30 years ago, a film arrived in theaters, and cinema was changed forever. 1995’s Toy Story was a groundbreaking event in animated films. It introduced audiences to computer-generated characters who were funny, endearing, and ultimately unforgettable. The franchise is still active, with Toy Story 5 coming in 2026. However, there was a time when Toy Story wasn’t as huge as it is today. It was actually during the production of the film, when Toy Story “didn’t work” and, according to Woody voice actor Tom Hanks, 80 minutes of footage had to be scrapped entirely.
Hanks recently appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert to talk about his new stage play, This World of Tomorrow. The Forrest Gump actor talked about the origins of Toy Story, and reflected on how the original cut was once considered trash. When Colbert mentions that it’s been 30 years since the original film’s release, Hanks points out that it’s more than 30 years because production had begun well before the 1995 release, and the first cut had to be thrown out:
“Actually, it was more than 30 years, because Tim Allen and I and everybody involved in it, we recorded a Toy Story movie, for about 80 minutes of it, that was completely thrown out. We had the animatics, the whole bit. Because the people who were running the studio — not Pixar, Pixar people are great — the people running the studio said, ‘Look, it’s a cartoon. Let’s make them wisecrack-y. Let’s let them improv and insult each other and come up with goofy things,’ which we sort of did for a while. And they showed it, and quite frankly, it didn’t work. It wasn’t Toy Story. It wasn’t what Pixar was going for.”
It’s Hard to Imagine That There Was a Moment When ‘Toy Story’ Wasn’t “Working”
Upon release, 1995’s Toy Story became a $400 million juggernaut. With its success, Pixar was born as a studio capable of embracing technology and delivering heartwarming films that redefined the animation genre. However, as Hanks says, it wasn’t always seen as a successful movie. In November 1993, Disney executives were shown a cut of the film, and they fully rejected it. It was a reaction that resulted in rewrites, and Buzz and Woody’s complete overhaul. Hanks recalled when he got the “advance call” from John Lasseter, and he was informed that the film had to be completely remade:
“So we got one of those calls, ‘John Lasseter would like to speak to you.’ John Lasseter was the director, the origin of Toy Story. Whenever you get an advance call that says the director is going to talk to you, it means one of two things: you are so ‘f, apostrophe, star, ked’ that you are ‘gone baby gone’ or they have this great idea that they want to invite you in on the process. John called up, and he said, ‘We looked at it, and it’s just not working, and we would like to start all over from scratch.’ We had been working on the movie for about two years. So then we began the process all over again, which is about a ‘two-and-a-half to three-year’ process.”
- Release Date
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October 30, 1995
- Runtime
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81 minutes
- Director
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John Lasseter
- Producers
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Bonnie Arnold, Edwin Catmull, Ralph Guggenheim