Toy Story 3 screenwriter Michael Arndt explains how the first draft of the Pixar movie had a more comedic ending. Between the toys nearly being incinerated, and Andy saying goodbye to his toys as he gives them to Bonnie and heads off to college, the third installment is remembered for having a dramatic and deeply emotional ending. The movie contains plenty of comedic moments, but its legacy is the impactful ending that almost becomes shockingly dark before concluding as a tearjerker. Although the franchise has since continued with two more sequels, including the upcoming Toy Story 5, it seems the series could have taken a different turn had it gone with an alternative ending.
While speaking with Script Apart, Arndt shares how different the Toy Story 3 ending was in the first draft, both in terms of content and tone. Check out the video below:
While both endings follow the toys escaping Sunnyside Daycare and trying to get back to Andy before he leaves for college, the approaches are otherwise completely different. The original idea was that the toys would race to get back to Andy’s room, and they faced a few bumpy challenges with their mode of transportation. The differences that Arndt describes show how much Toy Story 3 changed from the first draft to the finished version that was released in theaters in 2010. Read the full description below:
The initial third draft was, they escaped from Sunnyside, and then they realized that Andy’s leaving for college in like ten minutes, and they had no time to get home to Andy’s house. And so the initial third act of the film – I don’t know if anyone’s talked it publicly or discussed it, but the initial third act was, they realize that they’re right next to Al’s Toy Barn, and so they go into Al’s Toy Barn, they get a bunch of – they get a radio-controlled car, a radio-controlled motorcycle, and a radio-controlled airplane. And they’re going to use that to get back to Andy’s house in time, and then they all try to take off, and they immediately collide with each other, and they get themselves sorted out. They get back on their vehicles, and they take off, and then they realize retroactively that they all grabbed the wrong remote controllers. So, the people on the motorcycle are controlling the car, the people in the car are controlling the airplane. . . And so you have this – it’s sort of this comedy sprint to the finish where you have a ticking clock and Andy’s about to leave for college. And then we had this thing where the battery – the motorcycle runs out of battery, and they all have to hop on the car and then the car runs out of batteries, and they all have to hop on the plane and then the climax was that they’re all on the plane, and they just slide through the window and go smashing into Andy’s bedroom just as he’s walking up the stairs, and he finds his toys there and packs them all away.
Why Toy Story 3’s Less Dramatic Ending Wouldn’t Have Worked?
The original ending that Arndt describes sounds amusing as the toys race to reach Andy while dealing with the chaos of their radio-controlled toy vehicles. The connection to Al Toy’s Barn is also a fun nod to Toy Story 2. Nevertheless, this Toy Story 3 ending wouldn’t have worked as it’s not really about the toys and instead becomes about the literal race to Andy and the various miscommunications and malfunctions. It also shows no growth for either the toys or Andy that would resonate with the realities of growing up and acceptance.
Toy Story 3‘s final ending works because it’s about Woody, Buzz Lightyear, and the other toys reconciling with what it means to be a toy. This includes facing their own mortality in their incinerator and having to part ways with Andy even after all the years they spent together, making him happy and being there for him. Instead of Andy simply packing them up for college, they must say goodbye and find a new purpose as they will now make Bonnie happy and be there for her.
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The race to Andy in Toy Story 3‘s first draft is also very similar to the ending of the previous films. Toy Story culminates in Woody and Buzz chasing and ultimately flying after the moving truck as Andy and his family move to their new home. Toy Story 2 also builds to a dramatic chase sequence as the toys rush to save Woody at the airport, including a literal race after a departing plane. The radio-controlled vehicle race would’ve felt too similar and would’ve robbed audiences of Toy Story 3‘s much more memorable and moving ending.
Toy Story 3
- Release Date
- June 18, 2010
- Director
- Lee Unkrich
- Cast
- Jodi Benson , Ned Beatty , Tim Allen , Tom Hanks , Joan Cusack
- Rating
- G
- Runtime
- 103 minutes
- Genres
- Family , Fantasy , Animation , Adventure , Comedy
- Writers
- Michael Arndt
- Budget
- $200 million
- Studio(s)
- Disney
- Distributor(s)
- Disney
- Sequel(s)
- Toy Story 4
- prequel(s)
- Toy Story 2 , Toy Story
- Franchise(s)
- Toy Story
