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I grew up without TV or siblings, so I spent most of my time as a child playing in the woods and reading Trixie Belden books (it's like Nancy Drew, but she's way more tomboy-ish and the mysteries are way more interesting).  This means that I've read a lot of books that most people have never heard of, which is pretty cool.  But it also means that I am seriously behind on my Disney/Pixar game.

Snow White, Cars, The Little Mermaid, Monsters University, Sleeping Beauty, A Bug's Life.  Haven't seen any of them.  One of the other Banneker students, Ana Colon, learned my secret and made it her goal to educate me in the ways of Pixar films. Her lessons started two nights ago with Toy Story.

Toy Story is a great movie. (I can say that now, because I've actually seen it.)  But one thing bothered me.  Where do they live???  Do you know that scene where Andy's mom takes him to Pizza Planet? The one where Buzz and Woody get lost, which sets up the whole conflict of the movie?  Well, if you don't know what I'm talking about, I really can't judge you because two days ago I was right where you are now. But here's the scene I'm talking about:

 

I saw that scene two days ago and, being the astronomy nerd that I am, I couldn't stop wondering where the movie is set.  They never mention it in the movie, or at least I didn't notice any clues pointing toward the setting. (Neither did the super observant people who write buzzfeed articles about the things no one ever notices in movies.)  But LOOK AT ALL THOSE STARS!!!  

I figured I could use those stars (and other clues from the movie) to pinpoint a location for this movie that I'm told is a classic for my generation. 

My plan was to try and use common sense to find a place in the U.S. (the first of my basic assumptions) where you could see so many stars.  The very fact that you can see so many stars means that the movie is set in a place very far away from a major city.  I grew up in the middle of nowhere in Pennsylvania, and I couldn't even see that many stars, just because Pittsburgh was two hours away. 

Light pollution map of the U.S. from darksitefinder.com

What else can the stars tell us? 

Well, we know it's summer, because we never see Andy go to school.  We also know that days are longer in the summer, so stars come out later at night.  Let's make our second assumption and say that Andy's mother wouldn't take him and his sister to dinner any later than 7:30 PM.  This means that the time stamp in the picture above would be around 8 or 8:30.  In the summer, the sky is not dark enough at 8:30 to see that many stars.  

UNLESS you live in Arizona, where Daylight Savings Time doesn't exist.  Right now, I'm sitting in Cambridge, Massachusetts where it is \(\approx\)11:30 PM Eastern Time.  In Utah, it is currently \(\approx\)9:30 Mountain Standard Time and it's dark enough to see stars.  In Arizona, it is currently \(\approx\)8:30 Mountain Standard Time, and even though it's "earlier" there than it is in Utah, it's dark enough to see stars. 

Based on this (late-night) logic, I would be willing to bet that a) Toy Story is set in Arizona or b) Andy's mom has him and his sister on a messed up eating schedule. 

Also, you can't see any distant mountains in any outdoor scene in the movie, which tells us Andy and his family live far from any tall mountain ranges.  

All of this together tells me (and maybe tells you) that Toy Story 1 takes place in South or Southwestern Arizona.  

 

So there you have it!  With just a little bit of common sense and a picture of some stars, I was able to answer a question that's been bothering me for the last two days.  This is the power of astronomy.  

P.S.  To check myself, I also tried running the picture through this really awesome website called astrometry.net , but it didn't return any matches.  So now I "know" where the movie was set AND I know that the Toy Story animators just drew random points of light when they made this scene.  Yay science!!