When Pixar announced they were making Toy Story 4, there was reason to be skeptical. The third movie had a perfect, beautifully poignant ending. Andy - now all grown up, and leaving for college - donated all of his beloved, secretly sentient toys to a little girl. As Andy said goodbye to Woody, a generation of viewers remembered their journeys to adulthood, and were brought to tears. Why spoil that incredible ending with a disappointing sequel? It's not like Pixar's track record is flawless (cough, Cars 2).
Originally, Rashida Jones and Will McCormack were hired to write Toy Story 4, but they left the project due to creative differences. Since the script got trashed, the film got massively delayed. A troubled production is not a good sign, but it appears Toy Story fans can rest easy. We don't know a lot about the movie - just that it might be standalone story, and feature a quest to find Bo Peep, Woody's lost girlfriend, who was last seen in Toy Story 2. But whatever they've cooked up, cast members say it's extremely emotional.
Recently Tim Allen, who voices Buzz Lightyear, revealed he couldn't get through the highly emotional final scene scene of Toy Story 4. "I gotta resist getting emotional," he told the hosts of The Talk. "I don’t want to give it away, but this is an incredibly great story. It is so emotional, it’s so funny, it’s so big, the idea they’ve come up with, I’m startled. I couldn’t even get through the last scene. I would love to be a Washington leaker. I just can’t do it. I can’t give any more away. They’ve got great characters but a couple of scenes toward the end were really hard to get through."
Now Tom Hanks, who voices Woody, opened up about recording his final scene on The Chris Evans Breakfast Show. (Not, not the guy who plays Captain America, a different Chris Evans.) The 62-year-old actor didn't spoil what happens, but revealed he got so emotional that he couldn't even face the crew.
"It was the first time that we were going to be recording the end of the movie, and Toy Story [4] is going to have an impactful ending. The way you record Toy Story, you’re in a room with the team that has created it. When I went in for my last day of recording, I wanted to have my back to them, because usually you’re facing [the director] so he can look right up and you can talk about it. But I didn’t want to see them and pretend they couldn’t see me. When I realized what they were going for, I realized, 'Oh, this is a moment in history'."
Well, I don't know about you, but my interest in this movie just shot up from 1 to 4,000. What happens in that last scene?! Does Andy's sociopathic neighbor Sid come back and kill all the toys? Probably not. But hey, we'll find out when Toy Story 4 hits theaters on June 21, 2019. Make sure you bring tissues.