We have a newborn baby to thank for Toy Story 2

Image used with permission by copyright holder

Statistically speaking, you’ve seen Toy Story 2. It’s right up there with Sleeping Beauty and Spirited Away in the realm of classic animated films that, one way or another, everyone sees at some point — and unless you’re a terrible, soulless husk of a person, you likely enjoyed it.

However, very few people know the background of the film. Yes, we are all aware it comes from Pixar, but beyond that, how many of us realize the kind of rigors and stress behind putting together a movie like that? Fortunately for we curious types, Pixar employees are more than willing to share their stories, even those that make the creation of the film seem like an utter miracle.

To wit, the video embedded below. It’s a dramatic, animated retelling of the time that an accidental keystroke nearly deleted the entirety of Toy Story 2 from Pixar’s computers. Compounding the issue, it seems that the periodic backups the studio performed with regularity had been compromised for quite a while. End result: When the film disappeared from the firm’s computers, it completely disappeared.

As you can expect, there was much hand-wringing and terror at this discovery, but through a fortunate twist of fate Pixar was able to recover its film. It seems that a Pixar employee couldn’t bear to leave her children at home while she slaved away at the office, so she instead opted to telecommute to work. To make this happen she had copied the film to her home computer, and unlike the primary backups, her copy was pristine and totally functional.

It’s a simple story, but the vignette does an excellent job of conveying the stress of the situation and pointing out just how fortunate the company was in this situation thanks entirely to the whims of a caring mother. If nothing else, it teaches that the next time you’re on a plane and an infant is shrieking across the aisle, maybe instead of throwing something at its bulbous little head, you should smile politely and thank his kind for rescuing a modern cinematic masterpiece.

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