Toy Story 4: Everything We Learned From Our Visit to Pixar Animation Studios

Bo Peep's Big Influences

Team Bo let the press in on the reimagining of Bo Peep in Toy Story 4, and the different trials that came with turning a porcelain doll into an action character with modern animation technology. One of the biggest keys to Bo's new style was finding the right reference points, for everything about her movements as well as her actual look.

At one point, the team showed an image of the various movie characters and real life people used to influence this version of Bo Peep, and Rey was one of the first photos that everyone noticed. While Bo always had a staff, long before Rey was in a Star Wars film, it was the survivalist mentality of Rey that the team paid attention to.

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Bo's Expanded Role

In addition to being more of a nomadic warrior in Toy Story 4, Bo will join Buzz and Woody as one of the film's leads. According to producer Mark Neilsen, including Bo Peep in this sort of role was always in the cards.

"Yeah, I'm trying to think of earlier versions of it. Bo Peep was always part of it," Neilsen said of the film. "But she was always either in an antique store or she had a location that was kinda like her home and so making her the thing that Woody is always been the most afraid of, was really interesting. So she has a completely new world view that's different from Woody's."

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What Key & Peele Bring to the Table

During a press conference at Pixar Animation Studios last month, director Josh Cooley revealed that Key and Peele were some of the first cast members to record dialogue for Toy Story 4, beginning their work nearly four years ago. As the script evolved, so did the performance of Key and Peele, improvising lines and playing off of one another with each and every recording session.

Cooley raved about their performances, going as far as to say that working alongside Key and Peele was one of the highlights of his time at Pixar.

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The Evolution of Woody and Buzz

How will their relationship be explored in this new installment? Toy Story 4 producer Mark Neilsen didn't go into too much detail about the plot of the new movie, but he did assure that, no matter how little they are seen together in the trailers, Buzz and Woody's relationship is still at the heart of the film.

"I can't tell you anything," Neilsen said of the movie itself. "You could not make this movie without Buzz and their relationship. So the thing that is really, I think one of the coolest things is like having this first film where their relationship begins and you're seeing how it evolves over the course of this film, or the course of [Toy Story] 2 and 3 and then 4 just continues that. And it really does build upon what's been before it."

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How Toy Story 4 Includes Don Rickles

"Yes we're gonna have a tribute to him," Cooley confirmed during a press conference. "We, you know we went through everything that could possibly, he's recorded so we went through all the past films, all the shorts, all the video games, all the theme park stuff, all the ice- capades all the toys. He's done a lot over the past 25 years. And you know he did sign on to be on this film before he passed and so we're very honored for that and we're also very honored that his family asked us to see if can create a performance.

"So obviously we can't say anything that's specific to the plot but we found enough that felt natural and he fits in just like everybody else does."

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Why Pixar Moved Forward with Toy Story 4

When Toy Story 3 came to an end in 2010, it felt like the beloved Pixar franchise had been given the perfect finale. Andy said goodbye to Buzz, Woody, and the rest of his favorite toys, giving them to a young girl named Bonnie so that they could continue making a kid happy. The very last scene showed Andy driving off into the sunset and Woody, surrounded by his best friends, saying, "So long, partner." It was best ending that any of the fans could have hoped for. So why did Pixar decide to keep it going?

It was certainly a surprise to hear that Toy Story 4 had been given the green light by Pixar. Yes, the franchise is a guaranteed money-maker, and no studio is going to turn down money. It seemed like continuing the series after such a wonderful finale was nothing more than a cash grab. However, that couldn't be further from the truth.

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Casting Keanu Reeves

"Yeah, you know we, we created Duke Caboom and then we always create the character first and then we see what's the right actor to portray this, that can do this," Cooley began. "And we went after Canadian actors, and he was the first one on our list and I'm so thrilled that he said yes. He came here first just to meet with us just before even signing and we were down in the atrium and he's like you know 'What do you think he sounds like?'

"But he completely won me over and to the point where he was, we were talking about the character just getting deeper, he's like, 'What do you think drives him?' And so he, at one point just got up on the table like, imagine just sitting down there eating lunch in front of everybody and he gets up and goes, 'Hoh! Huh! Hah! Heh!' And he's like doing poses and stuff. And I was like this is, dude, this is it. This is incredible. And every time we recorded with him he's had the biggest smile on his face. And it was just so much fun and he's just, I can't speak enough about all he is."

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Why Andy Looks So Different

As soon as the trailer was released, fans flooded the Internet with comments about how the animation for Toy Story 4 brought a ton of massive changes to Andy, making him hardly recognizable, even to those who grew up with the Toy Story franchise. It became a trending question: What happened to Andy?!

Well, as it turns out, these changes were made for the better, which becomes even more abundantly clear when you go back and watch the original movie from 1995. Seriously, go back and look at the human characters in the first Toy Story, specifically Andy and Sid. They honestly look more like robots than people.

This is why the complete overhaul of Andy's design took place. The grown-up version in Toy Story 3 looked great because the technology had come such a long way, so the iteration of the character in Toy Story 4 was designed to be a younger take on adult.

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Toy Story 4 Starts With a Flashback

When Toy Story 3 arrived in theaters back in 2010, 11 years after Toy Story 2, fans were disappointed to learn that Bo Peep was nowhere to be found. Woody mentioned his lost love in one sad line at the beginning of the movie, but other than that Bo Peep's disappearance was never addressed. That's all about to change in this summer's Toy Story 4, as Bo is back in action with a whole new style and outlook on life. In the opening scene of the new movie, it will finally be revealed where Bo Peep has been all this time, and why she left in the first place.

Although Toy Story 4 will take place about a year after the events of Toy Story 3, the first scene is a flashback set in the years when the toys were still with Andy. This heartbreaking sequence explains everything we've been wondering about Bo Peep in just a couple of minutes.

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