Steve Jobs nearly killed "Toy Story" sequel — and a baby
According to a new book titled The Pixar Touch: The Making of a Company, excerpted today in the New York Post, Apple CEO and Pixar founder Steve Jobs didn't want his studio to make Toy Story 3. His reluctance stemmed from a distrust of Pixar partner Disney and its CEO Michael Eisner. In the book, Jobs says he felt "sick about Disney doing sequels [to Pixar films] because if you look at the quality of their sequels, like The Lion King 1 1/2 and their Peter Pan sequels and stuff, it's pretty embarrassing."
No wonder Disney wanted a sequel made, with or without Pixar. (The companies' contract gave Disney the right to do sequels.) Previously, the Pixar-produced Toy Story 2 had grossed $486 million. Though not without an infant's brush with death. In The Pixar Touch, author David Price explains that a harsh deadline imposed on the filmmakers lead to all kinds of trouble and even a near fatality:
The situation came to a head when an overstressed and overtired animator set off to work with his infant child, having agreed with his wife that he would drop the baby off at day care that morning. When he spoke with his wife later that day, she casually asked how the drop-off had gone — and he realized only then that he had, in his mental haze, completely forgotten.
The baby was still in the back seat of his car in the parking lot. Although quick action by rescue workers headed off the worst, the incident became a horrible indicator that some on the crew were working too hard.