The Co-Director For 'Toy Story 4' Has Been Announced

After the shocking announcement that Toy Story 4 is indeed happening last November, there have been barely any further updates about the film - until now. 

In the Variety article, "10 Animators To Watch" it highlights Pixar storyboard artist Josh Cooley. Josh was worked at Pixar since 2006 and the first feature he contributed to was Cars. Since then, he storyboarded for several other movies, as well as directed a few. Josh Cooley was the director of George and AJ, which follows the adventures of the two Shady Oaks Employees from Up, and he has directed a short film which will be included on the Blu-ray for Inside Out.

Josh Cooley's next project at Pixar is being co-director for a continuation of one of the most beloved movie series in the planet, Toy Story 4. Cooley is elated about his new endeavor and said that:

“To be co-director on Toy Story 4 with John, who brought the Toy Story characters to the screen 20 years ago, is a dream come true. When I first saw Toy Story I was amazed by the groundbreaking computer-generated animation. But it was the strong storytelling that kept me coming back. Toy Story 4 will continue that tradition and I couldn’t be more excited to be a part of it!”

Pixar's Chief Creative Officer John Lasseter is set to direct Toy Story 4 (he was the director of the first two Toy Story films),  and the screenplay will be from writing duo Rashida Jones and Will McCormack. Toy Story 4 will be produced by Pixar veteran Galyn Susman.

Pixar Story Meeting and Co-Director Josh Cooley

New plot details have also been recently revealed  about Toy Story 4. Collider reported that instead of a continuation of the first three films, Toy Story 4 will be it's own separate story. Pixar general manager Jim Morris revealed this tidbit in an interview with Disney Latino (the text below is translated):

"The third movie ended in a beautiful way and completed a trilogy. I think this movie is not part of this trilogy. It is a separate story, which in turn I do not know if will be continued. Never begin a project with that in mind. It is not a continuation of the end of the story of Toy Story 3.Temporarily it is, but it will be a love story. It will be a romantic comedy. It will not put much focus on the interaction between the characters and children. I think it will be a very good movie."

There you have it. Not only is Toy Story 4 a romantic comedy, but apparently it will focus much more on the toys than the humans.

Toy Story 4 Will Allegedly Be A Love Story

Toy Story 4  is set to be released on June 16, 2017.

'Finding Dory' Will Take Place At a Marine Life Institute

Pixar's general manager Jim Morris gave new information about the plot for Finding Dory at the CCXP - Comic Con Experience in Brazil today (Dec. 8). He also revealed concept art, unfinished scenes, and showed off a new software that helped create schools of fish. Here's what the movie's about (via ComicBookMovie).

The story of the movie will follow Dory, Marlin and Nemo as they set off on a journey to find about Dory's past and parents. The movie will be mainly set in the Marine Biology Institute of California, a huge complex of rehabilitation for marine life. Dory learns that she was born and raised there and was released in the ocean when she was a kid. We will see new characters, like an octopus, sea lions, a beluga whale and others.

Finding Dory Logo

It was first rumored over a year ago that Finding Dory would take place in an aquarium type attraction when The LA Times reported that Pixar directors John Lasseter and Andrew Stanton viewed the documentary Blackfish with it's director Gabriela Cowperthwaite. According to Louie Psihoyos, director of the documentary The Cove, at the end of Finding Dory some marine mammals were sent to and aquatic park- kind of like a Sea World environment. He went on to say that after seing Blackfish, a documentary that shows the injustice and problems within the sea-park industry, the Pixar directors  retooled the film so that the sea creatures now have the choice to leave that marine park. Gabriela Cowperthwaite said that Pixar employees were deeply impacted from her film, but Pixar declined to comment on the Blackfish story.

Finding Dory Concept Art

New characters for Finding Dory include Dory's parents Charlie and Jenny who will be voiced by Eugene Levy and Diane Keaton. Ty Burrell will also lend his voice to the film, he will be playing a beluga whale named Bailey. Ellen DeGeneres (Dory) and Albert Brooks (Marlin) will return for the Finding Nemo sequel as well.

"Oh boy! This is going to be good, I can tell."

Finding Dory is directed by Andrew Stanton (Finding Nemo, WALL-E) and will be released on June 17th, 2016.