Pixar's first feature began after Disney rejected edgier drafts
Tin Toy's Oscar made Disney court Pixar, yet early Toy Story reels stalled until the team rewrote around a quieter idea: toys crave being played with. That rewrite yielded the first fully computer-animated feature, a 1995 hit that later entered the National Film Registry.
Toy Story opened in the United States on 22 November 1995 after a Los Angeles premiere three days earlier, under director John Lasseter. The screenplay team included Joss Whedon alongside Andrew Stanton, Joel Cohen, and Alec Sokolow. Voice leads featured Tom Hanks as Woody and Tim Allen as Buzz Lightyear. The story follows a cowboy doll threatened when a Space Ranger figure becomes a child's new favourite. Worldwide takings passed about 363 million dollars, second among 1995 releases, and Rotten Tomatoes later listed a perfect critical score.
Disney had approached Pixar after the 1988 short Tin Toy. Lasseter, Stanton, and Pete Docter drafted treatments Disney pushed toward a harder tone; disastrous story reels halted work until the script returned to Pixar's theme that toys' hopes and fears turn on play. The small studio built the feature under tight budgets. Academy recognition included three nominations—among them Best Original Screenplay, a first for animation—plus a Special Achievement Oscar. In 2005 the Library of Congress selected it for the National Film Registry.
Lasseter's path ran through Disney Feature Animation, Lucasfilm, and Pixar after Steve Jobs bought the firm in 1986. Tin Toy's 1989 short-film Oscar drew Disney's Michael Eisner and Jeffrey Katzenberg. Negotiations left Disney owning films and characters while Pixar took roughly 12.5 percent of ticket sales—terms that later strained Jobs and Eisner. A Tin Toy Christmas concept grew into a feature once Katzenberg pushed beyond a half-hour special. The finished film seeded sequels from 1999, a 2022 spin-off, and anniversary re-releases.
Source: Toy Story
