Toy Story (franchise)

Toy Story is an American media franchise created by Pixar Animation Studios and owned by The Walt Disney Company. It centers on toys that, unknown to humans, are secretly living, sentient creatures. It began in 1995 with the release of the animated feature film of the same name, which focuses on a diverse group of toys featuring a classic cowboy doll named Sheriff Woody and a modern spaceman action figure named Buzz Lightyear.
The Toy Story franchise consists mainly of five animated feature films: Toy Story (1995), Toy Story 2 (1999), Toy Story 3 (2010), Toy Story 4 (2019), and the spin-off film within a film Lightyear (2022). A fifth film was announced and is set to be released in 2026. It also includes the 2D-animated direct-to-video spin-off film within a film Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: The Adventure Begins (2000) and the animated television series Buzz Lightyear of Star Command (2000–01) which followed the film. The first Toy Story was the first feature-length film to be made entirely using computer-generated imagery. The first two films were directed by John Lasseter, the third film by Lee Unkrich (who acted as co-director of the second film alongside Ash Brannon), the fourth film by Josh Cooley, and Lightyear by Angus MacLane. The fifth main film will be directed by Andrew Stanton (who co-wrote the first four films).
Produced on a total budget of $720 million, the Toy Story films have grossed more than $3.3 billion worldwide, becoming the 21st highest-grossing film franchise worldwide and the fourth highest-grossing animated franchise. Each film of the main series set box office records, with the third and fourth included in the top 50 all-time worldwide films. The franchise has received critical acclaim from critics and audiences. The first two films were re-released in theaters as a Disney Digital 3-D "double feature" for at least two weeks in October 2009 as a promotion for the then-upcoming third film.
Toy Story, the first film in the franchise, was released on November 22, 1995. It was the first feature-length film created entirely by computer-generated imagery (CGI) and was directed by John Lasseter. The plot of the film involves Andy Davis (voiced by John Morris), an imaginative young boy, getting a new Buzz Lightyear (voiced by Tim Allen) action figure for his birthday, causing Sheriff Woody (voiced by Tom Hanks), a vintage cowboy doll, to think that he has been replaced as Andy's favorite toy. In competing for Andy's attention, Woody accidentally knocks Buzz out of a window, leading the other toys to believe he tried to murder Buzz. Determined to set things right, Woody tries to save Buzz and both must escape from the house of the next-door neighbor Sid Phillips (voiced by Erik von Detten), who likes to torture and destroy toys. In addition to Hanks and Allen, the film featured the voices of Jim Varney, Don Rickles, John Ratzenberger, Wallace Shawn, and Annie Potts. The film was critically and financially successful, grossing over $373 million worldwide. The film was later re-released in Disney Digital 3-D as part of a double feature, along with Toy Story 2, for a two-week run, which was later extended due to its financial success.
Toy Story 2, the second film in the franchise, was released on November 24, 1999. Lasseter reprised his role as director. The film's plot involves Woody getting stolen by a greedy toy collector who is named Al McWhiggin (voiced by Wayne Knight). Buzz and several of Andy's toys set off to attempt to rescue Woody, who meanwhile has discovered his origins as a historic television star. In addition to the returning cast, Toy Story 2 included voice acting from Joan Cusack, Kelsey Grammer, Estelle Harris, and Jodi Benson. Toy Story 2 was not originally intended for release in theaters, but as a direct-to-video sequel to the first Toy Story, with a 60-minute running time. Disney's executives, however, were impressed by the high quality of the in-work imagery for the sequel, and were also pressured by the main characters' voice actors Hanks and Allen, so they decided to convert Toy Story 2 into a theatrical film. It turned out to be an even greater success than the first Toy Story, grossing over $497 million worldwide. The film was re-released in Disney Digital 3-D as part of a double feature, along with the first Toy Story, on October 2, 2009.
Toy Story 3, the third film in the franchise, was released on June 18, 2010, nearly 11 years after Toy Story 2. The plot focuses on the toys being accidentally dropped off at Sunnyside, a daycare center while their owner, Andy, is getting ready to go to college. The toys discover that all of the toys at Sunnyside Daycare are ruled by Lotso (voiced by Ned Beatty), a sinister teddy bear, while Woody finds potential hope for a new home in the hands of Bonnie, a toddler from the daycare that takes great care of her toys. Blake Clark replaced Varney after Varney's death in 2000, while other new cast members included Michael Keaton, Timothy Dalton, Jeff Garlin, Kristen Schaal, and Bonnie Hunt. It was the first Toy Story film not to be directed by Lasseter (although he remained involved in the film as executive producer), but by Lee Unkrich, who edited the first two films and co-directed the second. It was Pixar's highest-grossing film of all time both domestically, surpassing Finding Nemo, until it was surpassed by Finding Dory in 2016 and worldwide, also surpassing Finding Nemo, until it was surpassed by Incredibles 2 in 2018. Toy Story 3 grossed more than the first two films combined, making it the first animated film to have crossed the $1 billion mark. In August 2010, it surpassed Shrek 2, becoming the highest-grossing animated film of all time until it was surpassed by Frozen, another Disney production, in March 2014. The film was released on DVD and Blu-ray on November 2, 2010.
