Do You Know Toy Story 3 (2010) the Toys Were Supposed to Go to Taiwan?

In Toy Story 3 (2010), Buzz Lightyear is broken and Woody tries to fix him, which generates several different versions of Buzz Lightyear. And the most impressing one shall be the Spanish version, which Buzz Lightyear is so flirtatious and pursues Jessie, but Buzz soon to be repaired so they can fight against Lots-o’-Huggin’ Bear. However, the concept arts were released on the Internet and revealed a very different story: The toys send Buzz to Taiwan to fix him because it shows “Made in Taiwan” of his body, which was shown in the first Toy Story.

During the 70s to 90s, Taiwan is a kingdom of manufacture, kind of like the world’s factory- China- nowadays. So, during the 90s Taiwan was mentioned in some movies other than Toy Story 1, such as Armageddon (1998,) when they execute their mission in space, the spaceship has a malfunction problem and a Russian astronaut checks and hit the equipment and says “Everything is made in Taiwan.” Well, as a Taiwanese, I feel embarrassed about the quality of things made in Taiwan at that time is not that good but much better now I promise.

Due to this reason, the creative team in Pixar drew some concept arts for the story and they did spend some time to learn how to present the streets in Taiwan. I have to say they did a really good job, let’s take a look:

More pictures available at Mr. Jim Martin’s website: Jim Martin – Toy Story 3 Development. The reason this story did not come true was that Pixar was not Disney’s subsidiary but a partner at that time (You can read my article The 6 Legions of Disney’s Media Empire (AKA The Evil Empire?) to know more about Pixar and Disney’s history if interested) and they, unfortunately, had some creative conflicts and Disney did not continue the production. Pixar, however, owns the rights and they continue with a different story, which is one we see today.

Again, as a Taiwanese, it’s such a pity not be able to see my country in one of my favorite animated films. Toy Story, however, already has its fourth film and it may continue, maybe this time this story could be the plot in the fifth since now Disney owns Pixar and it’s time to recycle this idea.

Would you be fond of seeing the toys begin an adventurous journey in another country? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comment.