Commentary Track: Toy Story

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome Friends, Come podcasts. Podcast is don show Jackie again.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
By head, They're talking Don Boby, Mommy down Baby.

Speaker 1 (00:17):
I am buzz Lightyear, I come in peace.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
By fucking Alien.

Speaker 1 (00:23):
You're mocking me, aren't you? Why you can't fly? Yes?
I can't, I can't and hat Cat can't.

Speaker 2 (00:34):
The adventure takes off when Toys come to Night Infinity
and beyond Toy Story look on can Welcome to a
movie film commentary track. My name is Zaki Iss. I'm
here at Brian Hall.

Speaker 1 (00:52):
Hi, I'm Zachi. Howdy, Howdy, howdy, give me back my hat.

Speaker 2 (01:00):
Well, this is our last commentary track for the year
twenty twenty five, and I certainly cannot think of a
better way of closing out this year's bumper crop of commentaries. Same.

Speaker 1 (01:14):
I mean, I was shocked to learn that this movie
was thirty years old, so it seemed like the perfect
time to visit it. And I had forgotten that it
ends on Christmas.

Speaker 2 (01:24):
Day, so pretty pretty darn perfect.

Speaker 1 (01:27):
It's almost like we planned it that way on purpose.

Speaker 2 (01:30):
Well, we'll borrow page from George Lucas and say we
did plan it that way on purpose, exactly.

Speaker 1 (01:36):
Yeah, And George Lucas ties into this story.

Speaker 2 (01:39):
Look at that, and what a story it is, right,
the before and the after. At least when it comes
to the history of cinema animation, there is pre toy
story and post toy story.

Speaker 1 (01:56):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:56):
Yeah, it is a demarcation point.

Speaker 1 (02:00):
Absolutely, yep.

Speaker 2 (02:01):
So, so we'll have lots to say about this one.
And the nice thing is I suspect it'll be a
nice and breezy chat since since the movie itself is
about an hour twenty.

Speaker 1 (02:11):
You were take yeah wild with credits with credits.

Speaker 2 (02:14):
Yeah, so so, hey, if you want to hear what
we have to say while watching the movie, you can.
You can certainly do that. If not, hopefully we'll keep
the conversation interesting enough. Again, just a reminder, if you
want to have the full watch along experience. For that,
you'll have to subscribe to our Patreon feed, where you'll
be able to access this episode ad free. Otherwise, you know,

(02:38):
the the regular feed does have the ads, but hey,
get you get to you get to hear us.

Speaker 1 (02:44):
Yeah, yeah, let's look at the conversation.

Speaker 2 (02:47):
That's right. I'd like to believe there's there's a little
bit of woody buzz action going on here.

Speaker 1 (02:54):
Yeah, yeah, right, exactly. Well, here are we a woody
or a buzz Well, we'll determine by the end of this.

Speaker 2 (02:59):
All I know is the first time we met, you
shoved me out a window. But during the course of
your attempting to rescue me, we we formed a life
long bond. So yeah, right, right, So I do appreciate
that you said it was an accident. However, I think
your word for it. So hey, it's nineteen ninety five's

(03:21):
toy story. We're about to watch this, Brian, you ready,
I'm ready, alrighty, So we'll do the usual thing. We'll
hit play on three. So one two three play, and
here we go, one two three play.

Speaker 1 (03:35):
All right, well I read that, well we should say,
raff the bat. This is the first ever fully computer
animated movie. Yeah, so that's you know, worth noting because
that changed. I mean, I just you and I both
We just watched the SpongeBob movie that came out, which
began as a two D animated show and series of films,

(03:58):
and now even that has moved on to becoming CG animated,
right like it, Like you said, it changed animated films
in television forever.

Speaker 2 (04:07):
So this lamp is a Luxo Junior.

Speaker 1 (04:11):
Yeah, and I noticed that ball, you know, there's the
ball with the star on it at one point in
this movie, and I it was funny because I associate
the lamp and the ball with Pixar, but I wasn't
sure why. I'd kind of forgotten the story about that,
and that has to do with their earlier shorts. Those
were characters that they featured in their earlier short.

Speaker 2 (04:30):
Yeah, it was an Academy Award winning short film from
John Lassiter. That kind of Pixar has, you know, they
adopted it as its mascot. And if in fact, if
you go to the Pixar campus, which is here in Emoryville,
you see a big old Luxo Junior and the ball
is right there, right at the entrance.

Speaker 1 (04:49):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (04:49):
I went there for a preview screening of that famed
Pixar film being Lewin Davis or inside Lewyn Davis. Really
don't know why they screened that there, but.

Speaker 1 (05:01):
That is interesting. Well, how was the theater? I mean,
is it really nice?

Speaker 2 (05:04):
It was pretty cool?

Speaker 1 (05:05):
Yeah? Imagine yeah, yeah, so obviously I think we love
this series, right, love these characters. But I was just
telling Zachi uh before we started that I feel like
I've seen two and three more. Something that's interesting.

Speaker 2 (05:21):
Why is that?

Speaker 1 (05:22):
I don't know, honestly, not for any reason, but so
rewatching this one, I mean, I know it well, but
it's always a little shocking to see the early version
of you know, CG animation because we are so used
to the insane textures and you know, like Pixar has

(05:46):
gone come so far, right, Like I remember with Wally
they were talking about like, now we're actually thinking about
film lenses. It's not like we're just showing you a frame,
like we're thinking about what lens are we using? How
does light get translated through like a thirty millimeter lens,
you know, like or a you know, an anamorphic lens

(06:07):
and whatever. And in this one, you know, this is
it looks still amazing and charming and everything, but it
also sometimes looks almost like what we think of now
as like previous animation or all the texture has been
added in you.

Speaker 2 (06:22):
Know, well certainly with the humans, right, And I think
that's sort of the brilliance of this concept is that
since the focus is the toys, the toy animation thirty
years later holds up entirely you know.

Speaker 1 (06:38):
Really, Yeah, brilliant decision to do that because they knew
they could. They hadn't nailed humans quite yet.

Speaker 2 (06:44):
Yeah, and obviously, with the progression of the films, you know,
by the third one, Andy is like going off to
college or whatever. Right, so he's he's yeah, I mean
he's he's slightly horrifying looking here.

Speaker 1 (06:55):
And the well, and then when he has his birthday
party and all the friends show up, it's just a
bunch of anis.

Speaker 2 (07:02):
You know.

Speaker 1 (07:04):
Yeah, but yeah, so why not then make a movie
about characters that have very simple textures, you know, plastic
faces exactly. It's yeah, it's pretty genius.

Speaker 2 (07:16):
So did you watch this in the theater?

Speaker 1 (07:18):
I'm ninety nine percent sure I did. Okay, I don't
have like a very vivid memory of it, but I'm
certain I, like, I remember always loving this movie. Yeah.
But that's the thing too, Like, do you notice this.
I remember when I was young, you know, we'd watched

(07:41):
like Disney movies, but my parents personally didn't have an
affinity for like the Disney movies of their youth. Like
maybe they wanted to show them to me, but it
wasn't like they were renting them and putting them on
for themselves. But I feel like then in our day,
we were sort of growing up with like The Little
Mermaid and Aladdin and Lion King and all those sorts

(08:04):
of things. And then when I was fifteen, and you
might think maybe previously generation or something like I would
stop watching kids movies. This came out when I was fifteen,
and I remember going to see this, and then I
remember going to see A Bug's Life and I went
and saw like, you know, everything after I've never stopped.
I you know, like we said, I saw the SpongeBob
movie recently, and I still go back to these movies,

(08:26):
and I feel like that's something. I know this is
a not true for everybody, but I just feel like
our generation kind of almost stopped looking at them as
children's films. They're just animated films. Yeah, we all love them,
and we continue to watch them and continue to revisit them.

Speaker 2 (08:42):
I think Pixar definitely played a role in that.

Speaker 1 (08:45):
What do you think that is?

Speaker 2 (08:47):
Well, I think the storytelling strives for a level of
sophistication that even the Disney animated films during that era
wasn't going for. Right, So, you know, because that's generally
considered Disney's like second Golden Age, right the nineties, and
even then they were still sticking to a template. You know,

(09:09):
you gotta have musical numbers, and you gotta have cute
animals and you know, like sort of that, you know,
and that's fine, but those would be something of a
barrier to entry for adults just enjoying the movies as
what they are. Does that make sense?

Speaker 1 (09:24):
Absolutely?

Speaker 2 (09:25):
Yeah, I think. I think the Pixar films from the jump,
you know, just from this movie, for example, Disney wanted
musical numbers and like, no, we're not doing musical numbers, right,
Little things like that like striving to be taken seriously
as movies first, you know, and whether they're animated or

(09:45):
not is irrelevant.

Speaker 1 (09:47):
Yeah, And this was the first animated film ever nominated
for Best Screenplay. There you go and and you watch it. Yeah.
See that's the thing when it started me being used
to two and three. I've seen three so many times.
I love Toy Story three, so it is like a
little jarring to go, oh wow, yeah, it looks a

(10:08):
little more simple. And I'm speaking strictly textures because the
direction and the camera moves and everything, the snap that
all the characters have in their their herky jerky funny
movements is like incredible. But the thing you notice is
that this script is sophisticated is such a great word

(10:28):
for it, Like, it's just a brilliant script. And the
way that they introduce them as toys first in Andy's imagination,
and how loved and used and vital they feel, and
the relationship you know, to Andy, and then we have
this moment here when Andy leaves and we get to
this amazing introduction to all the characters and their personalities

(10:50):
and how what he's kind of their leader and all
the roles that they play. And it's just for a
movie that is as short as it is, it's a
brilliantly constructed movie that accomplishes so much well.

Speaker 2 (11:05):
And a couple of things when you when you look
at the development of the film, what you really appreciate
is that the movie we got is about as far
removed from the movie they first conceived as can be.

Speaker 1 (11:20):
Yes, this is an amazing story.

Speaker 2 (11:22):
It really right like and and I'm sure we'll talk
about it throughout this, but I mean big picture that
the earliest iteration of this was a like a ten
drummer doll and ventriloquist dummy are jealous, or like a
ventriloquist dummy is jealous of this metal music. You know,

(11:46):
one man band Toy that's the earliest. That's what became
Toy Story, that's what started there became buzz and woody, right,
And that just tells you, look, sometimes you just got
to toss up your original idea, right, and you have
no idea. So we go from that to you know,

(12:07):
a cowboy in an Astronaut.

Speaker 1 (12:08):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, And it's it's kind of an encouraging story,
you know, being a writer to hear that even that
original idea with once they had the cowboy and the spaceman,
that's still wasn't quite right. They continue to refine and

(12:29):
refine and refine, like this didn't just magically appear as
a first draft here, this beloved classic thirty years later,
like this took a lot of work, a lot of thinking,
a lot of refining.

