''Live Action Toy Story'' is a fan film produced by the Arizona-based Jonason Pauley and Jesse Perrotta. It is an unofficial recreation and remake of the 1995 animated film ''

Toy Story ''Toy Story'' is a 1995 American animated adventure comedy film produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures. It is the first installment in the Toy Story (franchise), ''Toy Story'' franchise and the Firsts in animation, firs ...

'', with the toy characters animated through

stop-motion Stop-motion (also known as stop frame animation) is an animation, animated filmmaking and special effects technique in which objects are physically manipulated in small increments between individually photographed frames so that they will appe ...

or filmed moving with wires and strings.

Plot

Production

Pauley and Perrotta began the project after viewing ''

Toy Story 3 ''Toy Story 3'' is a 2010 American animated comedy-drama film produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures. The third installment in the Toy Story (franchise), ''Toy Story'' series, it was directed by Lee Unkrich, the editor ...

'' (2010), originally planning for only one clip of ''

'' (1995) to be recreated. The budget was funded through loans from around family members and friends, some of whom also served as actors in the film. Pauley's home served as the location for both Andy and Sid's rooms. Two arcades in Mesa and Oregon, and a Tempe Peter Piper Pizza restaurant, were the locations for Pizza Planet. ''Live Action Toy Story'' was shot over the course of two years, with editing done during filming. The first six months of shooting concentrated on scenes that took place in Andy's room. More scenes were filmed in 2011 around the home and on the streets, with backgrounds of homes shot in neighborhoods close to the creators. A challenge when scouting locations in Arizona was making the settings look similar to Californian suburbs, including outdoor scenes.

Reception

To drive interest in the project, the production process was documented on the film's

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page, and behind-the-scenes videos, plus a live-action recreation of the ending of ''Toy Story 3,'' were uploaded to YouTube. In September 2011, ''

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'' published an article covering a sneak peek of the project uploaded to JP and Beyond. The ''Toy Story 3'' ending remake was covered by '' New York'' magazine's ''Vulture'' blog and the ''Pixar Times'' upon its May 2012 upload. Upon the trailer's August 2012 release, the two filmmakers were interviewed about the project on '' Right This Minute''. Upon its 2013 upload, ''Live Action Toy Story'' was covered by '' Boys' Life'', ''

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'', '' Collider'', ''

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'', '' Slate'', '' Laughing Squid'', '' MTV News'', '' The Huffington Post'', '' Gothamist'', '' Wired'', '' CNET'', ''Vulture'', ''

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'', and ''

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'' which claimed it to be "a crown jewel in the fan-made tribute video community." It garnered more than 250,000 views in 24 hours and reached 1.7 million views within two days before surpassing the three million mark on its third day. Two weeks after its upload, the video had more than eight million views. It was tweeted about by

Lee Unkrich Lee Edward Unkrich (born August 8, 1967) is an American film director, editor and writer. He is best known for his work with animation studio Pixar, which he joined in 1994 as an editor before being credited as a co-director on ''Toy Story 2'' ...

on the day it was uploaded, describing it as done by a "VERY dedicated" team. As ''

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'' journalist Joe Berkowitz described the film's appeal, "Although the strings controlling Woody and Buzz Lightyear may be visible in nearly every frame, you can also see the creators’ giddy affection for the source material, and for the craft of filmmaking in general."

References

External links

''Live Action Toy Story'' on YouTube
* {{Toy Story Fan films Films released on YouTube Pixar 2012 independent films 2012 films Shot-for-shot remakes Remakes of American films 2010s English-language films 2012 YouTube videos English-language independent films 2012 fantasy films English-language fantasy comedy films Films about friendship