• by Tanya Gazdik , Yesterday

Porsche is partnering with Disney and Pixar for a “Toy Story” inspired activation with a charitable component. 

The automaker created three one-of-a-kind vehicles inspired by the movie characters Woody, Buzz Lightyear and Jessie, which debuted on the red carpet at the premiere of "Toy Story 5" on June 9 in Los Angeles.

“Porsche also teamed with Goodyear on custom ‘Lightyear’ tires,” according to Fox Business. “Inside, the car features green accents, Pebble Grey leather, Arctic Grey Race-Tex and illuminated door sill guards reading ‘To Infinity and Beyond.’”

The vehicles will be sold as part of a charitable initiative benefiting Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, the American Red Cross and Starlight Children’s Foundation.

“The last Porsche inspired by a cartoon, a blue Porsche 911 shaped after Sally Carrera from Pixar’s ‘Cars’ series, sold for $3.6 million, around 10 times its retail value,” according to the New York Post. 

The “Cars” movie franchise is 20 years old. 

“That collab with Pixar proved wildly successful, delighting children, the young adults who watched the movie when they were much younger, and perhaps even the parents who saw the film with their kids,” according to Autoblog. The "Toy Story"-themed 911s are courtesy of Porsche’s Sonderwunsch program, and the division has made “some of the most truly unique one-off models.”

Porsche and Pixar’s latest collaboration was more of a challenge than the “Cars” recreation. 

Bringing larger-than-life personalities into the automotive world was anything but straightforward.

The biggest challenge was “not going too far, not pushing to the point where, as I said earlier, things can become kitchy,” Jay Ward, Pixar’s creative director of franchise, tells Motor 1. “I think these cars strike a really nice balance. You want to hearken to the materials and get the essence and the feeling of the characters, the playfulness of the characters.”

The original “Toy Story” debuted more than 30 years ago, and it was an instant classic. 

“In the same year, Porsche was producing the 993 generation of their own instant classic, the 911,” according to MotorWeek. “Perhaps, on face value, these icons of their respective mediums have very little in common, but what they do share is a level of global recognition only gifted to the most revered works of art and, in their own ways, an ability to put smiles on faces.”