36
because I feel like, yeah, he's the bad guy, but I would like to
1:53:38
have seen him altering toys for good at the end.
1:53:41
Yeah, just before the Christmas bit.
1:53:43
Maybe it cuts back to say, like, fixing the toys at Christmas and
1:53:46
then pans around and goes through Andy's window and just
1:53:49
kind of travels down the road where they've moved to.
1:53:52
Yeah, yeah, that might be really nice.
1:53:54
I agree. I think it kind of needs that,
1:53:56
you know, he's a bad kid, but there's loads of bad kids out
1:53:58
there. Yeah, he doesn't know they're
1:53:59
alive, to be fair, does he? And no, he doesn't.
1:54:01
And I think that's the point. And once he knows they're alive,
1:54:04
if he could have a little bit of retribution and then he's
1:54:06
helping them and fixing them up, I think that would have been
1:54:09
really, really nice. But this whole bit and said yard
1:54:12
is excellent because it's what you want.
1:54:13
It's, you know, retribution for the toys, It's revenge for the
1:54:16
guys who are there. It sets up the match, it sets up
1:54:19
the end, and it sets up the rocket.
1:54:21
And it from here just gets ridiculous.
1:54:24
And by ridiculous, I mean fucking excellent.
1:54:28
That election scene they would get before that where they just
1:54:30
factors good to get him out of the house.
1:54:32
And then she or the dog flop on the skateboard.
1:54:34
Great little moment that lean back.
1:54:36
Yeah, yeah. But what is saving Buzz?
1:54:40
Also kind of redeeming himself. His walk in the films about
1:54:43
overcoming his jealousy, his selfishness, and this moment
1:54:46
proves his transformation is complete.
1:54:48
He's willing to risk everything and break the Tories kind of
1:54:51
prime directive to save Buzz. There's a great little touch
1:54:54
when they do go to leave, Woody jumps on the car and Buzz gets
1:54:57
stuck in the fence and says I'll catch up.
1:54:59
Yeah, Woody earlier would have left him.
1:55:01
Not anymore. He.
1:55:01
Comes back here. And you mentioned a few there,
1:55:04
Westie. There's another classic film
1:55:05
reference our spot here as well When the mangled Army Man about
1:55:09
The Dirty water. Apocalypse Now reminds me of
1:55:11
Apocalypse Now all right. And surely SIDS never getting
1:55:14
over this. No, his scream when the spider
1:55:17
baby thing lands on his head is like blood curdling.
1:55:20
He's. Terrified, he ends up being a.
1:55:22
Binman. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
1:55:24
He's off to therapy after this. Yeah.
1:55:26
Michael Myers. Just listening to music and
1:55:28
hitting bins for the rest of his life to a kid.
1:55:32
Just saying, the writing is so good in this same because the
1:55:34
film has been so much about the rivalry between Woody and Buzz,
1:55:38
but at the same time, they've built up this threat of Sid as
1:55:41
an actual villain in the background.
1:55:43
And Woody and Buzz resolve their problems just in time for Sid to
1:55:46
take center stage. But at the same time, Andy is
1:55:49
about to literally leave to go to his new house.
1:55:52
So it's like there's a ticking time bomb going on in the
1:55:54
background. You know, they've got to get out
1:55:56
of there now or they'll miss the chance to go with Andy.
1:55:58
So there's a lot of plates being spun here, and not one of them
1:56:02
is wobbling. They're all perfectly In Sync.
1:56:04
And it even sets up a small thing like Woody having the
1:56:07
match with them at the end in a way that makes perfect sense.
1:56:10
As Wes, he says, makes perfect sense.
1:56:12
He'd put it in his holster. Why wouldn't you of?
1:56:14
Course it would, yeah. The writing is just so perfectly
1:56:17
done for this scene, and you get that queer trauma that just
1:56:20
pulled back and we're talking about it mimic and camera moves
1:56:23
like that pull back to real. And being surrounded by the toys
1:56:26
in the circles, the advancing towards them.
1:56:28
Yeah, Yeah. Brilliant.
1:56:29
It's incredible. After the film came out, Pixar
1:56:32
apparently discussed whether the Toy Story toy line should
1:56:35
include the toys. Sit has been torturing and
1:56:37
reconfiguring Think We're Toys were the toy manufacturers and
1:56:40
said it was a bad idea. I disagree with that.
1:56:44
I would. Have bought that spider baby
1:56:47
head. Baby head spider legs thing.
1:56:50
Imagine getting that. I think you should have got them
1:56:52
all as a pack though. But then you can kind of pull
1:56:54
them apart and move them around your own configurations of SIDS
1:56:58
toys. But it would have made Sid more
1:57:00
of the hero, wouldn't I guess? I don't know.
1:57:02
Yeah, maybe, but is it just me as well or is it pretty sad how
1:57:05
old SIDS are? The toys just get left behind.
1:57:07
Yeah, straighten the bin for them, surely when the parents
1:57:09
find them. Before we leave SIDS for good
1:57:11
though, we have our second DAT RM patron question.
1:57:14
OK. It comes from Philip Beattie and
1:57:16
is about Sid. OK.
1:57:18
Hello, Philip. Hello Philip.
1:57:20
So Philip asks how much of a little swine is said.
1:57:23
Philip didn't say swine, but OK. What are the kids in movies are
1:57:27
there that could do with an old fashioned clip round the year?
1:57:30
Right, OK. It's plenty for you would
1:57:31
imagine, Westy. Lords, there's nothing really
1:57:35
gets under my skin more than an annoying kid in a film.
1:57:38
I think since misunderstood, I've already said that, but I'll
1:57:40
put that forward again. Yeah, the kid who bought the bed
1:57:42
sheets and his party needs a clip.
1:57:47
The Raptor kid at the start of Jurassic Park.
1:57:50
Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
1:57:52
It's like a giant Turkey. Yeah, yeah.
