I know I usually report on Toy Story Land in Walt Disney World, but the news coming out of Disneyland is too good not to share! Over this past weekend, there was a media preview event at Walt Disney Imagineering, and new concept art was revealed for Pixar Pier – which opens this summer at Disney California Adventure – featuring an overwhelming wealth of Toy Story goodness!
I received confirmation a couple days ago that Jessie is in fact slated to be cut from meet and greets at Walt Disney World, and needless to say it hit me like a punch in the gut. But since Jessie never gives up, and I’m going to continue to fight to keep her as a meetable character in the parks, I thought this would be as good a time as any to write something more personal, and share just why this character and her fictional world mean so much to me. Although I’ve written before about why Jessie is important as a character in the Toy Story series of films, these are my own reasons why she matters, to me…
On Tuesday, November 3, Toy Story That Time Forgot will be released on Blu-Ray and DVD, and I can’t wait! Of course I’ll be running out as early as I can to buy it, just like I did with Toy Story of TERROR! last year. A new Pixar Blu-ray is definitely something to look forward to, because they never fail to give us a wealth of behind-the-scenes treasures.
Back in May, the Disney Parks Blog announced that six new Enchanted Windows would be added to Main Street, USA at Disneyland, as part of the park’s 60th Anniversary Diamond Celebration. Elaborate, moving displays, showcasing popular animated films in the windows of the Emporium, have been a long-standing tradition, and the latest additions were set to include Peter Pan, Cinderella, The Princess and the Frog, Frozen, Aladdin, and Toy Story. Several of the windows have been in place for a while, but just yesterday, the new Toy Story window was unveiled! Although I haven’t seen it in person, I was able to find a fantastic video of it, as well as a few photos.
Ever since the Toy Story 4 announcements at the D23 Expo this past August, my excitement has been tempered with a little bit of fear. What could possibly scare me about Toy Story? Well, it’s the fact that in everything I’ve heard about the plot of the movie, only Woody and Buzz Lightyear are mentioned as going on the quest to find Bo Peep. From statements made by John Lasseter over the course of the Expo weekend, to articles about Pixar President Jim Morris’s presentation in Australia, only those two characters are consistently listed as heading out on the film’s epic journey.
As a guest on Conan this week, Tim Allen talked a little about Toy Story 4 and revealed to host Conan O’Brien that voice recording for Buzz Lightyear starts soon!
Even though the next Academy Awards are still a while away, I thought that – with the Emmys this weekend and all – it might be a good time to revisit some of my very favorite archival material relating to the Toy Story films. I usually don’t make a big fuss over awards shows myself, unless there’s a movie (or a television show, or a musical performer) that I care especially about – needless to say, anything Toy Story would definitely get me to watch! And I’m no film critic or analyst, by any means, so don’t expect any discussion of the merits of nominations or statistical facts from me here. With that disclaimer out of the way, let’s take a look at the toys’ presence at the Oscars back in 1996, 2000, and 2011…
Although Toy Story 4 news has been scarce since D23, it won’t be long before we’ll be seeing lots of new promotional material – commercials, merchandise, posters, stock images, and social media/website content, just to name a part of what we have to look forward to. In fact, the promo stuff is one of the things I remember most fondly from Toy Story 3 days. It was exciting to randomly catch the toys in commercials, not only for their movie but for other things as well (a Target commercial comes to mind, and one for the U.S. Postal Service), or to walk into a store and find Toy Story-themed items in practically every aisle. I’m still hoarding Band-Aids, shampoo bottles, and macaroni and cheese (I’ll never eat it!) that are no longer available. By this time next year, we should be starting to receive a steady supply of ads and info, but until then, we have to make do with the few-and-far-between details we’ve been getting since last November.
