Toy story 4

FOLLOWING THE BASICALLY perfect Toy Story trilogy was, for director Josh Cooley, “terrifying”. he had so much to lose and little to gain by dipping back into the toy box, but miraculously, in Toy Story 4 he created a new instalment that extended the journey of Buzz and Woody in a totally new direction. As Woody rediscovers his long-lost love, Bo Peep, he learns that there is life beyond simply being a child’s plaything. Cooley explains how he tackled a near-impossible task.

once upon a time

Working out where to begin was one of the biggest decisions of the production. Cooley and his team went through several iterations before deciding to start with the day Bo left Andy’s toys. “We had versions where we started way back in time in Andy’s room,” says Cooley. “There were versions where we had Woody remembering Bo Peep. The problem there was we weren’t sure if people would remember her from 20 years ago, so it felt strongest to start the story showing she’s really important to the toys and Woody especially.”

Cowboy meets sheepgirl

With the movie centred on Woody and Bo’s relationship, Cooley had to cement a romance that was given little screen time in previous films. “We put together all Bo’s scenes from the other films. My memory was that it was mostly just flirting, but it was actually a bit deeper. There are times in the first two movies where whenever Woody is feeling insecure or unsure, he’ll go to Bo Peep. She’s strong from the beginning, so we saw we could build on that.” Inspiration for their relationship came from Casablanca, Raiders Of The Lost Ark and Romancing The Stone, “movies where the male and female character are on the same level”.

Face time

Every Pixar film makes technological advances. While you probably noticed the stunning use of light, or even things like raindrops that were scaled up by 500 per cent to work in toy close-ups, the biggest advance in this movie was more subtle. “On every Toy Story movie we update the toy designs,” says Cooley. “In this film we get really close up to the toys, so the detail on their faces had to be perfect and we had to be able to read the emotions on their face. The trick, as ever, is between looking real enough and too real.”

Comedians in Closets getting dusty

When Woody is thrown into Bonnie’s closet, he encounters four toys voiced by Mel Brooks, Carol Burnett, Betty White and Carl Reiner. “I can’t believe we made that happen,” says Cooley. “It was important to show that forgetting a toy doesn’t mean you hate that toy... We wanted to show Woody is part of a new group of toys that have had their time... I thought of that scene in Sunset Boulevard where Gloria Swanson is with all the retired silent film

stars. I wanted to get classic comedians to do the voices.” One toy, Betty White’s Bitey White, is based on a character from an early draft of the first Toy Story. “I remembered seeing [sketches of] this tiger teething ring and thinking it was such a funny idea. It was a toy that had seen some dark stuff. It told stories like Quint from Jaws. So when I had the opportunity, I brought that back as an in-joke for us.”

On the road

One of the movie’s most important scenes has Woody and Forky, a sentient spork, lost and walking down a road together. Woody explains to naive Forky what it means to be a toy, laying out the joy and sadness it brings. “That was the first scene we animated with Forky,” says Cooley. “Initially, the animator had animated Forky so beautifully. It was too beautiful. He looked like the other toys. We had to make him crappier, make it look like a kid is puppeting him across a table — stiff and awkward.”

In with the ’nu

Duke Kaboom, a 1970s action toy, has very little screen-time but big impact, largely thanks to being voiced by Keanu Reeves. “So much of Duke came from him,” says Cooley. “We had a meeting in the Pixar lunch room and he was like, ‘He’s an action figure, right?’ And then he just started launching into all these karate moves — ‘Hoo! Ha!’ — and standing on the table. He really got into it.”

Mirror Mirror

Gaby Gaby is in some sense the film’s villain, but she’s one driven by a need to feel loved. “I love that character,” says Cooley. “Originally, she was a pure villain. She wanted a voice box by any means necessary. Then we realised she doesn’t need to be villainous... We treat her scary at first and then slowly peel back the onion... When she eventually tells Woody, ‘I just want to be loved by a kid,’ it’s everything he’s been feeling. In that scene we even have Woody in the light and her in the dark, then coming into the light as they get on the same page. She’s Woody looking into a mirror.”

Putting away childish things

The ending does the seemingly unconscionable: it separates Buzz and Woody, as Woody chooses a new life with Bo. It was not always so. “Originally, everyone went back to Andy’s room,” says Cooley. “It wasn’t satisfying at all, so we thought, ‘What if we do a Casablanca thing and they don’t end up together?’ That wasn’t satisfying either. So we decided to go all the way and send Bo and Woody off on their own adventure. Pitching that, I felt it in my chest. I knew that it was right.”

Knifey

The final pay-off is given not to Woody but Forky, when Bonnie makes a new toy, modelled on a plastic knife, and brings her home. “Everything Woody said to Forky, he’s now saying it to her,” says Cooley. “It was really fun to have her say, ‘Why am I alive?’ — which is the question we’re all asking in real life — and have him reply, ‘I don’t know.’ We end the entire Toy Story saga on, ‘I don’t know.’”