Scrappy, start-up, dorky. These are all words that could describe Pixar while making its first feature film. At D23 Expo, Toy Story alums Andrew Stanton, Bob Pauley, Bonnie Arnold, Jonas Rivera, Katherine Sarafian, and Pete Docter reminisced about what Pixar was like before it became Pixar. “I think we had 120 people-ish,†Docter said of the staff who made Toy Story. By comparison, that’s about the size of one department on Inside Out 2. “Some of the support staff, they would make food a home and bring it in to feed everyone,†Arnold said.
Toy Story came together in an extremely DIY, slapdash manner. “Jeffrey Katzenberg called and said ‘We want to do a movie with you guys and John [Lassiter], but we don’t know what it should be,†Stanton said. “‘So think of some ideas.’†The three ideas Pixar came to Disney Animation with were 1) James and the Giant Peach, 2) an adaptation of Dinosaur Bob and His Adventures with the Family Lazardo, and 3) idk, something about toys coming to life? Disney was most excited about option number 3.
When production began, Arnold and Pauley were two of the only members of staff who’d ever worked on a movie before. Arnold had just come off the first Addams Family movie, and Pauley had been on The Nightmare Before Christmas. That movie had a different, edgier company culture. “When I was at Nightmare, everyone was in leather jackets and smoking,†said Bob Pauley. “When I got to Pixar, people were in shorts?â€
Maybe the Pixar crew didn’t smoke like the bad kids of Henry Selick’s crew, but they still got up to some shenanigans. Pete Docter recalled stealing one of his co-workers cars and taking it for a joyride. “I’d like to think you wouldn’t steal someone’s car and drive it to the office now,†said Sarafian, “but who knows?†Stanton also drew from his bad kid past to create the character of Sid. “Mutant toys was from Andrew’s real childhood,†Docter said. Stanton vividly recalled strapping an M80 to a G.I. Joe as a kid, pitching it for a scene in Toy Story. Originally, he’d wanted Joe’s exploded head to turn to the other toys and scream “Save yourselves!†but that was deemed a bridge too far. There’s always room for that in Toy Story 5.