Speaker 2 (12:39):
You know. Yeah, the then the idea of making a
movie fully cg animated. I think the ultimate measure of
how successful Toy Story was is kind of the point
that you were making earlier, like, well, now that's the
de facto we just assume that if it's if in

(13:00):
the movie theaters, it's going to be CG animated m h.
And yeah, I mean this is this is It was
a whole new thing back then.

Speaker 1 (13:07):
And something I was struck with just in this opening here,
the opening ten minutes or so, is just it is
just endlessly clever, right, you know what I mean, Like
just so many like every toy and their function is
used in a funny and creative way, but not just
as a joke, but it's actually useful to the story, right,

(13:31):
you know what I mean, Like the armymen going on
a mission to go check out the birthday party below,
so the toys know what they can expect who's going
to be joining them, you know, and using the tape
recorder with the microphone, you know, to talk to everybody,
and you know, like there's just these really fast ways
of introducing all the characters and how they can be

(13:53):
cleverly utilized as part of the gang. You know, it's
just so delightful and funny and just you marvel at it. Well.

Speaker 2 (14:02):
The the other thought I had, and yeah it had
been a little while since I'd seen this first one,
was you know, we do kind of take for granted
that Tom Hanks is Woody, right, but he's so freaking
great as Woody, Like I think I think I had
I had lost sight of that right right, because he's

(14:25):
he's playing he's playing this role like he's in a
live action movie. Yes, I mean this might as well
be you know, a bachelor party or whatever. Like it's
it's that flavor of Tom Hanks, you know, the really
mad cap, funny, hysterically funny Tom Hanks. But he plays

(14:47):
it with with reality and he's it's clear that he's
thought through the the the inner life of the character
and it just works. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (14:57):
I mean you get so many flavors, like you get
this sort of like you said, bachelor party manic, that
oh kind of time Hanks, but then you also get
the really heartbroken, softer and he just doesn't you know,
ye anymore like.

Speaker 2 (15:11):
He really is.

Speaker 1 (15:12):
Yeah, he's giving it one hundred percent.

Speaker 2 (15:16):
Like it's it's nowadays it's such a no brainer, like, well, yeah,
who else could be wouldy? You know? But obviously I
didn't just land there, you know, with with with buzz
like they originally went to Billy Crystal. Yeah, and and
it's like, man, I what does that sound like you know,
you know, it's so funny.

Speaker 1 (15:34):
I can see why. I can imagine the funny, cocky
thing from him, but it's just so much better that
it worked out the way that it did. And you
know you probably read that story, but yeah, Billy Crystal
turned it down. And this was like an unknown thing, right,
you know, I mean Pixar's Pixar now, but at the time,
who knew what this experiment was going to look like
this bully or first c animated movie. And he went

(15:59):
on to regret it, and apparently Pixar learned that and
then reached out to him for Monsters, Inc. And according
to the story I read, his wife got the phone
call and told Billy like, oh, Pixar's on the phone,
and he just took the phone and went yes and
his sort of funny, uh like neurosi thing that he

(16:22):
does so well, we're so great for Mike Wazowski.

Speaker 2 (16:24):
That's the thing, right, he got his perfect character.

Speaker 1 (16:27):
Exactly, and Tim Allen is perfect as the kind of
the cocky, funny, confident.

Speaker 2 (16:32):
Buzz that well. And like really, the the Monsters Inc.
Pairing of John Goodman and Billy Crystal That was perfect
for that movie. You know, so it really did work out.
But by the way, the other voice actors too, and
unfortunately many of whom have passed on. You know, we
got ar Lee Ermie as the head of the army men,
and you know, Don Rickles, Potato Head and Jim Varney,

(16:55):
Slinky some of these people are gone now, you know,
totally but so so distinctive, you know that it they
create these characters, especially Potato And I forgot how sort
of centrally is in this in this story, I'm like,
that's Don Rickles. I'm so like, who else could have
done that?

Speaker 1 (17:14):
You know, I forgot what a foil he is toy exactly.
You know. It's it's funny because, yeah, I think in
the later films they are more like in sync with
one another. But yeah, they're like have these funny dynamics
in this one, you know, with one another, where yeah,
Potato Head kind of pushes back on Woody more than
the others, and Slinky Dog is like very loyal to him,

(17:38):
and that's right. Yeah, yeah, I've just forgotten about that.

Speaker 2 (17:42):
Any any pots as as bo.

Speaker 1 (17:44):
Peep, which is also kind of an interesting choice. You know,
that's sort of New Yorky sort of energy versus just
having this demrror sort of right, you know, kind of voice.

Speaker 2 (17:57):
Well, that's why she's the one that got away, right,
and she's she's like the Peggy Carter.

Speaker 1 (18:03):
Yeah, that's right, that's right.

Speaker 2 (18:06):
Actually, it's funny us just just being Marvel connections. When
I was watching this yesterday, I was like it seeing
Buzz the way Buzz is reacting to the other toys,
that reminds me of Thor when he meets the Guardians
of the Galaxy.

Speaker 1 (18:21):
That's funny.

Speaker 2 (18:23):
I don't know if you remember, but like you know,
star Lord is like like feeling very inadequate yeah to Thor,
And I'm like, that's totally Buzz and Woody, you know.

Speaker 1 (18:32):
That's really funny. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (18:37):
So so this idea that Buzz doesn't know he's a toy.
He thinks he is the real Buzz light Year that
was a Joss Whedon edition and talk about genius. Uh,
that's that's brilliant. I mean that that gives that gives

(18:59):
us his entire arc you know.

Speaker 1 (19:02):
Yeah, I mean that was the thing you know on
the shows I've worked on, when we were putting stories
together and they were feeling like halfway there, we would
literally look at the most you know, the main characters
of that particular story and go like all right, like
we know this is mostly this character story, but here's
the person who's with them. What's their arc? Let's forget

(19:23):
everything else, Let's just focus on this person and where
do they begin, what happens to them, and where do
they end up? And so if it had just been
like he knows he's a toy and then he and
what are your kind of at odds and then they
figure things out, that would be good. But like giving
him a whole journey of his own right, you know,
and he has to have this dark night of the

(19:44):
soul and everything. You know, it's it's it's amazing and
it we were talking about it before we got on,
but we'd I I'll say for myself, I had forgotten
that there are more Randy Newman songs in here than
just You've Got a Friend in Me and that song
where Buzz is like we realizing he isn't who he
thought he was, and that Randy Newman song plays along
with it. It's so like perfect and impactful.

Speaker 2 (20:08):
Well, so this is the thing, right, Like when it
came to including songs, you know, the you know, this
was like a you know, at the time, Jeffrey Katzenberg
was still at Disney and he was largely credited with
the Disney Revolution of the nineties, right, so he was
given an outsized creative role, even though the Pixar was

(20:29):
not at that time part of Disney. And so he
was like, oh, you got to have you know, you
got to have musical numbers, as was the style of
the time. Yeah. Right, And and you know, I'm pretty
sure this was this was Wheden saying, well, it's not
like a romance, you know, so having the characters singing

(20:50):
about their feelings, it wouldn't work, right, So the the
trade off is, okay, well, let's have songs, but they'll
be non diegetic so that we hear them and they
convey what's going on. But but you know, we're not
seeing them dancing and you know or whatever. You know.

Speaker 1 (21:07):
Yeah, and even now, I feel, as time has gone
on from this, we hear less and less songs. Yeah,
just in movies in general, where the lyrics are something
that we're paying attention to as we're watching, you know,
and when it does happen, I occasionally find it a
little jarring. Because I've been conditioned out of it, that's true.
But these I can't remember three, but one and two.

(21:30):
I mean, yeah, you've got a friend in me, and
some of the other songs are just so iconic and
cozy and wonderful. And in this one and then in
the second one, the Sarah mcgloughlin song when she writes
so heartbreaking, Oh I love that, Oh my gosh, amazing.
So it was it was a brilliant decision. And I
had read that Steve Jobs when they decided they wanted

(21:51):
to have a song in the film, he wanted it
to be Bob Dylan. Okay, it's kind of interesting because
it's I can kind of a little bit. But I mean,
Randy Newman is just I mean maybe it's obvious thirty
years later, but he is just so perfect, totally you
know whatever, his sort of I don't even know how
to describe it, but his sort of sincere but kind

(22:13):
of playful style, like did's so perfectly with this. And
I had forgotten that he did the score.

Speaker 2 (22:21):
Right here, this is star Lord and thor Yeah, totally.

Speaker 1 (22:26):
Sorry, go on, no, but I had forgotten that Randy
Newman actually does the orchestral score. For all these films,
and that he has scored many movies. I mean he
just picks our alone, bugs, life, monsters in cars, but
he also did you know, The Natural, Meet the Parents, Seabiscuit,
even Marriage Story recently in nineteen and he he's done

(22:50):
some incredible scores and it's funny that he doesn't seem
to come up when we think of film composers, but
they're very full, rich, robust, memorable scores. Yeah, you know,
this was something I'd kind of forgotten too, where it's
a perfect setup where he you know what he's like, Buzz,

(23:13):
you can't actually fly, but then he, you know, Buzz
kind of does creatively get around the room and they're
like that it's not flying, that's falling with style.

Speaker 2 (23:23):
Well, what I love about the whole, the whole this
is just like you know, certain certain scripts are kind
of like perfect scripts, like their film school scripts where
you study them, you know, and and look at everything
that is revealed about Buzz in that moment where he

(23:43):
is absolutely sure of himself and he's just he's got
the luck of the Irish. Whereas he says he's going
to do this thing, he proves it. Hey, look and
his eyes are closed, so he doesn't see that he
didn't actually fly right right. But then the falling with style.
What's so brilliant there is that we get to come back,
circle back around to that line and have it been
the thing that ties them together.

Speaker 1 (24:05):
Yep, yep, the acceptance of it, and it falling with
style winds up saving them in the end yep, yep.
It's yeah. I mean when you say like a perfect
film school script, it's just something where it's like that,
there's all the setups are paid off and the economy
is perfect, but you're not thinking about it mathematically. It

(24:26):
just feels like it's unfolding naturally in a satisfying way.
But it is technically sound and perfect exactly yep. And
every character gets a moment to shine and their specific
trait plays into the story. I mean, we are already
having this. This is so funny the way he's acting,
like I heard Dresser to the troll doll like, because

(24:49):
he's fitting in with everybody, you know what I mean,
except Woody. That's but which is funny because yeah, like
I said, with the second ones and the third one
and even the fourth one, they feels so all of
them are so sympatico. But in this one, I forgot
how insecure wood he is. And he is sort of
a leader and he's not a tyrant per se, but
he things go his way and everyone's kind of okay

(25:12):
with that, and it all gets challenged here and it's
kind of funny to see him so frustrated. You know,
I'd forgotten about that.

Speaker 2 (25:18):
The thought I had watching this one is this is
lethal weapon one.

Speaker 1 (25:25):
Yeah, sure, right, And.

Speaker 2 (25:27):
And after this, I'm grateful that they never they never
dip back into the Oh, let's have Buzz and Woody
at odds with each.

