Toy Story 4 (Pixar) (2019)

[Jake Lipson]

Title: Toy Story 4 (2019)

Genre: Adventure, Comedy, Family

Director: Josh Cooley

Cast: Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Annie Potts, Joan Cusack, Blake Clark, Wallace Shawn, Jodi Benson, John Ratzenberger, Keanu Reeves, Patricia Arquette, Jordan Peele, Timothy Dalton, Keegan-Michael Key, Kristen Schaal, Laurie Metcalf, Bonnie Hunt, Lori Alan, Jeff Garlin, Tony Hale, Estelle Harris, Bud Luckey, Jeff Pidgeon, Christina Hendricks, Ally Maki, Don Rickles

Release: 2019-06-20

Plot: Woody and Buzz Lightyear set out on an epic journey to find Woody's romantic interest, Bo Peep.

Pixar's 2019 release will be Toy Story 4.

I'm not really sure if we need a Toy Story 4 since the third one left it in such a wonderful place to end, but I have to assume Pixar knows the value of its flagship franchise and wouldn't trot out another sequel if they thought it was going to be bad. There is a big difference in terms of producing a bad sequel to something as iconic and loved as Toy Story, as opposed to producing a bad sequel to, say, Cars. Hopefully they understand that.

Josh Cooley, who directed "Riley's First Date?", the short on the Inside Out Blu-ray, is directing in his feature film directing debut. He was originally co-director under John Lasseter, but Lasseter left the project (even before his sabbatical.)

I don't want to get into the sabbatical here because we've already been discussing that in the allegations thread in the off-topic forum. However, as a result of his sabbatical, it has come out that Rishada Jones and Eric McCormick, who were originally announced to write this film, are no longer attached to it. That was news to me when it was mentioned in the context of Lasseter's sabbatical, because I don't think their departure had ever been publicly announced before that. I'm wondering when they left and, more importantly, who is replacing them.

I'm also curious about he timetable of this film, in terms of the narrative. It has been delayed a couple times, originally having been set for this year, and then 2018, before settling on 2019. That means nine years will have passed in between Toy Story 3 and this film. We've seen the toys during that interval in a few Toy Story Toons shorts, as well as the Toy Story of Terror and Toy Story That Time Forgot TV specials for ABC, but those are shorts and while they are entertaining, nothing much happens in them that changes the state of the world for the toys.

For the other Toy Story films, the time in between films in the real world had also elapsed within the story. If that happens again, then Bonnie, who inherited the toys from Andy in the terrific ending of the last film, will have likely aged up to a point where she doesn't play with the toys anymore either. While Toy Story 3 is a fantastic film, I'm not really sure I want to go through that arc again in the fourth one, because it would be the same thing we just saw. If they decide to go the Finding Dory route and *not* age up the character, then it's possible that Bonnie could need a new voice actor. I think the same girl from the film played her in the shorts, but the most recent of those, Toy Story That Time Forgot, was in 2014, only four years after her film, so her voice hadn't really changed that much in that time. Now, it might be a different story.

Also, obviously I don't know how much of this is being kept if Jones and McCormick have left, but it was previously stated that the new film would be a love story between Woody and Bo Peep, whom he is going to try to find. I think that's a cool idea, since they certainly made her absence felt in Toy Story 3. However, given the gap of several years between Toy Story 2 and 3 -- not to mention whatever kind of gap they'll have between 3 and 4 -- I'm curious how they will handle that. If Andy got rid of Bo Peep at some point during the years between 2 and 3, which even in terms of the story was a long time ago now, then why is Woody suddenly going after her now? As in, why didn't he do it years ago when she was first given away? And how would he even begin to figure out where she went? She could have ended up anywhere. Obviously, too, he wants *his* Bo Peep, not another copy of her (in the same sense that there are copies of Buzz and the other toys, there are probably multiple Bo Peeps manufactured in this world.) So, while I think this might be a cool story, I also think there are some logical questions they'll need to answer in the narrative to make it work.

So...yeah. All of that has been on my mind lately, and so I thought I would start the thread.

Your thoughts?

 

[Matt Hough]

The fourth movie could be a prequel to any one of the previous three depending on where the writers needed the timeline to go. Yes, they'd have to get new voice actors for the human characters, but again, the story they've come up with will determine what they need in terms of human beings in the cast of characters. And had they recorded Don Rickles before his death or will Mr. Potato Head have to be recast with a voice double? Not unprecedented, of course, and possibly if there was new writing involved, the voice duties may be split between old Rickles recordings and a new voice double.

 

[Jake Lipson]

I doubt very much that 4 is a prequel to any of them, because a) it's going out with "4" in the title and b) assuming Woody accomplishes his goal to find Bo Peep, he would have to lose her again before the events of the third film, since she is not in that one.

