Lasseter and his wife, Nancy, collected snow globes and also enjoyed souvenirs from distant places and those elements made their way into the short as well.

Singer Bobby McFerrin improvised the a cappella vocal jazz soundtrack to the film while watching a rough cut which was eventually left unchanged in its final edition.

On a bookshelf filled with vacation-themed souvenirs, a lonely and grumpy playboy knick-knack snowman named Knick, who resides in a "Nome Sweet Nome, Alaska" snow globe, wants to reach a female "Sunny Miami" knick-knack that shows an attractive blonde and tanned pool-lounger, wearing a blue speedo and sunglasses.

[2] Lasseter turned the studio's offer for a directorial position down, remarking to Pixar co-founder Ed Catmull, "I can go to Disney and be a director, or I can stay here and make history.

In contrast, Lasseter received complete creative freedom at Pixar's small animation division and was highly respected by his colleagues.

[3] When watching Who Framed Roger Rabbit during the production of Tin Toy, Lasseter became inspired to create a Chuck Jones-type of cartoon.

[4] In a discussion with the group, Lasseter brought up famed Warner Bros. and MGM director Tex Avery, noting that his cartoons were wild and exuberant, yet not necessarily very complex.

[3] The rest of the team were also fans of Tom and Jerry cartoons and the work of Chuck Jones and found the idea of cartoonish violence appealing.

[5] Animator Flip Phillips and production coordinator Deirdre Warin simultaneously hit on the idea of the snow globe falling into a fishbowl.

[5] The singer Bobby McFerrin created the musical soundtrack and a cappella vocal jazz track which he improvised while watching a rough cut of the film.

As the rough cut ended, the placeholder credits read blah-blah-blah-blah, so he sang those words and it remained in the film's score.

"[9] This updated version is preceded with the message "In 1989, six years before Toy Story, Pixar Animation Studios made this short film."

During 2007–2008, a series of commercials released in the United Kingdom for Bupa featured the Knick Knack theme tune as their soundtrack.