Jim Hanks: How I Became the Voice of Woody in Toy Story

[00:00:00] Jay Steele: - Well, hey there, buckaroos. - That's the voice of Woody, but it's not who you think it is. [00:00:05] Jim Hanks: - Ha ha, boy, am I glad to see you. [00:00:08] Jay Steele: - Is that you? [00:00:09] Speaker 3: - No, it's my brother, Jim. [00:00:10] Jay Steele: - Howdy, I'm Jay Steele, and today I'm here with the voice of a legendary cowboy who's been in toys, theme parks, live shows. [00:00:18] Jim Hanks: - Computer games and video things, and Jim just, he works on those all year long. [00:00:23] Jay Steele: - It's the legendary voice of Woody, Jim Hanks. Thanks for joining me, Jim. - Legendary, wow. [00:00:27] Jim Hanks: - Oh, no doubt, come on. - Okay, all right, all right. [00:00:30] Jay Steele: - So how many years, wait, 28, 29 years? [00:00:32] Jim Hanks: - I think 29. - Wow, okay. - I think I went in and did the first toy in '94 before the first movie came out, so. [00:00:39] Jay Steele: - Did I get everything on the list? I got the toys, theme park, like you've done, your career's extensive with Woody. [00:00:44] Jim Hanks: - I did one short after the fourth movie came out called Lamplight, and I was the voice there. - Yeah, more or less. - I was like going, oh, okay, I'm actually doing real stuff now. [00:00:55] Jay Steele: - Animated by Pixar, right? Yeah, all the way. So let's go back to the beginning. How did you become the voice? [00:01:00] Jim Hanks: - My agent basically said, "Disney wants you to go in and do this stuff and this thing your brother's doing." And, "Okay." I don't remember actually auditioning. I just remember going into this tiny little booth and having a little bit of a scratch of, you know, Tom having done it. - Sarge, you seen Slinky? - Yeah, I think I had, I don't know, seven, eight lines, a good classic. "You're my favorite deputy." Hey, howdy, hey, snake in my boot. "Sure, I'd like to join your posse boys, but first I'd like to sing you a little song." A few things like that and walked out and went, "All right, well, that's cool." 29 years later, I'm still doing it. So I feel incredibly fortunate. [00:01:38] Jay Steele: - At the time or before that, did you know you could do that voice? You could hit it? [00:01:43] Jim Hanks: - I never really knew that my voice was as similar to Tom's. I have since then seen videos of myself, and probably I'll do it here too, where I watch myself and go, "Oh my God, yeah, I do sound like him, even though I'm not trying." But no, I was never going, "Hey, Tom, say that again." Tom does this thing where he simultaneously pushes with a diaphragm and he pushes it up to his nose. So I'm talking like this, but Tom talks like this. He's like here, at the same time it's down deep, but it's also up here. "Hi, I'm Tom." And for me, whenever I'm at a mic and I'm finding, I go, "Hey, hey, hey, hey." And I can find him. I find that the "Hey" has an explosiveness that takes me to Tom. Especially early on, Woody has a lot of power. [00:02:35] Speaker 3: - Draw. - You must look hard. - Aw, ah, golly, toy! [00:02:40] Jim Hanks: - I've always said that-- - Stop! - My Woody is my impression of Tom yelling at his kid. - Oh, okay. - It's like, "Get down from there!" That's, that is, that is Woody. - That's awesome. - And the same thing. [00:02:54] Jay Steele: - Yeah, always straining to go somewhere. [00:02:55] Jim Hanks: - Yeah, yeah, I mean, yeah. When it's like that, it'll blow you out fast. [00:03:00] Speaker 3: - When toys come to life, to infinity and beyond, Toy Story. [00:03:06] Jay Steele: - When you were going into the first project, had you heard of Toy Story? Like, were there trailers out at the time, or? [00:03:12] Jim Hanks: - No. - Okay. - No, I think it was far enough advanced 'cause they were making the toy. And I think the first three Toy Stories came out on Thanksgiving. [00:03:21] Speaker 3: - Happy Thanksgiving! [00:03:22] Jim Hanks: - Set right before Christmas, and people, "Oh, my God, I had to..." Every Toy Story toy. I did know that Tom was doing something. And at the time, you know, Pixar was, what, the tin toy and a couple things. I mean, not very many people knew who Pixar was. - Or even what CG animation was, right? - Yeah, computer-generated. [00:03:42] Speaker 3: Oh, that's gonna look weird. - Bulk Disney Pictures presents the first-ever computer-animated motion picture event. - Is that the beginning of an era. [00:03:51] Jim Hanks: And for me, it's