Famous Firsts - Toy Story, Part Three

Last week, we saw Woody and Buzz get separated from Andy, try to reunite with him at Pizza Planet, and take an unexpected and unwanted detour to Sid's house. Buzz has been forced to confront the fact that he is a toy. Woody still wants nothing more than to get home before Andy moves away and leaves him behind forever.

(You may notice that the images in this article are a little larger than normal. I'm experimenting with a bigger image size, so bear with me while I figure out what works best. I do have larger size version of most of the images from my past articles, so if I decide that I like this format better, I could theoretically go back and put larger images in them as well.)


Sometime later, Woody emerges from his hiding place in the storage closet. Why a storage closet? So that Woody can get tangled up in a string of Christmas lights. Why does Woody have to get tangled up in a string of Christmas lights? So that he can use it in his attempt to get back over to Andy’s room. It’s a minor point and the movie doesn’t make too much of setting up the idea, but it gets highlighted enough that the audience doesn’t end up wondering “Now where on earth did he get those Christmas lights?” Setting up a prop or a concept like this, especially when the payoff doesn’t come until later, is a delicate balancing act. If it is pointed out too blatantly, the audience will feel like it’s just a convenient device or realize too soon that it will be important later. Introduce it too subtly and the audience will miss it. When it’s done right, the item or idea just feels like a natural part of the story and you never stop to think about the care that went into making it fit.

After Buzz’s fall from the railing, he was discovered by Hannah, who has now included him as a guest at her tea party. Since Sid “plays with” and decapitates most of her dolls, she figures it’s fair for her to take one of his toys for use in her games. So with the addition of a pink apron and a flowered hat, Buzz is transformed into “Mrs. Nesbitt.” This could potentially be a very humiliating experience, but Buzz isn’t in any state to care.

While the toys in Toy Story hold up pretty well when compared with the character in modern CG films, the more organic characters and objects look dated. Pixar made the smart choice of keeping the focus of the story off the human characters and going for a more stylized look for them than a purely realistic one. But you can still tell that the technology wasn’t quite there yet. Hannah’s hair never seems to move quite as much as it should and both her clothes and the blanket on her bed look starched stiff. It’s a good first try with the technology available at the time, but compare one of the human characters in this film with one from
Woody immediately asks Buzz if he is okay, showing that Woody is starting to feel some degree of genuine concern for the other toy. At this stage, Buzz’s reaction to learning that he isn’t a space ranger is played for laughs. The normally poised and in-control Buzz is now slurring his speech and insisting that he is Mrs. Nesbitt. Buzz is essentially “drunk” on imaginary tea and doesn’t really know who he is anymore, so he might as well be Mrs. Nesbitt. Given that Woody probably has little more than an inkling of what Buzz has been through and Buzz is throwing himself on the floor and wailing about how he is a sham, it is perfectly understandable that Woody is less concerned about Buzz’s problem and more concerned about getting them home.

Back in Andy’s room, Hamm and Mr. Potato Head are by the window playing the toy equivalent of strip Battleship. In a nice detail, Battleship was the game that Andy got for his birthday. Frankly, I’m not sure what Hamm would have to give up if he lost, but it seems to be a moot point as Potato Head is already down by a hat and a nose. From Sid’s open bedroom window, which conveniently faces Andy’s house, Woody manages to get the toys’ attention. He has the Christmas lights from before and tosses them over to Slinky in Andy’s window. This could well be the end of the story, except that the movie isn’t really about two toys finding their way back home. It’s about two toys learning to get along with each other and deal with their problems. Woody still hasn’t faced his fears about being replaced. Buzz is still extremely depressed about being a toy. And, importantly for this scene, Andy’s other toys don’t yet realize that Buzz is all right and that Woody is actually trying to bring him home.

Not surprisingly, it’s bad tempered Mr. Potato Head who still considers Woody plaything non grata and reminds the other toys why this is. Woody insists that Buzz is with him and alive and well, but Buzz is still far too depressed to come to the window and prove this. He responds to Woody’s request to come up and give him a hand by tossing his detached arm up onto the table. In a moment of desperation, Woody tries use to convince Andy’s toys that Buzz is just behind the window. (This scene was apparently developed partly by giving Tom Hanks a prop arm to play with and letting him ad lib.) The act quickly falls apart when Woody accidentally reveals that all he has of Buzz is an arm, to the shock and horror of the other toys. Potato Head calls Woody a “murderer” and drops the other end of the Christmas lights, cutting off what may be Woody’s last hope for escape.

