Toon Tuesday: Will “Toy Story 3” will be that rare sequel that equals the original?

Jim Hill

15 years ago

According to John Lasseter, the folks at Pixar Animation
Studios have been dying to make “Toy Story 3” for years now.

But – that said – that doesn’t mean that it’s been all that
easy to come up with a storyline that was a worthy follow-up to the
much-beloved “Toy Story” & “Toy Story 2.” As John recalled earlier this
month at the D23 EXPO:

“When we were getting started on this project, a bunch of us
– Pete Docter, Andrew Stanton, Jeff Pigeon, Lee Unkrich, myself and some others
– went on retreat in Northern California. We went back to the cabin where we had
broken the story for the original ‘Toy Story.’ That place has good mojo.

But before we got started, we sat down and watched ‘Toy
Story 1’ & ‘2.’ And then we got depressed, because we realized that those two
are really good movies. And we then wondered how we were ever going to top them.”

Chief Creative Officer John Lasseter at the Walt Disney Animation
Studios / Pixar Animation Studios presentation at Disney’s D23 Expo on
September 13, 2009 at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim,
California. (Photo by Eric Charbonneau/Le Studio/Wireimage) Copyright 2009 Disney
Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved

But over the next two days, Lasseter and this group of Pixar
vets shook off their depression and dug into that storywork. Eventually coming
up with a plot that would tie in with the previous “Toy Story” pictures as well
as emotionally connect with something John and a lot of his co-workers were
currently going through in their lives.

“At the end of ‘Toy Story 2,’ Woody says that he’ll be ready
when Andy heads off to college. But it’s one thing to say something like that
when that event is still years off,” Lasseter said. “It’s quite another thing
when that day is finally here. All the feelings that come flooding over you.”

These days, Lasseter is all-too-familiar with those feelings.
Over the past two years, he’s sent his two oldest boys off to college.

“I just dropped my son Ben off at Loyola Marymount,” he
remembered. “”Driving away, when you leave your child behind at college,
all I could think of was him as a little kid, sliding down the slide. It was
very emotional for my wife and I.”

Chief Creative Officer John Lasseter at the Walt Disney Animation
Studios/ Pixar Animation Studios presentation at Disney’s D23 Expo on
September 13, 2009 at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim,
California. (Photo by Eric Charbonneau/Le Studio/Wireimage) Copyright 2009 Disney
Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved

So to give “Toy Story 3” ‘s story a sense of immediacy, some real emotional grounding,
that’s where John & the Pixar story team decided to start this sequel.

WARNING !! There be spoilers ahead. If you don’t want to
know anything about this upcoming Pixar Animation Studios production, now would
be a good time to bail out of today’s JHM article.

Still here? Okay. Don’t say that I didn’t warn you.

“Toy Story 3” begins three days before Andy heads off to
college. With Andy’s Mom standing in her son’s bedroom, telling him that he has
to make some tough decisions in regards to his belongings. This now 18-year-old
has to decide what he wants to throw out, what he wants to keep / place into
storage, and – more importantly – what Andy wants to take with him to college.

In a scene that was screened at the D23 EXPO, Buzz, Woody,
Jessie and the gang listen in from deep inside of that old Chuckwagon-shaped
toy chest, as Andy’s Mom suggests that some alternatives . Which include
selling some of her son’s toys online to donating them to Sunnyside Daycare.

Andy then sighs and tells his Mom “Nobody’s gonna want these
toys. They’re junk.”

The toys – still listening inside from that toy chest – are
taken aback by Andy’s comment. “What’s Daycare?,” Jessie asks.

As they peek out of the toy chest, Woody and Co. can now see
into Molly’s room. Where this now 12-year-old girl has gotten into the
keep-toss-or-store spirit and has begun combing through her own belongings to
find things to heave. As the toys watch Molly rather heartlessly toss one of
her dolls in the trash, Jessie exclaims “Poor Barbie!” To which Hamm quickly
replies “Dibs on her Corvette.”

But now Andy begins to pack up his room. Grabbing a trash
bag, he pulls individual toys out of that chest. First Jessie, then Bullseye. Now
Rex, Hamm and Mr. Potatohead. A few of the Little Green Men. As he
unceremoniously drops all of these toys into that trash bag, then Andy turns
his attention to Woody and Buzz.

At this point, the young man pauses. After a long
moment, Andy places Buzz in that trash bag along with the other toys and then puts Woody in the pile of stuff that he’s taking to
college. (I guess Bo Peep was right all along. Woody really is Andy’s favorite). The cowboy toy is clearly relieved by this decision. But – at the same
time – Woody is obviously concerned about what’s going to happen to the rest of
the playroom gang.

So – when Andy carries that trashbag out of the bedroom –
Woody follows. Which is why the cowboy toy is relieved when this college-bound
boy stops and pulls down the stairs to the attic. It then becomes apparent that
Andy has no intention of throwing away his once-beloved playthings. That he now
plans on stashing them in the attic.

