- 2 days ago
Toy Story continues to fascinate more than 25 years on.
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:00Cinema doesn't get much better than Toy Story, Pixar's groundbreaking computer animated film
00:05which effectively reinvented the animated medium whilst creating a beloved franchise that endures
00:10to this very day. And though most of us have probably watched Pixar's inaugural movie dozens,
00:15if not hundreds of times over the years, there are still a few things that we may not have noticed.
00:20We all know that Pixar loves to pack in the details, so there is a lot to see.
00:24So, I'm Amy from WhatCulture and here are 20 things you somehow missed in Toy Story.
00:3020. Andy's friends are all Andy clones
00:33Given that Toy Story was the first completely computer animated film,
00:38it's not really a surprise that Pixar took a few shortcuts to lighten their workload.
00:42This is unsettlingly noticeable early in the film when Andy's friends arrive at his house for his
00:47birthday party, and when Sarge is watching proceedings through his binoculars. For a brief
00:51moment, we can see that all of Andy's friends look exactly like him. There are basic variations,
00:57you know, they're wearing different clothes and one of them has darker skin than the rest,
01:01but the face and body models are completely identical. Understandably, Pixar presumed nobody
01:06would ever notice and didn't count on future audiences being able to freeze frame high-resolution
01:10versions of the film. 19. Buzz has Disney written on him
01:14In case you somehow forgot that Toy Story was a Disney movie, they placed a subtle reminder
01:19on Buzz Lightyear's posterior that's noticeable in a couple of shots.
01:24When Buzz and Woody squabble outside the gas station and Buzz walks away,
01:27the word Disney can be seen printed on his backside, albeit faintly. Then in Toy Story 2,
01:32the text was changed to include Pixar. Strangely though, this copyright stamp isn't actually
01:37included in legit retail versions of the Buzz Lightyear doll. Not sure why, seems like they
01:41missed a trick there. 18. Mickey Mouse's cameo
01:45A ton of Disney films, unsurprisingly, contain little references to their beloved mascot Mickey
01:50Mouse. But did you know that Toy Story is one of them? In Andy's bedroom near the start of the
01:55movie, shortly after Buzz lands and we get a nice wide shot of the room, on the right-hand side of
01:59the screen, a large watch-shaped Disney clock is seen hanging on the wall. On closer inspection,
02:05the watch contains an image of Mickey Mouse, whose arms serve as the clock's hands. And better still,
02:10this design is actually used in real Mickey Mouse watches. And trust me, there's no better piece of
02:15decor than a novelty clock. 17. Everyone blinks one eye at a time
02:20So here's something that's actually really subtle, but you will start to notice if you've seen the
02:24movie enough times. You'll see that all the toy characters actually blink one eye at a time.
02:30Once you start noticing it, you won't be able to stop. You'll have all your attention drawn to the
02:35fact that one eyelid just moves slightly faster than the other one. In the animation world,
02:39this is called offset blinking, and it's typically a trick employee to depict a character who isn't so
02:44intelligent. But in the case of Toy Story, it's been suggested that this may have been a technique
02:49to subconsciously remind the audience that the characters are still toys. If you don't believe
02:53me, slow the film down and it becomes unmissable. 16. Virtual Realty Real Estate
02:59As we know, Andy and his mother are of course preparing to move throughout the course of the film.
03:04So when we go outside and we see a for sale sign, you may have noticed that it accredits the
03:08estate agent that they're using as Virtual Realty. You might think that's a rather odd
03:13name for a realty firm. But then again, your next thought probably on noticing that that's
03:16the name would be that it's clearly a reference to the fact that Toy Story is the first computer
03:21animated movie and the first major sustained digital representation of real life to be put
03:26on the big screen. This one is so easy to spot if you're paying attention, but so many of
03:30us kind of drift out and stop paying attention whilst watching movies, so this could have passed
03:34you by all these years. 15. Sid's house has the carpet from The Shining
03:39Pixar have made it really clear over the years that their filmmakers have a love for Stanley Kubrick,
03:44in particular for his film The Shining. This is evidence no better than in Toy Story, where the
03:49carpet in Sid's house is very clearly styled on that of the Overlook Hotel's own iconic carpet design.
03:55We get a prolonged look at it when Woody attempts to rescue Buzz from Sid's house, effectively confirming just
04:01how completely deranged Sid is. Keeping on the theme of Kubrick and Toy Story, the number 237 also
04:07appears several times in Toy Story 3, in reference to the hotel's infamously cursed room number 237.
04:1314. There's early Woody concept art on Andy's bedroom wall. The Mickey Mouse clock was not the only
04:19easter egg they put up on Andy's wall, though this one arguably is harder to notice. When Woody and
04:25Slinky Dog are on Andy's bed shortly after Buzz's arrival, you'll notice in the background that there's a framed,
04:30sketched drawing on the wall, which actually happens to be genuine early Woody concept art. Woody and Buzz
04:36both went through prolonged redesigns during production, and it's just as well given that a
04:41number of the proposed designs were, well, a little too creepy for their own good. And if you can believe
04:46it, there was actually a ventriloquist-style version of Woody. That would have made for a very different movie.
