With movie theaters proving to be a consistently strong venue for Pixar, the studio is set to reach its audience through another means next month: television. The animation studio has released Cars shorts on the Disney Channel in recent years, but an upcoming half-hour special, Toy Story of Terror, will be the first true measure of whether the airwaves can be as viable for Pixar as movie theaters have historically been. Given the sheer popularity of the cast of toys, the special could just pave the way for the studio to develop other television specials in the future. After the break, take a look at a promo poster which was just unveiled earlier today.
Entertainment Weekly (via Hypable) debuted the poster, which will look familiar to some because it is a variation of a still from the TV special released earlier this year. At the D23 Expo, the special was described as Pixar’s first horror film. It is more of a parody and celebration of the horror genre, as the 10 minutes shown at the Expo was packed with winks at the traditional story elements that we have come to expect from horror today.
The plot synopsis follows:
Heading to the small screen before Halloween, Toy Story of Terror features the gang taking a road trip to Bonnie’s grandmother’s house before everything takes an unexpected turn. On a detour leading them to a roadside motel, one of the toys goes missing, and the others find themselves caught in an eerie turn of events that must be stopped before they suffer the same fate.
With their shorter running time, the previous Toy Story shorts have selected a character to sit in the spotlight, with Rex being the most recent in Partysaurus Rex. Jessie will now have her big moment to shine as she will be the featured character in Toy Story of Terror.
Toy Story of Terror debuts in time for Halloween season, Wednesday, October 16 at 8 ET on ABC.
