Original Story Ideas—A Sarcastic Woody?

I’ve been working on a story idea for eight years. It started out as an apple seed and has grown into a maple sapling. How did that happen? Apparently this is normal in the writing world.

The Pixar giant, Toy Story (1995), was originally pitched as a sequel to the Pixar short, Tin Toy (1988), where the title character, Tinny, gets lost on a family trip and ends up joining forces with a sarcastic ventriloquist dummy in search of a new home.

What? That is nothing like the Toy Story we all know and love.

Neither is another idea that was scrapped. Shortly after the familiar characters were established, Pixar presented a draft to Disney in 1993 where Woody’s character was a sarcastic jerk who insulted the other toys. Again—what? Apparently, the film was deemed unwatchable. Imagine that?

If it takes highly paid professionals several stabs at coming up with a workable storyline, there is hope for the rest of us.

Go to “33 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About the Toy Story Trilogy” to find out thirty-two other things you probably didn’t know about Toy Story. If you’re really a Pixar geek, be sure to scroll down to the comments and see the corrections to this list that Craig Good, the supervising layout artist offers.