Two years ago in April 2017, the entertainment industry lost one of its biggest titans in Don Rickles, who passed away at the age of 90. The comedian and actor had fans across generations, the newest of which likely remember him best as the voice of Mr. Potato Head in the first three TOY STORY movies. Fans of the series were likely saddened to think he wouldn’t be back for more, but the director of TOY STORY 4 Josh Cooley confirmed that the icon would indeed have his voice featured as the lovable talking toy potato in the latest outing.
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The director took to Twitter yesterday to post a loving message about Rickles, writing, “’Some people say funny things, I say things funny.’ -Don Rickles. All of his pieces may be replaceable, but his voice is not. Honored he signed on for TS4, honored he’s in TS4.”
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He later spoke with EW about the inclusion of Rickles, who passed away before he could record any dialogue. However, Cooley confirmed that with the blessing and at the request of the Rickles family they were able to bring him back for more by using the voice work of previously unused material.
“Of course we loved Don obviously, and after he passed, his family contacted us and asked if there was any way that we could create a performance using the recordings that we had. Now, he signed to be in Toy Story 4. Unfortunately we did not get a chance to record him for the film. But we went through, jeez, 25 years of everything we didn’t use for Toy Story 1, 2, 3, the theme parks, the ice capades, the video games — everything that he’s recorded for Mr. Potato Head. And we were able to do that. And so I’m very honored that they asked us to do that, and I’m very honored that he’s in the film. Nobody can replace him.”
Rickles has been with the STORY family since the first movie in 1995, respiring the role for the sequel in 1999 and again for the threequel in 2010. In the sequel, he was given a wife in Mrs. Potato Head, who is voiced by Estelle Harris, who will also be back for the fourth movie. We haven’t seen or heard from Mr. Potato Head in the trailers, so it will be a warm surprise when we finally do when the movie opens on June 21.