Toy Story 4 not a continuation of the Toy Story trilogy

Pixar Studio president Jim Morris dropped a bomb on everyone regarding the announced fourth installment of the Toy Story franchise. Morris stated that rather than making it a continuation of the existing trilogy, Toy Story 4 is being pitched as a romantic comedy.

"The third movie ended in a beautiful way and completed a trilogy. I think this movie is not part of this trilogy. It is a separate story, which in turn I do not know if will be continued. Never begin a project with that in mind. 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 put much focus on the interaction between the characters and children. I think it will be a very good movie."

So far all we really know about this Toy Story 4 project is it's aimed for release in 2017. In a way, I understand them not wanting to continue the story because Toy Story 3 was truly a beautiful ending. It wrapped up Andy very nicely and it showed how these toys really were a family no matter what happens. But with that said, I don't understand why they have to make another full movie. They've been successful with the short films and TV specials so I would continue on with that. But that's why I don't work at Pixar.

Toy Story 4 confirmed for 2017

Disney CEO, Bob Iger, confirmed today via an investor call today that Disney and Pixar will release a fourth Toy Story film in 2017. John Lasseter will return to direct as will Tom Hanks and Tim Allen. And, naturally, the film will be released in 3D.

This isn't necessarily unexpected as Toy Story 3 was dynamite and kickstarted the franchise a bit. We have had Toy Story short films since Toy Story 3 and a fourth film has been rumored for a year or two already.
I personally find this somewhat disappointing because I think Pixar is turning into sequel territory and it's unfortunate. We have Inside Out and The Good Dinosaur coming up, but we also have Finding Dory and announced sequels for The Incredibles as well as a third Cars film. I don't like it. Pixar is best with original stories.

First clip from Toy Story of Terror emerges

Toy Story of Terror doesn't premiere until next week, but we now have the first clip from the new Halloween short. The short finds the Toy Story group with Bonnie as she takes them along on a road trip. After the car breaks down, they check into a spooky motel and one of the toys goes missing.

Toy Story of Terror premieres on ABC on October 16th.

Toy Story of Terror premiere date set

The new Disney/Pixar short, Toy Story of Terror, will premiere on ABC this fall on October 16th at 8pm ET.

Returning voice talents for the short include Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Joan Cusack, Timothy Dalton, Don Rickles, Wallace Shawn, and Kristen Schaal. Joining the cast is Carl Weathers who will voice Combat Carl and Combat Carl Jr.

The basic synopsis for Toy Story of Terror:

“What starts out as a fun road trip for the Toy Story gang takes an unexpected turn for the worse when the trip detours to a roadside motel. After one of the toys goes missing, the others find themselves caught up in a mysterious sequence of events that must be solved before they all suffer the same fate in this Toy Story OF TERROR!”

Toy Story of Terror will air this October

Disney/Pixar announced a new Toy Story short film along with a new image. The new 30-minute short titled Toy Story of Horror will air this October on ABC. It takes place during a road trip where Bonnie's car happens to break down and she and the toys stay in a spooky motel. One of the toys goes missing and the rest have to unravel a mystery before it's too late.
Executive producer Galyn Susman mentioned that the short will focus more on Jesse (Joan Cusack) but will feature other favorites including Mr. Pricklepants and Trixie from Toy Story 3. It also will show the relationship Bonnie has developed with her new toys (aka, Andy's toys).

One thought going around people's minds, including my own, is if this new television short will be a lead into a potential Toy Story 4 or character spin-off film. I think it's more plausible to continue Toy Story this way with various short films, but they surprised us with a third full-length movie. There is nothing stopping them from making a fourth.

Finding Nemo 3D - Review

I am a pretty big Disney fan in general, but I absolutely love Disney/Pixar flicks. I decided to go see Finding Nemo 3D seeing that I already saw Beauty and the Beast 3D earlier this year. I am not necessarily reviewing the movie itself because Finding Nemo is awesome and has been for years, but I wanted to touch on the Toy Story short, Partysaurus Rex, before the movie and the 3D itself.

Starting with Partysaurus Rex, I thought it was a really fun short. The basic premise of it is the rest of the toy gang in their new home is picking on Rex for being a party pooper. Their new child decides to introduce Rex into her bath time play and he meet the bath toys. They describe how the party is always on when the water is running but when the water drains the party dies. Rex is the only one with arms so he turns the water back on and carries on a party with his new bath friends.
One thing I have always loved about Toy Story is how they submerge you into the fantasy the child is enacting with the toys. That shined primarily in Toy Story 3 with the intro. In this short they put you right in her bath time fun and show you what she is enacting in her own mind. I loved it.

As far as the 3D goes for Finding Nemo I was honestly a bit disappointed with it. I thought the post-conversion wasn't that impressive and the colors were darker than they should have been. I mean, Beauty and the Beast 3D was better and that is a little sad because usually the Pixar type animation looks a lot better in 3D than traditional 2D animation. I love that I finally saw this movie in a theater because I didn't see it during its original theatrical one, but it didn't need to be in 3D. It wasn't that good on the eyes.


Looking forward to more Disney/Pixar 3D re-releases we will have Monsters Inc. in December so that will be a decision. I love Monsters Inc. but I don't think I will see the re-release. I saw it in theaters back in 2001 so I don't need to do it again. Especially when I have the feeling the 3D will be just as lousy as Finding Nemo.

Pixar interested in doing a Marvel movie?

Apparently so... if the opportunity presented itself.

John Lasseter, one of the founding members of Pixar, said in a recent junket while promoting the upcoming Disney/Pixar film Brave that if a filmmaker presented an idea related to the Marvel universe to Pixar that he would be open to it. With that said, he also emphasized that Pixar prides themselves on original filmmaking.

"Well, I can’t say anything about that because Marvel just got—[they’ve] been a couple years as part of the Disney company, we’ve been six years as part of the Disney company.  And at Pixar, we stay focused on making original films.  Even our sequels are kind of created internally and we come up with ideas [on our own].  I’m also leading the Walt Disney Animation Studio and all of that.  These studios are filmmaker driven studios, so if a filmmaker comes to me and says, ‘Hey, I wanna do this,’ then I would be really open to it."

I think this is kind of a cool idea because I love Pixar, but a lot of the main Marvel characters have been claimed already. Depending on the character I think it could be a cool idea to pair up Marvel and Pixar. It just has to have the right superhero.