Last year, Pixar confirmed that Toy Story 4 is currently in development. The announcement caught many off guard as although there had been rumors swirling of a fourth Toy Story film, it remained surprising given the perfect ending to the third film. Still, the studio has promised that there is a great idea for the story and while we do not know much, Pixar President Jim Morris gave an interview providing a few more details. Find out what he said after the break!
What we already knew is that the story is being written by Rashida Jones and Will McCormack, the duo behind the well-received Celeste and Jesse Forever, a film that blended romance with comedy and drama. John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton, Pete Docter, and Lee Unkrich collaborated to develop the story idea, which, if you look at the writing team, will unsurprisingly be “a love story.”
In an exclusive interview with Pixar President Jim Morris, the official Disney Latino blog asked some questions about Inside Out before slipping in a few about Toy Story 4 (via Kyle’s Animated World). The article is in Spanish, so we were dependent on Google Translate for some help. It is not perfect, but here is the rough translation for some details he shared about the upcoming Toy Story film:
We are putting together a very nice story. It is not a continuation of the end of the story of Toy Story 3. TEMPORARILY it is, but it will be a love story. It will be a romantic comedy. It will not make much focus on the interaction between the characters and children. I think it will be a very good movie.
It seems that the film will not only be a romantic comedy, but by making it so, it will take the focus off of the relationship between the toys and humans. Sure, the first three films gave most of its screen time to the toys as well, but the connection they had with Andy was a major theme present in all the previous films. In its current iteration, the story for Toy Story 4 is set to move away from that, meaning we won’t simply see a new set of films about Bonnie growing up with the toys. Morris adds:
I think this movie is not part of [the] trilogy. It is a separate story, which in turn do not know if will be continued.
With the chances higher for a fourth film in a franchise repeating themes and story ideas, it is great to hear the filmmaking team is taking the fourth film in a decidedly different direction. We do not yet have details about the story for the film, such as which characters will be involved in the romantic part of the story. However, it is important to note that stories go through many changes, especially at Pixar, as the studio seeks to release the best film it can, so nothing we hear now is final until we see it in the finished film. With the film just over two years away, we should hear more about it soon.
Toy Story 4, which heralds the return of Lasseter to the director’s chair, is set to debut in theaters on June 16th, 2017!
