Toy Story: All the Pop Culture That Inspired Pixars Classic Series

The world of Toy Story was built on pop culture of the past. The decades-old Pixar franchise—which will launch a new chapter with Toy Story 4 this Friday—is full of subtle (and not-so-subtle) references to old films and TV shows, a tradition that began with the first film (released in 1995), and has carried on through the rest of the franchise. As Toy Story 4 approaches, extending the seriess cinematic universe and deepening its own pool of references, its time to look back at the sly homages viewers might have missed over the years—which you can learn even more about in the video above.

Lets start with Woody, the adventurous cowboy voiced by Tom Hanks. The character was named after Woody Strode, the legendary Spartacus actor who starred in numerous Westerns throughout the 1960s and 1970s. Strode was a prolific performer, starring in his first film in 1941, and working steadily until his death in 1994. His final film was, fittingly, a Western: Sam Raimis The Quick and the Dead, co-starring Sharon Stone, Russell Crowe, and Leonardo DiCaprio, and released in 1995.

Buzz Lightyear, the adventurous astronaut toy voiced by Tim Allen, was also (perhaps, more obviously) likely named after a well-known public figure: astronaut Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk the moon. Aldrin himself liked the homage, attending film premieres for all three Toy Story films released so far, and posing alongside Buzz Lightyear toys. But back in 2009, he revealed that he was originally “exasperated” by Disneys decision to honor him in that way. “You dont want to tangle with Disney, the friend of children,” he said, noting that it would have been fruitless to attempt legal action against the studio. “You dont want to challenge their lawyers—for sure, youre going to lose.” Good thing he had a change of heart.

Speaking of Buzz: his space-centric story line in the first Toy Story has given the films endless opportunities to drop numerous sci-fi references, from Star Trek to Star Wars. Buzzs archnemesis, for example, is Emperor Zurg, a villainous toy who first appears in Toy Story 2 and is clearly inspired by Star Wars Darth Vader. Theres also a scene in the first Toy Story in which Buzz travels to Pizza Planet, a Chuck E. Cheese–style play place and restaurant that has Battlestar Galactica–esque décor at the entrance and an Alien-inspired game inside. At one point Buzz gets trapped in a claw machine with a bunch of alien toys, who behave similarly to the extraterrestrials in Steven Spielbergs Close Encounters of the Third Kind. The film is full of these kinds of nods, including Buzz throwing a Vulcan salute at Woody—one of many, many quick hat tips over the years.

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