Toy Story 4, the fourth feature film in the franchise, was released on June 21, 2019. Taking place not long after Toy Story 3, the story involves Woody, Buzz, and the other toys living well with their new owner Bonnie. On her first day of kindergarten, Bonnie creates a toy spork, named Forky (voiced by Tony Hale), out of garbage. Woody, having been neglected by Bonnie lately, personally takes it upon himself to keep Forky out of harm's way. During a road trip with Bonnie's family, Woody, to his delight, encounters his old friend and former fellow toy Bo Peep (Annie Potts), who he had been separated from in the interim period between Toy Story 2 and Toy Story 3 and has to deal with fears of becoming a "lost toy". Rickles had died in 2017 prior to the production of the film, but Pixar used archival recordings from him to continue his voice work for the film. Additional new cast members include Keegan-Michael Key, Jordan Peele, Keanu Reeves, Ally Maki, and Christina Hendricks. The film was originally announced in November 2014 during an investor's call with Lasseter to direct, Galyn Susman to produce, with the screenplay written by Rashida Jones and Will McCormack based on the story developed by Lasseter, Andrew Stanton, Pete Docter, and Lee Unkrich. During production, however, Lasseter stepped down from his position at Pixar in 2017, though remained to consult for the film; Josh Cooley was named as the film's director, with Jonas Rivera replacing Susman as producer. The film underwent a major revision following the departures of Jones and McCormack later in 2017, with Stephany Folsom replacing them as screenwriter. Much of the original script by Jones and McCormack had to be dropped, delaying the release of the film.
In February 2019, Allen expressed interest in doing a fifth film. He explained that, since Toy Story 4 released the series from being constrained to trilogy status, he did not "see any reason why they wouldn't do it". On The Ellen DeGeneres Show that May, Hanks said Toy Story 4 would be the final installment in the franchise, but producer Mark Nielsen disclosed the possibility of a fifth film, as Pixar was not ruling it out. In February 2023, Disney CEO Bob Iger announced that the franchise would continue with additional films, while Allen confirmed his return as the voice of Buzz. Later in the month, Pixar CCO and franchise alumnus Pete Docter stated the film would be "surprising" and would have "cool things you've never seen before". In June 2023, Docter confirmed Woody would return in the film. In April 2024, it was revealed the film would release on June 19, 2026. In June 2024, Docter revealed that Andrew Stanton was directing the film. In August 2024, at the D23 Expo, it was revealed that the plot would involve the toys fighting technology, and would also involve an army of Buzz Lightyear toys controlled by computers. In addition, McKenna Harris would co-direct the film.
A series of shorts consisting of three theatrical short films: Hawaiian Vacation (2011), Small Fry (2011) and Partysaurus Rex (2012).
A series of shorts titled Forky Asks a Question for Disney+, with the new character Forky from Toy Story 4 (voiced by Tony Hale), was released on the launch date of the service on November 12, 2019.
Lamp Life is a short film revealing Bo Peep's whereabouts between the events of Toy Story 2 and Toy Story 4, where she was used as a night light for first one and then two children before being donated to the antique shop, where she and her sheep eventually abandoned their home lamp and were reunited with Woody. It was released on Disney+ on January 31, 2020.
Valerie LaPointe, who was a story supervisor for Toy Story 4, wrote and directed the short film. Annie Potts and Ally Maki returned as Bo Peep and Giggle McDimples. However, Woody is voiced by Jim Hanks, the younger brother of Tom Hanks.
Pixar Popcorn features three Toy Story shorts, "To Fitness and Beyond", and two Fluffy Stuff with Ducky and Bunny shorts, "Three Heads" and "Love". They were released on January 21, 2021.
Pixar has also developed two 22-minute Toy Story television specials for ABC. They also air them on Disney Channel, Disney XD, and Disney Junior.
Toy Story of Terror! was a Halloween-themed special and aired on October 16, 2013.
Toy Story That Time Forgot was a Christmas-themed special that aired on December 2, 2014.
Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: The Adventure Begins is a 2000 traditionally animated direct-to-video television film produced by Walt Disney Television Animation with Pixar Animation Studios as a co-production that serves as a spin-off of the Toy Story franchise. The film was released on August 8, 2000, and features Tim Allen as the voice of Buzz Lightyear. The film follows Buzz Lightyear as a space ranger who fights against the evil Emperor Zurg, showing the inspiration for the Buzz Lightyear toyline that exists in the Toy Story series. The film later led to the television series, Buzz Lightyear of Star Command. Although the film was criticized for not using the same animation as the Toy Story films, it sold three million VHS and DVDs in its first week of release.
Buzz Lightyear of Star Command is an animated television series produced by Walt Disney Television Animation and co-produced by Pixar Animation Studios that is a spin-off of the Toy Story franchise, and was led from the direct-to-video film Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: The Adventure Begins, depicting the in-universe Toy Story series on which the Buzz Lightyear toy is based. The series takes place in the far future, featuring Buzz Lightyear voiced by Patrick Warburton (replacing Tim Allen), a famous, experienced Space Ranger who takes a crew of rookies under his wing as he investigates criminal activity across the galaxy and attempts to bring down Evil Emperor Zurg once and for all. It aired on UPN from October 2, 2000, to November 29, 2000, and on ABC from October 14, 2000, to January 13, 2001.
Lightyear is a spin-off film of Toy Story series that explains Buzz Lightyear's backstory and the film chronology Andy watched. Buzz is voiced by Chris Evans in the title role. Directed by Angus MacLane, the film was released on June 17, 2022.
Toy Story's first five days of domestic release (on Thanksgiving weekend), earned the film $39.1 million. The film placed first in the weekend's box office with $29.1 million, and maintained its number one position at the domestic box office for the following two weekends. It was the highest-grossing domestic film in 1995, and the third-highest-grossing animated film at the time.
Toy Story 2 opened at No. 1 over the Thanksgiving Day weekend, with a three-day tally of $57.4 million from 3,236 theaters. It averaged $17,734 per theater over three days during that weekend, and stayed at No. 1 for the next two weekends. It was the third-highest-grossing film of 1999.
Toy Story 3 had a strong debut, opening in 4,028 theaters and grossing $41.1 million at the box office on its opening day. In addition, Toy Story 3 had the highest opening-day gross for an animated film on record. During its opening weekend, the film grossed $110.3 million, making it #1 for the weekend; it was the biggest opening weekend ever for any Pixar film. Toy Story 3 stayed at the #1 spot for the next weekend. The film had the second-highest opening ever for an animated film at the time. It was the highest-grossing film of 2010, both domestically and worldwide. Toy Story 3 grossed over $1 billion, making it the seventh film in history, the second Disney film in 2010, and the first animated film to do so.
Toy Story 4 achieved the biggest opening for the series and the biggest for a G-rated film, grossing $120.9 million domestically and $244.5 internationally in its first weekend. It went on to gross $1.073 billion, becoming the 43rd movie ever to cross the billion dollar mark and was the eighth-highest-grossing film of 2019.
Lightyear underperformed at the global box office, grossing a total of $226.4 million. Its first weekend gross totaled $85.2 million, underperforming expectations, attributed by observers to a lackluster audience turnout due to multiple factors including the COVID-19 pandemic, the release of past Pixar films Soul, Luca, and Turning Red on Disney+, and its more mixed reviews compared to other films in the franchise.
According to Rotten Tomatoes, the Toy Story franchise is the most critically acclaimed franchise of all time. The first two films received a 100% rating, while the third and fourth earned 98% and 97% ratings. According to the site, no other franchise has had all of its films so highly rated—the Before trilogy comes closest with 98%, and the Dollars trilogy and The Lord of the Rings trilogy come after with average ratings of 95% and 94%, respectively, while the Toy Story franchise has an average of 99%.
According to Metacritic, the Toy Story franchise is the second most critically acclaimed franchise of all time, after The Lord of the Rings trilogy, having an average rounded score of 90 out of 100.
Toy Story was nominated for three Academy Awards, including Best Original Screenplay, Best Original Score and Best Original Song for Randy Newman's "You've Got a Friend in Me." John Lasseter, the director of the film, also received a Special Achievement Award for "the development and inspired application of techniques that have made possible the first feature-length computer-animated film." Toy Story was also the first animated film to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. At the 53rd Golden Globe Awards, Toy Story earned two Golden Globe nominations—Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy and Best Original Song. It was also nominated for Best Special Visual Effects at the 50th British Academy Film Awards.
Toy Story 2 won a Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy and earned a single Academy Award nomination for the song "When She Loved Me," performed by Sarah McLachlan. The Academy Award for Best Animated Feature was introduced in 2001 after the first two Toy Story installments.