It is a case of “right conclusion, wrong time.” As we know, Buzz is still alive and Woody really does want to get both of them back to Andy’s house. But neither Woody nor Buzz would be in this mess if Woody hadn’t pushed Buzz out of the window in the first place, which is something Woody still hasn’t accepted responsibility for. The other toys are not entirely incorrect in believing that Woody wanted Buzz out of the way and seeing Buzz’s arm with no sign of the rest of him only serves to convince them of their worst fears. Though Potato Head is the one to drop the Christmas lights, Slinky is the last of the toys to leave the window. He looks at Woody with his head hung low and a miserable expression on his face. Though he is Woody’s best pal, even Slinky can’t deny the apparent evidence that Woody has sent Buzz the way of Combat Carl. Sadly, he closes the blinds as Woody pleads for him to come back. Storm clouds roll in overhead, reflecting Woody’s despair at the seemingly hopeless predicament he is in.

A strange noise catches Woody’s attention and he turns around just in time to see the mutant toys closing in on Buzz. This is the real turning point for Woody’s relationship with Buzz. As far as Woody knows, he may never see Andy’s room again, which would negate his initial reason for even continuing to hang around Buzz. In spite of that, Woody runs over to try and rescue Buzz from the mutant toys. He isn’t very effective initially, only succeeding in losing Buzz’s arm to the mutants. But when he does eventually pull the mutants off of Buzz, he is surprised to find that all they have done is pop Buzz’s arm back into place. The doll and pterodactyl that Sid performed his “operation” on earlier are shown to be alive and whole again. Creepy looking though they may be, the mutants are actually friendly and helpful.

There’s another important moment in this scene, one that is easy to miss between the excitement of the mutants seemingly attacking Buzz and Sid’s return moments later. While he’s awkwardly apologizing to the mutants, Woody explains that he had thought that they were going to “eat my friend.” Woody referring to Buzz as his friend would have been completely unthinkable even just a few hours ago. But much has changed. As Woody will say himself later, Buzz is pretty much all he has right now.

Woody may be on the way to learning to get along with Buzz, but Buzz is still so depressed that he can’t even bring himself to hide from Sid. As a result, Sid duct tapes Buzz to his just-arrived rocket and plans to blow him up the next morning once the weather clears. This introduces one of the two ticking clocks that our heroes will be racing against for the remainder of the movie and in this case, there is a literal alarm clock counting down the time until Sid wakes up. The other deadline is one that has been there all along, but in case we’ve forgotten about it with everything else that has happened, the film takes us back over to Andy’s room, where all of Andy’s toys have been packed away in boxes. As Andy’s mom reminds us, they will be moving tomorrow and if Woody and Buzz don’t get back to Andy’s house before then, they will be left behind. The scene also reveals that Andy is worried about both Buzz and Woody. Where he previously had to choose which of his two favorite toys to take to bed with him and which to leave in the toy box, Andy is now left with nothing but his cowboy hat to keep him company through the night.

Back at Sid’s house, Buzz is still taped to the rocket, while Woody is trapped in a plastic crate that Sid set his toolbox on top of. Though it’s still not easy for him to do, Woody is forced to admit that he can’t free himself without Buzz’s help. As opposed to his earlier mournful theatrics, Buzz’s reaction to Woody is played very straight and very quiet as he answers that he can’t help Woody or anyone else for that matter. For the first time, he talks directly about what he has been through. He describes himself as “a stupid, little, insignificant toy,” “insignificant being the key word here. Buzz believed he was someone important, someone with the power to rescue entire galaxies. To him, being a toy means he is powerless and unimportant. Buzz can’t even see what Andy would want with him now that Buzz realizes he is just another toy and not a space ranger. As far as Buzz is concerned, Sid might as well blow him up.

