Toy Story 2 faced numerous production difficulties, including near deletion of all the animation files, a third of the workforce developing repetitive stress injuries, and the decision to essentially restart the movie 9 months before release. Against all odds, Pixar delivered a masterpiece.

Toy Story 2It’s January 1999, and Pixar is in a crisis.The company is nine months away from releasing its next film Toy Story 2, the highly anticipated sequel to their critically acclaimed debut feature, and in the words of director John Lasseter: it’s a “disaster”. Talk of a sequel to Toy Story began immediately after it proved to be such a tremendous success, becoming the highest grossing film of 1995, and Lasseter, having already helmed the first movie and starting work on A Bug’s Life, decided it would be a good opportunity to foster new talent at Pixar. Promising young animator Ash Brennon is hired to direct, and the film is officially announced in March 1997 as a direct to video release. Disney’s track record with sequels at the time was spotty at best – The Rescuers Down Under was their only theatrically released sequel and it was a major flop, and the “happily ever after” nature of a lot of their films combined with their tight image control led them away from possibly diluting the brand with mediocre second installments. But with the direct-to-video sequel model introduced a few years earlier proving particularly lucrative (Return of Jafar reportedly made over $100 million dollars profit), this path seemed a natural fit for Toy Story 2.Production immediately gets off to a rocky start. Working on a direct-to-video release was supposed to be a cost-cutting method of film production; one that accepted a lower degree of quality in return for higher back end profits but Pixar employees struggled to adapt to this model, refusing to compromise their expectations of quality. A few months into production Disney orders producer Ralph Guggenheim to be replaced due to their dissatisfaction with the progress of the movie, and while they soon get to a point of being confident enough in the early footage to change to a theatrical release, Pixar didn’t share that same confidence. The story wasn’t working, the jokes weren’t landing and the emotional arc of the movie was predictable and dull. Everything comes to a head in fall 1997, when, a year from release, Lasseter returns from doing an international promo on A Bug’s Life to look at the progress of the film. Lasseter comes to an immediate agreement that it’s unreleasable in its current state, and takes over as director. Meetings are held with Disney execs to try and organize a delay but the release date proves non-negotiable. There were too many licensing and merchandise agreements in place to risk, and so Pixar is faced with an ultimatum: release a sub-par film, potentially jeopardizing the future image of the company, or push themselves to breaking point and start from scratch. And so, with less than a year until the movie needs to be released, Pixar attempts one of the most gargantuan feats ever seen in film production: restarting Toy Story 2.From: Toy Story 2’ at 20: A History of the Film That Almost Broke Pixar, and How It Became Their Masterpiece via /r/movies https://ift.tt/2KKcCuR