20 Things You Somehow Missed In Toy Story

Given that Toy Story was the first entirely computer-animated film, it's little surprise that Pixar took a number of shortcuts to lighten their production load.

This is unsettlingly noticeable early in the film when Andy's friends arrive at his house for his birthday party, and when Sarge (R. Lee Ermey) is watching proceedings through his binoculars, for a brief moment we can see that all of Andy's friends look exactly like him.

There are basic variations - they're wearing different clothes and one of them has darker skin than the rest - but the face and body models are completely identical.

Understandably, Pixar presumed nobody would ever notice, and didn't count on future audiences being able to freeze-frame high-resolution versions of the film. Creepy.

In case you somehow forgot that Toy Story was a Disney film, the studio placed a subconscious reminder on Buzz Lightyear's (Tim Allen) posterior, as is noticeable in a few of the movie's shots.

When Buzz and Woody (Tom Hanks) squabble outside the gas station and Buzz walks away, the word "Disney" can be seen printed on his back side, albeit faintly.

In Toy Story 2, the text was changed to include Pixar.

Strangely, though, this copyright stamp isn't actually included in legit retail versions of the Buzz Lightyear doll, for some reason. They missed a trick there.

A ton of Disney films unsurprisingly contain references to the brand's beloved mascot, Mickey Mouse - "Hidden Mickeys," as they're called - but did you know that Toy Story was among them?

In Andy's bedroom near the start of the movie - shortly after Buzz "lands" and we get a nice wide shot of the room - on the right-hand side of the screen, a large watch-shaped Disney clock is seen hanging on the wall.

On closer inspection, the watch contains an image of Mickey Mouse, whose arms serve as the clock's hands. Better still, this design is actually used in real Mickey Mouse watches.

Here's something that's really subtle, yet certainly noticeable if you've seen the movie enough times. Most of the movie's toy characters blink their eyes one eye at a time, one eyelid moving slightly faster than the other.

In the animation world, this is called "offset blinking," and is typically a trick employed to depict a character who isn't so intelligent.

But in the case of Toy Story, it's been suggested that this may have been a technique to subconsciously remind the audience that the characters are still toys.

If you slow the film down, it's naturally much easier to notice.

Andy and his mother are of course preparing to move house throughout the film, and the "for sale" sign states that the house is being sold by "Virtual Realty."

A rather odd name for a realty firm, no? That's because it's clearly a reference to the fact that Toy Story is the first computer-animated movie and the first major, sustained digital representation of real life put on the big screen.

This one's easy to spot if you're paying attention, yet also completely easy to miss if you just assume you're looking at a generic real estate sign.

Pixar have made it abundantly clear throughout the years that most of their filmmakers have an extreme fondness for the works of Stanley Kubrick, especially his horror classic The Shining.

This is evidenced no better than in Toy Story, where the carpet in Sid's house is very clearly styled on that of the Overlook Hotel's own iconic carpet design.

We get a prolonged look at it when Woody attempts to rescue Buzz from Sid's house, effectively confirming just how completely deranged Sid actually is.

The number "237" also appears several times in Toy Story 3, in reference to the hotel's infamously cursed room 237.

There's another neat Easter egg hanging on Andy's wall, albeit one better-hidden than the Mickey Mouse clock.

When Woody and Slinky Dog (Jim Varney) are on Andy's bed shortly after Buzz's arrival, there's a framed, sketched drawing on the wall behind them, which actually happens to be genuine early Woody concept art.

Woody and Buzz both went through prolonged re-designs during production, and it's just as well, given that a number of the proposed designs were, well, a little too creepy for their own good - especially the original ventriloquist doll version of Woody.

Here's an hilarious - and grim! - gag you'll kick yourself for glossing over all these years.

When Buzz has his psychotic break and adopts his new tea-sipping moniker "Mrs. Nesbitt," he tells Woody, "One minute you're defending the whole galaxy, and suddenly you find yourself suckin' down Darjeeling with Marie Antoinette and her little sister."

Given that Buzz is having tea with one of Sid's sister's dolls which has had its head removed by Sid, this is evidently a nod to the fact that Queen of France Marie Antoinette was herself executed via beheading.

In addition to making Andy's friends copy-paste clones of himself, Pixar also employed a number of other sneaky animation short-cuts to lighten their load.

Most prominently, none of the movie's human characters have long, flowing hair, because Pixar was still wrestling with the complex mechanics of hair physics at the time.

This is the reason that Andy's mother has her hair tied up in a pony tail and Sid's sister Hannah has a short, solid bob: to save the animators having to figure out a volumetric model for it.

There are other time-savers: we don't see Combat Carl's explosive death because Pixar considered animating an explosion too taxing, and there are no milk droplets when Woody dunks his burning head into Sid's bowl of cereal for much the same reason.

Once upon a time, the Wilhelm scream was a sneaky little Easter egg for sound engineers to include in their films, but the distinctive scream sound effect is so distinctive and ubiquitous these days that its inclusion often proves more distracting and groan-worthy than funny.

It actually makes an appearance in Toy Story during one of the film's most pivotal moments, when Buzz is knocked out of Andy's window courtesy of Woody.

The sound mix is busy enough that it's easily missed - especially if you're not watching the film on a quality sound setup - though once you do notice it, you'll likely never miss it again.