All of this puts Woody in a position he probably never thought he would be in nor wanted to be in: he has to make Buzz understand what is great about being a toy, Andy’s toy in particular. The toy who just a short time ago would have been the last toy on earth to do so is now telling Buzz that Andy thinks Buzz is amazing because he is a toy. Woody, who towards the beginning of the movie was demeaning every one of Buzz’s special features, now lists them all as the very reasons why Andy would want Buzz. It is being in this position that finally gets Woody to admit to his own problem. It isn’t that Buzz was annoying or that Buss really believed he was a space ranger or even that Buzz was stealing Andy away from Woody. Woody’s problem is that he knows Buzz is the cooler toy and a clear sign that Woody is outdated. After listing Buzz’s various state-of-the-art toy features, Woody pulls his pullstring as an example of his only feature, pathetically dated when compared with Buzz’s high quality voice box. The question for Woody is not why Andy would want to play with Buzz, but why Andy would want to play with Woody when he has a toy like Buzz. If Buzz hadn’t come along, it would have been another toy. Deep down, Woody has come to believe that he is inevitably going to be replaced, not just played with less, but totally forgotten. He even tells Buzz that it should be him rather than Buzz strapped to the rocket, because if Woody doesn’t mean anything to Andy anymore, what’s the point? Woody is, in fact, at the exact same point that Buzz is emotionally. Buzz doesn’t care about his life if he can’t be a space ranger and Woody doesn’t want to live if Andy isn’t going to love him anymore.

As the storm begins to clear and let more light in through the window, Buzz looks down at the name “Andy” written on his foot and finally gets it. Not just that he can be a toy and still be important to someone, but also what Andy means to Woody and that Woody’s hostility towards Buzz has all really been about Woody’s fear that he was losing the person who matters to him more than anyone else. So even as Woody is telling Buzz to just go on without him and get back to Andy, Buzz isn’t listening. Now that he understands that, as Woody himself said back at the beginning of the movie, being a toy is about being there for a kid when he needs you, Buzz is going to do everything in his power to ensure that both he and Woody are able to do just that.

Pixar took great care to make their movie feel as timeless as possible, using toys and toy types that have been popular with kids for generations as their cast and generally avoiding pop culture references. The result is that only a very few jokes in the movie have become dated in the years since its release. One of these few is the “Binford” label on Sid’s toolbox. Binford Tools was the fictional tool company in the TV series Home Improvement, which starred Tim Allen, the voice of Buzz. I don’t know how many viewers watching the film today are aware of this, but since it’s only a visual joke and there are any number of made-up brands, companies, and retailers in Toy Story - Pizza Planet, Dinoco gas stations, Virtual Realty, Eggman Movers – anyone who wasn’t aware of the Home Improvement connection could simple assume that “Binford” is also a fictional brand created for the film.

So that’s it, right? Buzz has learned that being a toy can be a fulfilling life and Woody has learned to get along with Buzz and confronted his fear of being replaced. Both toys have worked out their problems. So now they get to go home?

Not yet. There are still a few problems left to deal with and chief among them right now is Sid. Yes, Woody and Buzz could escape right now, get back to Andy and live happily ever after, but if we know that the friendly mutants and any other toy with that bad luck to cross paths with Sid is still in danger, then this isn’t going to be a very satisfying movie. It isn’t so much about getting “revenge” on Sid as ensuring that he will never harm another toy ever again. But there’s another issue. Remember the other ticking clock? While he’s working to get the toolbox off of the plastic crate and free Woody, Buzz spots a moving van arriving at Andy’s house. It’s a bit too late in the film to introduce a new big moral dilemma: do we leave now and made certain we reach Andy before he moves away or stay and help the mutant toys even though we might get left behind? So the decision is taken out of the characters’ hands. Sid’s alarm clock goes off mere seconds after Woody is freed from the plastic crate. Sid wakes up and takes off with Buzz to get his rocket launch underway, leaving Woody with no choice but to stay and rescue Buzz, with the help of the mutant toys.

While Woody is trying to convince the mutants to help him save Buzz, he not only refers to Buzz as his friend again, but also finally admits that this entire situation is his fault for pushing Buzz out of the window in the first place. If we didn’t before, now we know for certain that Woody is not the same jealous toy who wanted nothing more than for Buzz to disappear.

Woody has a plan, which he admits will involve “breaking a few rules.” The audience needs to understand that what is about to happen is the result of a desperate situation. The toys will be breaking the rules that they normally live by and while we still may not understand why these rules exist in the first place, we do get that this is a one-time thing and that the toys will not be coming to life around humans on a regular basis. Woody’s plan involves getting Scud – the most direct threat to their operation – out of the house, sneaking out the back door quickly but without being seen, and rescuing Buzz while insuring that Sid will never mistreat his toys again. Watching him formulate his plan and put it into action, we get to see that Woody has qualities that will make him a good leader whether or not he remains Andy’s favorite toy. He is capable of analyzing the situation, coming up with a plan to overcome the obstacles in his path, and using the strengths of the team he has to make that plan work.

