There are few things in pop culture that have a softer spot in ’90s kids hearts than Toy Story and its subsequent sequels. And after the reaction to the two-Oscar winning, Best Picture nominated Toy Story 3 was essentially, “Oh my God, that was a million times better than I would’ve ever expected and now I’m super sad, I mean didn’t you think the toys were going to get incinerated? How effed up would that have been?!?”, you can bet the Internet would just about explode if a fourth Toy Story were to be announced.
Well according to Deadline, Toy Story 4 is officially in the works at Disney and Pixar, with John Lasseter (director of Toy Story 1 and 2, but not 3) set to direct. The film is set for a June 16, 2017 release date, and Rashida Jones and Will McCormack (Jones of Parks and Recreation, and the writing pair behind Celeste and Jesse Forever) will pen the screenplay.
Lasseter spoke to the LA Times and pushed that the studio decided to move along with the sequel due to great story ideas coming forth. “A lot of people in the industry view us doing sequels as being for the business of it, but for us it’s pure passion,” he said. “We only make sequels when we have a story that’s as good as or better than the original.”
He added that the team at Pixar was excited to bring in Jones and McCormack, signaling out Jones as a fantastic addition due to her strong female voice.
“They have such a great sense of character and originality,” Lasseter said of Jones and McCormack. “And I wanted to get a strong female voice in the writing of this.”
Toy Story 4 joins a crowded animation field in 2017 that also includes Despicable Me 3 and How to Train Your Dragon 3.
Predictably though, the inevitable has happened; the Internet has exploded. Here were some of the reactions on Twitter where it was at time of writing the top trending topic.
If Toy Story 4 is anything like Toy Story 3, it’ll involve a lot of me & my mom sobbing loudly while eating frosting out of a container.
— Sarah Spear (@spearsarah) November 7, 2014
Toy Story 4: Look, It’s Either This or Another Cars — James Poniewozik (@poniewozik) November 7, 2014
Toy Story 4: After college, unemployed Andy stays home to play w/ toys as he remembers carefree days, feat. crying at his life & hot pockets — Dylan Trupiano (@DylanTrupiano) November 7, 2014
The poster for Toy Story 4 is pretty bad. pic.twitter.com/szKDVqdqLz — Adam Roberts (@amateurgourmet) November 7, 2014
looking forward to Toy Story 4 if only to see who does the voice of adult Andy’s new fleshlight — Matt Oswalt (@Puddinstrip) November 7, 2014
“Toy Story 4 to Raise Even Stupider Questions on Pixar Theory Reddit Threads” — Matt Patches (@misterpatches) November 6, 2014
And for good measure, yours truly:
Toy Story Episode IV: The Force Awakens
— Brian Welk (@brianwelk) November 6, 2014
The general consensus however was that this is maybe something of a cash grab by Disney, the response being that the ending of Toy Story 3 involved Andy giving away his toys. In fact, Pixar had said they had no plans for a fourth Toy Story, but who knows what to believe; Disney is currently riding high off one of its best fiscal years ever, and the fact that we now have or will have Cars 2, Monsters University, Finding Dory, and Cars 3 (yes, I’ll let that sink in for a bit), it’s proof that really nothing at Pixar is sacred (except A Bug’s Life. I mean, who even remembers that one? You should probably go back and watch it. It’s probably way better than you remember).
So is making a fourth Toy Story movie trampling on a classic? That was probably the reaction the third time around, but then the second one didn’t quite end like this (okay, it’s not exactly this). Yes, you know you want to watch it and have a good cry already.
Zach Dennis contributed to portions of this story.