Toy Story, the Black Friday Reel, and the Film That Never Was

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last twenty years, then it’s almost impossible for you have to be missed Pixar’s animated Toy Story franchise. The first film in the now four movie series marked the start of the CGI age of animation, received critical praise and accolades including a British Academy Film Award, and became the 17th highest grossing film domestically at the time of its release. However, the franchise we know and love today almost looked completely different. In fact, there was a time where it seemed like this beloved Pixar classic would never be seen by the public at all.

These days, we remember the first Toy Story was a positive, upbeat, family friendly movie, lead by the likable cowboy doll protagonist, Woody (voiced by Tom Hanks). Yet when the idea for the film was first conceived, it was planned to have a darker, much edgier tone, with an appeal to older audiences over children. Rather than being distributed by Disney’s main label, this version would have been released via the Touchstone Company. Woody, originally designed looking closer to a ventriloquist’s dummy rather than a children’s doll, would have been the films main villain. He would have been mean, bossy, and tyrant to the other toys he held some degree of authority over, generally disliked by all. Perhaps most importantly, he would push new toy Buzz (voiced by Tim Allen) out of the window deliberately, rather than accidentally setting in motion the chain of events that would knock him out in the final version.

This version of the film got relatively far into pre-production before ultimately being scrapped. While it’s unknown if any of the scenes were ever fully animated, this more adulthood version had a complete script and finished storyboards at the time of its cancellation and some voice acting work had already begun taking place. Unfortunately, when the team showed Disney executives their progress on the 19th of November 1993, the higher ups were less than pleased. Woody was too unlikable, the characters were too unhappy, and the film just wasn’t fun. Overall, the progress screening received a negative response. This disastrous screening nearly saw the complete cancellation of the project, as further development on the movie was officially halted.

Luckily, this wasn’t the end for Toy Story. The production team managed to reach a deal, convincing Disney to give them just two weeks to take the story back to the drawing board and rework things. When Disney agreed, the team quickly set to work making alternations, including completely redesigning Woody. Instead of a shifty looking ventriloquist’s dummy, he became a soft cowboy doll, instead of being feared and disliked by the rest of Andy’s toys, he became a well-loved leader of their community. The films tone also went through a change, losing most of its more cynical nature and evolving into a lighter, more fun family adventure.

Of course, the rest is history. This version was much preferred by executives and continuation of the project was approved. Toy Story continued to through production and finally premiered on the 19th of November 1995, exactly two years after the screening that nearly resulted in its cancellation. It was released to the wider public in US theatres three days, later on 22nd. The film went onto be a critical and box office success and received praise its, at the time, brand new visual effects. At time of writing Toy Story was gone on to have three sequels, multiple shorts, and one TV spinoff, with a Buzz Lightyear based film spinoff planned for release in 2022.

While storyboards of this ill fated first version do exist, very little of the scrapped original has ever been seen by the public. All we currently have is a few pictures, that were featured in a ‘making of’ documentary, and two-minute sample of footage that was released in 2010. At the moment, it seems that Pixar is choosing to hang onto any further surviving clips, perhaps simply too embarrassed by the abandoned first draft to let the public see them. At the moment, it’s unclear whether anymore will ever be released. For now, all we can do is speculate about what the film that never was may have looked like.

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Sources:

Black Friday reel. (2014). Retrieved March 22, 2021, from https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/Black_Friday_reel

Toy story "Black Friday Reel" (PARTIALLY found rough cut of Pixar animated FILM; 1993). (2020, October 26). Retrieved March 22, 2021, from https://lostmediawiki.com/Toy_Story_%22Black_Friday_Reel%22_%28partially_found_rough_cut_of_Pixar_animated_film;_1993%29