1:57:55
Gets his comeuppance. That's fine.
1:57:57
Any kid in either of the Charlie in the Chocolate Factory films.
1:58:01
Yeah, yeah. Even Charlie.
1:58:03
Any of them. Charlie.
1:58:04
Yeah, definitely. Just messing around with shit.
1:58:06
Just leave it alone. John Connor in Terminate.
1:58:10
Oh, definitely. Easy money, turn it off.
1:58:13
Then I kind of watch it because of him.
1:58:16
By the way, I'm not getting at the kids who are playing them at
1:58:18
all. The characters, that's what I'm
1:58:20
talking about. It's as if that's annoying
1:58:22
character. And the worst one for me, Always
1:58:24
Will Be, Always Has Been, is played by a guy called Billy
1:58:27
Lombardo and it's Benny in the Money Pit.
1:58:30
Wow. What's your money Pit again?
1:58:33
That kid is a piece of shit. He's a piece of shit and it's
1:58:38
really well played and that kid supposed to be, but that
1:58:41
character of Benny in the Money Pit is the worst kid in any film
1:58:44
ever. Right.
1:58:46
Nice. Yeah.
1:58:47
I mean, Sid's definitely up there on the list of movie kids
1:58:49
who need to be taught a lesson, which is why it's all so great
1:58:51
when it happens. Yeah, they are others, but it's
1:58:54
done well. I actually kind of like those
1:58:56
evil child characters. Oh, it's done well, yeah.
1:58:59
Yeah, like a book assault from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate
1:59:01
Factory. I don't think we're meant to
1:59:02
like her because she's a bit spoiled and a loudmouth, but I
1:59:04
think she's great and she's really funny.
1:59:06
She's not great like. His characters who were meant to
1:59:10
like that, I often don't. Right.
1:59:12
Got you. Like for me on Jurassic Park,
1:59:14
Tim the new and old kid, they should have turned that
1:59:17
electricity defense up, not off. Anakin from the Fundamentals is
1:59:22
a classic. Yeah, it is.
1:59:23
Yeah. But the most repulsive child
1:59:25
character I've seen anywhere isn't in movies.
1:59:27
He's on TV. Joffrey from Game of Thrones.
1:59:30
Right. I knew that would kind of come
1:59:32
up. I think you might be the best
1:59:33
love to head character I've ever seen anywhere.
1:59:35
Yeah, what a bastard. But brilliant.
1:59:37
Yeah, and spoilers. Game of Thrones definitely got
1:59:39
worse for me after he went right.
1:59:41
Yeah, I definitely have drawn Connor on my list as well.
1:59:44
No. Do you call Moi the dipshit?
1:59:47
Oh yeah, call you worse than that, sunshine.
1:59:49
You keep on going like that. If.
1:59:53
You've seen there's a Christmas horror film called Krampus about
1:59:56
a visiting family and all the kids.
1:59:58
Not obnoxious. Yeah, I agree with that.
2:00:01
Yeah. Good film though.
2:00:02
It's a really good film. Yeah, you do want to slap the
2:00:04
kids off. And then Draco from Harry
2:00:06
Potter. Yeah.
2:00:07
He has one expression throughout 7 films, Potter and that's it.
2:00:13
Or any of them in the first Harry Potter, to be honest.
2:00:15
Actually, yeah, Ron's all right. Any.
2:00:18
No, bloody hell. Rubbish.
2:00:22
Well, As for our Toy Story heroes, they're back in the game
2:00:26
and after the removal van and for said sad or glad to see him
2:00:30
go. I'm glad to see him go.
2:00:32
I'm sad not to see him redeemed. Yeah, I'm coming around to that
2:00:35
idea as well. With Sid dealt with our heroes
2:00:40
now face an even bigger problem catching up with the family
2:00:43
moving van. What are you in Buzz?
2:00:45
High tailing after Andy with scored in hot pursuit Andy's
2:00:48
remote controlled car RC turns up to help.
2:00:51
Sid's firework comes in very handy and Buzz flies them to
2:00:54
safety. Yes, Matt, Is it flying or
2:00:57
falling with style for the Toy Story climax?
2:01:00
Oh, it's absolutely flying. So much great storytelling here
2:01:03
in terms of how everything this chase needs has been set up.
2:01:06
The magnifying glass effect on what he was set up scenes
2:01:09
earlier, That's going to come back.
2:01:10
Yeah. As I said, the match comes back
2:01:12
in the play that was set up in the previous saying, yeah.
2:01:15
And none of it feels overly convenient.
2:01:17
It just dovetails together beautifully in the scene itself.
2:01:20
It's classic blockbuster. Again, we've mentioned earlier,
2:01:23
but it's very Spielberg. You know the way that Spielberg
2:01:26
will construct an action scene in an indie film by adding
2:01:29
layers of power. It's not just one thing or
2:01:32
Marion said the fuel on fire, but just trapped in the plane.
2:01:34
And then he's got to fight the engine at the same time. 3
2:01:37
layers of power. So it's not just the chase in
2:01:39
the van, but the bean chase by is good.
2:01:41
And it's not just that, but the toys in the van.
2:01:43
Still don't trust Woody? Led by Potato Head.
2:01:47
It's really funny when he gets in there and he's shook and
2:01:50
everything out and Rex goes he's at it again.
2:01:53
Yeah. I love that.
2:01:55
So crash zoom, isn't it? Yeah, Crash.
2:01:57
Yeah. Really funny, then the ducking
2:01:59
under the cars and then just when the Leafs cut behind the
2:02:01
batteries run out and then the match gets blown out.
2:02:04
That match getting blown out is so good.
2:02:06
Great. Yeah, it's great.
2:02:08
Because there's so many moving parts of the sequence and just
2:02:10
when you think this is it that happens, like, well, how do they
2:02:13
get back? And everything is so harmonious.