But then Andy places this trashbag full of toys on the floor
and returns to his bedroom. And then – as Woody looks on – the spring-loaded
stairs to the attic slowly retract. And here comes Andy’s Mom with a bag of trash
in her hand. She trips over that bag of toys that her son set out in the
hallway. And then – thinking that this is just a bag of trash from Andy’s room –
she picks the bag up to take it out to the curb.

Inside that trashbag … Well, obviously the toys are
panicking. Recalling those bad old days where Al kept her in storage for years
at a time, Jessie cries “I can’t breath.” Once Buzz realizes that they’ve actually
been out on the curb, he quickly formulates an escape plan. They’ll try and
poke a hole in the bag by using Rex’s pointy tail.

Meanwhile, Woody is looking out Andy’s bedroom window and
sees that the garbage truck is just a few houses down the street. Since time is
of the essence, he whistles for Buster. The only problem is … Well, it’s over a
decade since “Toy Story 2.” And Andy’s once-frisky puppy is now a fat, old dog.
After he slowly enters the bedroom, panting & wheezing, Woody climbs on
Buster’s back. Only to then have this graying canine roll over onto the cowboy
toy and fall asleep.

After squeezing out from under Buster’s bulk, Woody climbs
out Andy’s bedroom window and then slides down the drainpipe. After sneaking
across the yard, he makes his way to the trash bags just as the garbage truck
arrives. Woody slashes open one bag, only to find … garbage. As he reaches for
the second bag, the garbage man picks it up and tosses into the back of his
truck. As he starts up the crusher (and Woody looks on with horror), that
second bag is flattened with a sickening crunch …

That – in a nutshell – is the scene that Lasseter screened
at the D23 EXPO earlier this month. Which proved that “Toy Story 3” will be
just as funny & exciting as the two pictures that came before it. More
importantly, that this Lee Unkrich movie is obviously making a real effort to
connect both emotionally & storywise with “TS1” & “2.”

Now for those of you who are sweating the whole “Did Buzzy
& Jessie actually get crushed in the back of that garbage truck” story beat
… Know this: Though Lasseter & Unkrich never actually said anything about
what happens next, the official “Toy Story 3” trailer (which – as I understand
it – will be screened in front of that Disney Digital 3D version of “Toy Story”
& “Toy Story 2” that will begin screening around the country on October 2)
actually showed Woody and the gang at Sunnyside Daycare. Where life among the
toddlers looks like something out of “Lord of the Flies.”

In the short scenes that we get to see in the trailer, Buzz and
Co. get absolutely brutalized by these 3-year-olds. Which is why they decide
that “We’re busting out of here.” The only problem is – during their initial
escape attempt – the Space Ranger gets severely damaged. To the point that
Woody & friends are forced to hit Lightyear’s reset button. Which then puts
Buzz into Spanish-speaking mode.

And let me tell you, folks, that – when Buzz is in
Spanish-speaking mode – he then becomes this hot-blooded, flamenco-dancing
romantic figure prone to grand gestures. Which Jessie (according to a piece of
test animation that was screened at the D23 EXPO) winds up being quite taken
with.

As for the rest of “Toy Story 3” ‘s storyline … Given that
the promotional catchphrase for this new Pixar Animation Studios production is
“No Toy Gets Left Behind” … Well, we’ll just have to assume that this upcoming
release is more of an epic adventure story than the last two “Toy Story”
films.(Which is something that Lee
Unkrich actually verified when he and I spoke at Comic-Con back in July. As part
of a press roundtable interview, Lee talked about how the “Toy Story 3” story
team had actually drawn inspiration from Peter Jackson’s “Lord of the Rings”
trilogy. To be specific, how Unkrich and his crew had labored to make “TS3” seem
like a continuation of the first two “Toy Story” films. So that – when you were
finally able to watch all three of these movies back-to-back – they’d then tell
one fairly seamless story.)

Beyond that … You’ve probably already heard all of the other
big news associated with “Toy Story 3.” That Michael Keaton has been hired to
voice a somewhat villainous take on Barbie’s longtime companion, Ken. And that
Timothy Dalton has been signed to voice Mr. Prinklepants. Who is this Stieff-like
stuffed hedgehog in dressed lederhosen who fancies himself a thespian.

As for the rest of the new additions to “Toy Story 3” ‘s
vocal cast, Lasseter did reveal that Bonnie Hunt, Jeff Garlin, Whoopi
Goldberg and Ned Beattie will be voicing roles in this movie. Though John was very careful to not
reveal which parts these performers will be playing in the picture.

“Toy Story 3” director Lee Unkrich at this year’s Comic-Con International. Photo by Nancy Stadler

So now comes the big question: Will “Toy Story 3” actually
measure up to the first two films in this much-beloved series? Based on what
I’ve seen so far of this still-in-production Lee Unkrich movie, I’d have to say
that it looks like Pixar’s latest is going to deliver the goods. That the brief
vignettes that have been screened to date have all of the wit, charm and
excitement that we’ve come to expect from the “Toy Story” series.

Which is why I just can’t wait to see how the rest of “Toy
Story 3” plays out. See where Woody, Buzz, Jessie et al wind up as this trilogy
draws to a close.

Your thoughts?