The final shot in the film before the end credits is that of white clouds against a blue sky. This is a reference to the very first frame of the Toy Story trilogy, which was that of white clouds against a blue sky in the wallpaper on Andy’s room.
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When Andy is introducing his toys to Bonnie, he introduces Jessie. In Toy Story 2 (1999) when Jessie came to live with Andy he gave her the name “Bazooka Jane”. However, he gives her that name before using her pull string. The message “My name is Jessie, pleased to meet you” is featured on the toy and so Andy had a few years to pull the string and learn her real name. Furthermore, it could’ve simply been a nickname that he gave her, similar to how he calls Mr. Potato Head “One Eyed Bart” and Hamm “Evil Dr. Porkchop”.
When Lotso is helped to the Emergency Stop button on the trash conveyor belt, instead of pushing the button to stop the belt and save the other toys, he glares at them and yells, “Where’s your kid now?” This is a wink to the Billy Crystal routine making fun of the incongruity of ‘Edward G. Robinson’ being cast in The Ten Commandments (1956): “Where’s your Messiah now, Moses?”).
Test audiences wanted Lotso to redeem himself by pressing the button to save the toys rather then leave them behind.
The song that Jessie and Buzz salsa dance to is a Spanish version of “You’ve Got A Friend In Me”.
Jessie and Buzz’s dance scene during the end credits was choreographed by Cheryl Burke and Driton ‘Tony’ Dovolani, both known for appearing in the American version of ”Dancing with the Stars” (2005/I).
Sid Phillips, the next-door-neighbor who was the first movie’s major antagonist (he destroyed toys by blowing them up, and he liked to dismember toys and reconstruct them by mixing up their parts) makes a brief appearance in the third movie as a garbageman. He is identifiable by the same black and white skull t-shirt he wore during the first movie, and he is voiced by the same actor, Erik von Detten.
The beginning was meant to mirror the beginning of the first movie, even with Mr. Potato Head talking his attack dog with a force field, and Woody responding he had a dinosaur that eats force field dogs.
The director states that both Rex and Trixie come from the same toy line of dinosaurs.
Director Lee Unkrich’s son Max drew Daisy’s name on Big Baby’s pendent, as well as Bonnie’s name on her backpack. His other children drew the pictures shown in Bonnie’s room.
In Andy’s room is a street sign with “W. Cutting Blvd” on it. That’s the street where the original Pixar studios in Richmond, San Francisco was located.
For inspiration for the Sunnyside escape, the Pixar staff watched numerous prison movies. Director Lee Unkrich said: “There are a lot of prison movies out there, and I think we watched every single one of them.”
In an interview with KCRW’s movie industry radio show “The Business,” Joan Graves, the chair of the MPAA’s Classification and Ratings Administration, admitted that (based on the response she and her board have gotten from parents) giving Toy Story 3 (2010) a G rating was a mistake, and that it should have gotten at least a PG (especially because of the incinerator scene) and that the lesson learned in that case would be applied to future movie ratings so that movies would no longer be given the “benefit of the doubt” while being rated.
Bonnie’s surname is Anderson.
An early version of Lotso can be seen in the first Toy Story during the staff meeting. Woody asks if the toys “up on the shelf can hear” him, and we see a shot of a big, pinkish bear. John Lasseter wanted to use Lotso in the original Toy Story, but PIXAR had troubles getting the fur right.
When Barbie is going through Ken’s closet, they come across a blue and gold letterman jacket with a “K” embroidered on the breast and a “State” pennant laying across the front. Michael Keaton, the voice of Ken, graduated from Kent State University, whose colors are blue and gold.
Lee Unkrich wanted Lotso to be a toy from the 1980s Care Bears toy line. This idea was not dropped until after the storyboard was completed.