Speaker 1 (25:35):
Other, totally totally right, because we give them different problems.
They've yeah, they have solidified their thing, and now we
give them different problems and exactly figuring out ways to
just break them up and have to get them back
on the same page.

Speaker 2 (25:47):
Exactly right, because again it's like total Riggs and MYRTA, right,
Like we don't want to see them fighting. No, they're
Riggs and MYRTA. They're Buzz and Woody, right, they're a team.
You know. Yep, Howdy howdy howdy. So funny. I love that,
you know, and I thought about and real quick, yeah,

(26:11):
even that Andy writing his name on Buzz's foot, like
in Buzz's mind, he finds the way like, well, I'm
not a toy. This is a gesture of friendship from
your chief, you know, yes, right, you know it's.

Speaker 1 (26:26):
So good and just so it's so perfect too. I
mean it's fresh and looks new on Buzz's foot. But
then Andy looks or what he looks down and his
is all kind of worn out.

Speaker 2 (26:37):
Yep, this is so funny too. He's like he's like
working under this cardboard box that's supposed to be the
spaceship and he's like, you.

Speaker 1 (26:49):
Know, yeah with the jet and he wants his bonding
strip and the like it's scotch tape. That's one of
the most Satis find things with stories when you look
at what is available to you. So it's these toys, right,
and they're all different sorts of toys, and they figure

(27:11):
out how to mine the most things possible out of
what's available to them, you know. So it's it's not
just like he's working on the ship and it's tilted
up somewhere. He's using building blocks, you know, alphabet blocks,
and he's gotten the door, you know, Like they just
mine everything for the greatest, most imaginative possibilities with what

(27:31):
they have available a kid's bedroom and toys exactly. And
that's why I think right out of the gate is like, oh,
this is like Pixar is Pixar means a certain level
of quality.

Speaker 2 (27:44):
Right well, I mean, and they established that early. This
by the way, his his his.

Speaker 1 (27:50):
Laugh, Yeah, speaking of Tom Hanks, you know, all all
his his signatures, yeah, and moves you know, are being
employed here.

Speaker 2 (28:02):
Tom Hanks, by the way, I mean, jeez, you talk
about having a good nineteen ninety five, at least in
terms of domestic box office. He had the number two
movie the year with PAULA thirteen, then number three movie
the year with The Toy Story.

Speaker 1 (28:16):
Yeah. Yeah, Actually, I mean we should talk about sid
here in a second, but like, as long as we're
talking box office, I was just curious, just for frame
of reference, the top movies of that year, nineteen ninety five,
so rattling them off really quickly, number one to ten,
Batman Forever, Paul thirteen, Toy Story, number three, highest grossing
film domestically, Pocahontas as Ventura two, Casper, Diehard with a Vengeance,

(28:37):
Crimson Tide, Goldene and water World, which is just funny
to imagine that's the Multiplex that year. But also it
made me realize, I think we've covered eighty percent of
those movies.

Speaker 2 (28:47):
I think we have him. We have really we have
Mined nineteen ninety five exactly.

Speaker 1 (28:53):
You've given that a lot of love. But this is
a funny setup for a villain, you know, like a
kid who rips his toys apart and experiments on them
and you know, tortures them. What a scary thing for
like a toy for a toy.

Speaker 2 (29:10):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (29:11):
Yeah, and you watch this Combat Carl get exploded.

Speaker 2 (29:16):
So Combat Carl called that because Hasbro refused to license
the the the g I Joe name.

Speaker 1 (29:24):
Yeah, and Mattel didn't want to let them use Barbie
because Barbie was going to be the love interest for
uh Woody.

Speaker 2 (29:32):
Well, they came around, at least Mattel did eventually.

Speaker 1 (29:35):
Yeah, And you know, I thought it was kind of
interesting because again, we don't, you know, Pixars a little
improven at this point. They don't exactly know what this
is going to be. And I actually kind of liked
their reason. They said that they didn't want Barbie to
have a defined personality. Yeah, they wanted, you know, kids
to be able to imagine Barbie's personality, you know, whatever
came happened in the kids imagination, and I kind of

(29:57):
respect that actually.

Speaker 2 (30:00):
Cut to twenty seven years later, like Margot Robbie playing
a defined personality for Barbie done, Yeah, but you know true.

Speaker 1 (30:08):
But also there are so many different Barbies in there,
all Barbie, you know, like the movie begins with her
waving to all these different personalities, but they're all like
Hi Barbie, Hi Barbie. Like that's kind of a clever way.

Speaker 2 (30:20):
To smart that up.

Speaker 1 (30:24):
But then did G I.

Speaker 2 (30:25):
Joe ever get featured.

Speaker 1 (30:28):
That?

Speaker 2 (30:28):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (30:29):
Yeah, But also in the earlier versions of this script,
when they thought maybe Barbie might be in it, she
was going to be a part of the climax where
instead of having the remote control car to get them
caught up to the moving truck, it was going to
be Barbie in her corvette.

Speaker 2 (30:46):
Yeah, which clever. Yeah, I mean you know what what's
interesting though, is I mean they could have just as
easily called it, you know, Candy or whatever, like just
a different name. Sure, yeah right right, and people would
get it. But I think it it, I mean obviously
worked out fine the way it did, but it's interesting
that they chose to just get rid of it entirely

(31:06):
as supposed to just changing the name. You know.

Speaker 1 (31:09):
Now this is kind of funny. I mean, this is
uh devious what he's doing here. I mean, he's he
didn't mean for Buzz to go out the window, but
he was going to like banish him to like another
world behind the bed, you know.

Speaker 2 (31:23):
Well, so I mean we should talk. I mean, it's
have been a lot more devious.

Speaker 1 (31:26):
Right specifically, Yeah, yeah, why don't why didn't you you
sent me the clip last night?

Speaker 2 (31:30):
So, so this this gets to sort of Jeffrey Katzenberg's involvement,
where he kept pushing them to make it a little
edgier and a little more adult, and part of that
involved making Woodi's jealousy of Buzz much more pronounced, and
thus making Woody much more sort of sinister you know, yeah,
or scheming you know, and and so yeah, instead of

(31:52):
it being an accident. He so, so remember this is
the version of the movie where where Buzz knows he's
a toy, and so they know Woody is gonna be sorry.
They know that Andy's gonna be coming up to the
room to choose between Woody and Buzz, and so Buzz
is like, well, Sheriff, may the best man win? Like
he it's just you know, a contest, and wood He's

(32:15):
like yeah sure, and then he shoves Buzz out the
window and the other toys are like, oh what he
what'd you do? You know, and and he's like shut.

Speaker 1 (32:23):
Up, yeah, like no exaggeration.

Speaker 2 (32:27):
It's so weird because you see, you see, it's it's
a rough and a bear in mind, this is Tom
Hanks doing the voice. Yeah, all the voices and and
but it's it's it's a you know, you see it
animated to the storyboards and he's like, Slinky, what are
you looking at? What are you stupid? You know?

Speaker 1 (32:43):
Yeah, He's like, use like whatever little brains you have
in your head, and you know, think about this and you're.

Speaker 2 (32:48):
Like, holy crap, here here's the thing. Okay. Do you
remember that SNL sketch where they got Owen Wilson reading
the lines for a new Cars and you remember that
so funny? Yes, right, And it's like light named McQueen
is like a like a sex predator or whatever. You know.
That is almost the toy story that we got.

Speaker 1 (33:08):
Yeah, and I mean like the boards that you see
are these low angle shots of Woody with like arched eyebrows,
just like you know, yelling at everybody in the room
like a tyrant.

Speaker 2 (33:18):
Well, the other toys are like, how could you do that?
And He's like, it's a toy toy world, you know,
in a word power, you know, right right right, So
it was literally Tom Hanks was like, I'm not sure,
I like what you guys are doing with the character.

Speaker 1 (33:39):
Yeah, So I mean going back a bit, and so
really just just to circle.

Speaker 2 (33:44):
So that day that they screened that, yeah, to the
Disney executive, it was called black Friday because Disney was like, no,
we're killing this, We're burn it with fire, like yeah, yeah,
And so that the movie almost died that day.

Speaker 1 (34:01):
Yeah, it got better, but go ahead, well no, I mean,
just yeah, going back a bit. I mean we have
to sort of begin with John Lassiter, right, who we
must note, you know, eventually had to step away from
things from Disney in twenty eighteen because of allegations of
sexual misconduct. I have to mention that. But in the
early eighties he saw the movie Tron and was like,

(34:23):
holy crap, like, look what computer animation can be. And
so he went and worked at Disney and he pitched
Brave Little Toaster as a CG animated film, and the
idea was rejected. Eventually it was made, but it was
rejected and he was let go from Disney and he
went and joined Pixar. And so Pixar was a computer

(34:47):
division of Lucasfilm that went all the way back to
the late seventies, and they were working on commercials and
they did, you know, special effects for movies like Star
Trek two, The Wrath of Khn and doing like these
like it's the terrorforming sequence right seeing like a yeah,
and then that Stained Glass Night in Young Sherlock Holmes,

(35:08):
which yeah, right, CG animated character in a movie. But
at some point, you know, George Lucas, he gets divorced
and he has to puning up a lot of money
and he's forced to sell off the Lucasfilm computer graphics
division and around that time it was called Pixar, and
Steve Jobs then became a majority shareholder around the mid eighties.

(35:31):
During this time, so Lassiter makes a short film called
Tin Toy. This is in nineteen eighty eight, and it,
like you mentioned earlier, where the original version of Toy
Story was going to be about this tin toy.

