10 Toy Story Easter Eggs and Behind the Scenes Facts You Probably Missed

Toy Story was the first feature length CGI movie ever made, and it turns out the film is stuffed with easter eggs, movie references, and behind the scenes stories that are easy to miss on a casual rewatch. I dug through the details and picked ten particularly fun facts, plus a bonus, that show just how much thought went into every corner of Andy's house, Sid's room, and Pizza Planet.

For anyone who grew up with Woody and Buzz, this is the kind of trivia that makes the movie even richer the next time you watch it with your kids or on a nostalgia binge.

Sid's Room Is Loaded With Hidden References

Sid's room alone is packed to the gills with easter eggs. He has a Binford toolbox, the fictional tool brand from the 90s sitcom Home Improvement that starred Tim Allen, who also voices Buzz Lightyear. As I put it, "that reference is just mwah AKA good." His walls are covered in parody posters, including a Web of Terror poster spoofing old posters for The Fly and a Megadork poster riffing on the band Megadeth. He also has a Mickey Mouse tattoo on his arm.

Two of Sid's posters actually turn up in other Pixar films. His Killing Paul Bunyan and His Blue Ox of Doom poster, which I called "such a metal title," appears in Monsters Inc. when a monster runs out of a door saying a kid almost touched him. And the Wraith rock monster poster shows up in the background of a mind space scene in Inside Out.

There is also a poster that looks inspired by the artist Rat Fink. I found an artist named Joseph Alexander Rath who has done very similar artwork, created a Rat Fink tribute before, and even listed Disney as a past client, with one of his posters hanging right next to the piece in question. Given the coincidences, I emailed him directly to ask if he drew the Toy Story poster. He was kind enough to reply, and the answer is no, it is just a wild coincidence. Either way, the artwork itself looks like a genuine Rat Fink tribute.

Other small details in Sid's room include the fireworks brand he buys, which is spelled "ill eagle," and the Morse code Babyface taps out, which spells RR for Received or Roger Roger. A hint that toys know Morse code sits in Andy's room, where a Buzz Lightyear poster teaches deep space code, which is really just Morse code.

Pixar Hid Its Own Employees' Names Throughout the Film

The crew snuck plenty of personal nods into the movie. Catmull Root Beer is named after Pixar's then president and co-founder Ed Catmull. Eggman Movers uses art director Ralph Eggleston's login name. And Sid's backpack reads "Julie McBarfield has cooties," a nod to editorial and camera manager Julie M. McDonald, who apparently loved seeing her name worked into the film.

Penn Gillette Voiced the Yelling Buzz Lightyear Commercial

One of my personal favorite facts is that the yelling voice in the in-movie Buzz Lightyear commercial belongs to Penn Gillette of Penn and Teller, with Teller likely in the studio too even though you cannot hear him. To capture the aggressive tone of toy commercials from that era, the team reportedly wanted the loudest voice they could think of, and Gillette was apparently so loud in the booth that people could hear him out in the lobby through soundproof walls. Director and co-writer John Lasseter and screenwriter and storyboard artist Andrew Stanton also voiced lines in that same commercial.

The Film Is Built on Dozens of Classic Movie References

According to the movie's commentary track, Toy Story leans on a huge number of film and TV references. The army man saying "go on without me" and "a good soldier never leaves a man behind" calls back to classic war movie tropes. Buzz's breathing when we first meet him echoes Darth Vader from Star Wars. The sequence where Buzz has to dodge dangers is modeled on Indiana Jones and Raiders of the Lost Ark, right down to the camera movements, the push pins that echo the arrows, and the rolling ball that shares its sound with the famous boulder. You can also hear the classic Wilhelm scream in that stretch, and Rex's panicked line to the RC car is a nod to Lassie.

Outside the house, Woody and Buzz's fight at the gas station draws from classic Arnold Schwarzenegger fight scenes, and Buzz throws in a Star Trek Vulcan salute as he walks off. At Pizza Planet, the moving eye lights on the centurions at the entrance mimic the Cylons from Battlestar Galactica, the arcade game Waka Alien is an obvious Space Invaders style nod, and the little green aliens surrounding and reaching for Buzz reference Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

At Sid's house, his interrogation of Woody mixes elements of Star Wars and the interrogation scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark, and the hallway carpet is a direct callback to The Shining. In that same hallway, Scud the dog waking up with his eye dilating and growling is meant to mimic the T-Rex from Jurassic Park.

The scene where Woody slaps Buzz with his own arm reportedly comes from a story about Schwarzenegger, who on the set of Commando asked the director if he could cut off a guy's arm and then hit him with it, only for the director to say that might be going too far. The Toy Story team heard the story and decided they would do it, resulting in the Mrs Nesbitt moment. Another favorite of mine is Woody's line "howdy howdy howdy give me that" when the shark pops up, which I had no idea at the time was quoting a Far Side comic with a nearly identical line.

