"Toy Story Zero" is the background story to Toy Story that explains various plot holes in Toy Story and Toy Story 2, mainly "where is Andy's dad" and "how is the most popular character from a TV show was the rarest toy?" The plot of Toy Story Zero follows Andy's dad (Andy Senior), from when he was Andy's age (Andy Junior in Toy Story 1, 2, and 3), to Andy Sr. as a teen, and months before the events of Toy Story 1. According to first hand accounts from Mike Mozart (friend of Joe Ranft, head writer on Toy Story and Toy Story 2), this was conceived to explain the "how" and the "why" of everything in Toy Story 1 and 2.
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Plot
According to Mike Mozart's memory, the movie would star Andy Sr. as a young boy, around the same age as Andy Jr. in Toy Story 1 and 2. In it, Andy Sr. would be a rather sickly boy that was bullied by Al Jr. (the younger version of Al from Toy Story 2), from a family that's struggling financially. His favorite TV show was Woody's Round-up, but his family wasn't able to afford any of the toys.The actual plot that would have made up a majority of the movie is unknown, but it would have involved trying to get a special promotional Woody doll that required sending in 40 box tops from "Sheriff Woody Cereal." According to the lore, all of the characters from Woody's Round-up received release in stores, except for Woody, who would have only been available through this special promotion. Andy Sr.'s father tried to get the box tops for his son, but he was unable to get enough before the end of the promotion (only about 7). He sent in what he was able to collect, wrote a note explaining how he was unable to afford the other Woody's Round-up toys, but if he could still have a Woody, it would mean the world to him, and signed it "your Favorite Deputy," as well as the return address.
The promotion presumably would have ended around the conclusion to Woody's Finest Hour (the unaired Woody's Round-up episode). As the story of Woody's Round-up goes, when Sputnik was sent up into space and all the kids were interested in space toys. The Woody dolls wouldn't have gone into production, and the toy and cereal companies were frantically trying to figure out what to do with this promotion. They decided to send the kids a space toy instead. During this decision, the secretary to the toy CEO got Andy Sr.'s letter and was touched by the story. When she found a pre-production prototype Woody, she took it to the CEO and asked what to do with it. He said "no one will want this" and threw woody in a trash can. Later she picked him out and sent Woody to Andy Sr.
Not much is known about the events leading up to the following, but Andy Sr. was diagnosed with polio (pre-vaccine), and lost the use of his legs. As was common practice at the time, Andy Sr. was going to go to a special polio hospital and all of his belongings were going to be burned; his matters, his clothes, and all his toys. When he saw all his belongings out in the back yard covered in gasoline, ready to be burned, he crawled out to the backyard to rescued his Woody, Slinky Dog, and Mr. Potatohead. He put them in a pillow case, crawled up to the attic, and locked them in a chest after telling them "I'm going to go away for a long time, so I need you to take a long sleep." But I promise I'll be back.
Andy Sr. was set to be in the hospital for many years, and was probably in his early teens when he got out. He still remembered the toys he rescued, but felt he was probably too old for them, but he'll keep them if he has a son someday. Events happen where Andy Sr. meet's Andy Jr.'s mom, they get married, and Andy Sr. has a relapse in his Polio when his wife is pregnant with Andy Jr. Andy Sr. and his family are forced to move back with his mom due to losing all their money through medical bills. As Andy Sr. is dying at his home hospice bed, he calls Andy Jr. to his bed (who is now around the same age as Andy Sr. when he contracted polio) and tells him about a locked box in the attic with some special friends he wants him to have, as he pulls a key from his wallet (with a very visible imprint to show that he's had it there for a long time). Andy Jr. goes to the attic to get the box his dad told him about. When he returns, Andy Sr. has passed, with the key on his dresser.
When Andy Jr. opens the box, he pulls out Woody, Slinky, and Potatohead, and they awake to the sight of Andy Jr. (who looks almost exactly like Andy Sr. at that age), and believe that Andy Jr. is Andy Sr. According to Mike Mozart, this took place weeks before Toy Story 1. When Andy Jr., his mom, and a new born Molly return from Andy Sr.'s funeral, Andy Jr. is sad that this is going to be his first birthday without his dad, but then his mom held up Woody and said "as long as you have Sheriff Woody, he'll always be your best friend." That then brought Andy Jr. back to the happy spirits that he has in Toy Story 1.
Retelling
For close to 2 decades, this story was only known by 2 people, Joe Ranft and Mike Mozart. Joe told Mike this story one day at lunch when he was unable to give Mike a tour of Pixar studios. During this lunch, Joe said he has not told anyone else "Toy Story Zero." At Joe's death in 2005, Mike was left as the only one to know Toy Story Zero. The story was left untold until June 2nd 2017 in a live stream on Mike Mozart's youtube channel TheToyChannel.In the live stream, Mike says he plans on releasing a video where he tells the story with artwork to aid in the story telling. No date as of yet.
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