It just might have been one of the most anticipated presentations of this year’s CinemaCon.
The Walt Disney Studio and now 20th Century Fox and its properties will release 22 films over the next year. Wow, that’s a lot, but sadly Disney didn’t bring any new Star Wars footage or any of the cast of Avengers: Endgame, but they did bring the first 17 minutes of one of their most beloved film franchises of all time: Toy Story. 
The never before seen footage of Toy Story 4 was introduced by the film’s producer Jonas Rivera. He admitted he loved working on the first Toy Story film and felt like working on this Toy Story was like working on a Mickey Mouse cartoon for Disney. #Sacred he joked, “Like you don’t want to mess it up!” He added the end of the 3rd film was a source of concern for the filmmakers of Toy Story 4. “We talked about it a lot the end of Toy Story 3, that felt like the end, especially for parents,” he said. But Rivera remarked that “Toy Story has always [been] Woody’s story… and the third film is [just] the end of Andrew’s story.” So this reimagining and thinking allowed the film’s creators to bring this story to a whole new place, world, and even quest.
Toy Story 4’s world now revolves around Bonnie. The footage shown captures Woody (Tom Hanks) and the gang adjusting to life and see Bonnie going off to kindergarten orientation, where she is struggling to leave her toys behind and make new friends. However, it is Woody to the rescue who stows away in Bonnie’s backpack and tries to help her at school. At one point in the story, Woody dives into the class’ trash to get Bonnie some supplies. Bonnie uses those supplies, a plastic spork, pipe cleaner, and googly eyes to create Forky (Tony Hale), her new best friend. The footage ends with Forky meeting the rest of the gang: Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen), Bo Peep (Annie Potts), Jessie (Joan Cusack), and Slinky Dog (Blake Clark), but there is one big problem. Forky is having an existential crisis because he sees himself as trash and not a toy.
Toy Story 4 hits theaters on June 21, 2019.
-Melissa Unger