2:02:16
Everything is just beautifully In Sync.
2:02:17
So when you get to the resolution of the exploit, the
2:02:19
rocket, and you get the call back to the fallen with style,
2:02:23
this could be really on the nose, but it's not.
2:02:25
It's just perfectly judged. I agree much.
2:02:28
I think this is how you write and execute an action climax to
2:02:31
your film. It's like a master class.
2:02:32
It's got everything. It's funny, it's exciting, it's
2:02:35
got the feels in there, and it's the writing of it to start with.
2:02:38
I think as a climax. The plotting is perfect.
2:02:41
Starts with them running after the van.
2:02:43
Scud spots them from the porch, which ties into when they lured
2:02:45
him at the front door level. When Scuds yanking Woody off the
2:02:48
back of the van and Woody twanged his eyelids.
2:02:51
Yeah, yeah, yeah. RC getting involved is a great
2:02:55
idea, and both Woody and Buzz get their moments.
2:02:57
It's Woody who comes up with the idea of using Buzz's helmet to
2:03:00
light the rocket. Yeah.
2:03:01
Hilarious. When the rocket goes off and we
2:03:03
get that close up on Woody's face with AG force effect on it.
2:03:06
Yeah. Yeah.
2:03:07
And is there a more joyous moment in any film than when
2:03:10
Buzz starts to fly? Yeah, it's got to be up there.
2:03:13
And they bring it full circle. What?
2:03:15
He's like Buzz, you're flying. This isn't flying.
2:03:17
It's falling with style. Yeah, I'm just like, right, Turn
2:03:19
it off. Yeah, too good.
2:03:21
I'm not having it. Accepted who he is, friend.
2:03:23
Yeah, yeah, You know what? You see something in the film, I
2:03:26
think you'll get this Westy. And it's creatively, like, so
2:03:28
good that it makes you kind of emotional.
2:03:30
Yeah, absolutely. Buzz flying is one of those
2:03:32
moments for me, just how good it is.
2:03:34
Yeah. Hello.
2:03:35
The ditch RC film in the back of the van.
2:03:37
Thanks very much. See you later.
2:03:39
You did most of the work. The noise going to make it.
2:03:41
He hits Potato Head as well, so it's totally worth it for that
2:03:43
comedy. Beat.
2:03:44
It's fantastic. I mean, it's just as good of a
2:03:49
final action set piece as you're going to get.
2:03:51
Yeah, when we did the Aliens episode years ago, you turn
2:03:55
around and said the end of Aliens are so good.
2:03:56
I can't believe it exists, and I feel exactly the same about the
2:04:00
end of Toy Story because it ties so many things back together
2:04:04
again. That match going out, like we've
2:04:05
mentioned, is such a good punch, but then it's euphoric, it's
2:04:09
down, then it's up. It's brilliant the way this is
2:04:13
all put together and there's certain lines to it that you
2:04:16
know that they've found the place in the world.
2:04:19
And that's kind of all we want to do as human beings.
2:04:21
All we want to do as people is find your place and find your
2:04:24
meaning and find out where you're necessary and who you
2:04:27
care about and what your small group of friends is and your
2:04:30
family. And Boss has found that, and he
2:04:32
knows the importance of it now, and he gets it when he admits
2:04:35
that it's fallen with style and Woody then repeats to Infinity
2:04:39
and beyond, the kind of buy into each other's personalities.
2:04:43
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I really just said I love
2:04:46
you. I love you too by like, I buy
2:04:48
who you are now. I get who you are now.
2:04:50
And it's such a beautiful thing. It's just really encapsulated
2:04:55
and surrounded by this action sequence.
2:04:57
But I tear up every time I watch it now because I'm like, that's
2:05:00
what life's about, really. It's about finding your place,
2:05:04
accepting who you are and accepting everyone else around
2:05:06
you for who they are. And that's what it does at the
2:05:09
end of this film. And they miss everybody.
2:05:12
They know everyone's fine. They drop RC off because they
2:05:14
can't explain that. And then when he says we've
2:05:16
missed the truck and says we're not aiming for the truck.
2:05:19
Brilliant. It's just gets better and better
2:05:22
and better. And that final scoop up, he
2:05:24
can't fly. Yeah.
2:05:25
Yeah. He is a space Ranger.
2:05:27
He's done everything that he wanted to do, everything that he
2:05:29
thought he was. He is, but just in a different
2:05:31
context. So everything you think you are,
2:05:34
you probably are. But you've got to find your
2:05:36
context. You've got to find your space in
2:05:38
life. You've got to find your people
2:05:39
in life. You've got to find your room,
2:05:40
and that's what the end of Toy Story does.
2:05:42
So important, so good, so powerful, so emotional, but so
2:05:47
joyous. Joy Story.
2:05:50
A beautiful piece of writing isn't.
2:05:51
It. Yeah, it is.
2:05:51
Yeah. Such a gift.
2:05:54
So we mentioned earlier that Joss Whedon had an ID for the
2:05:57
end of the film that pixel light but couldn't do.
2:05:59
And we also said that Barbie was originally meant to be in the
2:06:02
film but Mattel wouldn't allow it.
2:06:04
So when Joss Whedon came onto the film to do rewrites, he
2:06:07
wrote Barbie into the climax. And originally the idea was that
2:06:11
when Woody and Buzz are chasing the van, Barbie would drive her
2:06:14
Corvette off the back of the truck and rescue them from Scud,
2:06:17
right? Which sounds amazing.
2:06:19
Whedon said it was inspired by Sarah Connor in Terminator 2,
2:06:22
but Mattel said they didn't want to give Barbie a defined
2:06:24
persona, which is why they said no.
2:06:27
That's a good point. Yeah, it does sound like it
2:06:29
would have been good though. Imagine to terminate a toy
2:06:31
voiced by Arnold. Best character ever.
