Right, and well you can’t tell this story unless you’ve had previous three films. Well, and it’s kind of interesting, because I think the question, I asked you guys when I was at the press conference, was regarding “Toy Story 3,” because I thought that was such a perfect ending. So I was like, how are you going to continue the story in a way that felt natural and not forced. I think you’ve succeeded in doing that, but where did the idea for this story originate from, and what was the decisive moment when you knew you had something special?
Jonas Rivera: Well it was two different things, it was Andrew (Stanton) originally, but it took a while-
Josh Cooley: Andrew Stanton wrote the first outline, when “Toy Story 3” was being finished.
Oh, wow, okay.
Josh Cooley: Yeah, so, and he didn’t tell anybody. He said, “I’m just playing with something,” and, you know. And that was the return of Bo Peep, it was in that initial outline. Then it wasn’t until, I would say until we were, let’s see, was it, when we decided that the ending would be, that him saying goodbye to Buzz? I think that’s when it really clicked.
Jonas Rivera: I think it was that, and I think it was you talking about Bo Peep, and kinda the way you see the world based on your wife, and all that.
Josh Cooley: Yeah.
Jonas Rivera: Not to get it all personal, but it was when you said that and pulled us together—those two things we felt like, okay that’s movie-worthy, that’s truthful, we could chase that down. That feels like it’s, not just another adventure that they’re on, but like, that there’s purpose to that.
Josh Cooley: Yeah I always felt that, that there’s a reason Bo Peep’s in this movie and I couldn’t put my finger on it. And, because people, like—we’re so hard on ourselves, and so we have story arcs, well, “Why is Bo Peep even in this movie?” you know? And I’m like, I don’t know, but she has to be here for some reason. And I realized it was reminding me of the relationship I have with my wife, which is that she’ll point something out to me that I didn’t even—I had blinders on. That was when I realized, “Oh, she’s the catalyst for this bigger change for Woody—there’s a real purpose for her—and it can only be her that she’s, you know, it can’t be Rex bringing this up, or Slinky, it has to be Bo Peep.” And, yeah that was the moment.
Mark Nielsen: But it took years for us to get to that point, right? These are, these are hard. And you go down a lot of roads. It was kind of a love story at first, and a little bit of a romantic comedy, and it kind of found its way, as we would try these different versions, and they wouldn’t work, or something would work, and something wouldn’t. We’d tear it down, build it back up again, try it again, rewrite it, and so it’s definitely been an evolution to get to this. But it was really, like, I’d say, the last two years, of production where we kind of focused in on the movie that we were making, and really, kinda took, it took laser-focus at that point.
Yeah, you can definitely tell the personal touch, as you can with most Pixar films. But it’s really interesting you bring that up, because you feel the connection between Wood and Bo is just so strong in this film. With “Toy Story” being such an established franchise, Josh, I would imagine that stepping in—this is your feature directorial debut—obviously you’ve done shorts in the past, but this is your big feature debut—was there any hesitation in taking on—
Josh Cooley: Nah.
No?!
Josh Cooley: Nah. Well go ahead, finish your question
Well that was my question. If you had any hesitation, what got you over that hump?
Josh Cooley: You know what’s funny? I thought you were going to say pressure, because mostly there’s a lot of pressure. So, I jokingly say no. But hesitation, there was no hesitation. I said yes, and then I was kinda like “woah, this is gonna be hard”, you know? It kind of sunk in afterwards. But it’s “Toy Story” and I was like “well, no, I’m definitely going to do this.” There was no “I don’t know if I can do it.” I mean, definitely later there was, “what have I, how are we going to do this.” The feeling is, I was like, “yes, I’m jumping out of this plane” and it’s like “oh, I gotta build a parachute on the way down, okay, how am I going to build this parachute as I’m falling.” But I had this amazing crew to work with. Amazing crew, so not just these two but—
Mark Nielsen: Yeah, there was an incredible crew, from the editor, to lighting, to the writers that we had, the story team, all the way across.
Josh Cooley: And they all gave a ton of love.
Mark Nielsen: They care so much about these characters and these movies, that have meant so much to them for so long.
Jonas Rivera: It’s true. Just to add to that, there was a real protective sense the crew had, of this film. I mean, they were harder on it in some ways than any film I’ve worked on.
Josh Cooley: Absolutely.
Jonas Rivera: It was all, because everyone had this, a little bit of an attitude like “we can’t mess this up; this is our childhood.” It was more than just our job and our movie. It was like “this is what we grew up with.” And I think, I felt that, and it was really reassuring. Also, it was heavy. Leading it, it was heavy. Because we didn’t want to mess it up, of course.
As you can see, the filmmakers were just as concerned about crafting the perfect epilogue as many of us were when the project was first announced. Thankfully that protection, time, and dedication paid off in a “Toy Story” adventure audiences are sure to enjoy.
“Toy Story 4” opens in theaters Friday June 21st and you can check out my review of the film below.