04:5213. The dark Marie Antoinette joke. Here's a hilarious and slightly grim gag that you'll kick yourself for not
04:59getting over the years. When Buzz has his psychotic break and adopts his new tea-sipping moniker,
05:04Mrs. Nesbitt, he tells Woody, one minute you're defending the whole galaxy and suddenly you find
05:08yourself sucking down Darjeeling with Mary Antoinette and her little sister. Given that Buzz is having tea
05:13with one of Cid's sister's dolls, which has had its head removed by Cid, this is evidently a nod to the
05:18fact that the Queen of France, Marie Antoinette, was executed by beheading. With dolls, though, it's a little
05:22less gruesome when you behead them. You can kind of get away with it for a children's film.
05:2612. All the animation shortcuts. In addition to Andy's copy and paste clone friends, there are
05:32also a number of other shortcuts employed to make the production the quickest and most efficient it
05:37could be. Most prominently, none of the movie's human characters have long, flowing hair. And this
05:42is because Pixar was still wrestling with the complex mechanics of hair physics at the time. This is the
05:47reason that Andy's mother has her hair tied up in a ponytail, and Cid's sister Hannah has a short,
05:52solid bob. All just to save the animators having to figure out a volumetric model for it. There are
05:57other time savers, like we don't see Combat Car's explosive deaths because Pixar considered animating
06:02an explosion, and then decided it was too taxing. And another one is that there's no milk droplets
06:06when Woody dunks his burning head into Cid's bowl of cereal, and this is once again for the same reason.
06:12Projectiles, man. They're just difficult.
06:1411. Buzz's Wilhelm scream. Once upon a time, the Wilhelm scream was a sneaky little easter egg for
06:21sound engineers to include in their films, but the distinctive scream sound effect is so distinctive
06:26and ubiquitous these days that its inclusion often proves more distracting and groan-worthy than funny.
06:31You'd usually think of it as appearing in horror movies or action movies or something along those
06:36lines, but actually, there is one in Toy Story. The Toy Story Wilhelm scream happens during one of the
06:42film's most pivotal moments, when Buzz is knocked out of Andy's window courtesy of Woody. The sound mix
06:47is busy enough that it's easily missed, especially if you're not watching the film on a quality sound
06:52setup. Though, once you do notice it, you'll likely never miss it again. For the real premium experience,
06:57make sure to listen in 3D surround sound, can you imagine?
07:0110. Penn Jillette narrates the Buzz Lightyear commercial. Who can forget the incredible moment
07:06when Buzz finally comes to terms with the fact that he's actually a toy? Buzz sees a TV
07:11commercial for himself, which makes it abundantly clear he's not a real boy.
07:15The hilariously over-the-top parody of toy commercials also includes a surprise celebrity
07:20cameo, with the wacky narration being provided by none other than the legendary magician Penn Jillette.
07:25In a recent interview, Jillette claims that he was one of the first, if not the first,
07:30people to be cast. He can't have been that invested and excited about the project though,
07:33because at this point, he also thought the movie's name was Toy Store. Close enough.
07:41...to create his Frankenstein-esque toy combinations. And eagle-eyed viewers might
07:49notice that his toolbox is a random whatever made-up name, but it's actually a reference
07:57to Tim Allen's hit sitcom Home Improvement, where Binford Tools was the sponsor for Tool Time,
08:02a TV show hosted by Allen's protagonist, Tim Taylor. To place a cherry on top of that subtle nod,
08:07the logo is even exactly the same as it is on the show. Nice.
08:118. The Three-Eyed Aliens are Pizza Planet branded
08:15Who could ever forget the movie's iconic Three-Eyed Aliens? The high-pitched, adorable creatures
08:21are first encountered inside Pizza Planet's giant prize machine, though you might have missed an
08:26extremely obvious detail about their design. Though at the cursory glance, their costume is nothing more
08:31than a generic space-faring suit. The emblem on the left side is actually the Pizza Planet logo itself,
08:36with a ring circling what looks like a planetary body, but is actually a pizza, toppings and all.
08:41It's kind of meaningless in the scale of things. I mean, all it does is tell us that actually,
08:45there was thought behind these toys. These are branded toys, not the generic type that just get
08:49thrown into the machine. It makes them extra special.
08:537. Sid is probably a military brat.
08:56We know that Sid is a deeply troubled boy, but there are several suggestions that he might also
09:01be a military brat, and has received some undue influence from his mother or father's time in the
09:06service. For starters, when Woody hides in the milk crate in Sid's room, inside it is a manual called
09:11TM31210 Improvised Interrogation Techniques, which we can safely assume Sid has studied extensively,
09:18given that we see him both interrogating and torturing toys throughout the film.
09:22When I think about it now, maybe this movie was darker than I gave it credit for.