2:06:34
It would have been raining outside before she drives off,
2:06:37
probably. There's a storm outside.
2:06:38
I know. And then?
2:06:42
It still worked with RC though pretty well.
2:06:44
RC is great, I love it. Runs out of batteries and turbo.
2:06:47
Turbo is great. Yeah, it's great.
2:06:48
Yeah. I love it when they're back in
2:06:50
the car with Andy and Woody and Buzz Winky each other and the
2:06:53
scene. Perfect.
2:06:54
There you go. Done.
2:06:55
Yeah, done. Exactly where we need to be.
2:06:57
Yeah, doesn't end just there though, does it?
2:06:59
We get there. You will tie Daniel more.
2:07:02
Any thoughts on that? I mean, all the writing in the
2:07:04
film has been about dotting the eyes and crossing the T's and
2:07:07
threading everything together. So it does feel very circular
2:07:10
that it should end with Andy getting presents again at the
2:07:13
end. Yeah, look, feels a bit too.
2:07:14
It's Christmas, not his next birthday.
2:07:16
Yeah. I don't know if that's just me,
2:07:18
but it's nice to see that Buzz is the worried one this time.
2:07:22
It's a great gag and a great callback, Like Mr. Potato Head
2:07:24
finally gets a Mrs. Potato Head. Yeah.
2:07:27
Obviously, you know, great end because the only thing worse
2:07:30
than the none of the toy is a puppy because not only is that
2:07:32
going to take Andy's attention, it will chew on everything.
2:07:35
So it's a perfect way. To wrap it all up, I think that
2:07:37
gift is the reason that it is Christmas, because if it was
2:07:39
Andy's birthday, there'll be Andy's dog.
2:07:41
I think it's a family dog that comes to Christmas.
2:07:43
OK, so that lands the end and really, doesn't it?
2:07:45
Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
2:07:47
I just can't believe there's not be a Toy Story Christmas film.
2:07:49
That would have been great. Yeah.
2:07:51
Did they not do a short film? Definitely did a Halloween 1.
2:07:53
I think they have, yeah. And Mrs. Potato Head turns up.
2:07:56
We know what Mr. Potato heads up to on Boxing Day.
2:07:59
Dirty dog. Great final scene though.
2:08:02
I love the iris fade to black at the end as well.
2:08:04
Perfect. Yeah, it's really good try to do
2:08:05
that. Indiana Jones didn't work, did
2:08:07
it? No, definitely not.
2:08:09
And that is the end of Toy Story.
2:08:11
From traumatizing said to chasing the moving van.
2:08:13
What are you in Buzz? Go from rivals to best friends.
2:08:16
Pretty joyous and all wrapped up with a neat Christmas ball for
2:08:19
us. Absolutely.
2:08:20
Really joyous, yeah. Deception and awards.
2:08:28
So that is the story of Toy Story, and it opened in cinemas
2:08:32
in November 1995. Yeah.
2:08:34
How did it do when its release? Well, Matt, the stats had his
2:08:37
eyes on so many numbers, we've had to replace them.
2:08:39
Like Mr. Potato Head. I have.
2:08:41
So tell us all about it, Matt. So production budget was $30
2:08:45
million and Toy Story cost a massive $394.4 million
2:08:51
worldwide, making it the biggest global hit of the year, and it
2:08:54
did well at the Oscars. 2 While it wasn't eligible for Best
2:08:57
Animated Feature, as we've said, John Lasseter was awarded a
2:09:00
special Achievement Academy Award, and the film was also
2:09:03
nominated for three other Oscars.
2:09:05
Randy Newman for Best Score, Best original song for him again
2:09:08
for You've Got a Friend of Me and Joss Whedon, Andrew Stanton,
2:09:12
Joel Coen and Alex Socolow for Best Screenplay.
2:09:15
Okay. Didn't do too badly then, is
2:09:17
what you're saying about No. I bet I couldn't believe it, The
2:09:20
reception that it got our best. Yeah.
2:09:22
About the budget, Oh, thank God for that.
2:09:23
Yeah, yeah. You might have graphed that went
2:09:25
into it. Made those 100 hour weeks worth
2:09:27
it. Not even celebrating, just being
2:09:28
like, yeah, that makes sense. Week is up in a week.
2:09:33
Yeah, I haven't slept in like 3 years.
2:09:35
Several months before release, Disney had some secret
2:09:38
screenings of the film while it was still being worked on.
2:09:40
Audiences were told that they were going to see a screening of
2:09:43
Operation Dumbo Drop at Disney War Comedy, and when they were
2:09:47
in the theatre they were told it was actually an experimental
2:09:49
animated film called Toy Story. They all had to sign ND as if
2:09:53
they wanted to stay in and watch.
2:09:54
It definitely would have done that 100%.
2:09:57
Imagine the people that left Furious didn't get to see
2:09:59
Operation Dumbo drop. I'm not signing that.
2:10:02
Storming out? Yeah, I bet that was nerve
2:10:05
wracking as hell for last time Pixar people are watching and
2:10:08
judging something they've not really seen the like of before.
2:10:10
Exactly. Yeah, NDA like no Dumbo
2:10:13
aggression. And Disney offered Hasbro and
2:10:18
Mattel the chance to manufacture a Toy Story toy line to coincide
2:10:22
with the film. They both turned it down.
2:10:23
They were saying the eleven months they had before the film
2:10:26
came out wasn't enough time and they would need 18 months.
2:10:29
So a Canadian company called Thinkwear Toys got the license
2:10:32
instead, just five months before the film was due to release.
2:10:36
And the Woody doll that they produced, the voice for that,
2:10:38
that's done by Tom Hanks's brother, Jim Hanks.
2:10:42
Keeping it in the family, nice touch.
2:10:44
Yeah, he does quite a few, doesn't he?