Toy Story 3 won two Academy Awards – Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song for "We Belong Together". It earned three other nominations, including Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Sound Editing. It was the third animated film in history to be nominated for Best Picture, after Beauty and the Beast and Up. Toy Story 3 also won the Golden Globe for Best Animated Feature Film and the award for Best Animated Film at the British Academy Film Awards.
Toy Story 4 won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature and was also nominated for Best Original Song for Newman's "I Can't Let You Throw Yourself Away." It is the first animated franchise to win Best Animated Feature award twice. It's also the first animated franchise to have every film nominated in the same category (Original Song). It was also nominated to the Golden Globe for Best Animated Feature Film (but lost against Missing Link) and nominated for Best Animated Film at the British Academy Film Awards.
Pixar created some original animations for the games, including fully animated sequences for PC titles.
Woody and Buzz Lightyear were originally going to appear in the Final Mix version of the Disney/Square Enix video game Kingdom Hearts II. They were omitted from the final product, but their models appear in the game's coding, without textures. The director of the Kingdom Hearts series, Tetsuya Nomura, stated that he would like to include Pixar property in future Kingdom Hearts games, given Disney's purchase of Pixar. This eventually came true, as a stage based on Toy Story made its debut appearance in the series in Kingdom Hearts III, marking the first time that Pixar-based content appears in the series, along with Monsters, Inc. and Ratatouille. In the Toy Box campaign, Woody, Buzz, Hamm, Rex, LGM's, Sarge and the Green Army Men are transported to an alternate world where most of the humans don't exist and is home to a business call "Galaxy Toys", it also somehow let's Buzz's blaster to actually shoot real lasers.
Toy Story had a large promotion before its release, leading to numerous tie-ins with the film including images on food packaging. A variety of merchandise was released during the film's theatrical run and its initial VHS release including toys, clothing, and shoes, among other things. When action figures for Buzz Lightyear and Sheriff Woody were created, they were initially ignored by retailers. However, after over 250,000 figures were sold for each character before the film's release, demand continued to expand, eventually reaching over 25 million units sold by 2007. Also, Disney's Animated Storybook: Toy Story and Disney's Activity Center: Toy Story were released for Windows and Mac. Disney's Animated Storybook: Toy Story was the best selling software title of 1996, selling over 500,000 copies.
Totally Toy Story was an instant theme park and a promotional event for the Toy Story film premiere held at El Capitan Theatre and Masonic Convention Hall.
For the November 18, 1995, Toy Story premiere at El Capitan Theatre, Disney rented the Masonic Convention Hall, the next door building, for Totally Toy Story, an instant theme park and a promotional event for the movie. Movie goers paid an additional fee for the pop up park. The promotional event had pre-sales over $1 million and remained opened until January 1, 1996. The Toy Story Funhouse part was moved to Disneyland's Tomorrowland and opened there on January 27, 1996, and closed on May 27, 1996.
Totally Toy Story, while in Hollywood, consisted of "Toy Story Art of Animation" exhibit in El Capitan's basement and the Toy Story Funhouse at the convention hall. The fun house consisted of 30,000 square feet of various attractions. These attractions continue the story of the movie with the toys life-size.
Toy Story Funhouse attractions:
Toy Story's innovative computer animation had a large impact on the film industry. After the film's debut, various industries were interested in the technology used for the film. Graphics chip makers desired to compute imagery similar to the film's animation for personal computers; game developers wanted to learn how to replicate the animation for video games; and robotics researchers were interested in building artificial intelligence into their machines that compared to the lifelike characters in the film. Various authors have also compared the film to an interpretation of Don Quixote as well as humanism. The free and open-source Linux distribution Debian takes its codenames from Toy Story characters, the tradition of which came about as Bruce Perens was involved in the early development of Debian while working at Pixar.
In 2013, Pixar designed a "Gromit Lightyear" sculpture based on the Aardman Animations character Gromit from Wallace and Gromit for Gromit Unleashed which sold for £65,000.
Buzz Lightyear's classic line "To infinity and beyond!" has seen usage not only on T-shirts, but among philosophers and mathematical theorists as well. Lucia Hall of The Humanist linked the film's plot to an interpretation of humanism. She compared the phrase to "All this and heaven, too!", indicating one who is happy with a life on Earth as well as having an afterlife. In 2008, during STS-124, astronauts took an action figure of Buzz Lightyear into space on the Discovery Space Shuttle as part of an educational experience for students that also stressed the catchphrase. The action figure was used for experiments in zero-g. Also, in 2008, the phrase made international news when it was reported that a father and son had continually repeated the phrase to help them keep track of each other while treading water for 15 hours in the Atlantic Ocean.