“Toy Story 2” was accidentally deleted during production, but saved by an employee on maternity leave.
New parents are responsible for a lot: Feeding a hungry baby, keeping track of naps while not sleeping much themselves, and in one instance, saving years of their coworkers’ hard work. At least that was the case for Galyn Susman, the Pixar technical director credited with bringing Toy Story 2 back from the depths of deletion in 1998. Susman, a new parent out of office on maternity leave, was notified that 90% of the film had been accidentally deleted thanks to a software snafu; what’s worse, the studio’s on-site backups had failed. Miraculously, Susman had copies of the film on her laptop, which she had been working on during her leave. The laptop was wrapped in blankets and gingerly carted back to the Pixar studio, where the files ended up saving the production.
Susman’s copy of Toy Story 2 wasn’t the one that ended up on the big screen, but for good reason. The first Toy Story film debuted in 1995 and was a box-office success, drawing three Oscar nominations and winning the Academy’s Special Achievement Award as the first feature film created entirely with computer animation. But when it came to Toy Story 2, Disney and Pixar planned for the sequel to skip theaters altogether, opting for a direct-to-video production. During the animation process, Pixar creatives successfully advocated for a full theatrical release; however, that meant reworking the entire film in less than nine months before its scheduled November 1999 release date. The tight turnaround paid off: Toy Story 2 became the third-highest-grossing film that year, and today remains a beloved chapter in the Toy Story franchise.
A scene in Toy Story 2 pokes fun at a real-life gaffe made by toy companies: failing to see that the animated franchise would be a major moneymaker. Disney approached toy manufacturers nearly a year before the first film’s release, hoping to produce a line of character action figures and dolls. But two big-name companies — Hasbro and Mattel — turned down the licensing opportunity, worried the computer-animated film would be a flop, and that there wasn’t even enough time to create the toys. A small Canadian toy maker landed the gig, but couldn’t keep up with orders. By Christmas of 1996, the film was so popular and demand for a limited stock of Toy Story figurines was so high that desperate parents paid more than four times the retail price from unscrupulous sellers. The holiday shopping fallout has since been immortalized in the first Toy Story sequel; on-screen, Barbie cheerfully relays the tale of the toy shortage — a situation Disney made sure not to repeat with each subsequent movie release.
