Woody is unquestionably one of the most iconic characters of the Toy Story <\/em>franchise, as well as of the Disney oeuvre as a whole. Alongside Buzz Lightyear<\/a> (and others like Rex and Mr. Potato Head), Woody brings a relatable heart and soul to the Toy Story <\/em>series<\/a>; he grounds the action, and much of the emotional drama in later instalments revolves around him. Of course, since Toy Story <\/em>was an epic, monumental production undertaking, Woody went through many phases before arriving at the lovable cowboy we recognise today. Here are 15 facts you may never have known about Woody!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Most Toy Story <\/em>characters are known by a single name, right? Rex, Hamm, Jessie, and\u2026okay, perhaps not Mr. Potato Head, but Buzz Lightyear is something of an anomaly in that regard. Well, it turns out that Woody has a second name as well! According to the director of Toy Story 3<\/em>, Lee Unkrich, Pride is Woody\u2019s last name, which makes his full name \u201cWoody Pride\u201d. We don\u2019t think it\u2019s going to be as popular as Buzz Lightyear, but it\u2019s neat nonetheless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s common knowledge that Buzz Lightyear was originally a tin toy by the name of Tinny, as Toy Story <\/em>was intended to be something of a followup to Pixar\u2019s 1988 short film Tin Toy<\/em>. However, did you know that Woody was also intended to be something very different to the incarnation in which he eventually ended up? It\u2019s true; he was originally slated to be a ventriloquist\u2019s dummy, and he would have teamed up with Tinny in the original draft of Toy Story<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A popular fan theory<\/a> at one point stated that Woody was actually given to Andy by his dad, who died of post-polio syndrome. Woody, along with other toys Slinky Dog and Mr. Potato Head, was then gifted to Andy, but if you\u2019re a proponent of this theory, then you may want to head back to the drawing board, as it\u2019s actually been debunked. Disney\u2019s Andrew Stanton has said that this theory is \u201cfake news\u201d, so if you like it, you\u2019ll have to think of something else, unfortunately.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Famously, Barbie appears in Toy Story 3<\/em> alongside Ken, speaking iconic lines like \u201cauthority should derive from the consent of the governed, not the threat of force\u201d. Did you know that she was originally slated to appear alongside Woody in the original Toy Story<\/em>, though? Alright, so this isn\u2019t really a fact about Woody, but Barbie almost appeared as part of the first movie\u2019s core cast, so we would have seen her interact with Woody much sooner than she did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Disney is well-known for its straight-to-video releases, and originally, Toy Story 2 <\/em>was going to be another one of those. However, Pixar legend John Lasseter was taking a flight shortly after the release of the original Toy Story<\/em>. He spotted a young child who was playing with a Woody doll, and it was only then that he realised how popular and wide-ranging Toy Story<\/em>\u2019s influence was. This inspired him to turn Toy Story 2 <\/em>into a cinematic release, and the rest is history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Everyone knows that various actors were in the running for the role of Buzz Lightyear, including Jim Carrey (which we have some trouble imagining, if we\u2019re honest). However, everyone\u2019s favourite actor Tom Hanks wasn\u2019t always the one slated to play Woody. At one point, Hollywood legend Paul Newman was in the scope for Woody, but just like Carrey, Newman\u2019s price was just a bit too high. He would eventually go on to star in Cars<\/em>, though, so he didn\u2019t cut ties with Pixar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Have you ever heard of an actor by the name of Woody Strode? He was an African-American footballer (that\u2019s football in the US sense, not the British sense) who was also an actor; you might know him from his turn in Stanley Kubrick\u2019s iconic Spartacus<\/em>. Pixar named Woody after Strode, likely casting around for names for a while before doing so. Strode\u2019s legacy hence lives on not only through his own work, but through one of the most beloved children\u2019s characters ever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Pixar\u2019s original draft of Toy Story<\/em>, Woody was far, far less relatable than he is in the finished movie. Woody was originally going to act like a sadistic dictator, ruling over the toys with an iron fist rather than simply living among them as a friend (and something of a de facto leader). We\u2019re very glad that Pixar decided to change this, because it would have been very difficult to watch. The Woody we know and love today is much more agreeable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As part of the aforementioned original draft of Toy Story<\/em>, Woody was originally going to straight-up murder Buzz Lightyear. We don\u2019t know too much else about how that story would have panned out, only that it was so upsetting that it got canned. Jeffrey Katzenberg, who was the chairman of Disney between 1984 and 1994, hated this version of Toy Story <\/em>so much that he forced the team to change the entire setup, and we\u2019re glad that happened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While it may be true that the Woody fan theory regarding post-polio syndrome turned out not to be real, that doesn\u2019t mean Woody wasn\u2019t a sentimental gift from a parent to his son. According to John Lasseter, who was the director on Toy Story <\/em>(so he probably knows a thing or two about it), Woody was a gift from Andy\u2019s father, which makes the conclusion of Toy Story 3 <\/em>all the more emotional. Excuse us, we\u2019ve got something in our eye.