Two more TOY STORYs to be told

By: Patrick Sauriol
Date: Wednesday, October 06, 2004
Source: New York Newsday

If there was anything that could show how strained Walt Disney Pictures' relationship is with Pixar Animation Studios, it was seen yesterday when CEO Michael Eisner reevaled that his company is already developing not one, but two sequels to TOY STORY. That 1995 CGI film is still considered by many to be the movie that leaps into their minds when they think of Pixar's accomplishments.

Eisner mentioned plans for TOY STORY 3 and TOY STORY 4 while speaking at a Goldman Sachs investment conference meeting in Manhattan (and first reported by NY Newsday.) Disney has the rights to make sequels and spinoffs from the TOY STORY property without the approval of Pixar. Indeed, the root of the disagreement between Pixar and Disney can be traced back to TOY STORY 2: Pixar believed that by completing the film it had delivered one of five animated films it had been contracted by Disney to make. Not so fast, said Disney, since we had originally planned for TOY STORY 2 to be direct-to-video it shouldn't count as a feature film and is therefore exempt from the terminology of the contract. Disney went on to theatrically distribute TOY STORY 2 and the bad blood between the companies began.

Eisner also said to the investment group his company is "doing two TOY STORIES [sic] at once." When asked for a comment, a Pixar representative had nothing to say.



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