When the Pixar studio was casting for Toy Story, children were invited to bring one toy to the audition. Seven-year-old John Morris showed up with 20: a case of his beloved X-Men action figures. He got the part.
Playing Andy, a young boy whose toys include cowboy Woody and spaceman Buzz Lightyear, his was the first voice ever heard in a feature-length Pixar animation. Toy Story was released 30 years ago on Saturday, but to Morris the memory of its premiere is as fresh as ever.
“I still have goosebumps thinking about it because it started and then there’s Andy, and everyone turned to look at me and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, here we go,’” the 41-year-old voice actor says by phone from San Francisco. “I couldn’t believe what we were watching because it was groundbreaking. I grew up watching animation – Disney on VHS with my younger sibling – and it looked and felt new and different.”
Toy Story was one of the most influential films in modern cinema. Directed by John Lasseter and produced by Pixar with release through Disney, it was the first fully computer-animated feature film, leading studios worldwide to pivot away from hand-drawn animation.
The story features toys who spring to life when humans are not looking, notably Woody (Tom Hanks), a pull-string cowboy doll, and Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen), a flashy new space-ranger who threatens Woody’s status as Andy’s favourite. Their rivalry turns into friendship as they try to reunite with their owner after getting lost in the wider world.
The premise grew out of Tin Toy (1988), a five-minute short film that won a first Oscar for Pixar in the days when it was part of a hardware company run by Apple’s Steve Jobs. Disney approached Pixar to produce a computer-animated feature film told from a small toy’s perspective.
The initial story followed the relationship between Tinny, the wind-up one-man band toy from Tin Toy, and a ventriloquist’s dummy named Dummy. Christine Freeman, who is Pixar’s founding historian, says: “The idea was of a buddy film, which hadn’t been done in animation before, and so they had these two characters and it was interesting but it wasn’t landing.
“We were lucky that we got good feedback from the folks at Walt Disney. They said, we don’t believe that this tin toy is going to be an eight-year-old’s favourite toy and also that other guy? He’s really mean. One of the amazing animators and creatives who worked on Toy Story was a guy named Bud Luckey. He said, could this ventriloquist’s dummy be a cowboy? That is how Woody was born out of this Dummy character.”
Tinny would evolve into Buzz Lightyear, but even then the path zigged and zagged before reaching its original destination. Asked about the 30th anniversary during a recent episode of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on CBS, Hanks replied: “Actually, it was more than 30 years, because Tim Allen and I and everybody involved in it, we recorded a Toy Story movie, for about 80 minutes of it, that was completely thrown out. We had the animatics, the whole bit.
“The people who were running the studio – not Pixar, Pixar people are great – the people running the studio said, ‘Look, it’s a cartoon. Let’s make them wisecrack-y. Let’s let them improv and insult each other and come up with goofy things,’ which we sort of did for a while. And they showed it, and quite frankly, it didn’t work. It wasn’t Toy Story. It wasn’t what Pixar was going for.”
Hanks, 69, added: “John [Lasseter] called up and he said, ‘We looked at it and it’s just not working, and we would like to start all over from scratch.’ We had been working on the movie for about two years. So then we began the process all over again, which is about a two and a half to three year process, which is why on the credits on the Toy Story movies, they always say Production Babies.”
The stakes were high for Pixar to take its time and get it right. The company had been through various iterations as a hardware company, software company and producer of TV commercials but was struggling to make ends meet.
David A Price, author of The Pixar Touch: The Making of a Company, says from Richmond, Virginia: “If Toy Story hadn’t been a success, Pixar, I’m quite certain, wouldn’t have been able to continue for long as a company.
“First of all, Pixar was in very tight, dire financial circumstances in 1995 when the movie came out. Steve Jobs had been putting money into the company for 10 years at this point, $50m cumulatively over the years. When they needed to make payroll, as often as not the top executives would be coming to Steve Jobs hat in hand, asking them to write their cheque. Without Toy Story, there wasn’t an obvious way forward for the company as a going concern.”
Secondly, it was a make-or-break moment for the new medium. Price adds: “It was necessary for Toy Story to be a success simply to legitimise computer animation. It’s hard to appreciate now but, at that time, computer animation was more of a novelty than anything.
“It was a real question whether computer graphics would turn out to be acceptable to mass audiences and if Toy Story had been a flop, then certainly the people who fund movies would have very likely stayed away from it as a medium. On the other hand, because Pixar was successful, it did spur tremendous interest in computer animation and a golden age of computer animated movies.”
Toy Story’s animators had the key insight of grounding the film in a recognisable world that audiences could relate to, with virtual cameras that behaved like real ones. The winning formula also included a witty screenplay, perfectly cast actors and Randy Newman’s song You’ve Got a Friend in Me.
