ROTTEN TOMATOES: Lasseter Confirms Toy Story 3 and Upcoming Pixar Projects

Lasseter Confirms Toy Story 3 and Upcoming Pixar Projects

The toys are back in town.

by Fred Topel | November 10, 2007

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John Lasseter usually doesn't reveal anything about upcoming Pixar projects. Even though Toy Story 3 has been a known project ever since Disney threatened to make it without Pixar, Lasseter always dodges it. Finally, Lasseter has once-and-for-all confirmed it and discussed turning over the original Pixar property to a new(ish) director.

"We have Toy Story 3 directed by Lee Unkrich and Lee co-directed Toy Story 2 with me," said Lasseter. "Lee was part of the original creative [team]. I didn't let go of the reins. We're still doing it and Lee was a part of the original creative team on Toy Story and then he co-directed Toy Story 2 with me."

Whatever Toy Story 3 is about, it's got nothing to do with that summer camp idea Disney bandied around. "Obviously not. I don't know what you're talking about. I don't know anything about that."

Lasseter has some other Pixar treats too. "The movie after Wall-E is a movie called Up and it's directed by Pete Docter who did Monsters, Inc. It's kind of a big action adventure starring an 80-year-old man. It's got a lot of heart in the story. It's great."

Pixar is also revisiting 2D animation with The Princess and the Frog. "John Musker and Ron Clements (Aladdin, The Great Mouse Detective, The Little Mermaid) are directing it for Disney. It's going to be great. We have an awful lot of animators at Pixar who have been trained in hand drawn. We all still love the art form. What I love sometimes is when creative people have tremendous constraints, brilliant ideas come out of it."

The Princess and the Frog and Up are scheduled for 2009, with Toy Story 3 set to a 2010 release. Wall-E will roll into theaters on June 27, 2008.

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(1-20 of 33 posts) | Reply

TomasSPAGHetti writes:
on Nov 10 2007 12:27 AM

Color me excited... as long as it's anything like the original two.

(Reply to this)

Ciaranmv writes:
on Nov 10 2007 12:28 AM

To an INFINITY of remakes a rehash of old ideas and little BEYOND!

(Reply to this)

hewpot writes:
on Nov 10 2007 12:31 AM

what about wall-e and up ciaranmv you retard

(Reply to this)

witherwings writes:
on Nov 10 2007 12:59 AM

I love them.

(Reply to this)

Metafact writes:
on Nov 10 2007 01:32 AM

If Pixar's involved, it won't be bad. It might be disappointing (like Cars and A Bug's Life), but Pixar has so far never made a piece of crap. So I'll trust Lasseter on Toy Story 3. He knows what he's doing.

(Reply to this)

stg writes:
on Nov 10 2007 01:35 AM

thank god toy story was spared the direct-to-video disney treatment. Its great news that pixar is working on toy story 3, the last Buzz light year adventure although funny wasn't upto the mark. this will help erase that bad memory and end the now cult classic toy story(cgi pioneer) series on a high.

(Reply to this)

ksduded writes:
on Nov 10 2007 02:41 AM

Up has a great premises, an 80-year old protagonist in an action adventure. It is going to be great

(Reply to this)

bat-fink writes:
on Nov 10 2007 06:20 AM

Just make it FUNNY and dont have it centred around too many human characters, this is where Shrek 3 went wrong, it was boring!

Toy story 1 & 2 were pretty much a gag a minuit, although the cowboy side of toy story 2 was a little Meh, I would love to see Buzz Lightyear kicking some ***.

(Reply to this)

MMMfromCA writes:
on Nov 10 2007 08:36 AM

hopefully the original director leaving won't ruin it like what happened with Shrek 3

(Reply to this)

rgallitan writes:
on Nov 10 2007 08:47 AM

In reply to this comment (#1266395)
I dunno, if Cars didn't totally suck, it came very close.

But I do love this quote: "What I love sometimes is when creative people have tremendous constraints, brilliant ideas come out of it." Sooo true. And, I think, why I generally prefer poetry that rhymes. ...And possibly something George Lucas should take to heart about his career.

(Reply to this)

lilheclou writes:
on Nov 10 2007 09:33 AM

cool toy story 3 loved the other toy storys and you know what pixar has not made a bad movie so i have good feling about these movies

(Reply to this)

DaHypr1 writes:
on Nov 10 2007 09:39 AM

cool. I love the idea of going back to 2-D animation (not for toy story of course, but for more 2-D projects) :)

(Reply to this)

~*Admiral Snowstorm*~ writes:
on Nov 10 2007 09:45 AM

I have total faith in Pixar. Normally, when two great movies exist in a franchise exist and a third is on the way, it is terribly difficult to make the third anywhere near as good as the predecessors. But this is Pixar. They don't even know how to make a bad movie. Even if Toy Story 3 ends up not being as good as the other two, at least it will be a good movie in its own right.

Eagerly awaiting anything and everything Pixar has planned.

(Reply to this)

Mudhole writes:
on Nov 10 2007 09:50 AM

In reply to this comment (#1266415)
Toy Story is a "cult classic?" Either you or I don't know what that phrase means...and I know what that phrase means...

(Reply to this)

FireflyFan4evr writes:
on Nov 10 2007 11:02 AM

Pixar has never faltered for me (I've never seen Cars, so I can't say anything about that one), so I'm pretty psyched for all these films. They are the only animated family films I see anymore. And I'd really like to see The Incredibles 2.

(Reply to this)

kissman24 writes:
on Nov 10 2007 11:38 AM

I think this is all good news!

"Toy Story 3" is probably the first Disney animated feature to actually make it to a legitimate 3rd movie. All of those those cruddy straight-to-DVD ones they have released with the sole purpose of bilking people out of more money don't count. Disney was so greedy that it set out to taint the legacy of almost every animated classic it had by making shoddy sequels. Horrible, horrible, horrible...

Pixar certainly has a great track record, but making a film as great as the last two "Toy Story" movies will still be a heckuva challenge.

(Reply to this)

eastern2western writes:
on Nov 10 2007 12:15 PM

a cult classic that made like a billion dollars. If toy story is a cult classic, then titanic is a major cult classic.

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cinemagaslight writes:
on Nov 10 2007 02:57 PM

While this is definitely cool, it isn't exactly breaking news. Lasseter and Ed Catmull announced this back in February. Variety has the article here: http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117959040.html?categoryid=13&cs=1 (They speculate in the article that it will be a 2009 release, but that's about the only difference) Still, everything about these projects is exciting.

(Reply to this)

TheHarold writes:
on Nov 10 2007 05:27 PM

count me in

(Reply to this)

Warheart1188 writes:
on Nov 10 2007 07:20 PM

A 2-D animation film from Disney??! FINALLY! We haven't seen one of those in years! Or rather, we haven't seen a GOOD one in years.

(Reply to this)