Toy Story 3’s release is particularly significant because John Lassater of Pixar specifically made it part of the negotiations for the Disney-Pixar merge that he could veto any such project. Pixar is serious about not having frivolous sequels like disney has done, and will only sign off on them if the story line merits it. toy story 3 was attempted more than twice with several script rewrites and pitched. Disney planned to make it on their own in their computer animation department (that made chicken little) when their deal with Pixar fell through/expired. when they realized how stupid it was to lose Pixar and decided to buy them, Pixar only agreed if part of the deal was that Pixar would take over control of Disney Animation. That’s what happened and the new Pixar wing of Disney shut down Circle 7 Animation and its version of Toy Story 3, which was that all Buzz Lightyears got recalled back to Taiwan.
This would have completed the plot trilogy in that –
TS1: Woody and Buzz leave the house through a mishap and must work together to return to Andy
TS2: Woody leaves the house through a mishap and Buzz & Co must save/return him to Andy
TS3: Buzz leaves the house through a mishap and Woody & Co must save/return him to And
The new plot for TS3 has the toys in Andy’s room being dumped into a day-care center after, Andy, departs for college (a prospect raised in Toy Story 2). Barbie (who appeared in TS2) will be back along with bf Ken and Ned Beatty (google for his filmography or look on imdb.com) has a role which hasnt been released yet.
Great post as usual, long time lurker here, first comment! Thanks for the great blog.