Toy Story 4 Star Ally Maki on Bringing Giggle McDimples to Life

Disney and Pixar's fourth installment in the beloved Toy Story franchise finally arrived in theaters this weekend, delivering not only a dominant performance at the box office, but also a slew of new characters for fans to fall in love with. Duke Caboom, Forky, Gabby Gabby, and Giggle McDimples have already stolen the hearts of everyone who has seen the movie, just days after its release.

Why do these new characters -- really any Toy Story characters -- resonate so well with fans? A lot of it has to do with the thoughtful and human performances delivered by the cast. Just like Tom Hank did with Woody all those years ago, Keanu Reeves made us care about Duke Caboom. Christina Hendricks made us connect to Gabby Gabby. Ally Maki made us adore Giggle McDimples.

Bringing an animated character to life is no easy feat, and requires a lot more work than one might think. To understand the process behind Toy Story 4 just a little better, ComicBook.com spoke with Ally Maki about her journey voicing Giggle over the last couple of years.

"I think what was so cool about this process is there wasn't a lot of preparation in terms of I would just show up," Maki explained. "The first day I went to do the first recording, I had no idea what was going to happen. I didn't have a script. There was no pages. There was nothing, aside from the little drawing that I had of her, which she was in like a purple and pink dress at that time, I didn't really have that much information, which, now looking back, I absolutely love, because I think it brought such an authenticity to the role. I think it just went back to original reason and why I love performing in the first place, is you're just going off of your first and truest instincts. I think that's what's so beautiful about this process, is you're going back to 100% using your imagination, thinking, in the moment. It feels very live when you're doing it because it's basically just [director] Josh Cooley and I in there. As his scene comes up he's like, explaining it, in the moment. 'Okay, now Woody is coming up and you're doing this and go.' And you're just reading with Cooley and it's all imagination based. I think that's truly such a beautiful part of this process. I enjoyed it so much."

Some actors in Toy Story 4, like Keegan-Michael Key and Jordon Peele, recorded in the studio together. However, that wasn't the case for Maki. Though she shared the screen with Annie Potts and Tom Hanks, she was always on her own in the studio.

"Never. I was always by myself," said Maki. "Cooley played every single character in every single scene. And again, it was like they would have one hard copy of each scene on thick paper, put it up on this thing, you would read it a few times through and we would record it and all these different ways, and then that was it. They'd take it down and put it back in like the vault of scenes. That was it. I think the coolest thing though is that Cooley told me that about 85% what Giggle McDimples is onscreen was from the very first recording session that we had. Like the first 45 minutes of that recording session, he said, is what made it into the movie. Which made me so happy Because it really was truly that first day energy of, 'Oh my gosh this is the first day in the movie, the first day exploring this character, so it feels like the truest, most true representation of what Giggle McDimples is.'"

What did you think of Toy Story 4? Who is your new favorite character? Let us know in the comments!

Toy Story 4 is now playing in theaters!