Don Mancini has revealed many things about his original script for this film.
Original Script[]
Don Mancini was a junior at UCLA when he completed the first draft of the script in June of 1985. Originally, it was a satire on toy marketing and merchandising for children, before the idea morphed into a horror film. He got the idea from the Cabbage Patch Kid craze of the 80's, noticing how the marketing tactics affected parents and children as his father had worked in the advertising industry.
Don was inspired by the Zuni doll from the 1975 film Trilogy of Terror, the ventriloquist dummy from the 1978 film Magic, and the 1963 episode Living Doll from the Twilight Zone. However, unlike these examples he wanted to create a doll that could be a full-fledged character. Working titles for the film included "Batteries Not Included" and "Blood Buddy". The title Child's Play was settled on after it became known Steven Spielberg was already making a movie titled Batteries Not Included. The original script also toyed with the audience a bit longer, making them wonder if Andy was the killer rather than Chucky. The doll was not seen until the third act, where he is spouting one-liners while killing Andy’s dentist.
Chucky’s original name was "Buddy", but they weren’t able to use that name because of Hasbro’s 1985 My Buddy doll. He was described as a two-foot tall doll with red hair, blue eyes, freckles, red-buttoned overalls, red sneakers, and a striped sweater. From that description, producer David Kirschner sketched the doll’s final design, which was then built into the animatronic doll by Kevin Yagher. Additionally, Chucky originally could only speak by pulling a string on his back. He spoke in his child-like voice until his final confrontation with Karen, where he ripped the string out of his back to reveal his deep natural voice.
The Good Guy dolls had synthetic blood and latex skin. If the kids played too rough and tore the latex skin, they would have to buy official Good Guy bandages, as a way to sell more products. Karen Barclay was an advertising executive for the Good Guy doll company, recently divorced from her husband. Andy had an unconscious resentment toward her, as she was an overworked single mother who wasn’t around. As Andy was lonely and isolated, in a blood-brother pact he cut his own thumb and mixed his blood with Chucky's blood, so they could be “best friends forever”. This in turn causes him to come alive.
The original idea for Chucky was that he was not possessed by the soul of a cold-blooded serial killer, but was part of Andy's rage. He goes after and kills the people that were Andy's enemies, including his babysitter, teacher, and his mother Karen. He only comes alive when Andy is asleep. Because Chucky is the embodiment of Andy’s unconsciousness, he decides that if he kills the boy, then Andy will be asleep forever and Chucky will be alive forever.
New Additions[]
Don Mancini has stated that around 50% of the finished film retains the concepts of his original script, with other ideas added by an additional writer, the producer, and the director. The 1987 version of the script can be read here.
- John Lafia’s initial idea for Chucky coming to life involved a prisoner was being electrocuted on death row and his spirit getting into the doll at the nearby toy factory. His biggest contribution was giving Chucky a back story, and making him a human who somehow became a doll. This human became Charles Lee Ray, to which John coined the name Chucky.
- David Kirschner’s contribution was the concept of the serial killer Charles Lee Ray’s soul inhabiting the doll after being killed in a toy store. He came up with the name Charles Lee Ray from serial killers that haunted his childhood: Charles Manson, Lee Harvey Oswald, and James Earl Ray.
- Tom Holland’s contribution was bringing in the voodoo mythology and the rule that Charles Lee Ray could only transfer his soul into the body of the first person he revealed his true self to. He also added in Charles’ partner Eddie Caputo, which was influenced by the Hillside Stranglers.
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