Toy Story at 30: John Morris on voicing Andy from aged 7 – and whether he'll appear in the fifth movie

Morris was asked to bring his favourite toy to the audition. "I brought all my X-Men action figures in a big case," he laughs. "I was voicing Wolverine, Professor X, Storm… like we see at the beginning of Toy Story when Andy is playing with his toys.

"Coming home from the recording sessions, I’d look around, like, 'Is everyone in the same place? What happened while I was away?'"

Morris, who’s now 40, and has made a career in voice acting, has played Andy from Toy Story 1—4, including the heart-wrenching scene where Andy goes to college and gives his toys away to a young girl called Bonnie. "I was definitely teary recording it,” he recalls on Zoom, wearing a Pixar cap and a shirt featuring Toy Story characters.

"Andy was saying goodbye to the toys, and it was also like a goodbye for me, too, because he potentially wouldn’t be back in the series — but I would love to see Andy return in the future.”

"Some of us on the film-making side were more like Sid than Andy," says Bob Pauley, who was a character designer on the first film, art and technical consultant on the second and has been production designer on the rest, including the forthcoming Toy Story 5.

"I definitely took apart toys, repainted them and blew up army men. I think Sid’s actually more creative in general, because he did those things," he says, referring to Andy’s neighbour who builds "mutant toys" and terrorises them.

Pauley was responsible for creating Buzz Lightyear, who went through many different iterations. He used to be small and wear a red suit while Woody was tall, but that was going to be difficult for filming, so they scrapped that. Other names for Buzz included Lunar Larry (complete with an "LL" belt buckle), Tempus from Morph and TECOR (Telegalactic Earthbound Cyborg of Rimboz).

Pauley visited a lot of toy stores, buying action figures that were on sale, and flea markets for the well-loved toys. "To have a believable world, you need to make sure these materials and the construction of these toys connect with the audience. Young kids are the best experts. They know how these toys work."

To understand how to animate the film’s toys, the team created them for real, and most of the film toys did then, of course, land on shelves. Pauley proudly brings out his Buzz Lightyear in a wonderful full-circle moment — the original figures made by Thinkway Toys were among the first toys to be produced using digital models.

In Toy Story 5, which is released in 2026, the toys must grapple with something very relevant… technology. "Creative play is important, but it’s a limited, precious resource. These toys have a very small window of time with these kids as they grow up — now there’s this thing in the room turning your kid into a screen zombie," says Pauley. "It’s like what everybody is dealing with now with AI: how’s this gonna work out?"

The franchise continues to modernise itself for new audiences and is certainly on its way to infinity and beyond. Pauley says, "With every Toy Story that comes out, people will have their Toy Story. We’re very fortunate to be part of that."

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