been really fortunate that, for whatever reason, Woody has become one of their more iconic characters. And so one of the things that's fortunate for me is that they will ask the Woody character to do a lot of different things. - Coming up. - Woody's yours now. And I went, "Oh, really?" - I took the voice for this. Do I really have to stand in line? - And there's also a word that they're thinking about making more. [00:04:18] Speaker 3: - Don't touch that dial. We'll be right back to Woody's Roundup after this brief message. [00:04:22] Jay Steele: - Tastify has done collabs with many brands in the past, including Toy Story, and their latest collab is with Spider-Man. And I will say Spider-Man X Castify may be the best collab yet. Like all Castify cases, these have drop protection, but this time with some of the most unique designs yet. The textures, especially on these two mirror cases, are awesome and really poppin' person. There's also clear cases that showcase Spider-Man swinging and a collage of Daily Bugle articles. These are all my personal favorites, but there's many more to choose from, including a whole Venom collection. So check out the entire Spider-Man X Castify collection by clicking the link in the video description below. And I want to thank Casetify for sponsoring this video. And now let's get back to it. Do you know what the first project you did, was it the toy you said? - That, yeah, the first pool toy was the first one. [00:05:10] Speaker 3: - The talking and possible figures of Woody and Buzz Lightyear. - My name's Woody, each sold separately. [00:05:14] Jim Hanks: - I think the second one was the Ice Capades. [00:05:19] Jay Steele: - Oh, the Disney on Ice stuff? - Yeah. I've heard you have to like enunciate more and like project 'cause you're in a huge arena. [00:05:25] Jim Hanks: - Well, enunciation was really important at the beginning because like even the pull toy was kind of mushy sounding compared to what they have now. [00:05:35] Jay Steele: - Oh, okay, yeah. [00:05:36] Jim Hanks: - So I did have to say, "There's a snake in my boot!" And hit the T really hard. - Yeah. - Things like that. You know, so you have to really, really enunciate. And yeah, you have to over enunciate because it's in this giant auditorium with a lot of ice. So the sound is bouncing around weird. But the painful part is singing. - For you got a friend in me. - The first time was absolutely terrifying. Oh, God, I'm not a singer. - Okay. - And the music-- [00:06:07] Jay Steele: - Was it easier because you're in a different voice? It's not really you singing? [00:06:09] Jim Hanks: - Well, that actually, when I did the Ice Capades, it was terrifying. And I was just, I just got through it. It wasn't until I did the Woody with the guitar. - Strumming, singing Woody. - And he sings Home on the Range. - Home, home on the range. - I was struggling through that. And it was same kind of thing. I was trying to sing well, which was not going to happen. And at some point, I just went, hold on. Let me just try this more in character. And then that was it. - Oh, you got a friend in me. - That was the time where I got it. - Yeah, oh, okay, I see. - So that was like, you know, kind of a landmark going, oh, I can do this. [00:06:51] Speaker 3: - Yeah. - All right, cool. - Howdy, partners. - Climb aboard. [00:06:55] Jim Hanks: - We were recording the Midway Mania. And I was like on my third session, you know, and sometimes sessions go for, you know, four or six hours. So it could be pretty intense. And they were really having a hard time 'cause they kept saying Woody has to be able to talk to two and three-year-olds. I was trying to do everything I could. And there was a couple of little examples in the movies where he's, hey buddy, come on, that kind of thing. And it just wasn't working. And we were like in the third session and I went, can I say something? And they went, yeah, what? I said, the thing about Woody is Woody never talks down to anybody. Woody to me is like everybody's favorite teacher who talks to you as a person. And they went, okay, let's try that. And I did the entire ride in 45 minutes. [00:07:46] Jay Steele: - Oh, way to play everyone. [00:07:49] Jim Hanks: - 'Cause we just did it like that. [00:07:51] Jay Steele: - Yeah, it just shows like you have the voice, but you know the character integrity to keep it going. You know, that's awesome. - Have you been to, you've got to have been to Disneyland and