Who can forget the incredible moment when Buzz finally comes to terms with the fact that he's a toy? Buzz sees a TV commercial for himself, which makes it abundantly clear he's "not a flying toy."

The hilariously over-the-top parody of toy commercials also includes a surprise celebrity cameo, with the wacky narration being provided by none other than legendary magician Penn Jillette.

In a recent interview, Jillette claims he was one of the first - if not the first - people cast, long before the likes of Tom Hanks came aboard. Though at the time, he thought the movie was called "Toy Store." Close.

Sid's bedroom is full of tools which he uses to create his Frankenstein-style toys, and eagle-eyed viewers might notice that his toolbox is of the "Binford" brand.

This might seem like a totally random, whatever made-up name, but it's actually a reference to Tim Allen's hit sitcom Home Improvement, where Binford Tools was the sponsor for "Tool Time," the TV show hosted by Allen's protagonist, Tim Taylor.

To place a cherry on top of the subtle nod, the logo is even exactly the same as it is in the show. Nice.

Who could ever forget the film's instantly iconic three-eyed aliens? The high-pitched, adorable creatures are first encountered inside Pizza Planet's giant prize machine, though you might've missed an extremely obvious detail about their design.

Though at a cursory glance their costume is nothing more than generic space-faring attire, the emblem on the left-hand side is actually the Pizza Planet logo itself, with a ring circling what looks like a planetary body but is actually a pizza, toppings and all.

The obvious implication is that the aliens are Pizza Planet-branded, rather than regular toys that were merely thrown into the prize machine.

We know that Sid is a deeply troubled boy, but there are several suggestions that he might also be a military brat and have received some undue influence from his mother or father's time in service.

For starters, when Woody hides in the milk crate in Sid's room, inside is a manual called "TM 31-210: Improvised Interrogation Techniques," which we can safely assume Sid has studied extensively given that we see him both interrogating and torturing toys throughout the film.

TM 31-210 is actually a real military manual, though in reality it's a handbook for weapons and explosives rather than interrogation.

The other big indication that Sid is being raised in a military household is the fact that his dog is named "Scud," most likely a reference to the scud missiles which were famously used by Iraq during the Gulf War.

Given that Toy Story was released just a few years after the Gulf War ended, it's a fair assumption that at least one of Sid's parents may have served.

No single line of dialogue in the Toy Story franchise is more iconic or meaning-filled than Buzz Lightyear's immortal quip, "To infinity and beyond!"

The quote actually originates from Pixar's favourite filmmaker, Stanley Kubrick, namely his sci-fi masterpiece 2001: A Space Odyssey.

The film's delirious final sequence is introduced with the intertitle, "Jupiter and Beyond the Infinite," which evidently served as the influence for what has become one of the most popular movie quotes of the last 25 years.

Sidebar: do you think Kubrick ever saw Toy Story before he died? What would he have made of it?

In Sid's room, Woody and Buzz meet the various toys he's tortured and mutilated, including Babyface, who is comprised of a baby doll's head - presumably belonging to Sid's sister - attached to a spider-like metal body.

At one point, Babyface taps a message to the other toys, who then emerge to gather around Woody. But how would Woody, a cowboy toy, have any idea what's going on?

Well, there's a perfect answer earlier in the film, when we see a poster in Andy's room which contains a Buzz Lightyear-branded Morse code alphabet. Genius foreshadowing, there.

This is very difficult to spot on earlier home video releases, though much easier to notice on the Blu-ray and especially the more recent 4K UHD.

The bag which Sid uses to bring Woody, Buzz, and the aliens home from Pizza Planet has a scrawling on the side which reads, "Julie Macbarfle has cooties!"

This is a reference to Julie M. McDonald, who worked on the film as a camera and editorial manager, and who asked the animators to include a reference to her in the film somewhere.

Whether this is quite what she had in mind, we'll probably never know.

Sid's collection of mutant toys sure are fascinating, though one of the designs also serves as by far the movie's dirtiest - and perhaps cleverest - joke.

One of the mutants is referred to as "Legs" by Woody, comprised of a pair of doll legs attached to a fishing rod.

However, sharp fans eventually realised that Legs was in the most literal and figurative sense a "hooker," between her suggestive, scantily-clad lower-body and her literal hook for an upper-body.

Say what you want about Sid, but the kid clearly had some twisted sense of creativity.

Mid-way through the film, we see Hamm (John Ratzenberger) and Mr. Potato Head (Don Dickles) playing Battleship, but if you actually take a look at how the game is going, something is definitely amiss.

We can see that Mr. Potato Head's side of the board is almost entirely filled with "miss" pins, because Hamm has been blatantly cheating by not declaring any of his ships as hit.

Of course, it's ridiculous that Mr. Potato Head wouldn't realise this, which is probably why Hamm is even playing against him in the first place.

Ever the villain, that Dr. Porkchop.

In the film's urgent final chase sequence, we catch a brief glimpse of Andy's mother and his sister Molly in their car, the latter of whom happens to be happily singing along to a song as she watches Woody and Buzz trying to catch up to them.

That song? "Hakuna Matata" from The Lion King. This one's harder to spot than you might think because the sound is rather low-down in the mix, and it's featured for just a few short seconds.

It's just as well, as anything more would distract the audience from Woody and Buzz's frantic race to reach the car.