Umer
There’s no hiding in the fact that most of us are die-hard Toy Story fans. We all were completely hooked after the first movie and that is when our journey began to become an obsessed fan. Most of us were very little when the first movie came out and then grew into an adult through the process of the rest of the movies getting released. We are all adults now but our love for Toy story is as fresh as it was when we were kids. This is one of those movie series that a person never gets old of. We all will probably show it to the rest of our kids in our generations and make it a tradition. It is not just about the movie itself, but the whole process of impatiently waiting for its release and dressing up for the cinema. Most of us probably had kids around the time the 4th movie came out in 2019.
Because we might think of ourselves as the biggest fans of Toy Story, there are some things that most of us should be aware of. The interesting and entertaining thing about Disney Pixar is that you would find a lot of easter eggs and secret references in their movies. Only those who are diehard Disney fans can spot the easter eggs from distance.
There are many secret references too probably a lot of us must have missed. Scroll down below to find what they were!
1. Mr. Potato Head’s voice
Did you know that the person who voiced Mr. Potato’s head in the first three movies of Toy Story died before the fourth movie could be made? The voice-over was done by Don Rickles, who died in 2017. Toy Story 4 came out in 2019. The creators of the movie had to use voice sessions, outtakes of other films, and interviews to put together all the bits of Rickles’s voice together to form the dialogues of Mr. Potato.
2 Andy’s red string
Remember the red string Andy used in ‘Toy Story 2’ to repair woody’s torn arm? That red string was still visible in ‘Toy Story 4 (2019)’.
3. Army soldiers
To approximately depict to the creative how many army soldiers would be able to walk and run in a scene in “Toy Story (1995), the screenwriters of the movie tapes shoes to a wooden board to be more clear. This helped the creative team understand what the writers had in mind for the scene.
4. Cobwebs in ‘Toy Story 4’
In Toy Story 4 (2019), there is a scene where the movie needed to show cobwebs. Creating each cobweb individually would not have been efficient, so Al spiders were made that were programmed to create cobwebs wherever they were required.
5. Sid is the Garbage man
Did anyone notice the uncanny resemblance between Sid from the first movie and the garbage man in ‘Toy Story 3’? This is because they are the same person.
6. Tim Allen’s reference
A lot of you might not be aware but Buzz Lightyear’s voice was played by Tim Allen. Now that that is out of the way, Tim Allen’s part in the movies does not end here. If you pay more attention to the above scene from Toy Story, you would notice that the tools used by Sid are from the company Binford Tools. Binford tools sponsored the show “Tool Time” which was part of the show “Home Improvement” that starred Tim Allen.
7. Product babies
In the credits, there are names of babies listed under the heading ‘Production babies’. These are all the babies that were born to anyone from the crew during the making of the film.
8. “Up” reference
If you pay attention to this scene from ‘Toy story 4’, you would notice the grape pin that the old man used to pin up on his blazer in the movie ‘Up’.
9. Little girl from the movie ‘Monster Inc.’
The little girl from the ‘Monster Inc.’ movie is shown in ‘Toy story 4’ during the carnival scene. She is shown to be playing games at one of the stalls.
10. Jessie Doll in Monster Inc.
You can see the little girl in ‘Monster Inc.’ holding Jessie doll.
11. “Up” movie references
A postcard shared by Carl and Ellie in the movie “Up (2009)” can be seen pinned up in a wall in Andy’s room in “Toy Story 3(2010)”
12. Andy’d handwriting gets better as he grows older
As Andy grows older throughout the movies, his handwriting keeps getting better if compared to the first movie.
13. The carpet from the “The shining”
Anyone who is a fan of “the shining” and the “the toy story” would notice a couple of the references to “the shining” in The Toy Story movies. The carpet at the house in The Toy Story is the same as the carpet at the Overlook Hotel in The Shining (1980). This was done intentionally.
14. Same old man cast in many movies
The old man shown in “Geri’s Game” and “A Bug’s life (1998)” is also shown in Toy Story 2 (1999) cleaning up Woody to sell him.
15. references to the Jurassic park
The scene where the T-rex chases the car in Jurassic Park is replicated in the Toy Story movie.
16. Reference to Wall-E
Batteries that charge Buzz Lightyear are of the same company “Buy N Large” that were created Wall-E
17. Mr. Potato head reading “A bug’s life” book
Mr. Potato was reading a book on ‘A Bug’s life’ in Toy Story 2.
18. Buzz ages with time
Stickers on Buzz Lightyear start to peel off reaching the end of the series.
19. CGI movie
Did you know that the first Toy Story film was the first-ever feature-length film that was entirely computer-animated?
20. Bookshelf in Andy’s room
If we pay a closer look, we would notice that all the books on Andy’s bookshelf are Pixar’s animated shorts.
21. Occasional blinking
To bring more reality to the toys in movies, they are shown to blink one eye at a time. This was meant to show that the characters are still toys and can have a hindrance in their functioning once in a while as all toys do.
22. Lotso bear appears in the movie ‘Up’
In the scene where the house starts to fly, you can notice Lotso bear placed beside a girl’s bed who was seeing the flying house from her window.
23. The teapot
The party scene where Buzz has lost his senses shows him holding a teapot. The teapot used was the same as the Utah teapot, known to be one of the earliest computer-generated graphic models created in the 1970s.
24. Reference to Lincoln
In Toy Story 2, Jessie has a dialogue where she says “Sweet Mother of Abraham Lincoln”. This connects to Tom Hanks, who voiced woody, being related to Lincoln’s mother.
25. Vulcan Salute from Star trek
The Salute Buzz Lightyear does to say goodbye to Woody is from the Star Trek series.
26. Darla in Molly’s magazine
27. More references to “The Shining”
237 is the famous room from The shining that was known to be the most haunted room in the hotel. The same number is used as a car plate number in Toy Story 2.
28. The American flag replaced by Globe
You will notice the American flag was removed and the Globe of the earth was placed behind Buzz in Toy Story 2.
29. Real-life Barbie and Ken
The characters of the Barbie doll and Ken doll in the Toy Story 3 are exactly similar to their real-life dolls. Ken was replicated as the 1988 Animal lovin’ Ken toy. Barbie was created as the 1983 Great Shape Barbie toy.
30. Writing on Foxy’s feet
In the fourth movie, Forky lifts his feet in front of Gabby’s mirror to read what was written beneath.
Wow, it took me a while to spot these references and realize how there are so my connections to other movies. It somehow makes the movies more interesting. You also realize how much thought the makers of the movie put into these movies. It is definitely not easy work!
Did you notice any of these references while watching the movies? Let us know in the comments!