As Woody is handing out assignments to the mutant toys, we get one last reminder of what is ultimately at stake here. Andy stands alone in his room as the last box of toys is being taken out by the movers. He has his cowboy hat in one hand and Buzz’s empty spaceship-shaped box in the other. We already knew that Andy wasn’t going to find Woody and Buzz in his room or anywhere in his house, but his downcast expression tells us just how sad he is that his two favorite toys haven’t turned up.

I doubt the words “Wind the frog” have ever been spoken in any other film with such drama and authority as Woody gives them. I would be very surprised if they have ever been spoken in any other film at all.

Woody’s plan goes off without a hitch and all of the toys make it outside to where Sid has constructed the launch pad for Buzz’s impending flight. There is another key point here that sets up for a later scene. The filmmakers need to make sure that we notice Sid putting a match into Woody’s holster as he tosses Woody onto the grill and makes plans for them to have a “cookout” later on. Because it seems like such a natural thing for Sid to do, especially since he already has the matches on hand to light the fuse on the rocket, it doesn’t feel like an obvious plot point that will become important later.

Though for some reason he waits until the last possible second to do it, Woody initiates the last part of his plan, first getting Sid’s attention by spouting recorded phrases from his scratch pull-string voice box, then using that same voice to address Sid directly. As Woody makes it clear that the toys don’t appreciate the way Sid “plays” with them, the mutants and various toys that Sid has discarded in the yard emerge from their hiding places and surround Sid like zombies in a horror movie. Woody himself doesn’t move at all until he rotates his head around 360 degrees in a nod to The Exorcist and finally comes fully to life as he gives Sid a final warning to “play nice.” Sid runs away screaming and is probably in for years of therapy, but the audience can now rest assured that the toys he encounters will be safe from now on.

There is an unintended additional benefit to the success of Woody’s plan. Poor, picked on Hannah can now turn the tables on her big brother and scare the wits out of him just by chasing him around the house with one of her dolls. It’s a fun ending to their story arc and a moment that has likely elicited a chuckle from more than one younger sibling watching the film over the years.

Woody, good leader that he is, takes a moment to praise the other toys for their performances and the little extra touches that they improvised. Buzz is certainly grateful to Woody for saving his life, but neither of them are characters who really wear their hearts on their sleeves. So they aren’t about to have a big conversation about how they’re now friends, much less sing about it. All that Buzz says to Woody is a single, sincere “Thanks,” accompanied by a handshake, which is all that’s needed.

The sound of Andy and his mom saying goodbye to their old house as the car starts to pull out of the driveway signals that the movie will be running in high gear from this point on. Woody’s farewell to Sid’s toys is a hasty “Wegottarun!Thanksguys!” as he and Buzz race to catch up with the car. Woody does have another quick moment of truth when Buzz, who is still taped to the rocket, gets stuck going through the fence separating the two yards while Woody easily slips through. By this point, we know that Woody isn’t going to leave Buzz behind even though Buzz is telling him to go on ahead and that he will catch up. So Woody’s indecision is brief and his actions just confirm that he is now committed to making sure his friend gets home safely too.

Much of the movie’s action-packed conclusion deals with Buzz realizing that he can not only have a fulfilling life as a toy, but that he can also still be a hero, a real hero. But again, the movie is now racing along at top speed, so there is no time for Buzz to sit around and reflect on how being a toy doesn’t stop him from helping people. Instead, we seem him come to this realization through actions and split-second decisions, like when he leaps off the back of the moving van to save Woody from a rampaging Scud, even though it means Buzz himself may be left behind.

Aside from getting both toys safely to Andy’s new house, the remaining problem in the movie is that Andy’s other toys still don’t realize that Buzz is alive and Woody is not a murderer. So when Woody shows up on the moving van, rifles through the boxes of toys, and pushes RC off the truck, the other toys assume that Woody is just trying to eliminate more of his perceived competition. Of course they don’t believe Woody’s protests that he is only trying to rescue Buzz. They think that they’ve already seen the grisly aftermath of what Woody did to Buzz. So when they toss Woody down to the street, they believe they are simply saving themselves from a similar fate.