Speaker 2 (35:45):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (35:46):
Anyway, so he makes a short film. It wins the
Academy Award for Best Animated Short, a first for a
computer animated you know, short film, and Disney CEO Michael
Eisner and Jeffrey Katzenberg see this and are like, holy crap,
there's something to this, and they bring Lesster back into
Disney and so he they're like, make something for us,

(36:10):
and so he comes up with Toy Story, which well,
and we're saying, actually they tried to just get him
back like yes, under contract, and he he stayed with
Pixar out of his yes Pixar and Steve jobs. And
so then Disney goes to Pixar and is like, make
a movie for us exactly. Yes, that's important to note, yeah,

(36:32):
because then later they do get merged together. But anyway,
so they have the tin toy ventrilochist ventriloquist that's hard
for me to say version of the story, and it
keeps getting you know, revised and refined, and Katzenberg is like,
I want it to be more like a Buddy movie.
You know, these two wildly different characters who learned to

(36:54):
get along with one another, and he keeps giving. Well,
actually I thought this was interesting. So the Pixar guys,
which involves you know Lassiter, Andrew Stanton, you know, Pete doctor,
people who become legendary geez, they were like, we don't
know how to write a screenplay, and so they attended
a writing seminar by Robert McKee, who's pretty famous for

(37:17):
a book on screenwriting called story Story, and he's portrayed
by Brian Cox in the movie adaptation. You know, the
character that Nicholas came plays, attends a Robert McKee storytelling
conference or seminar, and they're making you know, their version
early version of Toy Story, and Katzenberg, like you said,

(37:39):
is like, no, no, it needs to be like edgier,
like funnier, like you know, they snipe at one another,
and so this is like what he needs to cut
a bitch right, right right? And and so what choice
do they have, you know what I mean? They want
to get their movie made. They're taking the notes, they're
taking the notes, and they're making this meaner and meaner
verse of the movie, which leads to them, you know,

(38:02):
they they got Tom Hanks on board by I think
they made a version of Woody doing lines from the
movie Turner and Hooch. So they used the audio from
Turner and Hooch and it's Woody doing them and Tom
Hanks was like, holy crap, there's something to this. So
that's how they got him on board. And yeah, So

(38:23):
then Tom Hanks, Oh, that is such a funny shot
a buzz with the yeah, putting on the seatbelt and
patting it. So yeah, they make this version having followed
all the notes from Katzenberg, and it's just this really
nasty movie where all the characters are just yelling at
each other and scared of each other. And like you said,
it became known as Black Friday because Disney was like,

(38:45):
this is unpleasant, you know, why would we make this?
And what's kind of a miracle is afterwards Katzenberg asked
a colleague why was that so bad? And the call
I've read different stories about who this colleague was, so
that's why I'm saying the colleague, but whoever this person was, said, well,

(39:06):
it's bad because it's not their movie anymore. Right, that's
not the movie they set out to make.

Speaker 2 (39:11):
That's right.

Speaker 1 (39:11):
And so to Katzenberg and whoever else's credit. They were like, okay,
you know, I think the Pixar guys were like, give
us a couple of weeks, let us rewrite this and
do the thing we want to do. They let them
do it. Can you imagine if they hadn't, like look
at it thirty years later, like this classic that we're
rewatching right now and a legendary studio with a legendary

(39:32):
run of films that just elevated you know, animated movies. Right,
if that moment hadn't happened, if they hadn't decided to
let them have a second chance. So they did. They
rewrote it, made the movie they wanted to make, and
here we are.

Speaker 2 (39:51):
And and all of the decisions right right, Like the
earlier version of the story when it was when it
was the tintoy and the Ventrilochus stummy, the pizza thing,
the pizza joint would have been pizza putt, and it
would have been a miniature golf thing, right. But then well, no,
we make him a spaceman, and so then we do

(40:11):
pizza plant like you know, like every piece leads to
the next piece.

Speaker 1 (40:17):
Exactly exactly, And then I should say, yeah, when they
started revising. Yes, then they brought in Joss Whedon at
some point, and he brought a lot of crucial things.

Speaker 2 (40:25):
Joss Sweden again good good ninety five because he also
script doctored water World.

Speaker 1 (40:31):
Yeah, water World and Speed the year before that. I mean, yeah,
he doesn't have his name on a lot of things
in that time, but he is a big part of
a lot.

Speaker 2 (40:43):
Does his name on that era? Yeah?

Speaker 1 (40:45):
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (40:45):
I mean arguably Buffy the Vampire Slayer doesn't happen if
not for the series. I mean, if not for Joss
Whedon being the top listed screenwriter on Toy Story right, right,
and then all the other stuff happened with with Joss Wheden. Unfortunately,
there's a lot of asterisks with the names of the
people involved in this movie. Unfortunately, that is unfortunate, you know.

Speaker 1 (41:10):
Yeah, but this whole concept, I mean, this is such
a funny but yeah, yeah, I mean it's having everything,
like you say, be motivated by everything else. You know,
it just makes everything feel just more delightful and connected
and sharper and wittier. So yeah, turning this pizza place

(41:31):
into a space themed joint to help feed into Buzz's delusion.

Speaker 2 (41:37):
By the way, I want to mention the whackam old thing,
but with aliens coming out of the guy's chest, that
is such a funny visual gag.

Speaker 1 (41:45):
Hilarious.

Speaker 2 (41:45):
Yeah, oh my god, you know, And that's one of
those things where as a kid you probably just glanced
right past it, but as an adult, I'm like, man,
that's pretty dark, right right. But yeah, I gotta say,
the most unbelievable part of this movie with the talking
toys is the fact that this guy does a ring
toss or the ring the game, you know, the thing,

(42:07):
and both times he gets the toy he wants right away. Right,
That's true, that's bullshit. That's how we know this is
a fantasy, the Claw game, not the ring game, the
claw you know.

Speaker 1 (42:19):
Yeah, but what an incredible set piece to take this
thing that we all know, this Claw machine game and
have it become this funny What does it mean in
a movie about sentient toys. It's like, well, these toys
are all these aliens and they look at the claw
as like sort of like a godlike, you know, thing
that determines their fates. That's hilarious. And that they all

(42:42):
look the same and they're all jumbled in together, so
they're this weird almost like hive mind kind of thing.
They all speak together and steal the same as things.
But then it's also this great trap for our heroes
because they're so small and their toys and you know,
how do they get out of this thing? And then
you got the scary kids. Sid comes in there and
he he gets them both.

Speaker 2 (43:03):
Man, every neighborhood had a Sid, right, so that one
sociopathic kid, and you're like, god, damn right.

Speaker 1 (43:14):
So it's kind of interesting too because then the aliens
sort of believe a certain reality. It isn't quite true too.
So does every toy need to have like a coming
of age moment where they realize that they are a
toy and not?

Speaker 2 (43:30):
Well? I think like Andy's toys are all well adjusted
m m. And so they were lucky enough to be
in a house where they're loved by their their child,
right right, Like all of Sid's toys got PTSD and
you know all the stuff.

Speaker 1 (43:49):
Yeah yeah. Oh, by the way, do you notice the
carpet and Sid's houses, the carpet from the shining.

Speaker 2 (43:54):
From the shining, Yeah yeah, and I love it.

Speaker 1 (43:59):
Yeah, there's like skin room that he has. You know,
these power tools and like an operating station. I love it. Yeah,
I had forgotten that this movie is actually rated G,
but I was like, oh, there's like some kind of
frightening things in here, and taking the doll and putting
her head in a vice, and.

Speaker 2 (44:20):
Yeah, it's pretty messed up.

Speaker 1 (44:21):
Yeah, and how I felt bad for his sister.

Speaker 2 (44:25):
You see the the the bumper sticker on the way
it says I love explosives.

Speaker 1 (44:30):
Yeah, it makes me think of Nelson Months's room where
he had that poster that said nuke the whales.

Speaker 2 (44:39):
He's he's part of that Nelson Months lineage.

Speaker 1 (44:42):
Yeah, yeah, but it's just it's great because it's another
child's bedroom. But this is so different than what buzz
and would he know exactly, you know, it's like a
hellish version of what they know. And I like the
sort of wood He is scared of the locals because
he doesn't understand them, but then they all kind of unite,

(45:04):
come together. This animation is so funny. I think when
he's like teeth chattering or whatever, Yep.

Speaker 2 (45:14):
So funny.

Speaker 1 (45:16):
Yeah, so cute. You know. Another thing, I just thinking too,
of all the incredible right decisions made by all the
creatives on this movie. So you got the brilliant storytelling
team and brilliant animators. But another thing that they chose
to do, and we've talked about this, is they never

(45:39):
wanted to do sweeping camera shots because you could do
that in a computer. You can make the camera move
in all these impossible ways, but they thought it would
take you out of the reality of it. They only
put the camera and move the camera in ways that
a real film camera would be utilized. That makes sense,

(46:00):
And I think that, yeah, I think that is really effective.

Speaker 2 (46:05):
Well. And and that's sort of interesting because what we saw,
you know, certainly in the in the two thousands, is
a shift towards live action movies, you know, having these
CGI sequences that were very obviously phony baloney, and that
drew attention to themselves. And this is something we've talked
about where, at least to me and I think I

(46:26):
speak great, it sort of takes you out of it, right,
unless it's motivated, like like you know, something David Fincher
does or whatever. But like you know, I think of
like the first Fast and Furious or this scene where
like we're going through the engine block or whatever, you know,
right right, uh, And and I think it's interesting that
here we've got a fully cgi movie and the and

(46:48):
the Pixar filmmakers are like, we want to we don't
want to do that. M h. And that'll make it
seem more realistic. Isn't that interesting? Yeah?

Speaker 1 (46:57):
I think I think that makes a lot of sense.
And I think certain filmmakers know that. I mean, Nolan's
spoken about that, and it's like, that's why those films
feel more impactful and all the stakes feel more you know,
heightened and present. I think, you know, because of instead
of everything feeling loose and we're just flying through this world.

(47:17):
Well then what is anything? You know, like it just
doesn't feel tethered to anything.

Speaker 2 (47:22):
Now, Tom Hanks from this first movie, he got fifty
grand that was his salary. Wow. I mean that's a pittance,
and he believed in this. That's right, you know, arguably
it got made because of him, you know, I mean
that this is we're talking peek Hanks.

Speaker 1 (47:40):
Yeah, I read something. I didn't verify this, but I mean,
if you think about it, how long these things take
to make. I mean this is like Philadelphia Forrest Gump. Yeah,
you know, yeah, this is him kind of exploding, that's right.

Speaker 2 (47:52):
Yeah, I mean, he had a hell of a run,
I would say throughout the nineties, but certainly at this moment,
you know, yeah, but fifty grand here, fifteen million for
the last, for twice very four. Wow. You know, at
this point it's like, what are you going to do?
What are you going to recast Woody? I know, I know,

(48:12):
although I don't know if you know this. For the
for the toys, like the real Woody toys, the talking
Woody dolls, they are not Tom Hanks's voice. They are
Jim Hanks's voice, right, his brother, yep, who sounds enough
like him that he's he's Disney's go to merchandise Woody.

Speaker 1 (48:35):
Yeah. And I think I've read that his brother does his.

Speaker 2 (48:40):
Adr Yeah makes sense.

Speaker 1 (48:42):
Yeah, they sound enough alike. And I think he was
his body double for some of Forrest Gump, some of
the running stuff. That's amazing, good gig.

Speaker 2 (48:51):
You know. One thing that really stuck out to me
yesterday while watching is we're talking about the texture this metal,
wrought iron metal is like I've seen I've held those
metal rods. Yeah, I'll feel it in my mind right
like along the stairwell. I'm like, no, I know that

(49:12):
I can I know what it feels like. You know,
they got it so perfectly. Yeah, I was also thinking,
like what a safety hazard that is Now I look
at it like, oh man, yeah, the slats are too wide.
There's like pointy stuff. I'm like, my god, I know.

Speaker 1 (49:30):
But I was thinking, how that's the other thing too,
Like all the environments get used in such interesting ways
and play into the action. You know, Woody getting his
little pull string caught on that iron right thing.

Speaker 2 (49:43):
And we talk about textures, like we see how they
hadn't quite figured out how to do fur, yeah realistically,
you know, and nowadays fur is just that's like you've
got entire algorithms that can crank out fur, you know.

