Andrew Stanton has spent more than half his life working on the beloved “Toy Story” franchise. He was the lead writer for the first three films, helped save the script for the fourth, and now he’s co-writing and co-directing “Toy Story 5.”
“It wasn’t the plan,” he mentioned in a recent interview with The Associated Press. “But it wasn’t not the plan.”
Stanton has done plenty beyond just thinking about Woody and Buzz. At Pixar, he directed “A Bug’s Life” and two Oscar-winning films: “Finding Nemo” and “WALL-E.” However, “Toy Story” is the film that started it all for him—a project he and his peers were thrilled to have the chance to create.
The new film, which hits theaters on June 12, is expected to be one of the biggest blockbusters of the summer. The previous two films each made over a billion dollars, and this one is likely to follow suit. Despite the commercial aspects driving some decisions, Stanton emphasized that they’ve taken their time to consider the story’s direction. “It’s show business, yes, but we always try to put the ‘show’ first,” he explained.
There was an 11-year gap between “Toy Story 2” and “Toy Story 3,” and another nine years before the fourth film. It was around 2008, after they had finalized the story for the third film, that Stanton began to ponder the future of the franchise.
“What if it went farther? What if it was a trilogy with one kid, closed that up, handed it off to another kid and started another one?” Stanton recalled thinking. “That seemed really exciting to me because that’s the way life really goes with toys and mementos. They get passed down as hand-me-downs; they go from one kid to another.”
As the series transitions into what Stanton refers to as the “Bonnie era,” he acknowledges that the franchise isn’t just about numbers. “Toy Story isn’t Rocky — it’s something else,” he stated, emphasizing that the storytelling is more important than box office performance.
Stanton believes that the culture surrounding storytelling has transformed over the past 15 years. “We all understand binging now. We all understand episodic stories,” he remarked. “Not everything’s great for it, but some are, and the Toy Story world is meant for that kind of lengthy thinking.”
In “Toy Story 5,” a new distraction in Bonnie’s life takes center stage: The Lilypad. Stanton had to check with legal teams to ensure it wasn’t a copyrighted concept. “I feel like we’re kind of late to the party,” he admitted, acknowledging that the screentime debate around technology and toys is a valid concern today.
The film emphasizes the power of play and imagination, a theme they touched on in “Toy Story 3” but delve deeper into this time around. Stanton, who is now a grandfather, reflects on creating these films for the next generation. “We’ve always been aiming higher than just box office,” he said, reminiscing how they aimed to make films that resonate through generations.
Recently, while finalizing “Toy Story 5” at Skywalker Ranch, Stanton stepped back to appreciate it as a movie and not just a project he had been piecing together. “That’s when it kind of breaks my brain. I’m going, ‘Oh my God, there’s all the characters just living their lives,’” he expressed, capturing the magic that makes movies so special.
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For more coverage of this summer’s upcoming films, visit: AP News Movies.
