How Toy Story 2 Was Accidentally Deleted (And How One Mom Saved It)

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Toy Story is a groundbreaking and influential film series by Pixar that left an indelible mark on a whole generation, causing tears when Andy gave away his toys to Bonnie before he left for college in the third installment. The first movie was met with a massive audience, and subsequent films soared to new heights – it’s no surprise then that a fifth film is on the horizon, slated for release in June 2026. However, much of this grand success can be attributed to Toy Story 2, which earned $497.3 million worldwide. Remarkably, this success might not have been possible as during the production of the sequel, files were being deleted from the computer.

It’s astonishing to think that a single, unintentional keystroke from an employee could lead to the deletion of an entire movie – everything from sets and characters to carefully crafted scenes that had been meticulously assembled over time. The production process for a Pixar film is intricate and detailed compared to typical movies, taking significantly longer to complete. For instance, it took nearly four years to bring the first Toy Story film to life; envision all that effort on the sequel, spanning such an extended period, vanishing in mere seconds due to a lack of access to backup files. Fortunately, however, a diligent employee who was on maternity leave was able to rescue the movie from being lost forever.

How Toy Story 2 Was Almost Completely Lost

It wasn’t until much later that the public learned about the close call Toy Story 2 had in 1998, a story that was shared in the book “Creativity, Inc: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration.” Ed Catmull, one of the studio’s founders, recounted the incident. It turned out that an employee accidentally executed a command line on the drives containing the movie files. This command, in essence, was designed to delete everything in a particular location, and it did just that – there was no way to reverse the damage once it had been done.

In a conversation with The Next Web in 2012, Oren Jacob, who was an associate technical director on Toy Story 2, provided further details about the incident. “It was at this point that we first became aware of the problem, specifically with Woody,” he explained. “Larry Cutler was in that folder and was discussing installing a fix for Woody or his hat. He looked at the folder and saw it contained 40 files, then looked again to find only four files. Then we noticed sequences disappearing as well, and our reaction was something like, ‘Oh my goodness'” he said.

In the book, it’s detailed that one of the technical directors, either Jacob or Cutler, spotted a deletion happening on-screen and urgently contacted technical support to shut off the power. Sadly, the situation unfolded so rapidly that nearly 90% of the work was irretrievably lost. The backup system was intended as an alternative solution, but things took a turn for the worse when Pixar’s system malfunctioned, and there wasn’t a safe secondary copy of the project available. In essence, they found themselves in a tight spot with no easy way out.

As Catmull explained, the Toy Story 2 project faced numerous challenges right from the start due to the lengthy development process for its storyline. To make matters worse, director John Lasseter had already been stretched thin by overseeing the production of two previous demanding projects – Toy Story and A Bug’s Life. Restarting the project would have added to their frustrations significantly. The delay in release, financial losses necessitating fresh investments, and the emotional strain on staff were further obstacles they had to contend with. However, there was hope for them as a ray of light emerged at the end of this challenging tunnel.

How a Mom Saved Toy Story 2

It’s fortunate that Galyn Susman, the film’s technical direction supervisor, who was among those let go by Disney, had kept a copy of the project at home. During her maternity leave following the birth of her second child, she opted to work from home – an arrangement less common back then but more so today. Susman made it a priority to bring her work home once a week to keep herself informed and, in the end, to secure a backup of the project.

Due to this, it was found out that her laptop was gently driven back to Pixar’s headquarters, held like a newborn and enveloped in blankets during the journey. This enabled the team to duplicate the files and recover most of what had been misplaced. Although Susman didn’t have the whole movie on her laptop, as per Catmull, they managed to get enough of the earlier work to finish and deliver Toy Story 2 on schedule.

Ultimately, the event proved a worthwhile learning experience and now, with our studio expanding substantially, we’re dedicated to safeguarding projects by maintaining multiple backups and enhancing security protocols to avoid repeating such occurrences. Without Susman, the film’s narrative would have undoubtedly differed, which could have affected the subsequent sequels. That’s quite surprising! Regarding the staff member responsible for the mistake, there’s no record of them being dismissed or facing severe repercussions. However, it’s not hard to imagine the awkwardness they faced in those days.

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2025-01-12 19:13