Speaker 1 (49:57):
And it feels like as their movies went along the
things were figuring out, they sort of played into that
sort of stuff. Like with Bugs Life they had these
incredible environments and then yeah, Monster z Inc. They had
the fur so they could have Sully and his really fluffy,
fun kind of look, and then Wally. You know, they
wanted it to resemble the eighties science fiction movies, seventies

(50:20):
eighties movies that they loved, and so they're like, well,
it can't just be you know this like deep focused
kind of frame thing like we actually want to play
with what like this should look like it was shot
with anamorphic lenses. You know, certain things is going to
be out of focus. We're going to rack focus. This
is going to look filmic and all those things. They
just it's like a snowball going down a hill. You know.

(50:41):
It's all these like superpowers they've learned how to do
and acquired along the way, and all their movies just
look more and more amazing as they go along.

Speaker 2 (50:50):
So this right here, that shot, I.

Speaker 1 (50:52):
Mean, him just standing so small.

Speaker 2 (50:54):
Oh, it's so great. Yeah, his existential crisis.

Speaker 1 (50:59):
Ye seeing them made in Taiwan on his.

Speaker 2 (51:03):
I mean you feel so bad for him, you know,
it's great. So this is this is where we get
that great Randy Newman song that you were talking.

Speaker 1 (51:12):
About, such a great sort of like hope and yearning
and defeat. Like it's so great that the bird out
the window flying by and he tries and fails so sad.

(51:34):
I mean that's kind of it became sort of a joke,
but it was sort of you know, the pix RMO
was looked at as like what if toys, but feelings
you know, what if cars but feelings but if you know,
like inamid objects and feelings. But it's like yeah maybe,
but like no one else does it better.

Speaker 2 (51:52):
Well that's you know, when you when you look at
like the Shrek model of of CG animation, which was
really heavily like pop culture reference, pop culture reference part noise,
you know, and and I know people those movies have
their fans. Just to be clear, I'm not it's this
is not a critique of them as a thing, but
but I am pointing out how it shows how Pixar

(52:15):
kind of staked out its own lane.

Speaker 1 (52:18):
Yeah, like they weren't worried about anything being too sad.
That's right, you know, see up right, Yeah, but they
probably couldn't have made up first. They earned, you know,
the cachet to be able to like, no, this, we're
gonna make a family movie in the opening will be devastating, Okay, yep,

(52:39):
And everybody goes, you know, looks at it and goes,
that's incredible. How do they get to do that? You know,
and they earned it and they do it and they
wheeled it. Well. I was so happy for this. I
felt so bad for Sid's sister, like he just takes
her toys and ruins them. And then she has this
one moment alone and gets Buzz and like have a

(53:00):
tea party with him. I just I want her to
be able to enjoy her toys too.

Speaker 2 (53:06):
He's sent a jerk. This this bit when when Woody
gets to Buzz and Buzz is just like he's just
completely out of it. Oh my god, I was laughing
out loud.

Speaker 1 (53:18):
He makes some joke about Marie Antoinette. Yeah, the toys
got their heads off. I was like, I don't remember that.

Speaker 2 (53:26):
That's funny. I didn't remember anither.

Speaker 1 (53:30):
Oh there was another funny sort of like adult joke
where I think when Buzz is being introduced to everybody
in Rex, he's like, I'm from Mittel. Well not exactly,
I'm made by someone else. But there was like this
big corporate buyout leverage, buyout leverage by out. Yeah, so funny.

Speaker 2 (53:48):
Tim Allen's performance in this moment is so funny. Yeah,
and that's actually I mean, we've been seeing a lot
of praises for Tom Hanks, Tim Allen.

Speaker 1 (53:57):
He's great.

Speaker 2 (53:58):
Look, you know, Chris Evans, I'm sure he's a lovely fellow.
But sorry, friend, you're no Buzz Lightyear. Yeah, yeah, there's
only one Buzz light Year, you know.

Speaker 1 (54:10):
Yeah, you know, I admire that swing for that light
Year movie. I mean that was a swing, it was,
and it didn't It just didn't connect. It didn't work,
and it's like, well, well, rather try something than you.

Speaker 2 (54:24):
Know, but see, I don't even consider that a try.
I consider that sort of like if it was a
completely original thing, it would have done just fine. No,
you're right.

Speaker 1 (54:33):
Maybe there's a little like cynicism there, right, how can
we got to continue to capitalize on these two story characters,
but we can't make Toy Story five at this moment,
So let's just do a buzz movie but not what
where's Woody? Well well, well then it's still buzz, but
it's not buzz, but it's.

Speaker 2 (54:48):
Yeah, right, you call it, you know, warp speed, and
it's just something different, you know, yeah, similar, bit different,
and it would have been probably better received.

Speaker 1 (54:57):
Yeah, no, you're right, but I still I as parts
of it. I was like, I I admired some of this,
but it just didn't come together.

Speaker 2 (55:06):
Well, I think the essential problem is that we don't
we don't want the quote unquote real buzz light here
this is the real buzz light Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
Tim Allen is the real buzz Lightyear.

Speaker 1 (55:19):
That's a that's a great point.

Speaker 2 (55:23):
Oh remember that? Oh this is the movie that the
toy that Andy bought his base or whatever the hell
remember that?

Speaker 1 (55:29):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (55:30):
Yeah, Like, okay, if you got to explain, you have
to present us with with an equation before we start watching,
you know. Yeah, Now this part, oh my god, so funny,
potato Head being kind of an asked being, being very
don Riggles, I gotta say, yeah.

Speaker 1 (55:49):
And that's that's what I love about this is these
movies for kids. Movies aren't afraid to go there. They're
not afraid to be sad, and they're not afraid to
have their characters, you know, right, really angry at one another.
And it's like everything is so much more rich for
having experienced those lows once we return to the highs,
you know, yeah, I think sometimes kids stuff is afraid

(56:12):
to do that. Yeah, this is so funny.

Speaker 2 (56:16):
The thing with Buzz's hand.

Speaker 1 (56:17):
Yeah, and he accidentally shows he's just holding his like,
give me five man, So Tom Hanks, Oh my gosh,

(56:39):
this animation is so good too. You know, that was
something I noticed also, and I wanted to bring up
is sometimes animation has this flowy, like ethereal floating, overly
articulated thing, and it works for certain stories. But what

(57:01):
I really love about Pixar and Toy story right out
of the gate is there's this really funny snappiness to it,
you know, like the perfect sort of they turn and
spin really fast, you know, like family guy does that
really well, right Like when when Peter Griffin like falls,

(57:21):
he doesn't just kind of to the ground, he just
like falls right to the ground, and it's it's really funny.
And I feel like Pixar had that nailed right out
of the gate, the really funny ways to make their
characters move, you know, for the most impactful comedy, like

(57:42):
the weird sort of gangliness of Woody, you know, just
because of the way that he's made this is so sweet,
these poor captives, these toys and oh they're not cannibals
and they are kind of creepy, you know.

Speaker 2 (58:02):
Oh absolutely.

Speaker 1 (58:10):
Oh. You know what we haven't mentioned, by the way,
is John Ratzenberger.

Speaker 2 (58:13):
Yep, yep. I was just gonna mention him.

Speaker 1 (58:14):
Yeah, he went on to have a voice I think
in every Pixar movie up until.

Speaker 2 (58:19):
Soul, Okay, and now he's retired.

Speaker 1 (58:22):
I think he missed a couple after that, and then
he came back for Inside Out too, and I don't know, Okay,
it's for that, but yeah, he's like their good luck charm.

Speaker 2 (58:29):
For a long time, I was thinking just in terms
of Pixar, I mean, we don't even need to look
at their whole history, but you just look at their
first ten years roughly. You know, you got Toy Story, Bugs, Life,
Toy Story, Two Monsters, inc. Finding Nemo, the Incredibles Cars. Yeah,
and it's just I mean it's like hit her after
hit her and you realize how you know, for most

(58:53):
of the life of this studio it was it was
sort of this there's a presumption of quality, implicit presumption.
Oh it's you know, and and you know, I mean
I I don't think Pixar is held to the same
in the same esteem. Now, I would say unfortunately, you know,
I think I think they're still putting out quality movies.

(59:13):
But I mean it's just it gets to something we
talk about all the time where I think I think
Disney just started taking for granted, oh, you know, just
put more of the stuff out there. And and people
will show up and it's like, you know, you if
something is valuable, you have to cherish it. You have
to you have to really you have to continue to

(59:35):
to to make people believe that there is something special
under this label, you know, absolutely.

Speaker 1 (59:43):
And also you know we've been talking about this lately.
Maybe just says we get older, but like nothing lasts forever,
you know, And they had a legendary run, and I
believe they continue to put out good things. I know
toy story for a lot of people like this isn't necessary,
and I don't disagree, but it was really well done,

(01:00:04):
you know what I mean. But you can't be king
of the Mountain forever, you know what I mean, Like
eventually some things just aren't gonna be as strong as others.
And then immediately it's like, you know, some people like,
oh they lost it. It's like, well, no, it's just
you can't make a plus material every single time for
one hundred years. You're gonna have some ups, you're gonna

(01:00:26):
have some downs, You're gonna have some things to connect
some things that don't. But I do still feel like
they're leader of the pack in a lot of ways.

Speaker 2 (01:00:32):
Yeah, I mean, and That's the unfortunate thing, is it.
It just it it doesn't have.

Speaker 1 (01:00:38):
That that.

Speaker 2 (01:00:41):
You know, that that that magic pixie dust on it
the way it used to, you know, in terms of
public perception, I mean, right, you know, and I think
part of this, honestly, I mean this. It feels like
Disney managed to shoot itself in the knees with several
of its brands during the the you know, the launch
of Disney, right right, Marvel, Star Wars, Pixar all three. Man,

(01:01:04):
they took it on the chin, right right, right, You
have to increase the scarcity in order to maintain the perceived.

Speaker 1 (01:01:13):
Value, right right.

Speaker 2 (01:01:18):
I mean there, as we record this, there is a
Toy Story four in in in the offing, it's five?
Did I say four? Or five? Yes?

Speaker 1 (01:01:27):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (01:01:27):
When when is that coming?

Speaker 1 (01:01:29):
I want to say this coming year. I feel like
I just saw a poster for it, so I'd have
to imagine it's in twenty twenty six.

Speaker 2 (01:01:35):
See. Now, Now this is interesting because Toy Story three,
I think most people agree, was a perfect ending, right.

Speaker 1 (01:01:43):
Yeah, which this comes up a lot, but in trilogies
sometimes the third films tend to be the weakest, yep, right,
But they absolutely nailed an ending in the third one.

Speaker 2 (01:01:54):
Yeah, and yeah, and so when they announced a fourth one,
there was a lot of like, oh god, why ruin that?

Speaker 1 (01:02:00):
Right?

