Every reference to ‘The Shining’ in ‘Toy Story’
The quandary of children’s entertainment is that it’s the same old adults behind it. So, when you’re working in the chipper world of happy toys and playtime, throwing in an odd sinister reference becomes somewhat of a thrill. Most people working on big-budget films are no strangers to classic cinema and would often hide little Easter eggs in their movies for fans to decipher later. Although some of them might be easier to spot than others, the creators behind Toy Story were able to sneak some references to The Shining past Pixar.
When the computer animation company was first finding its feet, Toy Story was their first major success story, telling the classic tale of Woody the Cowboy and his inability to adjust to the new toy in town, Buzz Lightyear. Throughout the movie, Woody and Buzz get sidetracked and end up in the claws of a neighbouring kid, Sid, whose bedroom is ripped straight out of a toy’s nightmares.
To make this kid’s room look like one of the most horrific places possible, the designers went with a pattern for his carpet that echoes the same design used at the Overlook Hotel in The Shining. Almost acting as a spiritual sequel to what Stanley Kubrick did with the classic Steven King novel, the carpet pattern echoes a pivotal scene in the movie where Jack Torrence’s son, Danny, is playing with his toys in the hallway.
Granted, that wasn’t the only horror reference throughout the rest of the movie. As Woody and Buzz get closer and closer to escaping Sid’s clutches, the only way for them to escape is for Woody to reveal that he’s alive. Before letting Sid off with a warning, Woody turns his head around his body in homage to The Exorcist.
The references shot up even more in Toy Story 3. After the gang misunderstands Andy leaving for college as giving all of them away, they end up at a daycare centre that’s much more spooky than they thought. Before the demented activities start, the musical score takes a page out of Kubrick’s playbook, focusing on staccato strings and uneasy noises to give a rigid feel to the surroundings.
Elsewhere in the movie, one of the janitors at the daycare is named Tony, an additional homage to Danny’s imaginary friend Tony in The Shining, who has a similar role at the hotel. Then again, no Shining reference is complete with the number ‘237’, and that number shows up in different areas of the movie as well, turning up on the cameras that are in the intercom, which itself is a recreation of the same intercom at the heart of The Overlook.
By the time the production team got to make Toy Story 4, they didn’t even try to hide the references anymore. When Buzz is posing as a prize toy, there’s an Apollo 11 toy next to him, which echoes the idea of Kubrick faking footage of the moon landing and apologising for it in The Shining. Even new arrivals get in on the Kubrick worship, including one scene where Woody and Forky are outrunning Benson dummies, only for one to cry out, “Here’s Benson!” in a reference to ‘Here’s Johnny!’ from the original.
Although seeing where these references come from as a little kid could leave some people with permanent scarring, the beauty is in the subtlety. The producers might have been trying to tell a wholesome story at the heart of Toy Story, but the devil in the details makes film fans pay attention to repeated viewings.
