Toy Story

This article is about the 1995 film. For the franchise, see Toy Story (franchise). For other uses, see Toy Story (disambiguation).

Toy Story
The poster features Woody anxiously holding onto Buzz Lightyear as he flies into Andy's room. Below them sitting on the bed are Bo Peep, Mr. Potato Head, Troll, Hamm, Slinky, Sergeant, and Rex. In the lower right center of the image is the film's title. The background shows the cloud wallpaper featured in the bedroom.
Theatrical release poster
Directed byJohn Lasseter
Screenplay by
Story by
Produced by
Starring
Edited by
Music byRandy Newman
Production
company
Distributed byBuena Vista Pictures Distribution[a]
Release dates
  • November 19, 1995 (1995-11-19) (El Capitan Theatre)
  • November 22, 1995 (1995-11-22) (United States)
Running time
81 minutes[1]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$30 million[2]
Box office$394.4 million[3]

Toy Story is a 1995 American animated comedy film produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures. The first installment in the Toy Story franchise, it was the first entirely computer-animated feature film, as well as the first feature film from Pixar. The film was directed by John Lasseter (in his feature directorial debut), written by Joss Whedon, Andrew Stanton, Joel Cohen, and Alec Sokolow based on a story by Lasseter, Stanton, Pete Docter, and Joe Ranft, produced by Bonnie Arnold and Ralph Guggenheim, and features the voices of Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Annie Potts, John Ratzenberger, Don Rickles, Wallace Shawn, and Jim Varney.

Taking place in a world where toys come to life when humans are not present, the plot of Toy Story focuses on the relationship between an old-fashioned pullstring cowboy doll named Woody and a modern space cadet action figure, Buzz Lightyear, as Woody develops jealousy towards Buzz when he becomes their owner Andy's favorite toy.

Following the success of Tin Toy, a short film that was released in 1988, Pixar was approached by Disney to produce a computer-animated feature film that was told from a small toy's perspective. Lasseter, Stanton, and Docter wrote early story treatments, which were rejected by Disney, who wanted the film's tone to be "edgier". After several disastrous story reels, production was halted and the script was rewritten to better reflect the tone and theme Pixar desired: "toys deeply want children to play with them, and ... this desire drives their hopes, fears, and actions". The studio, then consisting of a relatively small number of employees, produced Toy Story under minor financial constraints.

Toy Story premiered at the El Capitan Theatre in Los Angeles on November 19, 1995, and was released in theaters in North America on November 22 of that year. It was the highest-grossing film during its opening weekend,[2] eventually grossing over $373 million worldwide, making it the second highest-grossing film of 1995. The film received critical acclaim, with praise directed towards the technical innovation of the animation, script, Randy Newman's score, appeal to all age groups, and voice performances (particularly Hanks and Allen), and holds a 100% approval rating on film aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes. The film is frequently lauded as one of the best animated films ever made and, due to its status as the first computer-animated film, one of the most important films in the medium's history and film at large.[4] The film received three Academy Award nominations—Best Original Screenplay (the first animated film to be nominated for the award), Best Original Song for "You've Got a Friend in Me", and Best Original Score—in addition to being honored with a non-competitive Special Achievement Academy Award.[5]

In 2005, Toy Story was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant", one of nine films designated in its first year of eligibility. The success of Toy Story launched a multimedia franchise, spawning three sequels (and a planned fourth sequel) beginning with Toy Story 2 (1999), a spin-off film Lightyear (2022), and numerous short films. The film also had a theatrical 3D re-release in 2009 as part of a double feature with the second film.


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  1. ^ "Toy Story". British Board of Film Classification. Archived from the original on September 21, 2013. Retrieved August 2, 2013.
  2. ^ a b "Toy Story". The Numbers. Nash Information Services, LLC. Archived from the original on December 5, 2014. Retrieved January 18, 2022.
  3. ^ "Toy Story". Box Office Mojo. IMDb. Archived from the original on January 18, 2022. Retrieved January 18, 2022.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference best-animation was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ King, Susan (September 30, 2015). "How 'Toy Story' changed the face of animation, taking off 'like an explosion'". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on October 2, 2015. Retrieved September 30, 2015.