One of the best moments in the film, Woody standing frozen while Buzz suffocates in his helmet, was reportedly a happy accident. Animator Doug Sweetland was doing a rough pass and ran out of time before animating Woody's reaction, so in dailies Woody just stood there with his head turned. The team reportedly fell on the floor laughing and told him to keep it exactly that way.

Mattel Said No to Barbie and Hasbro Said No to GI Joe

Not every toy company wanted in on Toy Story. Woody's love interest was originally supposed to be Barbie, but Pixar could not get the rights from Mattel. In an early script, one toy was going to escape through a vent to get help from a neighbor named Hannah, and Barbie would have screeched up in her pink Corvette wearing a prom dress. The team reportedly wanted her to be as tough as Linda Hamilton in Terminator 2, delivering a line like "come with me if you want to live" before leading an epic chase with Scud in pursuit. Woody even had a cut line about wishing he was anatomically correct. Mattel turned it down because they wanted to avoid defining Barbie's personality, preferring kids project their own traits onto her, though they clearly changed their mind for the sequel. The first film still snuck in a joke where Rex reveals he is technically not from Mattel but from a smaller company purchased in a leveraged buyout.

Hasbro also turned down the rights to GI Joe once they learned Sid was going to blow one up, which led directly to the creation, and doomed fate, of the fictional stand in Combat Carl.

The Green Army Men Moved Thanks to an Old Pair of Sneakers

To figure out how the green army men should move on screen, the animation team nailed an old pair of sneakers to a plank of wood and dragged it across the room, using that motion as reference for the toys' shuffling walk.

Mr. Spell Is Full of Background Jokes That Are Easy to Miss

Mr. Spell might be the most underrated toy in the film because so many of his gags happen in the background. He laughs when Mr. Potato Head mocks Slinky, stutters for a frame during his "you're welcome" line while everyone panics, counts the calories Buzz burns on the treadmill during a montage, and says "hubba hubba" when Andy's new Mrs. Potato Head is announced. There was even a planned ending where the toys held a Christmas party and Buzz sang "Let It Snow" using Mr. Spell as a karaoke machine, but the scene was cut. All that survived is Mr. Spell's non-denominational "have a merry and a happy" before he gets cut off. Jeff Pigeon, who voiced Mr. Spell, also voiced the aliens along with a few other actors, and they reportedly got that iconic squeaky tone by inhaling helium before recording, which is why I have to add, "I have a moral obligation to say don't try this at home kids."

Woody and Buzz Went Through Major Redesigns Before Becoming Icons

Woody was not always the main character. The movie originally centered on Tinny, a character from an earlier Pixar short called Tin Toy, with Woody as his sidekick, drafted as a regular wooden ventriloquist dummy in a top hat. Once the plot shifted to focus on a new toy replacing an old favorite, Tinny was scrapped because it was not believable that an old tin toy would become a child's new favorite. That opened the door for Buzz, originally named Lunar Larry, a small red astronaut toy. Character designer Bud Luckey suggested making him a cowboy instead to contrast with an astronaut, which is how Woody became a cowboy ventriloquist dummy. Early on, the team gave Woody a snarky, more adult attitude, but audiences reportedly hated him, so his personality and design were softened into the Woody we know. An earlier version of his design can actually be spotted in a picture on the wall of Andy's room.

Lunar Larry eventually evolved into a character named Tempest before being renamed Buzz after astronaut Buzz Aldrin, with a sleek white design meant to make him feel new and different from the other colorful toys. The team combined their favorite childhood toy features to build him: the size of a GI Joe, the karate chop action and wrist communicator from the Big Jim toy line, voice commands and LED lights inspired by the Video Command action figure series that ran from 1991 to 1993, plus wings, a glow in the dark effect, and a laser pointer. Stanton, who owned Big Jim toys as a kid, said the words "Made in China" under Big Jim's wrist communicator lid inspired the team to put "Made in Taiwan" under Buzz's. One last detail is that Buzz has a Disney logo on his heel that changes to a Disney Pixar logo by the third movie.

Andy's Dad Is Missing Because Animating Humans Was Too Expensive

Andy's father is never explained largely because humans, especially at that time, were extremely costly and complex to animate, so the fewer human characters the story needed, the better. That is also why Andy's friends at his birthday party and the people at Pizza Planet all look strikingly similar to Andy, his mom, and his sister. They reuse the same character models with different hair, clothes, and color palettes, or as I joked, maybe it is just the greatest family reunion ever.

Bonus: Mr. Potato Head Is Terrible at Battleship

As a bonus beyond the ten facts, I could not resist pointing out how badly Mr. Potato Head plays Battleship in the film. He manages to hit every point on the map except where the actual ships are, and he groups all of his own ships together in the same spot. As I said, "the fact that he has hit every point on the map except where Ham ships are and that he's grouped all the ships in the same place cracks me up."

What other Toy Story details or Disney Pixar facts would you want covered next?