There is a nice moment just before the toys see both Woody and Buzz riding towards the truck on RC where Bo Peep tries to comfort a downcast Slinky with a pat on the head. Though both toys were present when Woody was thrown overboard, neither of them really seemed that into the idea. It’s a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it bit, but it is a nice reminder that these two toys are Woody’s most loyal friends, even if they still can’t bring themselves to believe that Woody is telling the truth about Buzz.

Slinky tries to make up for not trusting Woody by stretching out to him and Buzz after the ramp on the back of the truck flips over. But Woody and Buzz are the heroes of this film, which means they will have to be solely responsible for getting themselves back to Andy. RC’s batteries start to die and poor Slinky just can’t hold on as the toy car falls farther and farther behind the moving truck.

Here’s where the items and ideas set up earlier in the film start to pay off. Buzz realizes that he’s still taped to the rocket and that Woody still has the match Sid gave him in his holster. There is even a close-up shot of Woody taking the match from his holster and Woody says “Thank you, Sid!” as he lights it, just to make sure we don’t forget where the match came from.

At times, films made with a kid or family audience in mind – animated or otherwise – can get pretty predictable. You are all but guaranteed a happy ending and some audiences watching certain films can call everything from plot twists to actual lines of dialogue before they happen. That is probably part of the reason the car that drives by and blows out the match before Woody can light the rocket is in Toy Story. It isn’t that hard to figure out that Woody and Buzz will catch up to Andy by lighting the rocket. Had Woody simply been able to light the rocket with the match, the film would have fallen into the trap of predictability. With the addition of the car, as the Pixar team has pointed out in numerous commentary tracks, you can stop the film right there, ask first-time viewers what will happen next, and be met almost exclusively with blank stares. The scene works especially well because the audience now in the same place emotionally as Woody. They have understood from the beginning how much Woody cares about Andy. They wanted see both Woody and Buzz reunited with Andy. And now that the last chance for this to happen has seemingly been lost, they will hopefully feel just as devastated as Woody, who reacts with every possible tonal variation on the word “no.”

The solution is the result of another previous setup, as Woody sees the reflected sunlight from Buzz’s helmet starting to burn his hand. So why bother with Sid and the magnifying glass? To make sure that the story plays fair. The solution to the problem cannot seem to come out of nowhere. The audience’s reaction to the reveal should be “Oh, of course! That makes so much sense!” not “Huh, I would have never thought of that” or worse “Isn’t that convenient.” Like in a good mystery, the clues need to be available to the audience so that they feel like they could have solved the puzzle if they had just been thinking about it in the right way. Plus, part of the audience for this film is made up of young kids, who may or may not know that light focused through a clear, curved surface can burn flammable materials. So the films hands us the information we need in a way that feels like it’s just part of the story, gives us just enough time to potentially forget the idea, then reminds Woody and us of it so that there is no doubt in our minds how Woody figured out another way to light the rocket.

The rocket is lit and Woody, Buzz, and RC go airborne. RC is thrown back into the moving truck, ensuring that every last toy is accounted for. And would you believe that the movie throws in an additional problem that Woody and Buzz must conquer before getting back to Andy? Seconds after lighting it, Woody realizes that the rocket is going to explode. But since we’re barely three minutes away from the end of the film, the solution to this problem comes right on the heels of it’s introduction. Buzz’s wings may not be a terillium carbonic alloy, but they are capable of cutting through the duct tape around the rocket just before it explodes and carrying both Woody and Buzz into the sky. Is it necessary to throw one last wrench into the works so late into the movie? Yes. Because this is proof positive that Buzz can realize that he is a toy and still perform amazing feats of heroism. When Buzz believed he was a space ranger, all he could do was fall around Andy’s room in a way that resembled flying. Now that he knows who he truly is, he really can soar through the sky.

We get a reminder of just how far these two characters have come as they finally make their way back to Andy. It is Woody, who was previously so dismissive of Buzz’s space ranger backstory, who now cries out his catchphrase: “To infinity and beyond!” Buzz has not only come to accept being a toy, but has even gained a sense of humor about his experiences, brushing off his ability to fly as what Woody called his earlier attempts at flight: “falling with style.” Buzz also understands exactly where he and Woody belong now. He bypasses the moving truck and deposits himself and Woody in the van (which fortunately has an open sunroof) in a box right next to Andy. In case we have any doubts about Woody’s future, Andy happily hugs both toys close to his chest. His mom is convinced that the two toys were right where Andy left them the whole time. Woody and Buzz share a secret wink in acknowledgement of the fact that they’ve been anywhere but.

