Tom Hanks told
BBC Breakfast in a pre-recorded interview that aired this morning that work on
Toy Story 4 is under-way right now and honestly, I'm wondering why anyone is surprised? Indeed the usually sharp
Brendon Connelly at Bleeding Cool called it "a real bombshell" of an announcement and a surprise because of the way the last movie ended and I'm wondering if I've missed something? Last year's Best Picture nominated animated classic
Toy Story 3 hit that elusive $1 billion dollar mark worldwide, a gigantic, phenonomal, GLOBAL smash and when you add the tie-in merchandise, the blu-rays and everything else that comes with a Disney release (including further promotion of the Toy Story brand at Disney land parks) of course a fourth movie was going to be made.
It was inevitable. For Disney, the Toy Story franchise is a license to print their own money. The obvious passing of the torch from Andy of his toys Woody, Buzz and the gang to Bonnie is clearly the creative storytelling clue coming out from the last movie. Toy Story 3 was the end of Andy's story with these characters (at least for now!) and not the end of our stories with his toys. Though now that Tom Hanks has said work on a fourth movie is already happening, don't expect a release date of 2013 or anything to be set tomorrow. Pixar take a very long time putting together their Toy Story movies, just look at the four year gap between Toy Story 1 and 2 and the 12 years from Toy Story 2 to Toy Story 3. As I've said from day one, there will be a Toy Story 4 but it won't be until the second half of the decade, 2016 and beyond. But it will happen. And now Tom Hanks has said it, so you don't just have to take my word for it.