All Podcasts / The Rest Is Entertainment / Tom Hanks on Toy Story, Sequels and The Scene He Regrets
The Rest Is Entertainment
The Rest Is Entertainment

Tom Hanks on Toy Story, Sequels and The Scene He Regrets

June 17, 2026 • 38m

Summary

⏱️ 7 min read

Overview

In this Q&A episode from Claridge's Hotel, Tom Hanks discusses his iconic career spanning over 30 years. He reflects on the Toy Story franchise, his incredible 1990s run of films, his love for Aston Villa, and profound insights about acting, prayer, and the terror of performing. Hanks shares candid thoughts on mistakes in his performances, the craft of filmmaking, and moments that fundamentally changed him as a person.

The Origin of Toy Story and Pixar's Bold Creative Decisions

Tom Hanks reveals how he was recruited for Toy Story when Pixar was still an unproven technology, describing the process as a "volatile mixture that could blow everybody's fingers off." He discusses Pixar's remarkable decision to throw out 80% of the first film and start over, a bold move that redefined the relationship between Woody and Buzz. This willingness to test and retest material became foundational to Pixar's creative process, though it means each film now takes about two and a half years of his involvement.

  • Pixar recruited Hanks by showing him 12 seconds of animated footage from Turner and Hooch featuring Woody
  • Pixar threw out 80% of the original movie and restarted from scratch after finding intrinsic problems with the DNA
  • The bold creative decision was rare in Hollywood where finances and egos typically prevent such moves
  • Each Toy Story film now takes approximately two and a half years of Hanks's involvement
" They were explaining it to us as though it was a volatile mixture that could blow everybody's fingers off if we didn't do it right. "
" That's a pretty bold throw in order to make on something that they just wanted to get right. "

The Power of Cinema and Grand Unifying Moments

Hanks discusses how mainstream culture has become increasingly fractured, making truly unifying cultural experiences rarer and more powerful. He coins the term "grand unifying moments" (GUMs) to describe experiences that bind people across age, culture, and language. He reflects on how the 1990s might have been the last great era for such moments in cinema, when economics and creative ambition aligned perfectly.

  • Modern entertainment allows constant three-minute increments of distraction on devices
  • Shared theatrical experiences with strangers remain powerful but are becoming rarer
  • The 1990s represented a peak alignment between creative ambition and film economics
  • High-powered executives told Hanks no one wanted to see Apollo 13 because everyone knew how it ended
" There is, I think, a greater power now to those fewer and fewer things that garner all of our attention more or less at the same time. "
" In that case, no one will ever see Star Wars or Casablanca or Citizen Kane ever again. "

📚 5 more sections below

Sign up to unlock the complete summary with all insights, key points, and quotes

Listen on Apple Podcasts More Episodes from The Rest Is Entertainment