A Tin Toy Christmas (lost production material of cancelled Pixar animated Christmas TV special; early 1990s)

Storyboard of A Tin Toy Christmas.

Status: Lost

A Tin Toy Christmas was a cancelled Christmas special that was being made by Pixar. The film was supposed to be proof that Pixar was capable of making a feature-length film. However, it was cancelled after Pixar was given the opportunity to actually make one. The unmade special would have featured Tinny the tin toy from Pixar's Academy award-winning short film, Tin Toy.

Another Storyboard of A Tin Toy Christmas.

Plot

Even though the film never came to fruition, a plot was written:

"Tinny was part of a Christmas Tin Toy toy line sold in the 1940s, but due to poor sales, he and his friends are put away in storage and Tinny falls into a long sleep. After many years of slumber, Tinny wakes up in a modern-day megastore during the Christmas season. He sees that his friends are nowhere to be found, so he decides to look for them on Christmas Eve. On his adventure, he meets a rather sarcastic ventriloquist dummy who's looking for an owner."

Production

During the early 1990s, Pixar was on the verge of bankruptcy due to them making short films on their Pixar Image computers rather than making sales with them. They decided to drop the software-selling business entirely and go on to just being an animation company, which went better financially. During that time, they went on to make television commercials and would expand on that by creating a half-hour special (A Tin Toy Christmas), and following the completion of that project, would start on a feature-length film (which would soon become Toy Story).

During the early production of A Tin Toy Christmas, former Walt Disney Studios president Peter Schneider tried to hire Pixar animator John Lasseter in an effort to bring him back to Disney, but Lasseter decided to stay with Pixar to help get it out of its financial struggle. Schnieder then called Pixar vice president Ed Catmull and said that he would like for him and Pixar to make a feature-length film. At first, Catmull said that they should do the special first, but Schnieder said that if they could do a half-hour special, then they could do a 90-minute film. As a result, A Tin Toy Christmas was cancelled and Pixar's work effort shifted to Toy Story.

The idea of a diminutive toy going on an adventure along with a ventriloquist dummy also served as the original plot of Toy Story's first drafts, characters that would become Buzz Lightyear and Woody.

Gallery

MeltingMan234's video on the subject.

Top Tower's video on the subject.

See Also

Advertisements

• The Incredibles (found full version of McDonald's Happy Meal commercial for Pixar animated film; 2004)
• The Incredibles (found online promotional trailers for Pixar animated film; 2004)
• Pixar (partially lost early CGI animated commercials from animation studio; 1989-1998)

Animation (Disney)

• Alice in Wonderland (partially lost original draft of Disney animated film; 1939)
• Aladdin (found Howard Ashman treatment of Disney animated film; 1988)
• American Dog (partially found original version of "Bolt" Disney animated film; 2007-2008)
• The Black Cauldron (partially found deleted scenes of Disney animated film; 1985)
• Chanticleer (partially found production material of cancelled Disney animated film; 1940s-mid 1960s)
• Chicken Little 2 (partially found production material of cancelled sequel to Disney animated comedy film; 2006)
• Disney Circle Seven Animation (partially lost production material of cancelled Pixar sequel films; 2004-2006)
• Dumbo II (partially found production material from cancelled Disney animated sequel film; 2000s)
• Fantasia 2006 (partially lost production material for cancelled Disney animated sequel film; 2002-2004)
• Fraidy Cat (lost production material of cancelled Disney animated film; 2004-2005)
• Frozen (partially found early drafts of Disney animated film; 1937-2012)
• Gigantic (lost production material of cancelled Disney animated film; 2013-2017)
• The Jungle Book (lost Bill Peet version of Disney animated film; 1963-1964)
• Kingdom of the Sun (partially found original version of "The Emperor's New Groove" Disney animated film; late 1990s)
• The Lion King II: Simba's Pride (partially found production material and deleted scenes of Disney animated sequel film; 1995-1998)
• Maleficent (lost production material of cancelled Disney animated film; 2003-2005)
• Music Land (lost Disney animated anthology film; 1955)
• My Peoples (partially found production material of cancelled Disney animated film; late 1990s-early 2000s)
• Phineas and Ferb (lost production material of cancelled theatrical film of Disney Channel animated series; 2010s)
• The Search for Mickey Mouse (lost production material of cancelled Disney animated film; 2002)
• The Seven Dwarfs (partially found production material of cancelled direct-to-video prequel to "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" Disney animated film; 2000s)
• Tangled (partially found early drafts of Disney animated film; 2001-2010)
• Tinker Bell (partially found first draft of Disney animated film; 2007)
• Treasure Planet II (lost production material of cancelled Disney animated sequel film; 2002)
• Wild Life (lost production material for cancelled Disney animated film; late 1990s-2000)
• Zootopia (partially found pre-rewrite version of Disney animated film; early 2010s)

