Toy Story 4 TV Spot Reveals How a Toy Comes to Life

The entire Toy Story franchise is based on the idea that all toys are totally alive, and they live their own independent lives while their children aren’t around. These toys have always consisted of dolls, action figures, cars, and other items that everyone classifies as a toy to be played with. But as we are about to learn in Toy Story 4 this summer, not everything that kids can play with is traditionally thought of as a toy. For example, in the new movie, Bonnie creates a craft out of a spork and some odds and ends, and decides to name it Forky. He’s nothing but pasted together trash, but he becomes a living, breathing toy just like Woody, Buzz, and the rest of the gang.

So what actually makes a toy a toy? Can anything become a toy? Do adult toys count as toys? There are million questions to ask about this mythology, many of which we won’t ever get the answers to. But the new TV spot for Toy Story 4 does offer a solution to at least a couple of them, thanks to the arrival of Forky.

In the new promo, which you can watch in the video above, Bonnie brings Forky to life. Once she gives him a name, a personality, and a voice, essentially treating him like a toy, his journey as one of the toys finally begins. We see him actually start breathing and speaking while he’s in the backpack with Woody on the way home from school.

This same general rule applies to all toys in the Toy Story universe. When a child sees something as a toy, and starts using something as a toy, it takes on the life of a toy.

During a recent presentation at Pixar Animation Studios, director Josh Cooley was asked about this very question, and he said that, when determining what they choose to make a toy, it all comes down to what makes the most sense for the movies.

“That’s a great question. I don’t wanna answer it,” Cooley joked. “No, we, you know its funny, from day one its kinda just like we just whatever feels right. Even in the first Toy Story there’s a line where they say ‘Ahh the lawn gnome across the street hasn’t seen him.’ Its like we don’t see that but, there are things that are alive in the world that we just never answer the question for.”

Are you excited to see Forky join the gang in Toy Story 4? Let us know in the comments!

Toy Story 4 hits theaters on June 21st.

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