Now that Toy Story 4 is in theaters — and doing wonderfully, I might add — the next thing to look forward to is Forky Asks A Question, which will be coming to Disney+ this fall. During the round of promotional interviews for the movie, a few new details have popped up about the series of shorts, especially from Tony Hale, the voice of Forky himself.
In an article from Collider, we not only have a description from Hale of what the episodes will be like, but we also have an estimated run time for each:
“It just starts with Forky asking a question of all these things that I as an adult should know, and I didn’t know. And of course I can’t remember any of them, because it was done so long ago. And then these Toy Story characters come in and just kind of help him explore the question. And my thing is it’s such a simple concept, but it’s questions that everybody might want to ask, and then they might too embarrassed to ask. I think they’re like five to ten minutes. I love it.”
Without having anything to go on, I had personally guessed they’d be close in length to the Toy Story Toons that followed Toy Story 3, and this seems to match up. If each of the ten Forky shorts were even just six minutes long, like the Toons were, that gives us a whole hour of new Toy Story content. Coming so close after a new movie, I’ll take it!
Another article from Business Insider confirmed that recording has already been done, presumably in conjunction with Toy Story 4 recording. This interview reiterates that each short will explore a single subject, when Forky goes to “seek out an answer from a Toy Story character who is in Bonnie’s room with him.” Hale also discussed Forky and the series here:
“What I’m crazy about with Forky is he doesn’t have any shame. He just needs to know, ‘What does this mean?’ There’s no embarrassment. It plays into him wanting specific things explained that maybe people are embarrassed to ask but they want to know. Some of the things I didn’t know about.”
And one other thing this article said? That Tony Hale was “excited to continue voicing the character.” Will there be more shorts in the future, beyond this first season? Oh, I hope!
The Playlist also discussed the upcoming series, drawing upon both an interview and the panel discussion held at the WDW press event before Toy Story 4‘s release. They pointed out that the film’s producer, Mark Nielsen, had confirmed during the press conference that he’s the producer of that series as well:
“Yeah, I mean right now I’m producing some short films for Disney+, which star Forky.”
At the same event, Tony Hale echoed the remarks from above:
“I love it. It’s these questions that maybe people are embarrassed maybe to ask, but they really don’t know, and I learned so much just from all these simple questions that I probably should know, and I didn’t.”
In an interview specifically for The Playlist, Hale went on to describe the series a little further:
“It’s like a web series. Which I love, that he just unashamedly asked all these questions constantly. It’ll start with a question where he’ll say, ‘Dah, Dah, Dah, Dah, Dah, Dah.’ And then another character from ‘Toy Story’ will kind of help him explore what this is. That’s what’s so great about him, Forky’s just full of wonder and curiosity and doesn’t get the rules of the universe and all that stuff.”
And when Hale was asked whether there would be cameos from the other toys in Bonnie’s room, his answer was a definitive…
“Oh yeah, oh yeah. Tons, tons, tons.”
This makes me so happy, and shows plenty of promise. From what we have here, it sounds as if maybe Forky will approach one primary character per episode, who will then lead him around the room (or house) as they search for an answer with input from the other toys. For those who were disappointed that the classic gang didn’t have a larger role in Toy Story 4, it’s possible that Pixar was intending this series to make up for that all along, as part of a bigger plan.
Lastly, an article in the Washington Post expands on who some of these cameos will be, beyond the classic characters we typically expect. In discussing the comedy legends who made a brief appearance in Toy Story 4, producer Mark Nielsen says they’ll get “considerable screen time” within the Forky Asks A Question series this fall. It’s nice to know we’ll see more of Chairol Burnett, Bitey White, Carl Reinerocerous, and Melephant Brooks, along with everyone else.
It’s always such a bleak feeling when something you’ve looked forward to for so long has come and gone, so having this Disney+ series not even six months after Toy Story 4‘s release is a real gift! And we still don’t have an official date for Lamp Life, so that could extend things even further. There has always been something special about the Toy Story shorts, to me — instead of the drama of the films, which are always fraught with some sort of crisis the characters have to overcome, the shorts allow us to spend some time with them in a more relaxed, everyday setting. There’s so much charm in just seeing them hanging out, with no major cares, and I can’t wait to get more of that on Disney+! The service launches on November 12, and I’ll be keeping an eye out for new details on Toy Story content as the release draws closer. Stay tuned! There’s still more to come with the toys!
Image © Disney/Pixar.
Toy Story Fangirl 