The SuperCarlinBrothers have uncovered a new story about Andy's Dad and Woody's origin in Pixar's Toy Story universe. Since it began in 1995, the Toy Story franchise has inspired a huge range of fan theories, from the massive Pixar Theory to smaller theories about how all the characters connect in small and unexpected ways. However, there are still several questions that fans have about the Toy Story universe. As the franchise has grown, many of these have been answered - and with Toy Story 4 on the horizon, more answers might be coming soon.

One of the biggest questions that fans have about this universe is the story of Andy's Dad. Throughout the franchise, the audience meets Andy's mom and sister, but his father is nowhere to be found, leaving many fans to assume that he is either dead or that he and Andy's mom are divorced. Another question is about Woody - why he had no knowledge of himself, the series that inspired him, or the other toys in his set. It seemed that these questions would go unanswered, but now a YouTuber has discovered a very little known story that explains everything.

SuperCarlinBrothers posted a new video this week, providing a detailed account of the story of Andy's Dad and Woody's origin. The story was told to them in an interview with Mike Mozart, a Disney artist and toy designer. Mozart was a friend to Joe Ranft, one of Pixar's original creative dream team, and the story artist who worked on all of Pixar's films up until his tragic death in 2005.

Update: Filmmaker Andrew Stanton, who had a hand in crafting the story and screenplay of Toy Story and has remained involved in the franchise, refuted this report on Twitter, calling it "fake news."

According to the story, Andy's Dad has not divorced Andy's Mom, but is in fact, dead. However, the story goes far beyond that to the time that Andy's Dad was a kid. Turns out that the house Andy lives in in Toy Story is not his parent's house, but his grandparent's house, and all the photos on the wall of 'Andy' are, in fact, photos of Andy's Dad - who was also named Andy, and who looks just like his son as a kid.

In the '50s, Andy Sr was a huge fan of Woody's Roundup, the cowboy show created to sell Cowboy Crunchies cereal. The cereal brand then created all kinds of merchandise for the series, but didn't put out a Woody doll - instead, they ran a promotion. A Woody doll could only be obtained by sending in 30 box tops of Cowboy Crunchies cereal. The promotion began, and a prototype doll was made. Then, when Sputnik went up and Woody's Roundup was cancelled, the dolls hadn't been put into production, and Cowboy Crunchies cancelled the promotion. The prototype doll was the only one remaining, and it was destined for the trash. However, a secretary at Cowboy Crunchies thought that this was a sad end to the doll, and so she fished it out and sent it to the kid who had sent in the most heartfelt letter with their boxtops - and as Andy Sr hadn't been able to collect enough due to his family being poor, he had decorated his letter and sent it in anyway, which meant that it was the one the secretary chose.

So that's how Andy Sr got Woody, and explains why Woody is so valuable - he is literally the only doll ever made. It also explains why he doesn't know who he is, because he was the only one made, and never interacted with the other merchandise, or ventured into the world before the show was cancelled. But the story doesn't end there. According to Mozart, Andy Sr had polio, and as a result, had to burn all his toys - but he snuck out to save Woody, Mr Potato-Head, and Slinky Dog. He hid them in a trunk in the attic, and then went to a special hospital to be cured. After that, he never returned to play with the toys, but ended up moving to Seattle and marrying Andy's mom. They only returned when Andy Sr got Post-Polio-Syndrome, and had to move back into his parents' house with his young family. There, he passed the toys onto Andy Jr before he died - and the toys never realized that it was a new Andy playing with them.

SuperCarlinBrothers does point out that this is a story that fits, but that at the moment, it comes only from Mozart himself - and due to the untimely death of Ranft, it's a difficult one to confirm. However, the video ends with a request to share this story and try to get to one of the other original creative minds behind the franchise, in the hopes that it could be confirmed - or even brought to life in a Toy Story prequel!

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Source: SuperCarlinBrothers