Disney World to see your stuff in action. [00:08:03] Jim Hanks: - I've only been to Disneyland, yeah. I have not been to Disney World. [00:08:06] Jay Steele: - I've been and saw Toy Story Land. And you're right up in center, 50-foot tall Woody. [00:08:12] Jim Hanks: - He's not the biggest one. There's a, I think it's a 100-foot tall one in Hong Kong. - Oh, another Woody? - Yeah, they showed me pictures and I went, [00:08:21] Jay Steele: "That's a little scary." - And your voice is booming throughout the whole land. [00:08:25] Jim Hanks: - I'd like to give you a nice, big Andy's Backyard welcome. [00:08:29] Jay Steele: - What was it like going on Midway Mania? - That's so weird. - Yeah, it's so weird. - Yeah, you're in what the project you are. Like you're playing it, you're in the ride. Yeah, what was that like? - You know, I just go, "Stop telling me what to do!" [00:08:42] Jim Hanks: - Yeah. - Oh, I'm talking to myself. Yeah, it's trippy. I mean, it's always trippy. There was a time in the early 2000s, I was also the voice of Toys R Us Jeffrey the Drack. - Oh, that's right. - Hello, welcome to Toys R Us. Can I help you? - My voice was everywhere. - Wow. - Jeffrey dolls, but my voice came out of, I'm on the PA system, or I could walk over and start pulling a string on a Woody doll. I was all over the place. - You're the king of Toys R Us. That's awesome. - That was a great job. - It always cracks me up when somebody says, "Oh, I went to Disneyland." I want to know what's coming next. - You were everywhere. - Do you have any Disney perks when you go to the parks? - One time, we were there shortly after Midway Mania show started. And it was just, you know, line like that. [00:09:30] Speaker 4: - All these people you see behind me are here for the grand opening of Toy Story Mania. And we hear it's a five-hour wait in line. [00:09:38] Jim Hanks: - And I walked up to one of the persons and went, "Hey, I did the voice for this. Do I really have to stand in line?" And they went, "Oh, let me..." And so they disappear. And then somebody with, you know, one of the jackets shows up and goes, [00:09:53] Jay Steele: "Okay, Mr. Hanks, here you go." [00:09:55] Jim Hanks: So that was kind of cool. That was the only time I pulled that. [00:09:57] Jay Steele: - That's awesome. So yeah, we got, okay, theme parks, ice shows. How about the video games? - I feel like those would be really difficult. So you have, I'm sure, a ton of lines for every situation the character can be in. And how about the efforts? Like when you get-- - Oh yeah, the efforts are, you know-- [00:10:13] Jim Hanks: - Can you explain what those are? - It's just the sounds like, okay, he's landing. And, okay, you know, and we need it like he's landing from 10 feet to just jumping off a curb. So it's like, "Ugh!" to, "Ugh, ooh, ooh." You know, everything in between. And I remember going in and working on one. It's the first time I ever met John Ratzenberger, which was really great. He's a super nice guy. [00:10:35] Speaker 3: "Oh, you look good, hey, you lose some weight!" [00:10:37] Jim Hanks: But I go in and, you know, and that was old style, you know, very two-dimensional. He's just running from one side to this, you know, not really into it. Like, you know, like the Kingdom Hearts thing, which is amazing. But I remember at one point, I said, "Okay, now he's gonna climb up this rope and then he's gonna jump over here. Then he's gonna kick this thing off the..." And then long list of things I had to do. I saw him from scratching it. "Okay, jump, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do." And I say, "And action." And I go, "Hey, hey, hey, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go." And I do this whole thing, and I'm watching the guys in the room just going... That's awesome. Behind the glass. [00:11:15] Jay Steele: Wow. [00:11:16] Jim Hanks: And I went, "All right, I'm doing it right." [00:11:17] Jay Steele: Yeah, one take wonder. You got it, right? [00:11:19] Jim Hanks: Yeah, it was, it was, yeah, it was fun. We leave all the explosive stuff, like the efforts and the yeehaws are... I always do at the end because it can be kind of rough on your voice and stuff like that. [00:11:29] Jay Steele: With meeting John Ratzenberger, have you ever recorded with anyone else in the cast, or is it always alone? [00:11:35] Jim Hanks: It's almost always alone. Yeah. I did not record with him. There was one time we did it, and it was for Saturday