Asked about Toy Story’s success, Price reflects: “The easy answer is, well, it’s all nostalgia. Parents 30 years ago when they were young watched the movie and now they’re bringing their kids into it. But it’s much more than that. In my opinion, the classic elements of movie greatness are part of the story.
“Not only did they fuse new technology with old elements but it was rooted in a sub-genre that was popular at the time – or had recently been popular – and that is the buddy comedy. In the 80s, you had 48 Hours, Lethal Weapon, movies like that where very different characters start out not liking each other, circumstances force them to work together, they grow to respect each other. Toy Story was intentionally written very much in that mould. This made it more appealing then and now.”
Beyond that, he argues, Toy Story works on different levels for both children and parents. “Friendship is something that’s very important to children and friendship is a central element in the story, something that the children respond to. But then for parents it’s a powerful portrayal of status anxiety. On one level you have the children’s problems, on the other level of the movie you have adult problems being addressed and so it’s a movie that brings the generations together in a powerful way.”
The part of Andy came naturally to Morris, who grew up creating imaginary worlds via X-Men action figures, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Lego and Sylvanian Families. He recalls: “I guess my Woody equivalent would be this bear that I still have called Sunny Bear. That was my first favourite object and then I did have that experience during the holidays of getting new toys and the excitement around that, similar to Buzz.”
When he was six, Morris took an acting class called Kids on Camera in San Francisco and landed an agent. He started work as a child actor, appearing in commercials. Toy Story was his first voiceover audition.
“I was very small, very young, and they asked us to bring our favorite toy to the audition and I brought all my X-Men action figures in a case. My mom was even like, ‘I think this is too many toys’. I was like, ‘No, I have to bring them all. I can’t just bring Storm. I have to bring Professor X and Wolverine and all the rest of them.’
“I started playing with them and creating the voices and then later, of course, that’s how we see Andy play. I prepared for the role by playing in my room, essentially, and using my imagination and my creativity.”
That was invaluable for recording the role of Andy without the kind of prompts that a stage actor or live action actor might expect. “They give you what they can in terms of storyboards and character drawings and renderings and little sculpts and such, but you have to use your imagination. That’s key to voiceover.
“I teach voiceover now and that’s something I talk about a lot: flood your imagination with imagery because that’s what you have to draw from, especially when you just have a script in front of you in black and white. But I remember the first time seeing Andy early in the process and thinking, oh, he looks really nice and warm and then that did help me: OK, I’m going to try to bring a warmth to his voice.”
Morris fitted production around school, slipping away for solo recording sessions that did not involve other cast members. “I couldn’t talk about it while I was working on it. It can be hard for a kid to keep a secret like that. I would leave mysteriously, I guess like kids leave for doctor’s appointments or whatever.
“I said I was working on a project, working on a movie, but I didn’t say what it was. But then when it came out there was a lot of excitement and some disbelief. Even to this day, people are like, ‘You’re kidding?’ I’m like, ‘No, I’m not kidding.’ Or people are like, ‘Is it true?’ ‘Yeah, it’s true.’”
It was a children’s film that somehow captivated adults and a machine generated artefact that somehow was as big-hearted as a Dickens novel. Made for roughly $30m, it grossed $401m worldwide, becoming one of the biggest hits of 1995. Morris, who was 11 at the time of its release, was as astonished as anyone by its success.
How does he explain it? “At the heart of it is friendship and the ‘You’ve got a friend in me’ notion and the fact that the toys to Andy, and then later to Bonnie, are like friends. They’re almost human in the way that they are and the way that we relate to them. They’re so relatable and lovable.
“It was the first computer generated animated film so it has a place in film history, too. I have to say I’ve never met someone who doesn’t like Toy Story and hasn’t seen it. Everyone’s seen it and everyone loves it. I’m so honoured to be part of it, so grateful. I got to bring Andy to life: I mean, how incredible!”’
Morris returned in 1999 for Toy Story 2 and in 2010 for Toy Story 3, which climaxes with a college-bound Andy donating his toys to a girl called Bonnie; Woody watches Andy leave and says softly, “So long … partner,” a scene about the bittersweet passage of time that reduced many a grown parent to a blubbering wreck.
Toy Story 4 appeared in 2019 and Toy Story 5 is due for release next June. Morris would be happy to return to the franchise some day. “I hear from a lot of fans that they’re curious about Andy. What did he focus on in college? Does he have kids? Is he married? I’m like, well, what do you think? It’s open.
“As we know, the story can go in any number of directions. A lot of fans tell me that would bring the whole thing full circle if Andy was an adult and he has kids; maybe he has Andy Jr and maybe Bonnie babysits them and maybe some of the toys are missing and Andy is a little surprised by that. I of course would love to come back and voice Andy as an adult. That would be like a full circle moment for me too.”