Speaker 2 (01:02:01):
And and I don't I don't disagree with that, but
and and it completely separate from your feelings about Toy
Story four. I agree with you. I personally I did
enjoy it, but I'm also like, okay, well, we're just
doing We're doing this, so there's no point being precious
about it anymore. Hm, because to me, kind of going
back to what you're saying, it's like, you still there's

(01:02:21):
still a perfect three movies in there, and it doesn't
matter how much more they go past that, you've still
got those three. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:02:31):
Yeah, there's a perfect trilogy. Yeah, just as Quentin Tarantino,
is that what he says? Yeah, well, he said he
won't watch four because three is so perfect.

Speaker 2 (01:02:40):
Yeah, man, I'm not watching four. Okay, man.

Speaker 1 (01:02:43):
Probably perfectly plain why'd you put it in the air? Okay?
You know, like all right, yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:02:57):
But that man's got opinions.

Speaker 1 (01:02:59):
We know that he certainly does. But this is so
so sweet. Yeah, you know, there it really the patients
to not have them try to get along so quickly,
but to put them through these things and really earn
this bond, right, you know, they really they both have

(01:03:19):
to go through something and then they're bonded for the
rest of the rest of time.

Speaker 2 (01:03:24):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.

Speaker 1 (01:03:27):
By the way, so the when I was watching Sid
strap the rocket to buzzes back, I remember being a
kid and fireworks were a big thing, right, our fireworks
a big thing for your kids. I wish to point
that out. The Benford tools, Oh I didn't see that,
see on the tool uh tool chest?

Speaker 2 (01:03:45):
Oh yeah, how did I not notice that?

Speaker 1 (01:03:47):
Yeah? Which Benford was the tool brand on Tim Allen
show at the time, Home Improvement.

Speaker 2 (01:03:52):
Which was a Disney produced show.

Speaker 1 (01:03:54):
Yeah, on ABC.

Speaker 2 (01:03:56):
So that show. Tim Allen at this moment was not
a movie star. I think the Santa Claus had come.

Speaker 1 (01:04:01):
Out, right, yeah, that might have been ninety four, I think.

Speaker 2 (01:04:03):
Okay, so, but he was very much a Disney star.

Speaker 1 (01:04:06):
Yeah, I mean, yeah, it's funny because I don't feel
like I see Home Improvement in reruns, but at the
time it was an enormous hit.

Speaker 2 (01:04:13):
It was a huge hit. Like that's very weird to
me because there is something like the zeitgeis to just
sort of wipe that movie that series away.

Speaker 1 (01:04:21):
Isn't that funny?

Speaker 2 (01:04:21):
Yeah, But I mean it was massive in the nineties. Yeah, yeah,
and I think it still holds up from what I've seen.

Speaker 1 (01:04:28):
You know, I would imagine I haven't seen it since
the nineties, but I remember liking it. Yeah Wilson, Oh no,
I've killed Wilson jail for me. That's the Simpsons, not
Home Improvement. But yeah, are your kids into like fireworks?

Speaker 2 (01:04:48):
And thankfully no?

Speaker 1 (01:04:50):
Okay, I wonder if that's even like a thing or
maybe phones. We would enjoyed lighting things on fire and
blowing stuff up because what else did we have. But like,
now they've got phones and they can blow up plant.

Speaker 2 (01:05:01):
Yeah, so this might be one instance where phones have
done as a favor.

Speaker 1 (01:05:05):
Yeah, but I remember there was a kid at the time.
He seemed like a man to me, but I was
probably like nineteen or something, and I remember he crossed
state lines and bought all these fireworks and he'd sell
them to all the neighborhood kids, and so I was
like always buying bottle rockets and firecrackers from it. That
was really exciting.

Speaker 2 (01:05:23):
Yeah, we like on July fourth, you know, we we
buy little things for them to yeah, on the driveway,
but it's not a recurring issue of like, hey, let's
blow up our toys.

Speaker 1 (01:05:38):
You know. Well, actually that's another question then I have
for you. Did you mess with your toys? I mean
not in some sort of sadistic way, but did you like,
I don't know, like blow them up with firecrackers?

Speaker 2 (01:05:51):
And so so you know, as I mentioned, I spent
a big chunk of my childhood in Saudi Arabia, right,
so quite the opposite, right, because it was not easy
to replace my toys, so I cherished them. I took
care of them. I was like, I was like Andy man,
I was like, you know really you know however, I
remember very distinctly my brother. My brother was not like Sid.

(01:06:13):
But what he was trying to do was he like,
we had two G I. Joe's, And he's like, what
if you know, what if you know Beachhead had monkey
Wrench's jeans or something like that, and so he like
unscrewed the bottom to like attach one one the lower
torso to the other, you know, but he like lost
interest halfway through. So I had like two G I.

(01:06:36):
Joe's without without legs. Oh yeah, yeah, so not exactly said,
but sid adjacent messed.

Speaker 1 (01:06:42):
With them a little bit.

Speaker 2 (01:06:43):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I remember my brother. I've told this story.
I don't know if I've told it too, but we
had Best Spin Luke from the original from the Empres
Strikes Back toy line, and my brother at that time
was like real into G I Joe articulation. He was like, oh,
you know, I want to try to make his legs
bend like G I Joe's. So his legs broke off,

(01:07:07):
so we had Best be In Luke with like scotch
tape wrapped around his waist to keep his legs on.

Speaker 1 (01:07:14):
You know, that's so funny.

Speaker 2 (01:07:16):
Yeah. I think I've always loved Best Been Luke, maybe
partly because of that, because that was like the figure
that Yeah ruined, you know.

Speaker 1 (01:07:22):
Yeah. I love all the ways that these uh what
you call like mutated characters or what you know, like
the way they've been reconfigured. But they all have this
unique function.

Speaker 2 (01:07:35):
Now right right they wouldn't have had before.

Speaker 1 (01:07:38):
Yeah, like the utility the screenwriting of like let's give
all these toys a specific function to help with this plan.
It's just so satisfying. By the way, a minute ago.
We saw that Andy's moving and over the course of
this film he has lost both Woody and Buzz, and
I felt so bad for him, like, you know, and

(01:08:00):
I like that the mom never gets mad, like well,
if you watch, you know, take care of your tap.

Speaker 2 (01:08:04):
If Andy was my kid, I would be losing my
ship and constantly because I keep track of it. Ten god,
I mean, you're ping another one.

Speaker 1 (01:08:14):
Well, I don't want him to get a complex because
none of this is his fault and he loves them,
you know, So I thought that was a They handed
handled that deftly and well.

Speaker 2 (01:08:23):
By the way Laurie metcalf as Andy's mom. Yeah, I was.
I forgot she's a voice and I was watching it
with Amina and I was like, is that is.

Speaker 1 (01:08:32):
That Jackie you know from Rosan? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (01:08:35):
Yeah, And I'm man, what a perfect voice for I know,
she's got like total mom voice, you know.

Speaker 1 (01:08:41):
Yeah, yeah, And I like, well, I was gonna say
earlier we do see more adult or human faces, I
should say, but earlier on, when there's all the kids
at the birthday party, you see a bunch of like
legs and feet just running around. Reminded me of e
t you know, the movie et is supposed to be

(01:09:02):
from the perspective of a child, so most of the
adults we don't see from the waist up right. Very
conscious decision, and I'm sure in this it just happens
to feel like a conscious decision, but I'm sure a
lot of it was. You know, the top halfs of
these character designs don't look so great, so let's just
hold back on them if we can. But it winds
up working for the story. It's from the toys perspective

(01:09:23):
on the ground, and that's how humans look to them. Yeah,
this is also great, you know, plotting right where it's
like the way that this kid tortures these toys, and
so it's like, Okay, I'm gonna blow up Buzz and
then we'll have a barbecue and we'll roast Woody. And
so then he's like, puts a match in his gun

(01:09:44):
holster and that match will come in handy later. I mean,
it ultimately doesn't, but like I'd forgotten about that, and
then when I was like, how are they going to
light the rocket? I can't remember, And when he has
the match in his gun holster, I was like, of
course I didn't even it didn't call attention to it itself.
It's just just smart.

Speaker 2 (01:10:03):
Yeah. The the other interesting thing, you know, while we
have this moment where the toys sort of reveal themselves
to Sid and it's horrifying, and his screams, his screams
are up there with Daniel Stearn's branch of scream. But
it's like that too, right, like the internal rules of
of how like, so the toys can't speak, but their

(01:10:26):
rules are that when kids are around, they don't, you know,
they had to establish all that, you know, and they
could have done it like you know, they the kids
don't perceive them as speaking, you know, like they could
have done like Stewie in Family Guy or something right right, where.

Speaker 1 (01:10:47):
Like kids can hear them, but maybe at a certain
age they age out of it and don't yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:10:51):
Or something, you know. But but the fact that the
you know, they establish those rules and then that pays
off in this scene here, this is so funny with
the the little doll that he starts screaming at. Yeah, funny,
that's what happens.

Speaker 1 (01:11:07):
That's what happens. But yeah, what he even in his
plan is like we're gonna have to break some rules.

Speaker 2 (01:11:12):
Okay, Yeah, that's exactly right.

Speaker 1 (01:11:16):
And then hopefully these toys will be treated a little better.

Speaker 2 (01:11:20):
So have you seen those online theories where people are like,
what happened to Andy's dad?

Speaker 1 (01:11:25):
Actually, I was going to bring that up, No, but
I had read about why he doesn't have a dad.

Speaker 2 (01:11:32):
So what's is there like an official reason?

Speaker 1 (01:11:34):
Well, I I wish I had dug in this a
little bit more, but I remember reading at some point
it was like just humans were so difficult. They were
like screw it, you know, like, let's.

Speaker 2 (01:11:43):
Just just mom and.

Speaker 1 (01:11:45):
That's humans the better.

Speaker 2 (01:11:46):
Yeah, there's stories that rangelm will they're divorced or he died,
and like people have done like all this like Columbo
style detective work to find clues that explained where Andy
his dad.

Speaker 1 (01:12:00):
Is, you know, even if it was like a real
world decision just with the technology at the time. I
just love that they don't explain it, like whoever you are,
you can apply whatever you like to it, and and
glamant Andy's experience, you know.

Speaker 2 (01:12:16):
Yeah, just so I should.

Speaker 1 (01:12:21):
I love this set piece. This is so good.

Speaker 2 (01:12:23):
That's great.

Speaker 1 (01:12:23):
Well, I love how Woody runs, Yes, that gangly.

