Follow Your Heart

 

You might remember the time I compared both Shark Tale and Chicken Little, I mentioned that they both had potential but got messed up because of executive meddling and because either Jeffrey Katzenberg or Michael Eisner butted in, the films became critical failures and embarrassments that even the companies seemed embarrassed to admit that they made them, most of the time. Disney and DreamWorks’ low points didn’t go so well because they forgot to do something that is an important thing to do when making a story, or anything else, it’s to always trust your instincts and follow your heart, if you do, things will work out in the end. A little over a decade before these two low points came to the big screen, Pixar Animation Studios almost fell into that trap but were thankfully able to fix the problem and learn the lesson I mentioned, and that’s where the Black Friday reel comes in, but since this is Pixar’s first movie, let’s start with an origin story.

Origins

After working on a few short films, Pixar decided it was time to finally make a feature film. After they made their Academy Award winning short Tin Toy, Pixar thought about making a Christmas special from said short, but Disney said that it would be better to make a movie. They had a lot of story ideas, the first idea was about the protagonist of said short, Tinny getting lost from his owner where he meets a ventriloquist dummy, they soon become friends and end up in a preschool where they’ll never be outgrown (think of what Lotso said in Toy Story 3). That story might’ve sounded a bit too bland, they changed it to Tinny being a birthday present for the kid, and he meets these strange toys and develops a rivalry turned friendship with the ventriloquist dummy. However, Tinny seemed way too old fashioned to be a toy that every child would want for Christmas or their birthday, so inspired by John Lasseter’s GI Joe he had as a child, they made an action figure with different names, from Lunar Larry, to Tempus from Morph, to finally, Buzz Lightyear! Another change was the ventriloquist dummy, he was still a pull string toy (inspired by John Lasseter’s Casper pull string doll he had as a child) but it was animator Bud Luckey who suggested to make him a cowboy instead, that’s how we got Woody, he thought it would be interesting to see a cowboy and a space ranger develop a rivalry turned friendship, which is fitting since kids were becoming more interested in astronauts than cowboys (think of Stinky Pete’s line in Toy Story 2 about Sputnik). Even casting went through changes too. It was easy to cast Tom Hanks as Woody, they way they did it was by animating Woody saying lines from Turner And Hooch and it made Tom laugh so much that he quickly accepted. Buzz on the other hand, went through many casting changes, Billy Murray and Billy Crystal were offered but they said, no (for the latter, they animated Buzz saying lines from When Harry Met Sally, but he thankfully turned it down, it didn’t sound right for Buzz, he makes a better Mike Wazowski) and even Clark Griswold himself was offered the role but he turned it down too, however, one of Chevy’s biggest fans, Tim Allen heard this, and immediately auditioned and was accepted. So now that the characters were ready and cast and the filmmakers had a story in mind, things should go smoothly and they’ll have no problems, right? Wrong! Their problems were far from over due to executive meddling, now it’s time to talk about the Black Friday Reel!

 

