Toy Story (franchise)

Toy Story is a CGI animated film series and Disney media franchise that began with the original 1995 film, Toy Story, produced by Pixar and distributed by Walt Disney Pictures. The franchise focuses on a group of toys that secretly come to life and end up unexpectedly embarking on life-changing adventures. The first two films of the franchise were directed by John Lasseter, and the third by Lee Unkrich, co-director of the second film (together with Lasseter and Ash Brannon).
All three films, produced on a total budget of $320 million, have grossed more than $1.9 billion worldwide. Each film set box office records, with the third included in the top 10 all time worldwide films. Critics have given all three films extremely positive reviews. Special Blu-ray and DVD editions of Toy Story and Toy Story 2 were released on March 23, 2010. They were also re-released in theaters as a Disney Digital 3-D "double feature" for at least two weeks in October 2009. The series is currently the 18th highest-grossing franchise worldwide, the third highest-grossing animated franchise (behind Shrek and Ice Age), and is among the most critically acclaimed trilogies of all time. On November 1, 2011, all three Toy Story films were released in Disney Blu-ray 3D as a trilogy pack and as individual films.
==Films==
The Toy Story series consists of three CGI animated films. The films are Toy Story (1995), Toy Story 2 (1999) and Toy Story 3 (2010). Toy Story, the first film in the series, was the first feature-length film to be made entirely using computer generated imagery. The films were produced by Pixar Animation Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Pictures.
All three films were critically acclaimed, with the first and second films getting a perfect 100%, and the third a 99% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The third film in the series became the highest-grossing animated film and the 10th highest-grossing film of all time. It also became the third animated film in history to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture, following Beauty and the Beast and Up.
===Toy Story (1995)===
Toy Story, the first film in the franchise, was released on November 22, 1995. It was the first feature-length film created entirely by CGI and was directed by John Lasseter. The plot involves Andy getting a new Buzz Lightyear toy, and Woody thinking that he has been replaced as Andy's favorite toy. As a result of Woody's jealousy, he tries to knock Buzz behind a table, but accidentally knocks him out the window causing his allies to assume that he tried to murder Buzz and exile him from Andy's house. Determined to set things right, Woody attempts to save Buzz, and both try to escape from the house of the next-door neighbor Sid Phillips, who likes to torture and destroy toys. The film was critically and financially successful, grossing over $361 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 2-week run, which was later extended due to its financial success.
===Toy Story 2 (1999)===
Toy Story 2, the second film in the franchise, was released on November 24, 1999. John Lasseter reprises his role as director. The plot involves Woody getting stolen by a greedy toy collector named Al. Buzz and several of Andy's toys go around the Tri-County Area to save him. Toy Story 2 was not originally intended for release in theaters, but as a direct-to-video sequel to the original Toy Story, with a 60-minute running time. However, Disney's executives saw how impressive the in-work imagery for the sequel was, and due to pressure from the main characters' voice actors Tom Hanks and Tim Allen, they decided to convert Toy Story 2 into a theatrical film. It turned out to be an even greater success than the original Toy Story, grossing over $485 million worldwide. The film was re-released in Disney Digital 3-D as part of a double feature, along with Toy Story, on October 2, 2009.
===Toy Story 3 (2010)===
Toy Story 3, the third film in the franchise, was released eleven years later, on June 18, 2010. It is the first Toy Story film not to be directed by John 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. Set ten years after the events of the second film, the plot focuses on the toys accidentally being dropped off at a daycare center while their owner, Andy, is getting ready to go away to college. The film contains over 150 new characters, according to Pixar. It is currently Pixar's highest-grossing film of all time worldwide and domestic, surpassing Finding Nemo. In August 2010, it surpassed Shrek 2, becoming the highest-grossing animated film of all time worldwide. It grossed more than the first and second films combined, making it the only animated film to date to have crossed the $1 billion mark. It was released on DVD and Blu-ray on November 2, 2010.
==Future==
According to an article on NOLA.com, Toy Story 3 director Lee Unkrich has confirmed that Toy Story 4 is not planned. "Well, we don't have any plans for Toy Story 4," Unkrich said. "I'm flattered that people ask about it—it reminds me how much people love the characters, but it was really important to me with this film that we not just create another sequel, that it not just be another appendage coming off of the other two." However, he did say, "there may be opportunities for Woody and Buzz in the future, but we don't have any plans for anything right now." It has also been reported that Hanks and Allen have signed on for a Toy Story 4 if Pixar ever decides to produce one. In a BBC interview in 2011, Hanks said that he thought Pixar was working on a sequel. However, Disney has since denied these rumors saying "Nothing is official".
