Have you seen "Toy Story" recently?

I hadn't seen it for a while and then I saw it just recently when my kids were watching it. And I get sucked into it, I'm like, "Yeah, this is pretty good!" And I'm surprised, because we were blissfully ignorant when we made it.

Presumably things moved on a lot technically for "Toy Story 2"?

We always knew when we were making "Toy Story" that, visually, the film at some point would look dated. But I said, "You know what, it may look dated, but let's make sure the story is still a good story, still entertains." So we tried to stay away from topical humour. In the back of my head, it was always the intention that I'm hoping people will still be watching "Toy Story", 20, 30, 50, 60 years from now. Because I look at how my family watch "Dumbo", "Bambi", "Pinocchio", "Snow White" - they still watch those films. I think "Dumbo" is the best film ever made, it's my favourite movie.

Billy Crystal recently said that turning down the role of Buzz Lightyear was his biggest regret...

We approached Billy and Tom Hanks, and Billy turned us down because his agent was the same agent that worked with Robin Williams. And Robin Williams was unhappy with some things with Disney after "Aladdin" - so he turned it down. And then we approached Tim Allen. It would have been a very different character with Billy. What was great about working with Tim is that our original idea was that Buzz Lightyear was more aware of being a big superhero and able to handle everything. But when Tim came in, he recorded much more like a regular guy. So we evolved the character to be more like a space cop, and it made it more like he was just there to help. Therefore his delusion was more truthful and hurt more when he discovered what he really was.

"Toy Story" receives its terrestrial television debut on BBC1 on Christmas Day, 4.40pm.