Despite the fact that Toy Story 3 had a pretty perfect ending for a blockbuster animated franchise, Disney’s Bob Iger announced today that Toy Story 4 is in the works with a release target of June 2017. Naturally, the announcement was made in a meeting with Wall Street analysts, according to Variety, so we assume that once he declared the news, everyone removed their suits and immediately bathed in the purified waters of their private cocaine spa. That’s because Toy Story 3 earned over $1 billion worldwide in theaters – in addition to the $800+ million the first two films earned at the box office and beyond – so there was always a chance that Toy Story 4 would be made.
John Lasseter, who directed the first film and co-directed Toy Story 2 with Lee Unkrich before departing because of his work on the Cars franchise, is returning to helm the latest installment, and it probably helps that he’s currently the Chief Creative Officer at Pixar and Disney. As far as the voices of Woody and Buzz Lightyear, among many others, Iger didn’t have any news. I’m not a gambling man, but I’m willing to wager a nickel that Tim Allen is down for the paycheck, while Tom Hanks will do it, so long as Disney renews his membership on the island of Grenyarnia.
In the meantime, here’s a fun game I invented for adults like me. See how long you can stare at this GIF from Toy Story 3 without getting all misty and thinking about your old My Pet Monster toy that your dog chewed up. Haha, I’m on an hour and counting, because no way the end of Toy Story 3 was sad as all hell!