20 Mind-Blowing Facts You Never Knew About Pixar
10. Toy Story 3 Almost Took Place In Taiwan
Toy Story 3 was even more brilliant than its predecessor, but it too could have been completely different.
In 2004, Pixar agreed that Disney would have the rights to all of their characters and the rights to make any future sequels without them. So Disney immediately put a third Toy Story into production without Pixar's involvement at all. Their version was going to be about Buzz Lightyear toys being recalled to Taiwan because of a manufacturer defect.
Much like Toy Story 2 is about rescuing Woody from Al's Toy Barn, Toy Story 3 would be about rescuing Buzz from Taiwan, with the other toys heading there to try to bring him back. Buzz would meet a bunch of other rejected toys in Taiwan, kind of similar to what actually does happen in the final movie with Lotso.
But then after the purchase of Pixar by Disney, the studio that was working on Toy Story 3 was shut down, and Edwin Catmull and John Lasseter were back in charge. Lasseter soon put his own version of the sequel into development, now with an entirely new plot about Andy going off to college.
You can still see some of the concept art for the abandoned movie online, and it's pretty interesting to imagine what might have been.