How Carl Weathers Became Combat Carl in ‘Toy Story of Terror’

Given their near-death experience at the end of Toy Story 3, it might have seemed like Woody, Buzz and the rest of the gang were ready to ride off into the proverbial sunset after that third installment of the franchise, but Pixar quickly let it be known that was far from the case. Just a year later, a trio of shorts called Toy Story Toons began accompanying various Disney movies in theaters. Next up came the first Toy Story TV special, which featured Woody’s Roundup Gang venturing into a surprising new genre: horror (or at least, as much horror as Pixar/Disney would allow).

First airing on ABC on October 16, 2013, Toy Story of Terror saw Woody, Buzz and Jessie take a trip to a hotel where toys quickly begin going missing, leaving only Jessie (Joan Cusack) to contend with a mysterious shadowy figure. After being isolated from the rest of the group, Jessie meets a lost toy named Combat Carl — played by Carl Weathers — who briefly mentors her before going missing himself. 

In the end, it’s revealed that the shadowy creature is the loyal pet lizard of the hotel owner who has taught the lizard to fetch toys so that he can sell them on eBay. 

Directed by Pixar veteran Angus MacLane, Toy Story of Terror was a unique entry in the franchise, with Jessie as the star and a few genuine jump scares thrown in for good measure. I recently caught up with MacLane to talk about how he decided to bring the titular terror to a kid’s classic, making Toy Story for TV versus the big screen and convincing Carl Weathers to go into combat with him. 

In 2013, where was the Toy Story franchise, especially after Toy Story 3?

There was an interest in the studio to keep the Toy Story characters alive. Given the development slate, Pixar knew there wasn’t going to be another feature on the horizon for a while, so short films were a way to keep the characters alive.

This format was a unique challenge because it was broadcast television, so it had to be an exact length. There was a lot of work to get it down to the allotted time. If it feels a little rushed, it’s because we were always trying to strike a balance between horror and comedy, and dramatizing tension takes time, especially when you only have 22 minutes to work with. 

Was it always going to be a Halloween special?

I think so, yes. I pitched an idea for doing something with Combat Carl, and I wanted to focus on Jessie because she had never really been the star and I wanted to give her her own story to shine. I also wanted to introduce toys that were of the generation that I was from. Combat Carl had been introduced in the original Toy Story as a 12-inch figure that was honestly a little before my time, so I wanted to have Combat Carl Jr. to represent the 3 ¾-inch figures I grew up with.

How did Combat Carl become Carl Weathers?

With the 12-inch G.I. Joe, there was a generic action figure that was molded in a variety of different skin tones, and I thought it would be interesting to have an African-American Combat Carl. As soon as I thought of that, my mind went right to Carl Weathers.

He didn’t always have the missing hand. Originally, he was just a head jumping around, but that was too weird. But Combat Carl being Carl Weathers was an early thing, and we reached out to Carl and he wanted to meet. He was really careful about the projects he signed onto, really thoughtful. We told him what we had in mind, and he got it immediately and signed on to do it. He was a joy. He ended up coming to the studio to record in person and spending the whole day with us, just hanging out and learning our process. His benevolent presence really influenced the character’s mentor personality.

When did the Happy Gilmore missing hand joke become a part of it?

Pretty early. I love Happy Gilmore, and I thought it would be funny to carry on. But he also lost his hand in Predator, so it felt like it was essential.

What about Combat Carl Jr.?

Like I said, I didn’t grow up with the 12-inch G.I. Joes, I grew up with the 3 ¾-inch G.I. Joes, but because Carl has to talk to Jessie and she’s so tall, it was going to be easier to stage with a larger figure. But I still wanted a 3 ¾-inch G.I. Joe in there, so that’s where that came from. We originally thought about maybe having a different actor play Carl Jr., but it was funnier to have Carl play a shrunken version of himself and pitch up his voice.

What was the appeal of centering on Jessie as opposed to Woody or Buzz?

Woody and Buzz had been so well explored. At that point, the studio saw Woody, Buzz and Jessie as the stars of the franchise, but it felt like Jessie needed her moment. I also really liked working with Joan Cusack. She lives in Chicago, and the pizza’s pretty good out there. It was a way to connect this to the Toy Story series but also be new and fresh. There seemed like an opportunity for Jessie to have a character journey. We knew from the second film she was abandoned and probably had PTSD, so we built on that.

For the rest of the gang, how did you pick your roster of characters?

I had animated on Toy Story 3 and as good as that film was, it was a pain to animate because there were so many characters on screen. Naturally, the more characters in the shot, the harder it is to animate — all the time the animators have allotted is divvied up among those characters. So, I wanted to have something where we could get it down to one character in the shot, because then the acting on that one character could have the potential to be something special.

I knew that I needed to have Woody and Buzz. Potato Head is hilarious, so I wanted him. The problem is that, by the time we got to Toy Story 3, some of the side characters are serving the same purpose, and competing. Trixie and Hamm, for example, are both kind of know-it-alls, so I decided to have Trixie over Hamm. There’s also the mix of having different characters visually, so Prickle Pants as a stuffed animal added variety. He also worked as the superfan horror film narrator and having a Shakespearean actor like Timothy Dalton doing that was a no-brainer.

Finally, was there a goal for how scary this should be?

That was a challenge. I wanted it to be scary so that there were stakes for the characters, but there were a few things we had to trim. For example, the moment of Jessie hiding in the bathtub had to be adjusted to make it less scary for broadcast television. 

One of the most interesting things was that the title was controversial for a little bit. There was some concern that the word “terror" was going to have a negative impact because of the “War on Terror.” They had a focus group though, and it didn’t end up being a thing. If we had to change it, I don’t know what it would have been called. It wouldn’t have been Toy Story Halloween because they were trying to keep it “spooky” but not Halloween specific. Thankfully that was a bridge I never had to cross.