Tom Hanks stopped by “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” on Monday night and shared the story of how he was cast as Woody in the very first “Toy Story” film 31 years ago, revealing that he had “no idea” it would turn into such a successful and enduring franchise.
“We were just taking in a gig because [former Walt Disney Studios chair] Jeffrey Katzenberg told us to,” Hanks joked. “I did it because you want to be a voice in a Disney movie, and it’s magnificent. [But] they said [at the time], ‘We need to explain this to you. First of all, this is going to be a whole new way of animating a film. So take ‘The Flintstones’? Forget it. This is brand new.”
1995’s “Toy Story” was the first completely computer-animated film ever made. To demonstrate what the film’s animation style would look like, Hanks recalled how the creative team at Pixar used a line from one of his movies to convince him to play lovable toy sheriff Woody.
“They showed Woody on a plain blue background, a CGI version of Woody, and they took this line from ‘Turner and Hooch,’” Hanks remembered. “They took this line in which I’m saying, ‘You’re eating the car!?! Don’t eat the car! Stop eating the car! Why are you eating the car?!?!’ That’s what the line was.” The Pixar creatives, however, had animated Woody to make the line even more physically comedic and screwball.
“I said, ‘I think I get it. I’m your man!’” Hanks recalled.
Over 30 years and now five movies later, Kimmel asked Hanks if the executives at Pixar even need to pitch new “Toy Story” ideas to him and Buzz Lightyear voice actor Tim Allen at this point.
“We take this very seriously. We don’t have to do these if we don’t want to,” Hanks replied. “We only do it because these guys at Pixar come back and say, ‘We have another idea.’ We say, ‘Do you? Do you really?’ ‘Toy Story 5’ director Andrew Stanton, he had carte blanche at Pixar. They said, ‘You can do whatever you want to do.’ He thought about it, then came back and said, ‘I think I have another ‘Toy Story’ movie.”
“Both Tim and I immediately get on the phone,” he recalled. “‘You hear this?’ ‘Yes, I heard that.’ ‘What do you make of it?’ ‘I’m not so sure it’s going to live up to the other four.’ ‘Well, let’s give them a shot.’ ‘Let’s see what they might have to say.’ ‘Well, you can go ahead and do it, but I’m going to tell you right now, I have demands.’ And you can quote that.”
“Honestly, we don’t want them to be lesser than what the others have been,” the actor ultimately admitted.
“Toy Story 5” catches back up with Woody and some of the franchise’s other central playmates as they find their time with their child owner Bonnie threatened by the arrival of a tablet that takes all her attention away from them — in theaters June 19.