2:10:45
Jim Hanks. Just a computer game and stuff
2:10:47
and he did some of the shorts. OK, I think he has.
2:10:50
Yeah. But yeah, obviously a massive
2:10:51
deal if I think we're toys. But do you remember at the time
2:10:54
that Christmas everywhere was selling out a Buzz Lightyear
2:10:57
toys? Yeah, it was a big thing at the
2:10:59
time, wasn't it? So that's why, yeah, think we
2:11:01
weren't one of the big toy manufacturers and they couldn't
2:11:03
keep up with the demand, right. That's why there was a shortage.
2:11:06
Yeah, right. OK.
2:11:07
And that's also why we got Jingle all the Way.
2:11:09
So swinging roundabouts. Exactly every cloud.
2:11:12
Yeah, under the critics. And we'll start, as we usually
2:11:16
do, with Roger Ebert. What did Big Rog make?
2:11:19
A Toy Story, do we think? Easy for easiest for you ever.
2:11:22
Yeah, he would have loved it. Of course he bloody did.
2:11:24
Yeah. If anyone was a classic, it's
2:11:26
Rog when he sees it. Yeah, it was a bopping 4 stars
2:11:29
out of four and he said takes apart the universe of cinematic
2:11:32
visuals and puts it back together again, allowing us to
2:11:35
see it in a new way. Yeah, long review from the big
2:11:38
man. I think we'd be hard pressed to
2:11:41
disagree too much. Definitely.
2:11:42
Yeah, definitely. Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment
2:11:45
Weekly also reads about Toy Story writing.
2:11:48
It has the purity and ecstatic freedom of imagination that's
2:11:51
the hallmark of the greatest children's films.
2:11:54
It also will have the kind of spring loaded, elusive
2:11:56
Frankishness that at times will tickle adults even more than it
2:11:59
does kids. Yeah.
2:12:01
Yeah, definitely. I agree with that.
2:12:02
It does work pretty perfectly for kids and olds I think.
2:12:05
Yeah, and the full 5 stars from Empire magazine where Caroline
2:12:09
Westbrook said just perfect script, character, animation.
2:12:14
This managers to break free of the York of children's movie to
2:12:17
simply be one of the best movies of the 90s, full stop.
2:12:20
Nice. Yeah, I think if anything,
2:12:22
Caroline's been proved even more right there with Einsight,
2:12:24
probably. I think so, yeah.
2:12:26
Yeah. Definitely.
2:12:26
Yeah, and today in Rotten Tomatoes, Toy Story has a
2:12:29
perfect 100% approval rating from critics and 92% from
2:12:34
audiences. And on IMDb, it currently sits
2:12:37
with a rating of 8.3 out of 10, which puts at 75th in the IMDb
2:12:42
top 250. And that is one place above
2:12:44
Avengers End Game and one below your favorite John Amadeus.
2:12:50
Amadeus will be the last film we cover in that 250.
2:12:54
You're doing that on my fucking deathbed.
2:12:57
Just like the film. Maybe that's.
2:12:59
Yeah, maybe that's what they're waiting for.
2:13:02
But 100% from critics are rotten to models.
2:13:04
Wow, yeah, that's crazy. So Toy Story wasn't instant
2:13:08
critical darling, a box office mega hit and had award success
2:13:11
too. Some disappointed children who
2:13:13
wanted their hand on the Buzz Lightyear that Christmas.
2:13:15
Not Westy. No, got one.
2:13:17
But aside from that, not too shabby.
2:13:20
Your debut from Pixar. Yeah, they did all right.
2:13:23
Didn't. They they certainly did sequels
2:13:28
and influence. Toy Story was a huge success, as
2:13:32
we just talked about. South unsurprisingly spawned
2:13:35
multiple sequels over the years, with the full gang returning
2:13:38
each time and some new faces popping up as well.
2:13:42
Yeah, and on the sequels, we also have our third and final
2:13:45
ATRM Patreon question. OK, it comes from Matthew Horn.
2:13:50
Another Matthew. How do you feel about that,
2:13:51
Matt? The more the better.
2:13:53
The amazing. Like Toy Story 2, where there's
2:13:55
two buzz layers. Yeah, exactly.
2:13:57
Yeah. Yeah, sing Spanish doesn't sound
2:14:01
like it. We'll see.
2:14:03
Well, this Matthew's asked easy question for the team.
2:14:06
What's your favorite Toy Story film?
2:14:08
But Matthew 3 is perfect. But 2 is simply the best and
2:14:11
maybe the best sequel ever made. Right.
2:14:14
Yeah, in the conversation. It is in the conversation.
2:14:16
What do you think about the Toy Story sequels?
2:14:18
I'm going to go 3 because to have the first film as good as
2:14:22
it is, for one thing, for then Toy Story 2 to come along and
2:14:26
arguably be even better is another thing entirely.
2:14:29
But then I have a third instalment which sticks the land
2:14:32
and as it was originally meant to be back then, that's some
2:14:35
achievements. I mean, it continues to
2:14:36
introduce brilliant characters. Timothy Dalton is Mr. Prickle
2:14:40
Pants is brilliant, Michael Keaton is Ken is just inspired
2:14:44
past it. But I think when you talk about
2:14:47
3, you talk about two sequences, don't you?
2:14:49
And I'll never, ever forget watching this at the cinema.
2:14:52
The sequence when the trapped in the furnace and the oldest give
2:14:56
up hope and they just hold each other's hand.
2:14:58
It's unbelievable. It's unbelievable.
2:15:01
It's one of those ones where you think logically, I know I'm not
2:15:03
watching a Toy Story film where the toys are going to melt, but
2:15:07
for that 30 seconds you forget it and you doubt it.
2:15:10
It's just incredible. And then obviously the end.
2:15:13
Not a dry eye in the house. I think 3 could just be pixels.
