The team took a concept that had already been developed-the idea of Woody encountering a toy collector had been created and then dropped from the original Toy Story-and added to it some themes that had been in development for other projects, such as the unproduced Tin Toy Christmas, in which a toy character was put into storage. Toy Story 2 had been imagined to be an easier project than the original, in large part because so much of the world and story building were already in place. (The conflicts between Disney and Pixar over Toy Story 2 continued to cause friction between the two companies until Disney eventually purchased Pixar.) Unfortunately for Pixar, Disney told the team that this would not count as one of the five films they’d contracted for distribution, despite its new big-scale appearance. Pixar asked Disney to consider changing the film over to a theatrical release, and when Disney looked at the initial reels, they were impressed enough with the quality to give the change a greenlight. The idea of intentionally aiming low wasn’t something that Pixar had ever done, and the “B team,” despite their budgetary requirements, didn’t want to settle for less. But the culture at Pixar wasn’t one where creative teams were set up to accept mediocrity. The studio, which was also producing A Bug’s Life, ended up creating two teams: an A team for the big screen productions still in the works and a B team for the direct-to-video. Unfortunately, aiming for a cheaply-done, low quality project was not a strategy Pixar had ever utilized before.

Disney originally planned to turn the sequel over to Disneytoon Studios, but Pixar was sure they’d do a better job.

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