Toy Story: How Toy Story Was Created

The Science of Creativity

Toy Story is one of the best loved movies of all time. Released in 1995, it was the first fully digitally animated feature film. The Toy Story creation story is filled with surprising twists and turns. This episode reveals the secrets behind the movie, the paths not taken, the characters and events that never made it into the final movie. The initial script treatment was almost nothing like the movie we know and love. This episode tells you the backstory of Toy Story. None of your favorite characters was in the original script! When we look at how Toy Story was created, from start to finish, we see the essence of creativity. We see an improvisational, exploratory process. This episode shows you how you can use these lessons to enhance your own personal creativity.

Chapters:

(0:00) Welcome

(00:25) Introduction

(00:50) Pixar’s Challenge

(3:54) The Plot

(9:10) The Surprises

(18:18) The Improvisational Path

(28:08) The Lessons

(29:25) Outro

References:

David Price, The Pixar Touch

Keith Sawyer, “The Zig Zag Path to Toy Story”

Music by license from Soundstripe.com:

"Uptown Lovers Instrumental" by AFTERNOONZ

"What's the Big Deal" by Ryan Saranich

Copyright (c) 2024 Keith Sawyer

I do not hold the copyright to the Toy Story movie audio excerpts in this episode nor the episode cover art. The rights to the cover art and the audio clips remain with the original rightsholders. They are reproduced here under fair use.