--- description: The groundbreaking film is about to celebrate its 20th anniversary title: See Original 'Toy Story' Concept Art for Buzz and Woody image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt212db4d34eec4d2a/698871735f570f4f37b1e601/1-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [History](/section/history/) ## History Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [movies](/tag/movies/) ## movies Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # See Original _Toy Story_ Concept Art for Buzz and Woody  by [Julia Zorthian](/author/julia-zorthian/)  ## Julia Zorthian Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Nov 19, 2015 6:30 PM CUT  Buzz Lightyear and Woody drawn by Bob Pauley Buzz Lightyear and Woody drawn by Bob PauleyDeborah Coleman / Pixar  by [Julia Zorthian](/author/julia-zorthian/)  ## Julia Zorthian Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Nov 19, 2015 6:30 PM CUT Animators at Pixar toyed around with a number of different character and plot iterations before settling on the lanky cowboy and sturdy spaceman who anchored the film. And the creative process to that final product was not a smooth progression. The current President of Pixar and Disney Animation Studios Ed Catmull, who was a lead developer for _Toy Story_, says Disney halted Pixar’s work on the movie out of dissatisfaction with the work from its young partner studio. “The first version \[of _Toy Story_\], Woody was quite different and he wasn’t very likable at all. The people at Disney at the time were saying ‘oh this actually…this is pretty bad.’ They essentially shut down production,” Catmull tells TIME. “Even Roy Disney, who was championing it, looked at it and said ‘What in the world is this? This doesn’t make any sense.’” Catmull calls the phase a “black time” for the fledgling studio, whose existence essentially hung on the success of the movie. To rescue the effort, the creative leadership (who would later come to be known as the Pixar “brain trust”) sequestered themselves in a room to rethink the movie’s concept and characters. “They weren’t trying to please anybody else; they were trying to make a film that they wanted to see,” Catmull explains. That redesign paid off, the vaguely alarming elements of the early concept were outgrown—and the charming final version of Woody was a box-office smash. More Pixar art is [currently on view](http://www.cooperhewitt.org/events/current-exhibitions/pixar-the-design-of-story-4/ "undefined") at the Cooper Hewitt museum in New York City. **_Read more about how Toy Story came to be:_** [How _Toy Story_ Changed Movie History](http://ti.me/1HYlykf "undefined")  Buzz Lightyear and Woody drawn by Bob Pauley Deborah Coleman / Pixar  Buzz Lightyear drawn by Bob Pauley Deborah Coleman / Pixar  Woody designs by Bud Luckey Deborah Coleman / Pixar  Woody drawn by Bud Luckey, with color by Ralph Eggleston Deborah Coleman / Pixar  Art for 'Toy Story' (1995) by Ralph Eggleston Deborah Coleman / Pixar  Woody drawn by Steve Johnson and Lou Fancher Deborah Coleman / Pixar  Buzz Lightyear drawn by Bud Luckey Deborah Coleman / Pixar  A still from the final version of 'Toy Story' (1995) Deborah Coleman / Pixar ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4115301/toy-story-concept-art/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4115301/toy-story-concept-art/"},"headline":"See Original Toy Story Concept Art for Buzz and Woody","datePublished":"2015-11-19T18:30:28.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:00:55.343Z","description":"The groundbreaking film is about to celebrate its 20th anniversary","url":"https://time.com/4115301/toy-story-concept-art/","keywords":["movies","Art","photography"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt212db4d34eec4d2a/698871735f570f4f37b1e601/1-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Julia Zorthian","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/julia-zorthian/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt212db4d34eec4d2a/698871735f570f4f37b1e601/1-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Buzz and Woody","caption":"Buzz and Woody","creditText":"Deborah Coleman / Pixar","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/movies/","name":"movies"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4115301/toy-story-concept-art/","name":"See Original Toy Story Concept Art for Buzz and Woody"}}]}] ```