The Heartfelt Pixar Movie (That Nearly Killed a Baby)

image via Earn This

Toy Story 2 is considered one of the greatest children's films of all time. Holding a mind-blowing 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, the end product is obviously the result of a huge amount of hard work and heart poured into the film by Pixar employees.

That, and a baby's near death.

image via Pixababy

"Disney Magic" requires a baby's soul.

The story of how a beloved children's film went from conception to wreck-less endangerment of a baby is a long one, starting with the decision to make the film a theatrical release. When production of Toy Story 2 began, it was supposed to be a 60 minute direct-to-video release for a quick bit of cash.

Production was going swimmingly until Disney came to view progress of the film. After seeing the completed story, they realized that making this a direct-to-video would be the film equivalent of taking the Mona Lisa and hanging it above a urinal. Instead, they changed the film to a theatrical release.

This was a problem because the quality of the animation was not up to par for a regular release, so the movie had to be entirely redone to perfection.

image via LifeHack

Their CEO wasn't exactly known for slacking.

Yet due to sponsorship commitments, the release date of the film couldn't be pushed back. The result was the film production was restarted an insane six months before the scheduled release date.

For month after month, Pixar employees rarely saw their families. Driven to equal the quality of their previous films, animators would come in early, and stay late into the night on a daily basis. Pixar had to set a limit on how much a worker could work during the week. Yes, the company actually told their employees to stop working so damn hard.

image via Tupper Lake

Pixar employees arriving at work, circa. 1999.

This all led to one day when an animator, in his sleep-deprived state, forgot to drop his baby off at daycare. The child sat strapped in the hot car of the Pixar parking lot for half the day before the animator remembered his mistake. He rushed out to find his child completely unconscious. Luckily, after spraying some cold water, the baby came to and was rushed off home.

image via HomeDesigning

"15 years since last baby endangerment."

When all was said and done, many of the animators found themselves with a bad case of carpal tunnel syndrome. A total of one third of the people who worked on the film suffered from repetitive strain injuries. They literally typed until they couldn't anymore.

But hey, it's better than the fate befallen to many other beloved Disney properties.

image via Photobucket

Though avoiding this train-wreck might've been worth endangering a baby.