Speaker 2 (01:12:28):
Yeah, so my oldest son when he was little we're
talking like four. He had a woody doll that he
that just like this, and and he loved that, and
he would play with it whatever, and he would toss
it up in the air. This is this is in
my in my place just before the one I'm living
in right now, you remember, right where I lived there
for ten years, and and he would just throw it
up in the air and throw it up in the air,

(01:12:49):
and I'd be like, hey, stop that because because it's
gonna get ruined. It's what he throws it up, and
it ends up in my in my dining room, you know,
there was a chandelier about the any table, and it's
just and it got stuck on the chandelier. And so
here's here's woody kind of like draped over this chandelier.
And I'm like, well, he's stuck now, and He's liked,

(01:13:11):
get him down. I'm like, I'm not getting him down.
That's his home now. He lives there. And he was
upset for a little while, and then he just kind
of forgot about it and he moved on. So a
couple of weeks go by and and his eyes happened
to show again. He's like four years old. His eyes
happened to go up and he sees the woody again
and he's reminded, oh, my woody's up there. Can you
get that? I said, no, I told you. You threw
him up there. That's where he stays, now, Okay. So

(01:13:33):
then the next morning I come down and and he's
already awake, and he's he is very proudly holding his
woody in his hand, holding the toy woody.

Speaker 1 (01:13:43):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:13:43):
Yeah, I was like holding the woody doll and he's
a very look I got it. Okay. Here's I'm standing there.
I'm looking at him. He's like two feet tall, and
I'm looking up at the chandelier, which is fine, there's
nothing wrong with chandelier. But I'm looking at him with
the chandelier bound at him up at the chandelier, and
I'm just like, I don't know what you did. Don't

(01:14:07):
do it again. I love that. I love it.

Speaker 1 (01:14:11):
Embrace the mystery.

Speaker 2 (01:14:15):
To this day, I have no idea.

Speaker 1 (01:14:17):
That is hilarious. I love that. That's really funny. Well,
I'm glad he got him back.

Speaker 2 (01:14:25):
Yeah, yeah, I think we still have it somewhere. This.

Speaker 1 (01:14:30):
I was like, I'd be so pissed if like I
got in a car accident and had to deal with
insurance for a year because of this toy dog. Good
way to get rid of the dog though.

Speaker 2 (01:14:41):
But this is this bit with where where they see
him shove our sea up the thing.

Speaker 1 (01:14:46):
Yes he did it, he's doing it again.

Speaker 2 (01:14:50):
But I mean that's.

Speaker 1 (01:14:51):
Why this script was rightfully nominated for for you know,
the best screenplay. I mean it's just so well constructed,
you know, like just their feelings and they're continuing to
misunderstand him, and this set piece, you know, like the
phrase you always use, like it uses every part of
the buffalo, you know what I mean. It's just like

(01:15:11):
we got the rockets tracked to the back, We've got
a toy that happens to be a remote control car.
We've got the people who are not quite on his
side yet and so they're not working with him just
yet in this moment, and like there's just it's what
our favorite set pieces do, you know. We point to
Spielberg a lot, And when I use the example, I
always think of the tank in Last Crusade, where it's
like we spend like ten fifteen minutes on this thing.

(01:15:35):
It's just a tank, but we find all these incredible
ways to use every part of the tank to have
all these amazing organic, exciting moments action, you know, and
I feel like this feels like that to me. Also, yeah, no, absolutely,
I mean even just you know this. You know, you

(01:15:55):
got a dog with a spring that can stretch out,
you know, and like a moving van has like a
little lift on the back that they could possibly Like
it's just the imagination and thinking like what is everything
we have available to us, and then all the crazy
problems you can have. These are toys. They run on batteries.
The batteries get low, right, It's amazing, It's so so good,

(01:16:17):
and it just makes Yeah, we said like they raise
the bar.

Speaker 2 (01:16:23):
You know, you feel bad for Slinky.

Speaker 1 (01:16:26):
I know his he has always been so loyal to Woody,
and I've just forgotten about that. Their their their relationship,
I guess, because then eventually you get his horse.

Speaker 2 (01:16:35):
So yeah, oh that's right bullseye.

Speaker 1 (01:16:37):
Right.

Speaker 2 (01:16:38):
Well, I think we needed more scenes of Woody being like,
come on, slinking a stupid idiot, God damn moron.

Speaker 1 (01:16:45):
Yeah, I for one, you know, like the Donner cut
a Superman two, Like I want to see the Black
Friday cut story one sociopath woody. Yeah, and then when
he does end up saving the day and like gets back,
like he like admonishes them and they have to like
live in the shadows and he runs like a you know,

(01:17:07):
he's like back in charge of running Andy's room. But
this too, like we learned earlier, like when sun goes
through like a glass or a magnifying glass or whatever,
like it creates fire, so we set it up now
it pays off.

Speaker 2 (01:17:31):
Rockets explode. I'm just glad. That's great. I'm just glad
they're moving away from Sid because goddamn screw that kid.

Speaker 1 (01:17:46):
Yeah, yeah, I hope he never bothered Andy. Too bad
they couldn't take those other toys with.

Speaker 2 (01:17:54):
Him, that's true, like the spider with the baby head
and stuff.

Speaker 1 (01:18:01):
Yeah, but I love this too because I was sort
of expecting. And that's the other thing too. They keep
employing so many creative funny moments with potato head yea
betting all his pieces knocked off. And then when they
were looking at the window earlier, and he takes his
eyes off and holds them up so he can see higher.

Speaker 2 (01:18:17):
Yeah, that was funny. I got at the end, He's
like I got a shave and he just takes a
mustead of.

Speaker 1 (01:18:22):
Right, right, but yeah, it would be enough. You think, okay,
they got the rocket.

Speaker 2 (01:18:27):
Yeah, real quick, right here, look at this where Buzz
is like, this isn't flying, this is falling with style,
right origin the original line was like, well technically it's
gliding or something like that. Oh really yeah yeah, and
they're like no, no, wait a minute, Oh that's funny.

Speaker 1 (01:18:41):
Well, actually you're as about what I was just about
to talk about, Like it could be enough for them
to just rocket. They got a rocket, they solved the problem,
they got a match. They fly into the truck. But
it's like, there's more we can get out of this. Well,
it's it's a buzz earlier.

Speaker 2 (01:18:56):
It's buzz not just accepting who he is but embracing it.

Speaker 1 (01:18:59):
Yes, exactly exactly. The rocket isn't enough. He needs to
fall with style and embrace it.

Speaker 2 (01:19:05):
And land in Andy's car, because yes, that's what's important.

Speaker 1 (01:19:11):
Need to see them reunited, exactly.

Speaker 2 (01:19:13):
And originally it would have just ended here and we
would hear the sound of a puppy, And this is
actually a good note from Katzenberg. He's like, no, no, no,
we got to end on buzz and woody.

Speaker 1 (01:19:26):
Oh interesting.

Speaker 2 (01:19:27):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:19:28):
I also read that the puppy they had tested the
film and it did okay, okay, and they're like, how
can we improve this? And Michael Eisner came up with
the idea of like, well, what would worry the toys again?
You know, what would raise the stakes for them? And
it's a puppy. Yeah, it's cute, it's funny.

Speaker 2 (01:19:50):
Well, that's the nice thing is that we don't need
Toy Story two, three or four for this movie, not
to you know, it's a perfect one and done without those,
you know.

Speaker 1 (01:20:01):
I don't remember if the troll doll it comes back
in the others.

Speaker 2 (01:20:06):
I mean I don't, I don't remember.

Speaker 1 (01:20:08):
Did you ever have troll doll? That was like such
a funny thing. I don't even remember what they're like.

Speaker 2 (01:20:12):
I definitely did was of our day, Yeah it was.
I definitely I was too old for that, but it
was a weird fad that that blew up in the
in the early to mid nineties.

Speaker 1 (01:20:20):
Yeah, yeah, oh I had a troll doll. I don't
know why. It just sat on my shelf, but it
amused me.

Speaker 2 (01:20:27):
Well, remember they were doing like Teenageman, Ninja turtle style
troll figures and stuff. Do you remember that kind of Yeah, yeah,
there was a lot of that.

Speaker 1 (01:20:34):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:20:35):
See, like this this bit here where they're like, oh,
you know when they we get like buzz and Woody's
reaction shot to the dog, that's a perfect button for
the movie.

Speaker 1 (01:20:46):
Totally, you know, totally, And it's not repetitive. It's not
like just another toy, like, oh, we're gonna have to
compete with this thing. It's like, well, right, it's a
different sort of thing.

Speaker 2 (01:20:56):
I also love, by the way that the arc that
these movies give Andy is you know, because by the
end of part three, you're like, you know, here's he
he was. He's a well adjusted adult. Yeah, you know,
and I kind of I kind of like that we
go on the journey with him, and you know, I
mean if for people who watch these movies as they
came out, they literally grew up with Andy m hm.

Speaker 1 (01:21:18):
You know. Yeah. And also, you know, I was speaking
of them not being afraid to sort of lean into
the darkness and the peril and the whatever. I think
that you know, the moment with them facing down the
incinerator in three yep of any movie I've seen for
adults or kids is one of the most perilous things
I've ever witnessed in a movie. And like I remember
seeing that in the theater and like being like, I

(01:21:40):
can't believe I'm watching this, Like this truly is like
one of the scariest situations I can imagine for these characters.
And I felt, you know, like I just it was
amazed that Pixar was willing to go there in a
you know, quote unquote family film. But earned it they
get to do that, Yeah, you know, they got to
push it that far, and like to your point, I

(01:22:02):
mean at that point, a lot of the younger kids
who grew up with one were a little bit older
for three, and you know, so you raise the stakes
in more mature ways and more scary ways, and I
it's a moment I will never forget from a movie theater.

Speaker 2 (01:22:16):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (01:22:17):
Yeah, So I love this series. I love this series.

Speaker 2 (01:22:22):
Well that's kind of that's that's my thought, you know,
just going back to what we were saying before about
how you really do have this perfect trilogy and did
you need to go back. No, you didn't. But honestly,
I think that Tim Allen and Tom Hanks, they don't
it's not like they need to come back and do
these you know. Yeah, and so I always I'm like, look,
if they're doing it, I want to I want to

(01:22:44):
visit these characters again. Yeah. You know, if Disney ever
moves past Tom Hanks and Tim Allen, I might reconsider that,
you know.

Speaker 1 (01:22:52):
Yeah, that's kind of hard to imagine, you know.

Speaker 2 (01:22:54):
Yeah, but but if they feel that there's you know,
I think what we said before is like, how do
you reunite Buzz and Woody now based on where the
last one left it?

Speaker 1 (01:23:05):
Yeah? I know that.

Speaker 2 (01:23:06):
No, you know that that's gonna be challenging, because I
really I did. I got emotional at the ending of
the fourth one. Me too, me too, So that that's
that's gonna be kind of interesting. It's why I was
watching this with and I yesterday and she's like, she's like,
is there a Toy Story four? And I'm like, yeah,
that was your first movie man, And she has really

(01:23:27):
she has no memory of having seen that movie.

Speaker 1 (01:23:28):
So how old was she?

Speaker 2 (01:23:30):
Oh gosh, like almost three, Yeah, so she was little,
you know, she didn't remember. But like it is funny
to me, like she she's gonna, you know, she she's
going to go through these movies now without these extended gaps,
So it's just gonna be a whole different thing, you know.

