Never BornFILM & TV

Toy Story 3 by Circle 7

Disney built a new animation studio to make Pixar sequels without Pixar, then discarded its alternate Toy Story 3 after buying the company it had tried to replace.

HOW CLOSE TO REALITY45/100
CATEGORYFilm & TV
LIFECYCLE2004—2006
00

Quick facts

Existence state
Never Born
Peak stage
detailed preproduction
Research confidence
high
Last verified
01

What it was

An abandoned version of Toy Story 3 developed at Disney's short-lived Circle 7 Animation studio.

The script sent Buzz Lightyear to Taiwan for a product recall while Woody and the other toys followed to rescue him from destruction.

02

Existence timeline

Circle 7 established

Disney creates a studio to develop sequels to Pixar properties.

Alternate sequel announced

A third Toy Story is placed into active development.

Screenplay and story work

The Buzz Lightyear recall narrative advances through pre-production.

Disney buys Pixar

The corporate dispute that created Circle 7 is resolved through acquisition.

Circle 7 closes

The studio's Toy Story 3 is cancelled before animation production.

03

Why it ended

Disney acquired Pixar in 2006, closed Circle 7 and cancelled its sequel slate; Pixar later made a completely different Toy Story 3.

04

Last confirmed trace

Screenplay drafts, concept art, storyboards and accounts by the production team preserve the rejected version.
05

What it left behind

The project records a moment when corporate bargaining nearly split a famous animated franchise into competing creative lineages.

06

How we classified it

The proposed archive unit never reached ordinary public access in the form being documented.

The strongest verified milestone maps to detailed_preproduction under Arrival Score V1.

07

Sources & verification

Last reviewed 2026-08-01. Sources are linked so readers can inspect the evidence directly.

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