09:26The other big indication that Sid is being raised in a military household is the fact that his dog
09:31is named Scud, most likely a reference to the Scud missiles which were famously used by Iraq during
09:36the Gulf War. Given that Toy Story was released just a few years after the Gulf War ended, it's not
09:41completely crazy to assume that the characters of his parents may have served.
09:456. The origins of To Infinity and Beyond.
09:49No single line of dialogue is more iconic in the Toy Story franchise than Buzz Lightyear's
09:54infamous quip To Infinity and Beyond. The quote actually originates from Pixar's favourite
09:59filmmaker, Stanley Kubrick, namely his sci-fi masterpiece 2001 as Space Odyssey.
10:05The film's delirious final sequence is introduced with the title Jupiter and Beyond the Infinite,
10:10which evidently served as the influence for what's become one of the most popular movie quotes of the
10:14last 25 years. Sidebar, do you think Kubrick ever actually got to see Toy Story before he died,
10:19and if so, what do you think he made of it?
10:215. How Woody Knows Morse Code.
10:24In Sid's room, Woody and Buzz meet the various toys that Sid has tortured and mutilated,
10:29including Babyface, who's comprised of a doll's head, presumably belonging to Sid's sister at one
10:33point, that's been attached to a spider-like metal body. At one point, Babyface taps a message to the
10:39other toys, who then emerge and gather around Woody. But how would Woody, a cowboy toy, have any idea
10:45what was going on? Well actually, there's a perfect bit of foreshadowing earlier in the film, where if
10:49you are eagle-eyed enough, you may have been able to put two and two together. In Andy's room, if you're
10:54paying attention, you may see a poster in the background. The poster in question is a Buzz Lightyear
10:59branded Morse code alphabet. If you're spending all day every day inside that bedroom without anything to do,
11:04I guess it's fairly reasonable to assume you would teach yourself Morse code.
11:084. Julie McBarthell has cooties.
11:11This is very difficult to spot on earlier home video releases, but it gets much easier to see
11:16on the Blu-ray and recently the 4K UHD edition. If you look closely, the bag which Sid uses to bring
11:21Woody, Buzz and the Aliens home from Pizza Planet has a scrawling on the side which reads,
11:26Julie McBarthell KUHD edition. If you look closely, the bag which Sid uses to bring Woody, Buzz
11:31and the Aliens home from Pizza Planet, has a scrawling on the side which reads,
11:35Julie McBarthell, who worked on the film as a camera and editorial manager and who asked the
11:43animators to include a reference to her somewhere in the film. Maybe she was thinking of like a cute
11:48homage in some way, I don't know, like having an animated her in the background, maybe a bit of art
11:53on a wall, maybe this isn't exactly what she had in mind, but you know, we'll take what we can get.
11:583. One of Sid's creations is literally a hooker
12:03Once again, this is a kids' movie, so there's only so much you can do in the way of dirty or
12:08off-color jokes, so this? This is really sneaky. Sid's collection of mutant toys sure are fascinating,
12:15but one of the designs also serves as by far the movie's dirtiest and maybe cleverest joke.
12:21One of the mutants is referred to as legs by Woody, comprised of a pair of doll legs attached to a fishing
12:26rod. However, sharp fans eventually realised that legs was, in the most literal and figurative sense,
12:33a hooker. Between her suggestive, scantily clad lower body and her literal hook for an upper body,
12:38the components are all there, we just had to put the equation together.
12:42Say what you want about Sid, but clearly that kid had some kind of slightly smart, very twisted creativity.
12:482. Ham cheated at Battleship
12:51About midway through the film, we see Ham and Mr. Potato Head playing Battleship,
12:55but if you pay attention, you'll notice that something is amiss.
12:59We can see that Mr. Potato Head's side of the board is almost entirely filled with miss pins,
13:04and that's because Ham has been blatantly cheating by not declaring any of his ships as hit.
13:09Of course, it's ridiculous that Mr. Potato Head wouldn't realise this,
13:12which is probably why Ham is even playing against him in the first place.
13:15Ever the villain he was, that Dr. Porkchop. 1. Molly is listening to Hakuna Matata
13:22In the film's urgent, final chase sequence, we catch a brief glimpse of Andy's mum and sister
13:27in the car. His sister appears to be happily singing along to a song as she watches Woody and Buzz
13:32trying to catch up. What song is that, you may ask? Well, it's Hakuna Matata from The Lion King.
13:37This one's harder to spot than you might think because the sound is rather low down in the mix,
13:42and it's only featured for just a few short seconds. It may be just as well because anything
13:47more would distract the audience from Woody and Buzz's frantic race to reach the car,
13:50but by any measure it's still a subtle and very nice little added detail.
13:55And with that we've reached the end of this list of 20 things you somehow missed in Toy Story.
14:00If you've got any more other little easter eggs and details that you would have put on this list,
14:04then let us know in the comments down below. And remember to check out whatculture.com for more
14:08lists and articles like this every single day. As always, I've been Amy from WhatCulture and I'll
14:13catch you next time.
Comments