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‘Toy Story’ & Andy’s Dad: Film’s Co-Writer Andrew Stanton Says #IWasThere, Calls Report ‘Fake News’ [Debunked]

By Glenn Hadley
Published on: 13:10 PST, Jun 24, 2017

It seems as if longtime fans and critics of Toy Story have not been given the answers to questions about Andy’s dad after all.

An alleged backstory of Andy’s dad, Andy, Sr., made headlines after it was “revealed” in a now-viral video posted online earlier this week.

The now-debunked report used Mike Mozart, a toy product designer and consultant for the first Toy Story movie, as the revealing source of a detailed backstory depicting the childhood, life, and death of Andy, Sr. According to the report, Mozart heard the backstory from the late Joe Ranft, the former Pixar head writer.

It did not take very long for the revealing of this “backstory” to make waves online, luring numerous Toy Story fans to flood social media with their comments about Andy’s dad, along with the reemergence of conspiracy theories related to Andy’s mother.

However, it only took a 16-word response from a confirmed and current source at Pixar to debunk the report, popping balloons of hope, but also bringing fans back down to the reality of truth.

Who was the Pixar insider that eliminated the questionable credibility of this now-viral, yet false report about Andy’s dad? It was none other than longtime Pixar screenwriter and director Andrew Stanton.

For those unfamiliar with Andrew Stanton’s track record, below is a brief glimpse of his resume with Pixar that gives more than enough evidence of his longtime commitment to and involvement with the studio’s projects:

  • Director: A Bug’s Life, Finding Nemo, Finding Dory
  • Writer: Toy Story, Toy Story 2, Toy Story 3, Toy Story 4, A Bug’s Life, Monsters Inc, Finding Nemo, WALL-E, Finding Dory
  • Executive Producer: Monsters Inc, Ratatouille, Up, Brave, Monsters University, Inside Out, The Good Dinosaur

It is clear, then, that Andrew Stanton has been involved with all of the Pixar classics that fans have come to love over the years in one way or another. There were even some movies where he used his voice acting skills to add life to some of the characters within the actual movies as well (such as fan-favorite Crush from the Finding Nemo franchise.)

As shown from the above lists, Stanton has also served as a co-writer for all four Toy Story films. Since Toy Story 4 does not come out for another two years (June 21, 2019), Andrew is on the relatively short list of people who knows what happens next for Woody, Buzz, and the gang, as well as what happened behind the scenes to Andy and his family in that highly-anticipated installment.

As he expressed in his simple yet profound tweet, Andrew Stanton was there in the very beginning, working on the first Toy Story screenplay alongside Joss Whedon, Joel Cohen, and Alec Sokolow.

More importantly, Andrew is credited as a co-creator of the actual story itself, a credit that he shares with John Lasseter (the man who debuted as a director with Toy Story, but eventually became the Chief Creative Officer of Walt Disney Animation Studios and Pixar), Pete Docter (another longtime writer-director of Pixar films) and the late Joe Ranft.

With that type of evidence and accomplishments, it is clear that Andrew Stanton’s #IWasThere hashtag was much more than just a witty remark to add to the end of a confirmation tweet.

Sadly, though, that means that the mystery of Andy’s dad remains unsolved for Toy Story fans and critics. However, as Pixar films and the hardworking men and women that made them have taught moviegoers over the years, there is nothing wrong with leaving enough room for your imagination to fill in the gaps.

[Featured Image by Randi Lynn Beach/AP Photo]

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