Tom Hanks Says the Original ‘Toy Story’ Movie Was ‘Thrown Out’: ‘It Didn’t Work’

Toy Story almost wasn’t the classic story fans love today.

Tom Hanks, who voices Woody in the iconic film series, opened up about the making of Toy Story on the Monday, Nov. 3 episode of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Toy Story turns 30 this November and was released Nov. 22, 1995. 

“It is 30 years since we first got to meet Buzz and Woody,” Colbert said, referencing both Hank’s character and Buzz Lightyear, voiced by Tim Allen. “Isn’t that amazing?”

But Hanks, 69, said, “Actually, it was more than 30 years, because Tim Allen and I and everybody involved, we recorded a Toy Story movie, about 80 minutes of it that was completely thrown out.”

Hanks confirmed it was a “different story” than the one fans know and love, where Hanks’ Woody feels threatened by Allen’s Buzz, who struggles to understand that he’s actually a toy. “We had the animatics, the whole bit.”

Hanks explained what the problem was with the first version of the film. “The people who were running the studio — not Pixar, Pixar people are great — the people running the studio, they said, ‘Look, it’s a cartoon. Let’s make them wisecrack-y and improv and insult each other and come up with goofy things,’ which we sort of did for a while.”

Hanks continued, “Quite frankly, it didn’t work. It wasn’t Toy Story. It wasn’t what Pixar was going for.”

Then Hanks got a phone call: “John Lasseter would like to speak to you.” The You’ve Got Mail star said that “whenever you get an advance call that says the director is going to talk to you,” it means you’ve either “gone baby gone” or “they have this great idea that they want to invite you in on the process.” Hanks and Colbert also joked about Colbert finding out, in a similar moment, that The Late Show was being canceled. 

On the phone call, Lasseter told Hanks and Allen, “We looked at it and it’s just not working, and we would like to start all over from scratch.”

They had been working on the movie for two years. “So then we began the process all over again, which is about a two and a half to three year process,” he said. He noted that’s why in the Toy Story credits, they’ll list “production babies” because their parents met, fell in love and had kids during the long production. 

Hanks said that they started the first film “more than” 30 years ago is an “extraordinary thing.”

Toy Story was a massive success and was Pixar’s first full-length film, helping define what made the studio’s films so special. It’s had three sequels so far: 1999’s Toy Story 2, 2010’s Toy Story 3 and 2019’s Toy Story 4. Toy Story 5 is on the way and expected in 2026.

In the new movie, Woody, Buzz and their gang of more-classic toys will be up against a new foe — technology, and a new tech tablet named Lily Pad. Hanks teased he was in the studio recording his part back in April. 

The Toy Story films also star Joan Cusack as Jessie, Annie Potts as Bo Peep, Wallace Shawn as Rex, John Ratzenberger as Hamm and Blake Clark as Slinky Dog.