Speaker 1 (01:23:48):
Right right, yeah, they all exist together?

Speaker 2 (01:23:51):
Yeah, because what is it? It's nine years right between
three and four?

Speaker 1 (01:23:58):
Oh man, I don't have in front of me, but I.

Speaker 2 (01:24:00):
Think it's twenty nineteen. I'm pretty sure. So yeah, nine years.
So then and this one, let's assume it comes out
next year, So that's seven years between four and five.

Speaker 1 (01:24:09):
Yeah, so you know, I.

Speaker 2 (01:24:11):
Mean it's big enough gaps that you've got people growing
up substantially in between them.

Speaker 1 (01:24:18):
Yeah, right, you know.

Speaker 2 (01:24:20):
But like, look, it's thirty plus years between movie one
and movie five, and so we're talking multiple generations now,
you know. Credible it really is, you know.

Speaker 1 (01:24:29):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (01:24:31):
But yeah, toy story man.

Speaker 1 (01:24:33):
Yeah, I have one more fact I want to share
because I'm I'm just so curious about the technical sides
of it. Well, I'm sorry, but the movie's over now, Brian,
So okay, well we have a Patriots It doesn't matter.

Speaker 2 (01:24:45):
Now. Do you remember that Bob's Burgers or mister Fisher?
I remember when Jeane runs the race and he's the
mascot race?

Speaker 1 (01:24:53):
Do you remember this?

Speaker 2 (01:24:55):
Yes? And he wins the race and then and and
he's like, on this, mister Fisher, I was like this
little boys dressed up like the oh yes, yes, He's like,
and my dad's restaurant, well, what's it called?

Speaker 1 (01:25:05):
Uh?

Speaker 2 (01:25:06):
And you just see Bob in the back Bob's Burgers,
Bob's Burgers. He's like, uh, he's like, oh I remember now,
and he's like, well it's too late now anyway. Sorry,
that was me. I was just doing that. Well.

Speaker 1 (01:25:21):
No, I was curious about how many like computers in
what sort of size, you know, storage they needed to
make this movie. So in nineteen ninety five, this movie
all come compiled together took up six hundred gigabytes okay
of hard drive storage, six hundred gigabytes, six hundred gigabytes,

(01:25:42):
and the average PC computer had two hundred and fifty
megabytes hard okay, So nineteen ninety five six hundred gigabytes.
Cut to The Good Dinosaur in twenty fifteen and that's
three hundred terabytes. So just thinking of you know, now,
all the blades of grass in their films have like,

(01:26:03):
you know, sunlight reflection, you know, and do on them,
and just it's just amazing it's amazing how far they've come.
But also, yes, this movie has less texture, detail and whatever,
But I don't think there's anything I would change about it.
There's not one thing you need to sort of, you know,
make a caveat for Like, they move incredibly. The acting

(01:26:26):
is amazing, the story is amazing, the direction is amazing.
You know, it still holds up thirty years later.

Speaker 2 (01:26:34):
Well, and just using the Good Dinosaur as a point
of comparison only because you brought it up, I mean,
arguably for me at least, that was the first Pixar
movie I saw her.

Speaker 1 (01:26:43):
I was like, well, kind of same, Yeah, I remember
it had some really emotional moments, right, but as a
whole I just didn't connect with it.

Speaker 2 (01:26:52):
It didn't really land right. And so so it's like,
what this one lacks in whatever technical you know, quality
or quantity that's available. I mean, it more than made
up for and just it just you know, feels mm
hmmm hmm. It's packed with feels. Yep, and that's what
matters at the end of the day.

Speaker 1 (01:27:11):
Yep.

Speaker 2 (01:27:13):
Well, there we go. Any any other any other snippets
to pull out your big bag o trivia?

Speaker 1 (01:27:19):
No, No, I just I really enjoyed revisiting this this
week and watching it with you right now.

Speaker 2 (01:27:27):
And what we mentioned. We mentioned John Rathsenberg, also Wallace
Seawan as the dinosaur as as Rex. I wanted to
give him props any any other voice actors we left out?

Speaker 1 (01:27:37):
I feel like, actually, yeah, that's a good I had
it pulled up. But Jim Varney, I know we mentioned,
which by the way, if any of you out there
are Earnest fans and may not be aware that before
his movies he was a spokesperson, so he did like
local commercials as the earnest character if you want, like

(01:27:57):
a little treat and something that cracks me up every
time I watch it. There's a commercial put Earnest commercial pancakes,
and there's this Hilar's commercial where he's making pancakes and
he's like scooping them with a spatula and throwing them up,
but they keep sticking to the ceiling and not coming
back down. And then eventually at the end of the
commercial he holds out a plate and they all PLoP, PLoP,

(01:28:18):
pop pop and make a pile, and he makes the
funniest face in the world as they're collecting. So that
throwing out because I doubt we're going to do any
Earnest commentaries.

Speaker 2 (01:28:30):
Oh really, no, we're not doing Earnest Scared stupid. Let's see.
I don't rule anything out anymore. What I've learned is
whenever I say we're not going to do it, that's
when people write in and say, oh, I want you
to do. That's how we got Congo. You know that's true.

Speaker 1 (01:28:41):
Just goes the camp.

Speaker 2 (01:28:42):
Yeah, I rule nothing, And I will say now that
we're you know, we're on the subject to Jim Varney
before before we got on, before we started recording, I
just mentioned, you know, when you look at Jim Varney's headshot,
he's saying now that there he was a good looking man.

Speaker 1 (01:28:57):
Right because normally we're used to him wearing that you know,
beige hat and making rubber faces.

Speaker 2 (01:29:03):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:29:03):
But yeah, when he's just kind of standing still there,
you're like, wow, he's like got like this square jaw
and like kind of handsome guy.

Speaker 2 (01:29:10):
Yeah, he's got a dark side. I could have changed him.

Speaker 1 (01:29:17):
Like cut to like a year from now, and we're like, well,
believe it or not, this is our fourth Earnest commentary.
You spoke, we listened.

Speaker 2 (01:29:26):
I remember watching Ernest Goes to Jail. This is like
the flight, our final flight from Saudi Arabia to the States,
when we move back to the States. That was the
movie they played on the plane, was Ernest Goes to Jail.
What a choice for the entire plane. Yep, I know,
isn't that funny? I mean though, that's how it used
to be, right, Well, this is the movie. So you're
either watching or you're sleeping. But those are your two choices,

(01:29:48):
you know.

Speaker 1 (01:29:49):
Yeah, I mean yeah, people today, or younger people at least,
don't know how good they have it. I mean, you
get your personal screen, you get hundreds of things to
choose from unedited, which is crazy to me sometimes. And
uh yeah, as a kid, it was these big television
monitors that were, you know, attached to the ceiling. Maybe
there's like five of them on the plane, and everybody

(01:30:09):
was just staring up at the ceiling watching this you know,
really small monitor like the on for ad October on
this little for teenage television. And so that's our commentary
track for toy And another thing, you know what I
remember back in my day.

Speaker 2 (01:30:30):
Well, we'll have to save those stories for our next
for our next commentary as we as we shake our
fists at the clouds. Hey, so, uh, everybody listening. If
if you have thoughts about Toy Story, let us. I mean,
what was your first experience watching? Was it in the theater?

Speaker 1 (01:30:45):
Was it?

Speaker 2 (01:30:46):
I should say I watched it on a home video.
I did not see in the theater, so a little
bit after after the hype, but that was my first
experience those big old Disney white clamshell cases. Remember, Yeah, yeah,
that's how I That's how I watched it. I borrowed
it from a friend and he got real pissed off
because I wasn't giving him back giving it back soon enough.
And his I guess it was his sister's tape and

(01:31:06):
she was like, oh want Toy Story back?

Speaker 1 (01:31:08):
Funny, I have what a funny memory.

Speaker 2 (01:31:11):
So I just kept it longer just because I was
like kind of an asshole. I was like, oops, I forgot.
And I did that for like three more weeks than
I needed to.

Speaker 1 (01:31:19):
Well, and karma caught up with you, because I still
to this day have one of those Batman clamshell animated
movies from you that you love.

Speaker 2 (01:31:28):
Really funny.

Speaker 1 (01:31:29):
I think every time I visit Oklahoma, where my parents
live now. I its it's in a closet and I
think I always pull it out and take a picture
and send it to you like a random.

Speaker 2 (01:31:37):
Well, you should just keep it as like a cool
like a time capsule, right, I mean that's just a
neat piece of kitch now, you know.

Speaker 1 (01:31:44):
Oh totally yeah yeah right?

Speaker 2 (01:31:46):
Uh well, Hey, you can let us know your thoughts
or let us know your thoughts on our thoughts. You
can email us at Movie Film Podcast at gmail dot com.
You can also hit like on our Facebook, Facebook dot
com slash Movie Film Podcast and message us there. As always,
please go to Apple Podcasts and lead a review, also
a lead a star rating on Spotify. If you're listening
to this on YouTube, please hit subscribe and hit like,

(01:32:08):
and also leap comments there because we do read those
on the show. We also have a Patreon page, Brank.

Speaker 1 (01:32:13):
That's right. If you head over to patreon dot com
slash Movie Film Podcast and hit subscribe for only five
dollars a month, you'll find every commentary we've ever done
and every episode moving forward absolutely ad free. Our free
feed will always be available, but this is our way
of providing what we believe is the most satisfying way
to enjoy the show. Plus, I was going to say

(01:32:35):
starting in the new year, but we've already kind of
started as of this week. We are going to be
dropping bonus content monthly, extra conversations, things that wouldn't fit
into the show. Our show has been bursting at the
scenes lately. You know, we try to keep it around
two hours, but I think our last one is almost
two and a half hours. We were like, we want

(01:32:56):
to continue having those conversations. There's so much stuff we
want to touch on, extra headlines, trailers, things like that
that just aren't fitting anymore because we already have such
a stuffed episode. So we intend to put those things
over on the Patreon to add even more value for
everyone who subscribes over there. Plus, that subscription goes a
long way and helping to support us and helping to
sustain producing the show. So if you're interested in ABELE,

(01:33:19):
please head over to patreon dot com, slash MOVIEFILM podcast
and subscribe. We'd be very grateful.

Speaker 2 (01:33:25):
And with that on behalf of my partner Brian Home.
My name is Zachie Assan and to everybody listening, I
hope you have a safe and relaxing holiday and a
merry Christmas would be so great.

Speaker 1 (01:33:37):
Yes, getting to do this podcast with you and being
able to share it with everyone is one of the
greatest gifts for me every year, and I feel very
thankful for it. So I want to wish everyone out
there a merry Christmas and a happy happy holidays.

All Episodes

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

Dateline NBC

Stuff You Should Know

The Bobby Bones Show

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Commentary Track: Toy Story

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

.css-r6mb8g{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:1;overflow:hidden;}Dateline NBC

Stuff You Should Know

The Bobby Bones Show

All Episodes

Commentary Track: Toy Story

Dateline NBC