Western Animation / Toy Story Treats

Woody: There's something to be said for the original.

Hamm: And that something is "Yard Sale".

The year is 1996. Toy Story is due for its home video release, and Pixar wants to do something to promote it. So, it has decided to make a series of shorts to air on ABC during the commercial breaks of its Saturday morning programming; these segments would become known as Toy Story Treats (alternatively known as Toy Story Shorts in some locations). Due to the large amount of shorts being made, rather than wholesale animate new content, they decided to reuse assets from the original film and cut corners on the animation in order to get them to television in time. As for the content of the shorts themselves, they mainly act as skit comedy, with Woody, Buzz and others involved in various kinds of shenanigans with no real narrative tying everything together.

Since their airing on television, the shorts have been collected and included on various home media releases, such as the Toy Story & Toy Story 2: Ultimate Toy Box DVD set, the 10th anniversary Toy Story DVD^note as Easter eggs, and the 2010 Blu-ray. However, there are uploads of the shorts on their own on Youtube.

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Tropes:

• Antenna Adjusting: One short has Woody giving the toys instructions on how to position themselves in order to get the television to work. When we see the toys, they are in an awkward balancing act with Rex at the bottom, who asks why Andy can’t just get cable.
• Artistic License – Paleontology: Played for Laughs. Rex claims the dinosaurs ruled the Earth for 72 million years. They actually were around for 165 million years. Even if you take it as Rex specifically referring to the Cretaceous Period, the last period of their rule, that was 65 million years.
• Beyond the Impossible:
  • Somehow, Woody winds up with Buzz's shadow, and proceeds to pose in front of the lamp, only for it to run off and get replaced with Woody's actual shadow while he's distracted by the Little Green Men.
  • Babyface jumping out of a very tiny matrioshka egg.
  • The Clown Car gag with a multitude of Pizza Planet aliens coming out of the same vehicle.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall:
  • Woody's response to the Little Green Men's clown car bit?
    Woody: (crosses arms; to the camera) I know. It's not funny when clowns do it either.
  • "Roadblock!" Cue Woody and Buzz uproariously laughing over an audience applauding, doing finger guns and cheeky grins to the camera, and an Iris Out.
• The Day the Dinosaurs Died: Lampshaded when the toys watch a dinosaur documentary, with Rex hoping for a happy ending. As Hamm gleefully notes, the asteroid arrives to end the special and the dinosaurs with it.
• Denser and Wackier: Compared to the down-to-earth and realistic nature of the other installments in the Toy Story, these shorts stick out like a sore thumb thanks to often having surreal gags such as Babyface turning Woody's hat into paper art by dancing over it, a ton of aliens coming out of a small wind-up toy car, Woody having a nightmare of a miniature Buzz flying into his nose, Woody somehow ending up with Buzz's shadow and deciding to play around with it, the aliens actually moving chess pieces through telekinesis, the list goes on. Even the music in these shorts at times sounds like it would feel right at home in a Looney Tunes cartoon.
• Distracted by the Sexy: Downplayed. A couple of the "Green Army Man Chants" have the soldiers get distracted by a cute doll who gives them a flirtatious wave, causing them to fall over, resulting in an Oh, Crap! face for the Doll.
• Impossible Shadow Puppets: Buzz manages to outclass Woody's simple shadow puppets by somehow making a bald eagle, an American flag, and a rocket taking off before Woody shuts off the lamp and leaves in a huff.
• Kick the Dog:
  • Hamm's contribution to Rex's lecture about the age of the dinosaurs? "Kaboom!"
  • If you thought Buzz watching his commercial in the original film was painful, wait until you see his reaction to the new one.
    Announcer: Sky Runner Buzz! It really flies!
    • invoked When Woody tries lifting up his spirits, Hamm basically doubles down:
      Woody: (reassuringly; to Buzz) There's something to be said for the original.
      Hamm: And that something is "Yard Sale".
• Kids' Meal Toy: An In-Universe example; in the "Happy Snacky" short, Woody, Buzz, Rex, and Hamm meet miniature versions of themselves that came in Andy's Happy Snacky bucket.
• Loose Canon: It's better not to consider these shorts in the movie canon due to several things:
  • The unexplained presence of Sid's toys at Andy's home. The Davis family was moving away when Woody met them in the first film and they never left Sid's home.
  • The unexplained presence of Pizza Planet aliens at Andy's home. That wouldn't happen until Toy Story 2, which didn't exist at the time.
  • Buzz continuing to act like a real space ranger after him and Woody became friends. Although it could be stipulated that some of the shorts in this case could've conceivably happened in the relatively short timeframe between Andy receiving Buzz as a present and the night he took them with him to Pizza Planet.
  • Buzz still has his wrist communicator sticker despite peeling it off during his Heroic BSoD in the first movie.
• Minimalist Cast: Woody, Buzz, Rex, Hamm, and Lenny are the only of Andy's named toys who appear in the shorts. Bizarrely, the cast is instead rounded out by the Little Green Men and Sid's toys.
• Noodle Incident: "So, how was your day, Buzz?"
  Buzz: (dressed as Mrs. Nesbit; clearly embarrassed) If you don't mind, (removes hat) I'd rather not talk about it...
  Voice: (offscreen; to Woody's confusion) I love you.
• Real Life Writes the Plot: Downplayed. When Toy Story was in theaters, Burger King had a set of kiddie meal toys consisting of Woody, Buzz, Hamm and Rex. "Fast Food" is a short more or less involving the actual characters encountering these toys.
  Woody: (to the fast food toys) So, they just gave you away, with a burger and fries.
  Mini!Rex: I came with chicken fingers!
• Recycled Animation: Some of the shorts were recycled as intercut scenes for the VHS tape Tin Toy Stories, with the characters' lines redubbed to set the premise that they were watching the Pixar Shorts on Andy's television.
• Recycled Premise:
  • Buzz being envious of upgrades on the Buzz Lightyear toyline, recycled in the form of the Utility Belt in Toy Story 2.
  • A main character meeting a fast food kids' meal toy version of himself would be recycled in the Toy Story Toons short "Small Fry". Plus Woody commenting on the toys' greasy fast food smell.
• Reverse Telescopic Vision: In one short, Rex is looking at Woody through Lenny the binoculars, with Lenny backwards and calling out "Hey Woody, Over here!". Woody then turns Lenny around for Rex to see him up close.
• Staring Contest: Woody does one with Lenny, and loses.
• Technology Marches On: invoked One particular short has Woody get a bunch of toys to make a TV antenna, prompting Rex (who is part of the group) to ask one question:
  Rex: Why doesn't Andy just get cable?
• Unexplained Recovery: For no adequately explained reason, Combat Carl is present for Green Army Man Chants. Presumably it's a different Combat Carl than the one Sid destroyed.
• Your Other Left: When trying to get a toy to climb up with the others to make the TV antenna get a better signal/move it via climbing Babyface, Woody says something that fits the spirit of the trope:
  Grab his leg, no his other leg, no his other other leg!

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