The Hidden Crisis Behind 'Toy Story 2': How a Backup Failure Almost Wiped Out Pixar’s Masterpiece
The data disaster that was averted.
In a near-disaster for Pixar, a command entered into the “master machine” — the central system where all the animation data for Toy Story 2 was stored — resulted in the deletion of approximately 90 per cent of the work completed by the team.
“A plan was swiftly devised to recover the data from a regular backup, which would have limited the loss to just half a day’s work. However, the backup system had failed, and astonishingly, Pixar did not possess a copy of the Toy Story 2 files on its servers.”
This could have meant the complete loss of months of painstaking animation work. Fortunately, the film’s technical director had been working from home and retained a copy of much of the project. Thanks to her quick thinking and dedication, most of the animation data was recovered, saving what could have been an enormous setback for Pixar’s production schedule.
This incident highlights both the importance of reliable data backups and the resilience of creative teams in moments of crisis. It also underscores how close Toy Story 2 came to being lost forever — a reminder of how fragile digital projects can be and how crucial proper data management is in film production.
