Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1546606
The same thinking goes back to Buzz Lightyear on the first Toy Story. The Phillips screws, plastic seams, scuffs and different materials were all important to making him feel like an authentic manufactured toy. Material truth has always mattered in these films. Light can slip beneath the surface of painted plastic and scatter back toward the camera. Most of these details never demand attention, but together, they convince your subconscious that the world exists. In Toy Story 5, Blaze's farmhouse is a great opportunity for this. It's a century old home that has clearly lived a long life. There is sturdy craftsmanship layered with decades of wear and renovation: aged floorboards, fresh paint over older imperfections, modern fixtures beside weathered wood. Every scrape, dent and brushstroke can tell part of the story before a character says anything. That world includes Blaze's bedroom (Emily's old room), a stable, pastures and an old plastic playhouse. They are all great design opportunities, but they also carry Jessie's history. The environments have to support that history. That kind of specificity often begins with research. Most Pixar productions involve some form of it. Teams traveled through Paris preparing Ratatouille and explored Australia's reefs for Finding Nemo. Toy Story research has sometimes been less glamorous. For the original film, it meant visiting toy stores, looking at our own toy memories and studying how children actually play. For Toy Story 3, we spent days touring landfills, recycling centers and municipal incinerators. Around the studio, we jokingly called them "the Paris of Toy Story 3." They were loud, dirty and unforgettable, but invaluable. Watching enormous sorting cranes swing mechanical claws over mountains of discarded objects helped inspire the film's climactic sequence. The machinery wasn't invented for the movie. It was hiding in plain sight, waiting to be discovered. Research has a funny way of rewarding curiosity. We immerse ourselves in unfamiliar worlds until we become, at the very least, enthusiastic amateurs. For Toy Story 5, that curiosity led us to horses. Blaze has a horse named Daffodil, so we invited two real horses onto the Pixar campus. Watching how they shifted their weight, carried themselves, moved their coats and manes, and reacted to their surroundings taught us things photographs couldn't. Then there were the toy horses. A few of us traveled to Kentucky Horse Park for BreyerFest, the annual gathering of model horse collectors. There were adult collectors, young horse lovers, craftspeople and lifelong enthusiasts. What became interesting wasn't only how these plastic horses looked, but why they meant so much to people. A. BLAZES'S FARMHOUSE FROM THE ROAD. DIGITAL CONCEPT ART BY KRISTIAN NORELIUS. B. EARLY LAYOUT SKETCH OF BLAZE'S FARM. DIGITAL CONCEPT ART BY KRISTIAN NORELIUS. C. BLAZE'S FARMHOUSE DESIGN. DIGITAL CONCEPT ART BY KRISTIAN NORELIUS. ALL IMAGES COURTESY OF PIXAR. © 2026 DISNEY/PIXAR. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. B A C