According to the film review site rottentomatoes.com, Toy Story 2 still stands as one of the best-reviewed films of all time. It received 146 positive reviews and 0 negative reviews. But this wildly entertaining and heartwarming film almost never came to be.

The problems with the film began in the fall of 1998, during the final days of story development. The first screening of the story reels went horribly. The plot felt way too predictable and didn't have that Pixar spark. Ed Catmull, the president of Pixar Studios (as of 2013), said, "Everyone knew that the movie wasn't working. Our process was broken—the story wasn't getting better." And so, with less than a year until the release date, the Pixar team decided to do the unthinkable: they threw the script in the trash and started over.

But Toy Story 2 wasn't just finished on time; it went on to become one of the most successful animated films ever made. The entire studio learned some valuable lessons about the film's agonizing production process. After it was completed Catumull reflected,

I'll worry about Pixar when we unlearn what we learned from Toy Story 2. Meltdowns are always painful, but they're a sign that we're still trying to do something difficult, that were still taking risks and willing to correct our mistakes. [Sometimes] we have to be willing to throw our scripts in the trash.

Today leaders at Pixar expect that there will be many failures along the way. The long days will be filled with difficult conversations and disorienting surprises and late-night arguments. But no one ever said making a good movie was easy. Toy Story 2's co-director and editor Lee Unkrich added, "If it feels easy, then you're doing it wrong. We know that screw-ups are an essential part of what we do here. That's why our goal is simple: We just want to screw up as quickly as possible. We want to fail fast. And then we want to fix it. Together."

Possible Preaching Angles: (1) Perseverance; (2) Failure; (3) Teamwork