==Television==
In 1996, Pixar created a series of shorts for the ABC network known as "Toy Story Treats". The shorts were used as interstitials, and did not necessarily follow the continuity from Toy Story, though they were aired roughly around the time of the film's release to home video.
Pixar has also developed two 22-minute Toy Story television specials. The first, a Halloween themed special, titled Toy Story of Terror!, aired on October 16, 2013 on ABC, while the second is planned for Spring 2014.
===Toy Story of Terror!===
A Halloween themed 22-minute television special, titled Toy Story of Terror!, aired on ABC on October 16, 2013. It was directed by Angus MacLane, produced by Galyn Susman, with Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Joan Cusack, Don Rickles, Wallace Shawn, Timothy Dalton, and Kristen Schaal reprising their roles of Woody, Buzz, Jessie, Mr. Potato Head, Rex, Mr. Pricklepants, and Trixie with Carl Weathers as Combat Carl and Stephen Tobolowsky as the motel manager. Michael Giacchino composed the music for the special. The film's soundtrack was released on October 15, 2013, on Amazon.com in digital format.
The special follows the toys on their road trip, when a flat tire leads Bonnie and her mother to spend the night in a roadside motel. After one of the toys goes missing, the others begin to search for it, but they too are picked off one by one. The toys discover that they are being targeted by the hotel manager's pet iguana, Mr. Jones, who has been trained to steal the toys of his guests so that they can be sold via the Internet. The manager nearly succeeds in selling Woody and Jessie, but Jessie manages to escape—overcoming her old fear of being packed away in the process—and draw Bonnie's attention to the cabinet where the toys are being kept. As a result, Bonnie recovers her toys, and her mom calls in the police, who then presumably arrests the manager for theft.
==Toy Story Toons==
In 2011, Pixar started releasing short animated films to supplement the Toy Story films, called Toy Story Toons. The shorts pick up where Toy Story 3 has left off, with Woody, Buzz, and Andy's other toys finding a new home at Bonnie's. So far, three shorts have been released; Hawaiian Vacation, Small Fry, and Partysaurus Rex. Two new shorts are in development; one will be titled Mythic Rock.
===Hawaiian Vacation===
Toy Story Toons: Hawaiian Vacation is a 2011 Pixar animated short directed by Gary Rydstrom. The short features characters from the Toy Story series and takes place after the events of Toy Story 3. It was released in theatres before Pixar's feature film Cars 2. In the short film, Ken and Barbie want to go to Hawaii, but get left behind, so Woody, Buzz and the other toys from the previous film console them by making a Hawaiian vacation in Bonnie's room.
===Small Fry===
Toy Story Toons: Small Fry, another Toy Story short, premiered before The Muppets. This marks the second time a Pixar short has screened with a non-Pixar film, after Tokyo Mater screened with Bolt. Directed by Angus MacLane, the short involves Buzz getting trapped at a fast food restaurant at a support group for discarded toys, with a kids' meal toy version of Buzz taking his place.
===Partysaurus Rex===
Toy Story Toons: Partysaurus Rex, the third of the series, was released with the theatrical 3D re-release of Finding Nemo. Directed by Mark Walsh with music composed by electronic artist BT, the short involves Rex getting left out in the bathroom and making friends with bath toys.
==Reception==
===Box office performance===
Toy Storys first five days of domestic release (on Thanksgiving weekend), earned the film $39,071,176. The film placed first in the weekend's box office with $29,140,617, 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 #1 over the Thanksgiving Day weekend, with a three-day tally of $57,388,839 from 3,236 theaters. It averaged $17,734 per theater over three days during that weekend, and stayed at #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 $41,148,961 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 $110,307,189, 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. 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, the third Disney film overall, and the only animated film to do so.
===Critical reaction===
According to Rotten Tomatoes, the Toy Story trilogy is the most critically acclaimed trilogy of all time. The first and second films received a 100% "fresh" rating, while the third holds a 99% "fresh" rating. According to the site, no other trilogy has had all of its films so highly rated - the Before Sunset trilogy comes closest with 98%, and Dollars trilogy and The Lord of the Rings film trilogy come after with average ratings of 95% and 94% respectively, while the Toy Story trilogy has an average of an almost perfect 99.7%.
