By Cara Nash
“Pixar is a filmmaker-led studio, and all the ideas come from our own lives and our own desires,” the studio’s main man, John Lasseter, told FilmInk in 2011. “We don’t set out to make films because of market research studies. That’s not who we are. We don’t set out to try to make a film for one market because, if you make a film for just adults, then you cut off the families; if you make a film just for kids, you cut off the adults; if you make it just for boys, you cut off the female audience; if you make it just for girls, you cut off the male audience. Our goal with the Pixar audience is really everybody. I believe that if you’re breathing, you’re a Pixar audience.”
It’s hard to believe now, but Toy Story, the first computer-animated feature film, was something of a gamble for the little-known Pixar and Walt Disney Pictures, who took a risk by distributing it in 1995. History has shown this move to be a stroke of genius which changed the face of animation. Director, John Lasseter, worked with a team of the finest up-and-coming talent, including now-Oscar winners, Andrew Stanton (Finding Nemo, WALL•E) and Pete Docter (Up), crafting a magical film about toys that come to life when their owner, Andy, leaves them alone. At the heart of both films is the relationship between a neurotic cowboy ragdoll named Woody (Tom Hanks) and an egomaniac action-figure spaceman, Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen).
In the first film, the arrival of Buzz upset the hilariously fragile balance of power in Andy’s bedroom, with the space invader usurping Woody’s role as favourite toy, leading to a brilliant battle of wills as the two had to learn to co-exist. Toy Story 2, which sees the toys embark on an adventure to rescue Woody, was a sequel just as fresh, funny and sharply written as its predecessor, while Toy Story 3 literally took the animated film to the next level. Cranking the pathos to eleven, it was seemingly the perfect end to the Toy Story series…until the announcement of 2018’s Toy Story 4! “I always want to do something different,” John Lasseter told FilmInk in 2011. “I don’t want to do a rehash. Most sequels are kind of rehashing a popular film, and it’s not original. They’re re-hashing the same territory, which then even makes the original seem not very good. We have always looked at The Godfather: Part II and The Empire Strikes Back as the two greatest sequels ever made, because not only are they great films unto themselves, and they’re really different from the original, but they actually make the original more interesting; you want to go back and watch the original. That’s what we always strive to do with our sequels.”