2:15:17
Jewel in the crown. Wow, that's why I bought Peeps.
2:15:20
Not in there, isn't it? And not in three, because she
2:15:21
would have melted in that furnace.
2:15:23
Is that right? Yeah, that's why she's not in
2:15:25
that film, because she was part of like a lamp.
2:15:27
Yeah, actually porcelain, yeah. It was porcelain, so yeah.
2:15:30
We've met for me now that's amazing.
2:15:33
Yeah, I think what's most impressive over the Toy Story
2:15:35
sequels is that they do tend to feel like necessary.
2:15:37
So many sequels feel like cash grabs to this sort of thing.
2:15:40
But each Toy Story film does have a purpose, and that's
2:15:42
especially two of the first three.
2:15:44
The Toy Story trilogy, the first film, Toy Story 2 and Toy Story
2:15:47
3. Like you've just talked about
2:15:48
Matt, Toy Story 2, like I said, that might be my favorite
2:15:52
animated film. Expands on Woody's character,
2:15:55
introduces Jesse in Bullseye and Stinky Pete.
2:15:57
Yeah, all great via that Buzz. Love him.
2:16:01
Yeah. The development of the world and
2:16:02
what he's back story and the deeper exploration of the themes
2:16:05
like abandonment and rejection is all brilliant.
2:16:08
When she loved me, the song in that fantastic.
2:16:11
Yeah, it's amazing. I'll save more until we do an
2:16:13
episode on Toy Story 2, as we surely will, because I love it.
2:16:15
Yeah, straight in the pool with Amadeus.
2:16:17
So it definitely wins the first three.
2:16:20
I think it's a genuinely great trilogy, and probably the only
2:16:23
trilogy we have our reviewer for, like Empire or something.
2:16:26
I'd give every film in the trilogy five star reviews.
2:16:28
Yeah. But yeah, to answer Matthew's
2:16:30
question, my favorite is Toy Story 2.
2:16:32
OK, well what? Didn't even rehearse this, but
2:16:34
mine's the first one. Oh, brilliant.
2:16:36
Perfect, we've. Got 321.
2:16:38
Wonderful. It always has been, always will
2:16:40
be. I like the way that the branch
2:16:42
things out in the second one, and I love the way the branch
2:16:44
things out and wrap it up in the third one.
2:16:46
But I think I always come down to this.
2:16:48
If it wasn't for the ingenuity, the confidence, the right and
2:16:53
everything that was put into the energy of the first one, you
2:16:56
wouldn't be able to expand on such a really good idea.
2:16:59
And I always come back to that. Of course, second one's amazing.
2:17:02
It is really close in the conversation as one of the
2:17:05
perfect sequence. It's up there for me with The
2:17:07
Dark Knight Godfather Part 2. Yeah, yeah, great.
2:17:09
It's in that conversation. It is that good.
2:17:12
Every character has an arc in that film.
2:17:13
It's brilliant. 3 again, every character has an arc.
2:17:16
It's fantastic. And if this had stayed Toy Story
2:17:20
1-2 and three, it would finally have answered the greatest
2:17:24
trilogy debate of all time. It was done.
2:17:27
It was perfect. We lived at that time when there
2:17:29
was a perfect trilogy. It was such a relief for the
2:17:32
whole world, while especially for me to have the perfect
2:17:35
trilogy out there. But that trilogy needs a start.
2:17:38
No pressure, no diamonds. It needs to come from somewhere.
2:17:41
And Toy Story one, for me, it's the slickest, it's the funniest,
2:17:45
and it's the best for me. One each, then.
2:17:47
That's good. Yeah.
2:17:48
Nice. So the Toy Story franchise
2:17:50
continued to be a powerhouse decades after the first film.
2:17:53
But how about the impact that first entry had?
2:17:56
What kind of influence and legacy has Toy Story had since
2:17:59
1995, do we think? I mean, I think this has got a
2:18:02
good child to be the most influential film we've talked
2:18:05
about so far. Well, because, well, how
2:18:07
revolutionized the entire genre? You think how many studios came
2:18:11
after Pixar and just followed in their footsteps?
2:18:13
You know, DreamWorks, Blue Sky and Duvall just kind of try to
2:18:18
not copy that form I guess, but emulate it, emulate it.
2:18:21
That's the shoulders that they're standing on.
2:18:23
So when you think about it's influence, it's just so
2:18:26
wide-ranging and it's so deep and it's so long lasting.
2:18:29
And then it's legacy is for Pixar to be the studio that it
2:18:34
is to be so successful to go back to that very first film and
2:18:38
go, that's still one of their very best as well.
2:18:40
That's some legacy to have. It certainly is.
2:18:43
I mean the first of its kind, the biggest film of the year.
2:18:45
The box office became a bit of a cultural phenomenon.
2:18:48
Its impact was bound to be huge. And it was.
2:18:50
I think it proved that CGI animation was ready for like
2:18:53
prime time after Toy Story. CGI features were everywhere
2:18:57
across films on television and change animation forever.
2:19:00
As a direct result, Steven Spielberg and DreamWorks
2:19:03
invested massively in CGI animation that led to their
2:19:06
animation studios. And Shrek, like you mentioned,
2:19:08
another massive title. Yeah, within a decade, it seemed
2:19:11
like 100 Animation was kind of obsolete.
2:19:14
Yeah, it's gone. Yeah.
2:19:15
And I know that by 2050% of animated films use CGI.
2:19:20
By 2009, that was 90%. Wow.
2:19:22
And that's because of what toy store we started.
2:19:25
But beyond the technical stuff, I think the storytelling was
2:19:28
really important. Pixar established their formula,
2:19:30
engaging narratives with emotional depth about big
2:19:33
characters and with universal themes that appeal to adults and
2:19:37
children. These films are kind of for
2:19:38
everybody, easy. So you're going to do that, but
2:19:41
extremely difficult to pull it off.