According to Metacritic, the Toy Story trilogy is tied as the most critically acclaimed trilogy of all time, it and The Lord of the Rings film trilogy each having an average rounded score of 91 out of 100. As of July 20, 2010, every film in both trilogies is placed in the Top 100 of the site's Best Reviewed Movies List, but each Toy Story film is placed beneath a film in The Lord of the Rings trilogy.
===Awards and nominations===
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. 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.
==Cast and characters==
==Other media==
===Buzz Lightyear of Star Command===
Buzz Lightyear of Star Command is a spin-off TV series. The series takes place in the far future, a pastiche of Star Trek and Star Wars-style science fiction. It features Buzz Lightyear (voiced by Patrick Warburton), 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 ABC from August 8, 2000 to January 13, 2001.
===Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: The Adventure Begins (2000)===
Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: The Adventure Begins is a spin-off animated direct-to-video film, partially based on Toy Story. The film was released on August 8, 2000. It acts as a pilot to the television series Buzz Lightyear of Star Command and features Tim Allen as the voice of Buzz Lightyear, who is voiced by Patrick Warburton in the main series. In this film, Buzz Lightyear is 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. Although the film was criticized for not using the same animation as in Toy Story and Toy Story 2, it sold three million VHS and DVDs in its first week of release.
===Comic books===
* A 4-issue limited series, Toy Story: Mysterious Stranger was published by Boom! Entertainment from May to August 2009. This was followed by an 8 issue ongoing series, starting with #0 in November 2009. Two Buzz Lightyear one-shots were released in 2010, for Free Comic Book Day and Halloween. A second 4-issue limited series, Toy Story: Tales from the Toy Chest was published by Boom! Entertainment from July to October 2010.
* A 4-issue limited series by Marvel Comics was published from May to August 2012.
===Video games===
* Toy Story (1996) (Sega Mega Drive, Super NES, PC, and Game Boy)
* Toy Story 2: Buzz Lightyear to the Rescue (1999) (Dreamcast, PlayStation, Nintendo 64, PC and Game Boy Color)
* Buzz Lightyear of Star Command (2000) (Game Boy Color, PlayStation, and PC)
* Toy Story 2: Woody Sousaku Daisakusen! (N/A) (Sega Pico) - released only in Japan
* Toy Story Racer (2001) (PlayStation and Game Boy Color)
* Disney's Extreme Skate Adventure (2003) (Game Boy Advance, PlayStation 2, Xbox, Nintendo GameCube)
* Toy Story Mania! (2009) (Wii, PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3)
* Toy Story 3: The Video Game (2010) (PC, Wii, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, and Nintendo DS)
* Shooting Beena: Toy Story 3: Woody to Buzz no Daibōken! (2010) (Advanced Pico Beena) - released only in Japan
* Kinect Rush: A Disney-Pixar Adventure (2012) (Xbox 360)
* Disney Infinity (2013) (Wii, Wii U, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Nintendo 3DS, Microsoft Windows)
Pixar created original animations for the games, including fully animated sequences for PC titles.
Woody and Buzz Lightyear were originally going to appear as summons 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, has stated that he would like to include Pixar property in future Kingdom Hearts games, given Disney's purchase of Pixar.
===Merchandising and software===
Toy Story had a large promotion prior to 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 prior to 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.
==Theme park attractions==
* Buzz Lightyear attractions in many Disney Parks.
* Toy Story Midway Mania! at Disney's Hollywood Studios at the Walt Disney World Resort, Disney California Adventure at Disneyland Resort and Tokyo DisneySea at Tokyo Disney Resort.
* Toy Story Playland at Walt Disney Studios Park at Disneyland Paris and Hong Kong Disneyland at Hong Kong Disneyland Resort.
* Toy Story: The Musical on Disney Cruise Line's ship Disney Wonder.
==Other information==
When the first film was released, Pixar made several "Toy Story Treats", which were short clips with many of the Toy Story characters. They were shown on ABC Family and during the commercial breaks for Buzz Lightyear of Star Command on Disney's One Too.
==Impact==
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.
==="To infinity and beyond!"===
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.
Category:Film Series