Last month at Pixar Studios in Emeryville, California, we talked to many members of the cast and crew behind the scenes of the upcoming TOY STORY 4, but perhaps the person with the toughest job on set was director Josh Cooley. Along with his producers Jonas Rivera and Mark Neilsen, Cooley worked to bring about a proper continuation of the cowboy that we all know and love, none other than TOY STORY's Woody, voiced by veteran actor Tom Hanks.
Fans around the world thought the toys’ story had ended when Andy brought his long-loved pull-string cowboy Woody and the gang—Buzz, Jessie, Slinky, Rex and the rest—to live with Bonnie, a young friend of the family who—like Andy—has a huge imagination when it comes to her toys. “Like most people, I assumed that TOY STORY 3 was the end of the story,” said director Josh Cooley. “Turns out it was only the end of Woody’s story with Andy. Just like in life, every ending is a new beginning. Woody now being in a new room, with new toys and a new kid, was something we have never seen before. The questions of what that would be like became the beginning of an entertaining story worth exploring.”
Woody has always been confident about his place in the world, and that his priority is taking care of his kid. Now that Andy has gone off to college, Woody’s loyalty is to Bonnie. But as Bonnie gears up for kindergarten, she’s feeling a little apprehensive. “Transition is a big thematic piece of this movie,” says producer Jonas Rivera. “Bonnie is growing up and transitioning into kindergarten, and Woody is transitioning into a new role. We’ve never seen him in this situation before.”
In 1995, TOY STORY marked a major milestone in animated moviemaking as the first fully computer animated feature film; it was the highest grossing movie of the year and nominated for three Oscars and two Golden Globes. Four years later, TOY STORY 2 broke opening weekend box office records in the U.S., UK and Japan, won the Golden Globe for best motion picture—comedy or musical, as well as a Grammy for best song written for a motion picture, television or other visual media (Randy Newman/“When She Loved Me”). Released in 2010, TOY STORY 3 won Oscars for best animated feature film and best achievement in music written for motion pictures, original song (Newman/“We Belong Together”). The film also won a Golden Globe and BAFTA for best animated film, and was the second Pixar film to be nominated for the best picture Oscar.
In TOY STORY 4, when Bonnie finds herself all alone during kindergarten orientation, Woody just has to help—even if it means digging through a trash can to retrieve a few art supplies for his kid. The effort is a resounding success, but when Bonnie’s beloved new craft-project-turned-toy, Forky, declares himself trash and not a toy, Woody takes it upon himself to show Forky why he should embrace being a toy. “Forky is like a newborn,” says producer Mark Nielsen. “He doesn’t know anything about life—he doesn’t even understand why he’s alive or what a toy even is. He makes Woody vocalize what it means to be a toy.”
Woody, Forky and the rest of the gang accompany Bonnie on her family’s road trip excursion, which leads Woody to an unexpected reunion with his long-lost friend Bo Peep. Adds Rivera, “To me, Bo is really the most important piece of the movie. If you were to run into Woody at the end of this movie and ask him, ‘What’s the biggest thing that’s ever happened to you?’ He would say that meeting Bo Peep for the second time is the biggest thing by far.”
Pixar put together a female team consisting of story supervisor Valerie LaPoint, story artist Carrie Hobson, characters modeling artist Mara MacMahon, directing animators Patty Kihm and Becki Tower and character modeling artist Tanja Krampfert to properly assemble the newly updated Bo Peep. When asked about Bo and Woody's relationship in TOY STORY 4 and how hard the film would lean into its romantic comedy side, director Cooley confidently claims that Bo "absoluely" has her own character arc.
"So, ‘Team Bo’ is what we called them" explains Cooley about the female led team behind Bo Peep. "It was kind of the group within the team that was folks from story and art and animation and cloth that really rallied around the idea of keeping Bo as a special and unique stand-out character that didn’t fall into tropes or anything that you typically see in an action film. It was very important to us that Bo had a different world view than Woody. You said romantic comedy, and early on in our process we kind of decided to steer away from that and back toward more of an adventure that had a lot of humor in it, more along the lines of [an] INDIANA JONES type of film and away from romantic comedy. But we’re really happy with the way the Bo and Woody relationship landed".
Bo Peep isn't the only exciting female character in the latest installment in the TOY STORY franchise. A brand new villain in the form of a sweet 1950s baby doll emerges, toting the name Gabby Gabby, and carrying a malevolent plan to steal Woody's working voice box for herself. MAD MEN's Christina Hendricks is taking on the role, but in case you were worried that she might be too pristine to even play a deranged doll, director Cooley assures us that she's perfect for the part. According to Cooley, when he pitched Hendricks the part, she happily agreed, adding, "'This is really great. I actually didn’t want Barbie dolls when I was a kid, I used to play with ventriloquist dummies’. We were like, ‘What!?’ She was like, ‘Yeah, I did, I also have a lot of doll heads in my house right now’. We were like, ‘Wait, just the heads?’ So, she’s perfect."
TOY STORY 4 hits theaters everywhere on June 21st, 2019.