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Animator Bud Luckey is widely regarded as the man who gave life to Woody and made him what he is today. Luckey, who passed away in 2018 at the age of 83, was a long-time animator who worked closely with advertisers, as well as writing and animating for Sesame Street<\/em>. Eventually, he would find himself working at Pixar, where John Lasseter would describe him as \u201cone of the true unsung heroes\u201d of the animation world. He designed Woody, so we have him to thank for that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Originally, Woody was supposed to enter the world of Toy Story <\/em>with a full seven pull-string quotes, including famous ones like \u201cthere\u2019s a snake in my boot\u201d and \u201creach for the sky\u201d, which are the ones we know him for now. However, some of the quotes that weren\u2019t used in the original movie would subsequently turn up in later instalments, including \u201cI\u2019d like to join your posse, boys\u201d, which appeared in Toy Story 3<\/em>. Pixar likely just couldn\u2019t find a place for the extra quotes in the first movie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In all of the excitement surrounding Lightyear<\/em>, many people might have forgotten exactly where Woody came from. He\u2019s a product of the late-40s-early-50s Western boom, wherein many filmmakers began creating and producing movies starring Wild West cowboys. Woody\u2019s show, Woody\u2019s Roundup<\/em>, was cancelled when the space race began, thus igniting interest in science fiction and effectively killing the Western. It didn\u2019t quite work like that in real life, but there are rough parallels to be drawn between Woody\u2019s experience and that of real-life toys.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Woody hasn\u2019t just appeared in his own Toy Story <\/em>series. He\u2019s also made appearances in other Pixar productions; look out for him at the conclusion of Cars <\/em>alongside Buzz Lightyear, and make sure to watch the blooper reel for A Bug\u2019s Life<\/em>, where he can be seen as part of the production crew. You\u2019ll also be able to spot him in Pixar short films like Small Fry <\/em>and Partysaurus Rex<\/em>. He\u2019s truly one of the most iconic fictional characters of all time, so we\u2019re not surprised he keeps popping up in this way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Have you heard of a company called Thinkaway Toys? If not, you might be familiar with their most famous product, which is a to-scale model of Woody as he appears in Toy Story<\/em>. He came complete with a drawstring that would play his famous quotes if it was pulled, and he was \u201clife-size\u201d, too, so you could set him up in whatever scenarios you wanted, especially if you bought the other life-size toy models from the movie. This model features five quotes, including the iconic \u201cthere\u2019s a snake in my boot\u201d. Naturally, it wasn\u2019t the last Woody toy, but it was one of the first.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Woody is unquestionably one of the most iconic characters of the Toy Story franchise, as well as of the Disney oeuvre as a whole. Alongside Buzz Lightyear (and others like Rex and Mr. Potato Head), Woody brings a relatable heart and soul to the Toy Story series; he grounds the action, and much of the … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":8703,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"close","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[222,171,174,173],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-movies","category-nostalgia","category-toys"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nerdleaks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8699"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nerdleaks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nerdleaks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nerdleaks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nerdleaks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8699"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/nerdleaks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8699\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8718,"href":"https:\/\/nerdleaks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8699\/revisions\/8718"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nerdleaks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nerdleaks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nerdleaks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nerdleaks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}1. He\u2019s got a surname<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
2. He wasn\u2019t going to be a cowboy<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
3. That Woody fan theory isn\u2019t true<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
4. He was originally slated to appear alongside Barbie in Toy Story<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
5. Toy Story 2 <\/em>was a cinematic movie because of Woody<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
6. He wasn\u2019t always going to be voiced by Tom Hanks<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
7. His name comes from an African-American football star<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
8. He wasn\u2019t a good person originally<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
9. He was going to murder Buzz<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
10. He was a gift from Andy\u2019s father<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
11. He\u2019s been attributed to an animation legend<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
12. He originally had more quotes<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
13. He\u2019s a relic from a bygone age<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
14. He\u2019s crossed over into other movies<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
15. The first full-scale Woody figure appeared in 1995<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n