Those hoping that the re-issue of Finding Nemo in 3D would bring with it a new Pixar short are in luck, but in the spirit of retro, it is another in a series of Toy Story Toons. EW has revealed that it will be called Toy Story Toons: Partysaurus Rex, and will follow Hawaiian Vacation and Small Fry.
Coming from director Mark Walsh hasn’t helmed any Pixar yet, but his name appears as an animator on Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, and Ratatouille. As fans will know, the shorts are often a play ground for testing out Featuring a score by electronica musician BT, it’s destined to be all about a rave party in the bathtub. It follows the chronology of the toy’s new owner Bonnie following the events of Toy Story 3.
Eagle-eyed viewers will probably spot something resembling Peach the starfish from Finding Nemo, although the toilet seat cover based on on Sully from Monsters Inc (and the forthcoming Monsters University) gives us some cause for concern. Perhaps he took the events of the film harder than any of us realised. It’s also terrific to see Rex (voiced by the incomparable Wallace Shawn) at the centre of this particularly short.
Yet there is a bigger question here, whether the glory days of Pixar are behind them and they are simply rehashing the golden hits of the 1990s and early 2000s. Since 2010, we’ve seen two sequels and a third on the way next year, not to mention the 3D reissues of Finding Nemo and Monsters Inc. Pixar certainly aren’t the first studio to do sequels, and DreamWork’s five Shrek-related films and Fox’s four Ice Age entries are simply criminal. Yet coupled with the lacklustre Brave, there is legitimate cause for concern.
However, we do have an untitled “umbrella” short to look forward to with Monsters University, and The Good Dinosaur (Bob Peterson and Peter Sohn, 2014), The Untitled Pixar Movie that Takes You Inside the Mind (Pete Docter and Ronnie del Carmen, 2015) and The Untitled Pixar Movie About Día de los Muertos (Lee Unkrich, TBA), a second golden age of Pixar may be on its way.