morning interstitials. We're clear. Good. Play day, everybody. And that one was fun because they had everybody who was doing it, and there was this one guy who they had kind of stretched. You know, the shark who finds his hat and go, "Oh, I'm Woody." "Ah-ha, ah-ha, give me that." They made his character, and they did it where he was Robert Shaw from Jaws. [00:12:08] Jay Steele: And when they found him, his batteries were dead. [00:12:13] Jim Hanks: "Ah-ha!" So funny. That's great. Oh my God, it was so funny. [00:12:17] Jay Steele: Oh, so that one you did with the group? Oh, that's fun. [00:12:19] Jim Hanks: He's just sitting there going, "Ah-ha, ah-ha," and he's telling his story, and it was so hard to not just absolutely crack up. It was so fun. [00:12:27] Jay Steele: So we have Toy Story 1 through 4. Do you ever go back and record like specific lines from 1 or specific from 4, and is there a difference between those? Yeah. [00:12:36] Jim Hanks: Again, 29 years. Yeah, there is. I recently did a thing, I forget what the project was, but I was doing like a sound-alike for all these different lines that came out of all the four movies. And so I'm starting in 1, and I have to be Young Tom, you know, and then I'm getting these directions going for the lines from, you know, 4 or 3, going, "Uh, Jim, can you get a little closer to Old Tom here?" And it's like, "Wow, that's a weird direction." You can't teach this old toy new tricks. If you notice, he's having more conversations that aren't powerful. Yeah. He's not trying to control the room, you know, kind of, "Find our moving buddy! You haven't found one? [00:13:15] Speaker 3: Get one!" [00:13:16] Jim Hanks: And now he's having conversations where he's just kind of sitting and going, "Hey, so what happened to you about weeping?" How long were you in here? [00:13:23] Jay Steele: I would think with, uh, with all the, everything you've done with all the different categories, that it's more prevalent when a new movie comes out. Oh, yeah. Is it like, like, really crazy when 3 came out or when 4 came out? [00:13:35] Jim Hanks: Yeah, 19, or 18, whenever the year 4 came out was crazy. Oh, yeah. Because then they do all the commercial tie-ins and stuff like that. [00:13:44] Speaker 3: It's all clear! Open that fridge! Keep your parts to the cards! [00:13:47] Jim Hanks: Those are always good years. It's slowed down a little bit, but it's been picking up again. And there's also a word they're thinking about making more. I don't know where they're going to go with it, but those people from Pixar are freaking geniuses. So I'm going to assume it's going to be something really cool. And I remember after 4, granted this has changed now, but after 4, I was having lunch with Tom, and we were talking about talking, you know, and he, you know, he thought he was done. He said, well, Woody's yours now, and I went, oh, really? Well, I guess it is, isn't it? Okay, but not so much. And he's back! [00:14:25] Jay Steele: I'm doing it. No, no, I feel like your, your legacy with Woody is just monumental because of how many things you've done. And how prevalent your voice is. [00:14:36] Jim Hanks: I think, too, you know, some of it is Tom's fame. You know, you know, Tom, I, I say this often, Tom is arguably one of the most famous people on the planet. So, that has something to do with it, you know, and Pixar, again, geniuses. Tom wasn't, he was successful, but he wasn't who he is now. [00:14:59] Jay Steele: Yeah, well, to end off the interview, since you said that you do yeehaws at the end, do you mind saying, bye to the, to the viewers, and giving us a little yeehaw with it? [00:15:08] Jim Hanks: I'm going to have to, I'm going to have to, I'm going to have to moisturize you first. I haven't tried it, so. Okay, okay. [00:15:12] Jay Steele: Yee! Yee! [00:15:14] Jim Hanks: No, I can't do it. Yee-haw! And normally I can get high, but it's just not going to happen. No, that was it. That sounded exactly like it. Yee-haw! Yee-haw! Well, hey there, buckaroos. It's been a great show, so we'll see you next time. Same cowboy time, same cowboy channel. [00:15:33] Speaker 3: Tune in next week for the exciting conclusion, Woody's finest hour! [00:15:38] Jim Hanks: One time, Tom and I were up visiting my mother, and we called my other brother. We're just blabbing away, and my brother Larry finally says, "I just got to say, this is like listening to Dueling Woody's." So, I'm like, "Okay." That's great. .