The Black Friday Reel

Pixar had been working hard on Toy Story, when then Disney chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg demanded to them that they make it more cynical and edgy. The guys at Pixar (who were young and inexperienced at the time) might’ve been insecure about what he said, so they blindly followed his requests instead of listening to and trusting their hearts and instincts, it didn’t take too long for disaster to strike. On November 19 1993, the crew at Pixar went to show Disney the first half of the story and it was an epic disaster! It was way too cynical, and way too mean spirited, but the worst part of it all was Woody! He was such an unlikable, selfish and malicious asshole, heck, had he been like that in the final movie, he would’ve ended up there with Oscar/Will Smith fish or Surly from the Nut Job as some of the most unlikable protagonists. In this draft, Woody was more of a bully, he insulted and abused the toys and used his power in being the leader as a way to control them but the worst was to come. In the Black Friday version of the window scene, Woody and Buzz are waiting to see who Andy will take to Pizza Planet, Buzz offers a handshake to Woody wishing him luck, Woody takes his hand and then throws him out the window and into the bushes on purpose!! The toys see what he did, and while he denies it at first, once the toys look out the window and call him out, Woody arrogantly admits that he did it and shows no guilt or remorse. The toys got on the bed to stand up to him, Woody rudely ordered them to get off the bed and then ordered Slinky to take care of them, when Slink tried to gently tell him that it was wrong for him to do that, Woody yelled at and bullied the poor dog and ordered him to get them off the bed and threatened to throw him off unless he does as he says. Then, it had the toys stand up to him and then they went to attack Woody and throw him off the bed but Slinky tells them not to throw him off the bed, you’d think he would be the voice of reason (as the Unusual Suspect said in his review) but instead he tells them to throw him off the window, which they did and the reel ended. There were even some deleted scenes that you might’ve seen on the DVD where as funny as they could be (Buzz freaking out over the sun being gone is so hilarious) they did show Woody being a dick. Even in an alternate version of the part where Woody and the mutant toys teach Sid a lesson was too dark and too extreme and maybe a bit too cruel, thankfully they toned it down more in the final film.

After the reel was shown, the people at Disney were disgusted, even Tom Hanks wasn’t happy with it, and Pixar was so humiliated, as then Disney president Thomas Schumacher told Katzenberg when he asked what was wrong with it, that this wasn’t their movie anymore, this was far from what they wanted to make. Disney was ready to cancel the project and fire a lot of Pixar employees but they guys at Pixar refused to let that happen, they begged Disney to give them two weeks to rewrite the script and make the movie they wanted to make. For the next two weeks, they worked hard as if their lives depended on it, the filmmakers bonded, helped each other and most importantly, trusted their guts and made the story they wanted to make and they made Woody likable enough that even when he made bad choices and acted like a jerk, we would still like him and not want him to make these choices instead of seeing him as a jerk nobody cares about (as Lasseter said in an interview). After two weeks of hard work, the guys at Pixar showed Disney what they had done so far and it was an improvement.

It was less edgy, less mean spirited and more family friendly, the characters were more likable and best of all, Woody was a lovable protagonist with relatable flaws and even the window scene was different. The scene had Woody fearing that Andy would pick Buzz to take with him to Pizza Planet, so to get that position, he tricked Buzz so the former would be distracted so Woody could knock Buzz behind the desk, but the plan backfired and it resulted in Buzz accidentally falling out the window. Woody was horrified at what he had done and when the toys confronted him he tried to convince them that it was an accident. This scene made a huge difference than the Black Friday reel, because it showed that Woody was jealous towards Buzz, but he did at least have standards, he wanted to knock Buzz behind the desk instead of the window. Now, granted, that’s not okay at all, but at the very least he was only trying to hide him temporarily instead of getting rid of him for good, even he knew that would be going too far, showing once again, he had standards, something the Black Friday Woody didn’t have.

Once they showed it to Disney, they didn’t think it was great but good enough to be continued, so Pixar did just that and once it was released, it was a critical and commercial success as the first ever CG animated movie as well as the first movie from Pixar, who then went to make more movies like Monsters Inc, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Ratatouille, Up and Inside Out just to name a few, and the rest is history.

The Black Friday reel was a disaster for sure, but one good thing about it was that it taught the guys at Pixar a very important lesson, they learned to trust their instinct and listen to and follow their hearts and make the stories they wanted to make. Had they not done that after the Black Friday reel, there would be no Toy Story or Pixar in general. So, if you ever want to make a story in any way shape or form, always remember to listen to and trust your instincts and heart, when you do so, it will pay off brilliantly. Another thing to remember is that taking advice and feedback is one thing, but blindly following others requests or giving into someone’s demands and meddling is a major red flag and if you fall into that trap, it could end in disaster, so trust yourself and you’ll win in the end.

Here's where I learnt some of those facts.

The History of Pixar Animation Studios 1/6 - Animation Lookback (youtube.com)