Thank you for bringing up Don Rickles. I meant to do that last night in my original post but forgot. Unfortunately, the answer is no, he had not recorded for the new film.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/n...-record-his-part-before-he-passed-away-992013

Jim Varney (Slinky Dog) passed away in 2000 after the release of Toy Story 2, so his role was recast with Blake Clark for the third film. They could do that again, but Don Rickles' voice is pretty iconic so may be hard to find a replacement for. Another option would be to write the character out, as they did when Pixar animator Joe Ranft (who provided the voice of Wheezy in Toy Story 2) died in 2005. Wheezy was simply not seen again after that, despite the fact that Woody's efforts to save him from being sold kicked off the plot of Toy Story 2.

Or, if they are really lucky, they could take a cue from Cars 3 and bring Mr. Potato Head back with Don Rickles voicing him, via outtakes and other pre-recorded material that went unused in the first three films. Their ability to do this obviously depends upon how much old recordings of him they have tucked away in their vaults, but Newman only recorded one film for them before he died and Rickles recorded three, so it's very possible that they might have several hours of old tapes.

This is an interesting and unfortunate challenge that I wish they didn't have to face, but it will be interesting to see how they handle it.

Also potentially affected is Estelle Harris as Mrs. Potato Head. She is, thankfully, very much alive and should be back, but since her role is always connected to that of her husband, it may well depend on what they decide to do with him. Particularly in a movie that is supposed to be a love story between Woody and Bo Pep, it would be an interesting juxtaposition if Mrs. Potato Head is there by herself. But as Andy told Bonnie in the end of the third one, "You've got to keep them together since they're madly in love."

[Belated edit only to fix typo.]

 

[Brett_B]

In regards to a possible plot, as was mentioned previously with the time passed since the last one why not have Andy be married and has a young child himself. And, if Bonnie is too old for the toys Andy gets them back to give to his child where Andy will be reunited, and playing, with all of his former toys teaching his child the adventures that these toys have had.

 

[Matt Hough]

Wonderful idea, Brett!

 

[Jake Lipson]

I like that idea, too -- although, as far as Andy knows, these toys have never left his house except when accompanied by him, so he is only aware of the adventures he's made up for them. I doubt he'd be telling his kids about the adventures we know they've had.

 

[Brett_B]

I like that idea, too -- although, as far as Andy knows, these toys have never left his house except when accompanied by him, so he is only aware of the adventures he's made up for them. I doubt he'd be telling his kids about the adventures we know they've had.

I was thinking more about the adventures he was teaching Bonnie at the end of Toy Story 3.

 

[Jake Lipson]

Yeah, that works nicely. Then by the time Andy's kid grows up, Bonnie will have kids, and the toys can just keep getting passed between the two of them forever.

 

[Sam Favate]

In regards to a possible plot, as was mentioned previously with the time passed since the last one why not have Andy be married and has a young child himself. And, if Bonnie is too old for the toys Andy gets them back to give to his child where Andy will be reunited, and playing, with all of his former toys teaching his child the adventures that these toys have had.

That ties in nicely with the theory that Jessie belonged to Andy's mom, and she was the little girl who gave her away.

Tom Hanks likes the idea: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entr...-mom-is-fantastic_us_5903bd5be4b0bb2d086ea066

 

[Jake Lipson]

That ties in nicely with the theory that Jessie belonged to Andy's mom, and she was the little girl who gave her away.

Wouldn't that be a massive coincidence?

If Andy and Bonnie deliberately pass the toys between each other for their kids, that makes sense. But for Andy's mom to also be Jessie's owner, and then for Jessie to coincidentally find her way back to that family's ownership, is...nice, but a bit of a plausibility stretch.

 

[Mike Frezon]

I'm loving everything I'm reading in this thread!

And that's the first I've heard of the "Andy's mom theory!" That's really cool.

 

[Jeff Cooper]

But what about Andy's DAD!?!?!?!?!

 

[Jake Lipson]

You're probably being sarcastic, but...

Obviously, Andy's dad is either divorced from his mother or had passed away a long time prior to the first film. (I've heard some people who in my opinion are overanalyzing suspect that the move in the first film is to get a fresh start after Andy's dad's death, but that theory doesn't work because that kid is way too happy for a kid whose dad just died.) I really don't think this is much of an issue.

 

[Jake Lipson]

I rewatched the trilogy today for no particular reason other than I felt like it, and I was thinking all throughout it how wonderful it is. I think this is the best trilogy of all time. On the one hand, Toy Story 3 provides such terrific closure on pretty much every level that I almost don't want them to reopen this to another feature because getting to this level a fourth time will be incredibly difficult. But on the other hand, if they really have something that really is as good as these three, then we'll absolutely be privileged to have another one.

In my earlier comment about Andy's dad, I had forgotten to take into account Molly's age in the first film. If he did die, it can't have been that long ago if Molly is one year old. But it still didn't really bother me very much.

