Believe it or not but before Toy Story 3 there has been another Toy Story 3 animated film in development, and ... not by Pixar Animation Studios! Back in 2004 when Eisner was still king of the WDC Disney had created their own CG animation studio that they named Circle 7 Animation, and soon they were putting a Toy Story 3 movie into development… without Pixar. Not only did they start work on Toy Story 3, but they also began developing Finding Nemo 2 and Monsters Inc. 2.
Until 2006 when CEO Bob Iger was able to strike a deal with Steve Jobs in which Disney bought Pixar for $7.4 billion and put John Lasseter in control of Disney's animation department. Disney’s Circle 7 Animation was shutdown shortly after, and all of the projects they were working on were scrapped.
As i suppose that you are curious to see what this Disney’s version of Toy Story 3 would have looked like, i’ve got some concept arts for you which were created by Jim Martin and Shane Zalvin. This version of the story was written by Jim Herzfeld (Meet The Parents), and here’s a synopsis explaining the story it would have told:
“The other toys become concerned when Buzz Lightyear starts to malfunction and decide to ship him to the Taiwanese that originally built him, in the hopes they they could repair him. Soon after, Woody and the rest toys are shocked to learn that there has been a massive recall on all Buzz Lightyear toys. Fearing that Buzz will be destroyed, Woody and his gang (Rex, Slinky, Mr. Potato Head, Hamm, Jessie, and Bullseye) head off on a rescue mission. Over in Taiwan, Buzz is making new friends with other toys that have been recalled.”
Mmmmh, i have the feeling that we've been lucky that Steve Jobs and Iger finally had a deal and that this version of Toy Story 3 didn't happened... anyway, here are 18 concept-arts from it!
