When it comes to the greatest film trilogies ever, there are a few that scholars would place near the top: Kieslowski’s Colors, Ray’s Apu series, Leone’s The Man with No Name Trilogy…while a case could be made for everything from Nolan’s The Dark Knight trilogy to Linklater’s Before films to Back to the Future. And if it wasn’t for Toy Story 4, the first three Pixar movies would absolutely be in the conversation. Now that they have been bumped to quadrilogy status (and beyond), that removes them from consideration – unless, like Quentin Tarantino, you completely ignore the fourth film and just focus on the initial Toy Story trilogy.
Appearing on Bill Maher’s podcast Club Random, Quentin Tarantino revealed that he’s a big fan of the Toy Story films and suggested that the series had one of the greatest trilogy finales ever, only blowing it by forcing a fourth movie. “In the case of Toy Story, the third one is just magnificent. It’s one of the best movies I’ve ever seen. And if you’ve seen the other two, it’s just devastating. But the thing is, then three years later or something they did a fourth, and I have no desire to see it. You literally ended the story as perfect as you could, so no, I don’t care if it’s good. I’m done.” Something tells us he would dig Keanu Reeves’ Duke Caboom, though…
So which trilogy does stick the landing for Quentin Tarantino if Toy Story blew it? Well, pretty much anybody could guess his answer. “I think there’s only one trilogy that completely and utterly works to the Nth degree and that’s A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly,” which Tarantino has often cited as one of his favorite films ever. “It does what no other trilogy has ever been quite able to do. The first movie is terrific, but the second movie is so great and takes the whole idea to such a bigger canvas that it obliterates the first one. And then the third one does the same thing to the second one, and that’s kind of what never happens. You’ll see this big jump from the first to the second and they don’t really land the third one.” No doubt Sergio Leone concocted a perfect story arc for The Man with No Name, so much so that we’re pretty certain he wouldn’t have tacked on a fourth one even if it did rake in $3 billion.
Quentin Tarantino has circled the trilogy discussion for two decades now via his Kill Bill movies. And while the whole bloody affair is considered one film, bringing us Vol. 3 – which won’t happen as his 10th and final film – would turn it into a trilogy by definition. If he pulled that off, I could see the Kill Bill Trilogy (Kill Trilogy?) up there with the greatest ever.
What do you think of Quentin Tarantino’s take on the Toy Story franchise? Is it fair that he won’t watch the fourth one?