2:19:43
And Pixar kind of done it time and time again, like we've said.
2:19:47
And most importantly, I think Toy Story shows still that
2:19:50
technological innovation shouldn't come at the expense of
2:19:53
the storytelling or the yacht. If John Lasseter said that
2:19:56
balance of the yacht technology, it remains Pixels greatest
2:19:59
legacy. I think whenever I hear the name
2:20:01
Pixar, I think quality, yeah, brilliance at what they do,
2:20:05
That's their reputation. And I think it has been since
2:20:08
Toy Story. Yeah, when I think of Pixar, I
2:20:10
just think of the word Thora. I think everything is just so
2:20:13
thoroughly thought through, thoroughly executed from start
2:20:17
to finish. They don't just half ass do
2:20:19
something and say, oh, that'll do.
2:20:21
I think if you say that'll do when you were for Pixar, you're
2:20:23
going to be fired. Oh, you get.
2:20:25
Fired. That would just be swear.
2:20:26
And I think for them, every single film that's come after
2:20:30
this film from this genre has been influenced by it.
2:20:34
Without a shadow of doubt. No matter what studio has
2:20:36
produced it, it's been influenced by it.
2:20:38
But the genius of Toy Story is that it went right back to the
2:20:42
traditional filmmaking with the cutting edge animation.
2:20:46
And it just goes to show the tradition is always going to
2:20:50
win. And I think a lot of people went
2:20:52
back to basics after this and just went, hold on a second.
2:20:55
We're writing stories that don't make sense.
2:20:56
With everything that come after 95, we're starting to get more
2:21:00
intelligence. We're starting to get a real
2:21:02
sense of cinema moving in a different direction and I'm not
2:21:06
saying that's 100% down at Toy Story, but I think it's got a
2:21:09
lot to do with it. One of the big titles that did
2:21:11
that, I think. Yeah, yeah.
2:21:13
In one of the tools Pixar created that put them ahead of
2:21:15
the competition was Renderman, and that's animation software
2:21:19
they created in 1988, and it was used to create Toy Story and
2:21:23
that allowed animators to render realistic textures, lighting in
2:21:26
fluid motion, which was unheard of on a computer at the time.
2:21:30
After Toy Story, Renderman became the industry standard for
2:21:32
CGI animation. It was adopted by the studios as
2:21:35
well. Yeah, transformed the industry
2:21:37
by sounds of it. And back in those days,
2:21:39
apparently it took 7 hours to render 1 frame of CGI to film,
2:21:43
right? Hence the 800,000 hours to
2:21:45
render Toy Story. Many sequel to Toy Story then,
2:21:49
all keeping a high standard for us.
2:21:51
And in terms of the film's wider impact from technical to
2:21:54
storytelling techniques and commercial impact, it's fair to
2:21:57
say that modern cinema might look different without Toy Story
2:22:00
being part of it. Very different.
2:22:02
Yeah, no, definitely. Everything was kind of brought
2:22:04
background full circle. All the right movies ranking.
2:22:12
And we're there, Toy Story completed.
2:22:14
Now it's time for our ratings, where we each score the film out
2:22:17
of 10. OK, so Rusty stars off please
2:22:20
your summary and score for Toy Story.
2:22:22
This is going to be my shortest summary that I've ever done on
2:22:25
All the right movies. You say that every time and then
2:22:27
it goes on for 5 minutes. That's totally fair enough.
2:22:32
Yeah. I've said what I've wanted to
2:22:36
say and if you want to go back late, especially with the end
2:22:38
and how it all comes together right, So that's that.
2:22:40
I started work a little bit later a day at a shoot at 2:00.
2:22:44
I went into the shoot and they said, what have you been doing
2:22:46
this morning? I said, I'm doing a podcast
2:22:48
tonight. Oh, what you doing the podcast
2:22:50
And I was I'm doing on Toy Story and they said, oh, this shoots
2:22:54
just going to be an absolute joy.
2:22:56
You must be in such a good place.
2:22:59
Nice. It's a tent.
2:23:02
Everyone knows what you get from this film.
2:23:04
The know how you're going to feel after it.
2:23:06
It's going to make you feel incredible as a human being and
2:23:09
it's worth watching. If you've never ever seen it, I
2:23:11
am so jealous of you. If you have seen it, just watch
2:23:13
it again. It's just incredible and
2:23:15
everybody knows it and that's the genius of it.
2:23:17
It's an easy 10. And was a shooter joy.
2:23:20
We all had a great time. So I mean, if we should all just
2:23:23
have, they'd start work late and just watch Toy Story every
2:23:25
morning. Joy Story.
2:23:27
Joy Story. It'll be a much better place.
2:23:29
So yeah, Lords and Lords to get into with this one.
2:23:32
You come to Toy Story from just about any aspect, and it's still
2:23:35
kind of worth discussing. Innovation, influence,
2:23:37
entertainment, success. It ticks all the kind of boxes
2:23:40
we like. Yeah.
2:23:41
And beneath all that, on a personal level, I just think
2:23:44
it's brilliant, starting with the writing, the concepts, toys
2:23:47
that come to life when humans aren't looking, simple but
2:23:50
executed as well as a concept could be executed.
2:23:52
I think the themes it explores, identity, jealousy, abandonment
2:23:57
that have depth. The narratives, the classic body
2:23:59
story and one of the best examples of 1 and the two bodies
2:24:02
in question. What are you in Buzz Lightyear
2:24:05
are two of modern cinemas. Great characters, I think
2:24:07
Indeed. And as I've been talking about,
2:24:10
it was a technical marvel at the time, the first feature length
2:24:13
CGI animation first out the gate and is still the name that all
2:24:16
of its peers are judged against first and still the benchmark.
2:24:20
I mean, that is true greatness. It's also an easy 10 for me.