Animation (Pixar)

• Cars 3 (lost deleted scene of Pixar animated sequel film; 2017)
• The Good Dinosaur (lost original version of Pixar animated film; 2011-2013)
• Inside Out (lost original Bing Bong death scene of Pixar animated film; 2015)
• Made in Point Richmond (found miscellaneous content from Pixar DVD; 1986-2000)
• Newt (partially found production material of cancelled Pixar animated film; early 2010s)
• Toy Story 4 (found original script of Pixar animated sequel film; 2013-2017)
• Toy Story & Toy Story 2 (partially found intermissions for 3D double feature re-release of Pixar animated films; 2009)
• Toy Story "Black Friday Reel" (partially found rough cut of Pixar animated film; 1993)
• Toy Story "Jessie" (found Patsy Montana Award acceptance speech animation of Pixar character; 2000)
• WALL·E (partially found original treatments of Pixar animated film; 1994-2008)

Audio

• Enchanted (lost deleted song from Disney live-action/animated fantasy comedy film; 2007)
• Fantasia (partially lost original audio of Disney animated film; 1940)
• Jack Wagner (partially lost Disney Park background music collection from American actor; 1970s-2001)
• Mars Needs Moms (found Seth Green vocal performance of Disney motion-capture animated film; 2011)
• The Nightmare Before Christmas (lost original Vincent Price audio of Disney stop-motion animated film; early 1990s)
• Pinocchio (lost Mel Blanc's "Gideon the Cat" dialogue from Disney animated film; 1940)
• Toy Story 2 (partially found Bullseye dialogue test footage from Pixar animated sequel film; late 1990s)

Live Action

• 101 Dalmatians (found "Spotted Landmarks" teaser trailer of Disney live-action film; 1995-1996)
• Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey (found deleted scenes from Disney live-action film; 1993)
• Sleeping Beauty (partially found live action reference material for Disney animated film; 1959)
• Something Wicked This Way Comes (lost original cut of Disney dark fantasy film; 1982)
• Walt Disney (lost physical Mickey Mouse animation reference footage of animator; late 1930s)

Short Films

• Alice Comedies (partially lost series of Walt Disney animated short films; 1920s)
• Blowin' in the Wind (found Pixar animated short film; 1985)
• Lafflets (lost series of Walt Disney animated short films; 1922-1923)
• Language Arts Through Imagination (found series of Disney educational short films; 1988-1989)
• Mickey and Minnie Mouse (lost unauthorized pornographic animated short film; existence unconfirmed; 1936)
• Mickey's Man Friday (partially found production material of unproduced remake of Disney animated short film; 1939-1941)
• Oswald the Lucky Rabbit (partially lost series of Walt Disney animated short films; 1927-1928)
• Poor Papa (found "Oswald the Lucky Rabbit" Walt Disney animated short film; 1927)
• The Princess Academy (lost production material of cancelled Disney animated short film; 2009)
• Short Subject aka "Mickey Mouse in Vietnam" (found unofficial animated short film; 1968)
• Tales from Radiator Springs "To Protect and Serve" (lost episode of "Cars" animated miniseries; 2015)
• Totally Twisted Fairy Tales (partially found Disney animated short series; 1997)
• Uncle Walt (lost unauthorized Disney short film; 1964)