10 Classic Movies That Almost Had Completely Different Plots

2. Toy Story

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYz2wyBy3kc Toy Story is often praised for its technical advancements, and rightly so €“ they're remarkable. It deserves equal credit, however, for its unprecedented, nuanced writing. Unlike earlier Disney projects (where the line had, for the most part, been clearly drawn between the heroes and the villains), Toy Story features a morally ambiguous protagonist in whom we recognise the flaws not of princes or princesses, but our everyday lives. Woody the Cowboy is, for much of the film, a neurotic and jealous character, traits best embodied in the scene where he attempts to trap Buzz behind a cabinet, but inadvertently ends up knocking him out the window. This was, however, the toned down version of Woody. In the original version of Toy Story, all of the negative traits in his personality were exaggerated to the point where they became grotesque. Woody wasn't just jealous, he was spiteful. He wasn't just smug, he was murderous, to the point where he actively threw Buzz out the window in the middle of a friendly handshake. The other characters weren't much better, either €“ the blistering argument which was to follow the incident feels like something that belongs in a court transcript, not a family film. As John Lasseter reflects in a Blu Ray featurette on this subject (appropriately titled €œThe Toy Story You Never Saw€), €œit was a story filled with the most unhappy, mean people€. A disastrous screening was all it took for everyone involved to realise that this wasn't working. The creative team went back to the drawing board, and (in the space of about two weeks) drafted the version of the film we know and love today. For those who feel like having their childhood memories ruined, rough footage of the darker version is available as part of the aforementioned featurette.