Another thing I thought about is how much the first film benefited from Woody and Buzz being together for the duration of the adventure that they have. I love the sequels -- they're great and I wouldn't change them -- but in both of those, Woody and Buzz are mostly on separate tracks once the plot kicks in and don't have nearly as much opportunity to interact with each other as they did in the first one. I miss that dynamic and I hope that the fourth one will find a way to use them both, together, more frequently. If Woody is going to find Bo Peep, then surely Buzz would be by his side for that quest, yes? Hopefully....

 

[Jake Lipson]

Disney has named Stephany Folsom to write Toy Story 4.

http://deadline.com/2018/01/stephan...cript-rashida-jones-john-lasseter-1202248346/

Given that this film is due for release in June next year, I wonder if they hired her a while back and just haven't announced it before. If she was actually hired today, that's going to be really tight getting it written and animated and fully produced and everything in a about a year and a half.

 

[Jake Lipson]

For the past few years, Sony has been developing a live-action Barbie film. They just delayed it to May 8, 2020 from August 8 of this year, which isn't shocking since it hasn't started production yet. Currently, Anne Hathaway is attached to star as Barbie.

The reason I bring this up in this thread is because it got me wondering: if Sony now controls the film rights to the Barbie character, will Pixar still be able to use her in Toy Story 4, or is Jodi Benson out of a job?

Obviously, a live-action Barbie played by Anne Hathaway and the Toy Story Barbie are two different versions of the character, and you'd have to be pretty dense to mix them up. Bu we still have a situation here where two different studios (Pixar, owned by Disney, and Sony) are working with the same IP (Barbie.)

If they do not have the license to use her again, at least they left her and Ken at Sunnyside, so it wouldn't be that odd if they don't appear, as long as the other toys aren't returning to Sunnyside (and since they're Bonnie's toys now, I don't really know why they would; Bonnie presumably will have outgrown Sunnyside by the time we see her again.)

 

[Jake Lipson]

Annie Potts recently talked about her role as Bo Peep in an interview, and apparently the delays for the film are the result of extensive rewrites.

“[Toy Story 4] was supposed to come out this year and then they threw out three-quarters of it and rewrote. Usually, it takes – from start to finish – two years. But because they threw most of it in the bin and started over [my time on the project has] been extended a little bit. I’ve done a lot of work on it.”

Hopefully they got it right this time. We'll see in a little over a year. In any case, I'm taking it as a good sign that they delayed it in order to work this stuff out rather than fast-track something not up to par to meet a previous release date.

https://screenrant.com/toy-story-4-script-delay-pixar/amp/

 

[Jake Lipson]

So I watched A Bug's Life recently, which innovated the Pixar outtakes, and I got to thinking that they haven't used this joke since Monsters, Inc. in 2001.

I fully understand and appreciate why they can't do that every time since it would lose its freshness. But I think it would be a nice touch to bring them back now, especially on Toy Story 4, because 2 already had them so it would make sense. It has been long enough since they last did it that I think it would be fun to see again, and not redundant.

So I just tweeted Josh Cooley, the director, to ask if they would consider doing outtakes again. Just wanted to put that out there in the world and we'll see. I kind of doubt he'd do it just because I asked for it, but if he sees the request, it will at least put the idea into his head.

 

[Jake Lipson]

Tim Allen recently teased Toy Story 4 while appearing on The Talk to promote his sitcom:

Yes, I gotta resist getting emotional. I don't want to give it away, but this is an incredibly great story. It is so emotional, it's so funny, it's so big, the idea they've come up with, I'm startled. I couldn't even get through the last scene. I would love to be a Washington leaker. I just can't do it. I can't give any more away. They've got great characters but a couple of scenes toward the end were really hard to get through.

https://movieweb.com/toy-story-4-emotional-story-tim-allen/

This makes me wonder: what could possibly be harder to get through for these characters than the incinerator scene from Toy Story 3? When they clasped hands expecting that they were probably going to die, I completely lost it in that theater. Of course, Buzz didn't have dialogue in that moment so Allen wouldn't have had to get through a recording of it....but still, this kind of makes me nervous for the toys.

We'll see what happens next year.

 

[Jake Lipson]

I'm going to put this in a spoiler bracket just in case anyone sensitive might consider it one, but it's merely in reference to a casting item that is listed on IMDb.

Spoiler

IMDb currently lists Laurie Metclaf as reprising her role in Toy Story 4. They have her listed as "Mrs. Davis," but she of course played Andy's mom throughout the existing trilogy. I'm not sure where they're getting Mrs. Davis from, but she is also credited as such on the page for the original Toy Story, so the implication is that she is back playing the same role of Andy's mom. This surprises me because Toy Story 3 very definitively let the toys with Bonnie, so why they would need Andy's mom back is a bit of a question. I suppose IMDb could be misinformed or simply assuming she's in it because she was in the other ones. But if they're right and she is in it, that's interesting. She does know Bonnie's mom per Toy Story 3, but still, I'm not really sure what purpose in this story Andy's mom could have because the third film closed out the toys' relationship to Andy so effectively.