31 Years of Toy Story in Five Minutes: Tom Hanks and Tim Allen Look Back

Tom Hanks and Tim Allen, the voices of Woody and Buzz Lightyear since 1995, sat down with creator Jace Diehl for a five-question interview timed to Toy Story 5. They cover how they were cast, the taped message to Michael Eisner they say pushed Toy Story 2 into theaters, the Toy Story 4 finale that left the recording booth in tears, and voicing 50 Buzz Lightyears for the new film.

Tom Hanks and Tim Allen have voiced Woody and Buzz Lightyear since 1995. With Toy Story 5 in theaters, creator Jace Diehl sat the two actors down for a five-question interview, one question per film, and got them talking about how they were cast, the taped message they say pushed Toy Story 2 into theaters, and the recording session that left the booth in tears.

How Hanks and Allen were cast

Diehl opened by asking each actor how he landed the role. Hanks said Jeffrey Katzenberg pitched Woody to him as "the voice of Turner from Turner and Hooch, put in Woody's body." What sold him was the animation. "CGI animated, it was all elbows, knees, outrage, and consternation," Hanks said. "I said, 'I'm in.'"

Allen's Buzz started somewhere blander. John Lasseter came to his home and showed him a picture of the character, and Allen said the placeholder voice the studio had been using was "very disc jockey AM radio." He pitched a change: "What if we put a little bit of heart to it, so he's a little more delusional?" Lasseter agreed.

The message that sent Toy Story 2 to theaters

Diehl said he had heard a story from Jim Hanks, Tom's brother, who also voices Woody: that the two stars are the reason Toy Story 2 played in theaters at all. Hanks confirmed it. The plan at the time, he said, was a cheap straight-to-video sequel. "The economic model back then was just do a quick knockoff, put it right on video," Hanks recalled. "You make a ton of money, and it doesn't cost that much."

Hanks had finished a morning session and stayed to wait for Allen, who was recording that afternoon. Both ended up on mic together in Studio B, with the engineer they called Doc. Allen worked at Disney, so Hanks asked him why the studio would leave a theatrical release, and the money that came with it, out of the plan. Then they made their case on tape. "We said, 'Doc, roll tape,'" Hanks said, "and then you and I just had a conversation." The message was addressed to the company's chairman: "Play this for Michael Eisner when the time comes around. Michael, Tom here. Are you nuts? This thing should be in the theater."

Hanks stopped short of claiming full credit for what followed. "I don't know if they bowed to our will or I don't know what happened, but it turned out that it worked." Toy Story 2 opened in theaters in 1999. Allen's version was shorter: "Two of us saved Disney."

Why Tim Allen did not voice Spanish Buzz

For Toy Story 3, Diehl asked whether Allen was ever going to voice the Spanish-language version of Buzz. Allen said he tried, and it did not go well. A coach stood next to him feeding the lines one word at a time, close enough that Allen finally asked him to back up. "It was a nightmare," he said, and Doc warned it would take forever at that pace. The production also could not use Antonio Banderas, because his accent is Castilian and the film wanted neutral Spanish, so the part went to a Colombian actor instead.

The Toy Story 4 finale that left them in tears

Diehl asked whether recording the end of Toy Story 4 hit the actors as hard as watching it hit him. Allen said it was worse in the booth. Hanks had recorded his part first, and by the time Allen reached the finale, at the end of another four-hour session, everyone knew where it was going. "We were all puddles," Allen said, with the director and the crew all in the room.

Allen described losing himself in it. "I had a surreal out-of-body experience where my spirit rose up, and I saw all of us in this recording studio on what would be the last day of working on Toy Story," he said. "I don't remember driving home. I was in another state, thinking that something magnificent has come to its conclusion."

Recording 50 Buzz Lightyears for Toy Story 5

Diehl's last question was about a Toy Story 5 scene in which Buzz meets dozens of other Buzz Lightyears. Allen recorded about 50 lines for it, added as the animators cut to each new copy, and the direction kept coming back to "state your name." Allen pushed back that the lines were identical. The director told him some of the clones had to sound drier than the others because they were new at it. "It's so nuanced," Allen said. "It was impossible."

The joke, he explained, is that the copies do not realize what they are. "They think they're space rangers. They don't notice that they all look alike." Only when they meet the real Buzz does he hold any sway over them.

What Toy Story 5 is about

Per Pixar's official synopsis, Woody, Buzz, Jessie and the rest of Bonnie's toys face a new rival in Lilypad, a tablet device that arrives with its own ideas about what the toys' kid should be doing. Toy Story 5 reached theaters on June 19. The full five-question interview is on Jace Diehl's channel.