Top 10 Unscripted Moments That Were Kept in Pixar Movies

“Finding Dory” (2016)
Ellen DeGeneres has a lot of improv experience. Being a stand-up comic and hosting your own talk show for years will do that for a person. So it’s no surprise that she put a lot of her own jokes into the script for “Finding Dory.” Though there was of course a screenplay to follow, DeGeneres had a lot of freedom while recording to adlib however she wanted. As a result, many of Dory’s ever curious, forgetful moments are just her riffing. She said she doesn’t recall all the lines that were her own creations, but one does stick out. Apparently, “how can you do this park in one day?” was a bonafide Ellen DeGeneres idea.

“Onward” (2020)
This unscripted moment was a brief one, but it still had a big impact. 2020’s “Onward” takes place in a fantasy world that includes a bunch of magical creatures living ordinary, suburban lives. Lena Waithe appears as a cyclops who is a police officer, as well as Pixar’s first openly gay animated character. According to Waithe, Officer Specter’s sexuality came from an idea she spontaneously had. A line referencing the character’s significant other initially framed that person as male, but Waithe asked if she could change the partner to be a woman. The filmmakers liked the alteration, and Pixar history was made.

“Monsters, Inc.” (2001)
When you hire Billy Crystal, you best believe you’re going to get some improv. And when recording his iconic role as Mike Wazowski in “Monsters, Inc.,” Crystal more than delivered. He reportedly improv’ed many of the lines that we know and love. This includes a section of the movie where he wakes up Sulley for work. In the scene, Mike begins to rattle off a fake weather report as he tries to rouse his sleeping friend. The concept of him imitating a radio announcer was a last-minute addition, courtesy of story supervisor Bob Peterson. And the actor reportedly had some room to experiment with the specifics. The forecast adds such unique and funny flavor to the movie, and it came together perfectly.

“Luca” (2021)
This improv was so good, a post-credits scene became absolutely necessary. “Luca” is a movie about the adventures of a sea monster who can turn into a human boy when he goes on land. Sacha Baron Cohen plays the boy’s eccentric Uncle Ugo, a strange creature who resides at the bottom of the sea. Ugo doesn’t have too much of a role in the film. But Cohen did so much ad-libbing on set that the filmmakers couldn’t leave all that potential for entertaining material on the cutting room floor. To give the actor his due, they added a post-credits sequence featuring his character swimming around the sea talking to himself.

“Toy Story” (1995)
Woody is one of actor Tom Hanks’ most iconic roles. But you might not know that Hanks did a lot of improv-ing while recording some of the character’s most famous lines. In “Toy Story”, Woody and Buzz Lightyear find themselves at their neighbor Sid’s house. Buzz is struggling at this point, and won’t come to the window to show the other toys that he’s alive and well. Instead, he literally tosses Woody – who’s been accused of hurting him – his arm. So the cowboy acts out a little puppet show with the disembodied limb, even incorporating a secret handshake in a desperate attempt to prove the duo are together. Apparently, Hanks was doing some improvising here, and it definitely paid off.

“Toy Story 4” (2019)
For a good comedy duo to work, you need a level of comfort with one another. Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele definitely have enough comfort to last a lifetime. In “Toy Story 4,” the duo play Ducky and Bunny, and were able to record their scenes together. That opportunity afforded them the ability to improvise both their speaking lines and their singing ones. According to Key, the filmmakers didn’t just ask the pair to sing a song, they asked them to create one. Naturally, the two obliged and came up with something hilarious on the spot. Only a few seconds of singing can be heard in the movie, but what glorious seconds they are.

“Toy Story” (1995)
During press for the fourth “Toy Story” movie, Tim Allen spoke about how he was no longer able to improvise as much as he would have liked. This marked a shift from the first “Toy Story” film, where he made up quite a bit of his own lines. One scene in particular rings fondly in our memories. When Buzz Lightyear is taken by Sid’s sister Hannah, things don’t go quite as planned. She turns him into a guest at her tea party and calls him Mrs. Nesbitt. Buzz starts to lose it and believes that he IS Mrs. Nesbitt, freaking out and asking Woody if his hat looks good. According to Allen, that meltdown humor came from him.

“Toy Story” (1995)
Woody spends much of the first “Toy Story” movie trying to convince Buzz that he is not actually a space ranger, and is in fact just a toy. During one of their arguments about this, Buzz delivers what is perhaps the movie’s most famous – and most savage – line. The phrase has been memed to death in recent years, and it’s easy to see why. Well, turns out the hilarious moment came to be thanks to Buzz’s voice actor Tim Allen improvising. Yup, that’s right; one of the best lines across the “Toy Story” franchise as a whole wasn’t even in the original script. The more you know!

“Finding Nemo” (2003)
How could a clownfish not be funny? Well, 2003’s “Finding Nemo” shows us exactly how with help from one Albert Brooks. Brooks, who provides the voice of Nemo’s father Marlin, plays the clownfish as a worrywart to the max at first. In an early scene, a group of parents wait for Marlin to tell them a joke, which he routinely fumbles. Brooks reportedly spent a good amount of time ad-libbing different versions of the same terrible bit. It’s a great moment for the actor, who outside of this scene doesn’t get a ton of chances to show off his comic side in the film. At least he finally nails that joke at the end!

“Monsters, Inc.” (2001)
We know that Billy Crystal ad-libbed a lot of lines as one Mike Wazowski. But you might be surprised to find out that he actually came up with an entire musical as well. “Put That Thing Back Where It Came From or So Help Me” is one of the funniest moments in the entirety of “Monsters, Inc.” – and Crystal improvised the whole thing. It comes when Mike and Sulley have to make up a musical on the spot to hide the fact that they’re arguing over what to do with Boo. Not only were the characters making up the words on the spot, but it seems the actors were too, making the moment doubly authentic and hysterical.