Judging by the change of scenery from lush greenery and open sunroofs to falling snow and Christmas decorations, some time has passed between this scene and the previous one. The camera zooms past Andy opening presents and into the Christmas tree, where the green army men have taken up positions to monitor the situation. Panic in the playroom? Actually, no. The toys in Andy’s new room are anticipating the arrival of new toys not with fear, but with excitement. The clearest example of this is Rex, formerly the toy who was most worried about being replaced, talking happily about the possibility of Andy getting an herbivorous dinosaur so that Rex could be cast as the dominant predator. Andy’s baby sister Molly opens up a whole other world of potential new friends for the toys and her first present is the Mrs. Potato Head that Mr. Potato Head has always hoped for.

Andy’s new room reflects both Andy’s affection for his two favorite toys and the newfound friendship between Woody and Buzz. The space ranger décor is still present, but cowboy drawings and posters have returned as well. Andy’s initial excitement about his new toy has given way to equal love of both Woody and Buzz which seems set to last.

Andy might love Woody and Buzz equally, but there is one toy who clearly prefers Woody. Bo Peep ambushes Woody with mistletoe and the next time we see him, his face is covered with lipstick kiss-marks. Bo may have shared the other toys initial excitement over Buzz, but Woody is clearly the only toy for her. If Buzz is even a blip on her radar now, we never hear about it.

From start to finish, Toy Story is a buddy picture. So the ending isn’t some heartfelt affirmation of the toys’ friendship or a duet reprise of “You’ve Got A Friend In Me.” Instead, Buzz gives Woody a knowing, approving look in response to the kiss marks all over Woody’s face and Woody pokes gentle fun at Buzz for seeming nervous as the reports of what Andy got for Christmas start to come in. As the camera starts to pull out through the window, Woody jokingly asks what Andy could possibly get that would be worse than Buzz while giving Buzz’s elbow a friendly shake. Toys or not, these characters are two guys and not the type to talk about their now positive feelings towards one another directly. We know that they’re friends, even if the don’t spell it out for us.

The camera stops its progress and quickly zooms back in on Woody and Buzz when Andy’s first present is revealed to be a real live puppy. The two toys stare at each other in mild shock, then smile awkwardly. Well, Woody did ask. This last second joke could be seen as “here we go again,” but the truth is that both toys are now aware that even if something new comes into Andy’s life, they will still be his toys and will still be important to him. On top of that, Woody and Buzz can now depend on each other.

Toy Story is a remarkably tight narrative. Not a single shot feels wasted, and yet the story never feels rushed either. Like all aspects of the film, the story and pacing are the result of countless hours of work which make the end product feel natural and effortless. Like Woody himself, the once novel visuals of Toy Story have since been topped by newer and flashier productions, including other films from Pixar. But since the success of the film rests on the story and characters, Toy Story not only proved that computer animated films could be hugely successful, but also stands on its own as a film that remains a pleasure to watch to this day.

Bonus: Remember way back in Part One when I said that computer animation has its strengths and weaknesses just like any other medium? Well here’s a look at one of the weaknesses. The following images are render bugs, essentially weird, random mistakes made by the computer in the process of making the film. Even the most high-end computers can screw up at times, occasionally producing funny or bizarre results. These shots are all taken from what may be my favorite special edition DVD set ever: The Ultimate Toy Box.

In this scene, Woody’s legs are at a 90 degree angle from where they should be and his toes point down towards the ground. This is an early render that would have been done to test the staging and animation, hence the lack of detail and background, weird colors, and simplified lighting.

This is pretty disturbing. Buzz’s eyeballs have somehow migrated down to the bottom of his helmet, leaving his eye sockets empty. Despite being detached from his head, Buzz’s eyes continue to blink and look around in time with his dialogue.




Oh dear. Someone has taken Rex’s head and replaced it with Andy’s hand. This is another early render, with the character models looking relatively crude. Rex’s teeth and eyes are still visible in locations that would be correct had Rex’s head not been swapped for a giant hand. This and the previous example should give you an idea of how the character models are made up of various separate parts. All three should give you an idea of how hard it can be to animate with computers when the computer throws glitches like this your way.

All images in this article are copyright Disney/Pixar.