2:24:25
Yeah. And Matt, to finish yourself
2:24:27
your summary and score for Toy Story, please. 11 I think first
2:24:32
ever 11. All the way.
2:24:34
He's got 11. It is so clearly a masterpiece.
2:24:37
It's so clearly a definitive film in the genre of animation,
2:24:41
and it has not dated one bit. And it is kind of amazing that
2:24:44
so much of what we consider to be iconic about Pixar was right
2:24:48
there in that first film. Yeah.
2:24:50
And it just runs all the way through the middle of it.
2:24:52
You don't have to, like, dig around to find it.
2:24:54
It's stamped all the way through it.
2:24:56
It's not broke. Don't fix it, right?
2:24:57
Yeah. Exactly.
2:24:58
Yeah. And it is pretty much a flawless
2:25:00
film. And even if I think about the
2:25:02
rest of Pixar's filmography, and I do think the two sequels are a
2:25:07
bit better than this, and I think some of the other films
2:25:09
push the boundaries of animation more and maybe do tell more
2:25:12
complicated stories about like grief and loneliness and loss.
2:25:17
But those films wouldn't exist without this one, without this
2:25:20
one getting there first at that level of quality.
2:25:22
So for that reason alone, it's a 10. 100%.
2:25:26
Well, we also put this out to our ATRM patrons to get their
2:25:29
thoughts, and the response was maybe predictably,
2:25:31
overwhelmingly positive. Yeah, yeah.
2:25:34
Jorgen Finn and Beer Keynes. Hopefully I pronounced that
2:25:36
correctly, if not, apologies, please correct me.
2:25:39
Yogan. He said a sea change when it
2:25:42
comes to animated movies and would have noted a high mark
2:25:45
regardless of the story. But it also has a wonderful
2:25:48
story about friendship, feeling left out and finding new meaning
2:25:51
in life. A clear 10.
2:25:54
Beautiful. And then Yogin says look forward
2:25:56
to the ATRM treatment. Thanks for a wonderful podcast.
2:25:59
Greetings from Norway. Oh, wonderful.
2:26:02
Thanks mate. Greetings from the UK yogin.
2:26:04
International listeners love it. James Robert Keithley had this
2:26:07
to say. How many times has a movie
2:26:09
became an all time classic while also innovating a brand new
2:26:13
form? Yeah, the fact that this was the
2:26:14
first of an entirely new chapter in movies makes it one of the
2:26:17
most significant films in history.
2:26:19
Love this movie, will forever be one of my all time favourites.
2:26:23
Lovely. Changing the form while also
2:26:25
being the best to do it. It's like The Beatles.
2:26:28
So achievement isn't it? And finally, Dominic Bramley
2:26:31
said incredible film and right at home on most lists of movies
2:26:36
that change cinema. Technically groundbreaking with
2:26:38
an amazing cast in the script with humor and heart.
2:26:41
Giving it a nine as that is probably the maximum I'd go for
2:26:44
for this type of film. Then get this, reserving 10s for
2:26:49
genuine acting classics like The Godfather 1 and 2.
2:26:52
Fair enough. And The Wrath of Khan.
2:26:56
This. Is your older ego.
2:26:57
Surely Dominic has just said that he thought I might read it
2:27:00
out if he did that. Yeah, there's no reason for
2:27:03
that. No, there's no reason for that
2:27:05
to be it, No. So many of our patrons are big
2:27:08
fans of Toy Story and The Wrath of Khan, apparently.
2:27:11
Apparently. What do you think they gave it
2:27:12
out of 10? Toy Story, I mean.
2:27:14
I'm not going to settle for anything less than a 10 to be
2:27:16
honest. I think it it'll go at 10, yeah.
2:27:19
It was 10 out of 10. Wonderful.
2:27:21
Good. Adding our scores together, that
2:27:23
gives Toy Story a grand total of 40 out of 40.
2:27:26
Perfect score. Boom, as it should be the
2:27:28
perfect score. Yeah, big, big film.
2:27:30
And that's what's done on Toy Story.
2:27:33
Hopefully hasn't made you want to RIP the heads off your toys
2:27:35
and stick them on mechanical spider legs.
2:27:37
Not anymore, no. Well, next time out, Luke,
2:27:42
Wesley and Matt are talking Star Trek 2, The Wrath of Khan.
2:27:45
No, you're not. Couldn't do that without you.
2:27:47
Imagine that. Imagine you'll be fucking.
2:27:50
Furious you're actually heading to the UX Mexico border to talk
2:27:55
Emily Blunt, Benicio Del Toro and Denis Villeneuve crime
2:27:58
thriller Sicario. Yeah, I'll try and get Wrath of
2:28:01
Khan in there. Somehow.
2:28:02
Will fail. Please do, I'll try.
2:28:05
Well, in the meantime, to find out more about becoming a
2:28:07
patron, supporting what we do, and accessing our archive and
2:28:10
bonus episodes, please visit patreon.com/all the Right Movies
2:28:15
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2:28:19
Also, please leave us five star reviews on Apple Podcasts or
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2:28:25
That really helps us out. Does and or?
2:28:27
And or. We can't have too many.
2:28:29
Exactly and or very nice socially, you can keep up with
2:28:32
all the right movies on X where we are at the AT right movies
2:28:35
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2:28:37
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2:28:38
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2:28:41
You can also find us on YouTube, Instagram threads, blue sky, all
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2:28:48
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or jump straight into ATRM Patreon to see what the fuss is
2:28:55
about. Exactly.
2:28:56
Go to lovely people. And our website, full of great
2:28:59
features, is all the right movies.com.
2:29:01
It is boom. We're all off now to see what
2:29:04
Matt does get up to on his Black Fridays.
2:29:08
Come back for Sicario. And as always, thanks for
2:29:11
listening. Thanks for listening guys.
2:29:13
It's dark, then Sicario, I'll say that.