Since it was announced, many Toy Story fans like myself have been scratching our heads about the upcoming plot for Toy Story 4.
After all, John Lasseter promises that it’s good enough to warrant yet another sequel to an otherwise perfect trilogy. So what could this great idea be?
It’s too early to tell, but that didn’t stop Aaron Helman from writing out what he considers to be a pretty exciting script. Enjoy:
TOY STORY 4
by Aaron Helman
The film is set 6-7 years after Toy Story 3.
The toys are hanging out by themselves, doing Toy Story things when a woman barges in the room in a tizzy and starts throwing them into boxes. The toys are confused, but they hear a conversation in the next room, trying to figure out what’s going on. Through the perspective of the toys, we hear bits and pieces:
“Once I heard, I just knew you had to have these.”
“That’s so sweet, but what about…”
“Oh she’s 13 now. She doesn’t really play with them anymore.”
“I’m sure Andy will be thrilled.”
“When’s the baby due?”
Cue music and excitement from the toys.
Andy’s mom drops the toys off for Andy, but he’s in a rush. He sets the box in a partially completed nursery but doesn’t open it. And he doesn’t play with the toys.
We see, from the perspective of the toys, time-lapse work on the nursery. Andy’s wife’s bump grows and we hear a crying baby after they come back from the hospital to place him in his crib. Andy still hasn’t gotten to the toys.
The baby gets bigger and learns to crawl. Andy seems preoccupied with other things, but he finally opens the box and haphazardly hands one of the toys to baby.
One day, the baby “catches” the toys when they’ve come to life. The toys soon realize that the baby can’t communicate and won’t remember any of this, so they begin to come alive around the baby to play. The baby loves this.
There’s a scene where baby drops his pacifier, starts crying, but the toys work together to fix it.
Throughout all of this, Andy is being revealed to be a workaholic. Mom wants help with the baby, Andy’s coming home later and later; he’s stressed out, too.
Next we have a scene where the baby picks up Woody, crawls over to Andy and raises his arms to be lifted up. Andy brushes the baby (and Woody) aside because he’s in the middle of working on something. We overhear that Andy is working for a firm that’s trying to buy the now-for-sale Al’s Toy Barn to put up an office complex.
Woody gathers the other toys because he’s worried about Andy. He’s not the same person he used to be, doesn’t have time for the toys and doesn’t appear to have time for his baby. He thinks that it’s because of “work,” which is a concept the toys don’t really understand.
Buzz suggests that maybe Andy’s been brainwashed, and they go on an adventure to Andy’s work to find out what’s going on.
At the office — a sterile place altogether — they sneak around to watch what goes down, confused by everything. They refer to a meeting as a play-date, etc… (Maybe Rainn Wilson and Steve Carrell can voice Andy’s co-workers).
Finally, they see Andy copying a page from a book, with the copy machine lid lifted. They see the green glow from the machine’s “wand” and deduce that this is the brainwashing machine.
After everyone’s gone, the toys set out to destroy the copy machine, but some weird bobbleheads come to life from a desk to explain that it’s not a brainwashing machine, but a copy machine. Etch and the Copy Machine have a duel. Etch wins.
The toys come up with the idea to go back to Andy’s room to find something to remind him of who he really is because Jesse saw that in a movie once.
As they leave, Hamm is photocopying his butt.
They go to Andy’s Room, but it’s not the same. It’s been repainted. There’s a treadmill and a desk in there. They start looking anyway. When they can’t find anything, Buzz calls it off and says they need to head back.
Woody says, “No. I know what we need.” He walks solemnly over to a vent, removes the cover, and with the help of the toys, retrieves a small journal.
One of the toys asks, “What is it?”
Woody: “I’m not sure. When Andy was little, he used to look at it all the time. But every time he looked at it, he would cry. So one day, when he was at school, I hid it, because I didn’t want to see Andy cry like that anymore.”
The toys turn the pages of the journal. A photo of a man holding a baby. A photo of the same man holding a toddler at Christmas. A photo of the same man hugging a young Andy and his Woody doll. A photo of the same man on a hospital bed, Andy snuggled up against him.
Then pages of words and pictures as the toys leaf through the journal, finally settling on this page with a child’s handwriting.
I love playing with Woody, but I just really miss my dad.
The toys head back home with the journal in tow, and leave it out on the table. The next day Andy returns home, late again, and drops his briefcase on the table. He’s on the phone, discussing the Toy Barn deal, and the toys overhear him say that he’s got a meeting tomorrow and has to have a decision by then.
Andy ends the call, is clearly exasperated, then buries his head in his hands before noticing his old journal.
He leafs through it, holding back tears as he looks through the pictures, then settles on the same page as the toys noticed. He reads the words, “I love playing with Woody. But I just really miss my dad.”
He looks up, and sees the baby in the other room playing all by himself with Woody.
Etch spends the rest of the night working on his piece de resistance: a picture of the baby, Buzz and Woody. The toys sneak Etch into Andy’s briefcase before the big meeting where the decision will be made.
At the meeting, Andy opens the briefcase, sees Etch, has a moment, excuses himself and apologizes for getting choked up. He composes himself and says, “I would hate for this not to be a toy store anymore. What if I run it?”
The other workers in the firm are livid, but Andy ignores them as he reaches across to shake a hand.
The final scene is back at Andy’s home. Buzz and Woody watch from a window as Andy plays with his son in the leaves. They congratulate each other on a job well done. Woody protests that “Ah, I’m just a toy.
Buzz disagrees, “No, Cowboy. Today, you are a bona-fide hero.”
Final montage as the familiar music of “You’ve Got a Friend in Me” starts to play. We see Andy wrestling with the baby, feeding the baby (the baby spitting up on Andy) and snuggling with the baby. In each of these moments, Buzz and Woody are inanimate, but still looking on approvingly.
The movie ends with Andy feeding baby a bottle and rocking him gently while he sings:
You’ve got a friend in me.
You’ve got a friend in me.
When the road looks rough ahead…
That’s it! Tweet @AaronHelman if you liked his take on Toy Story 4! And be sure to share your own ideas in the comments below.
I loved the idea, but I would like them to play with the divorce theory: Andy has a problematic marriage because he’s a workaholic, just like his father.
very good. But they won’t use it…. they want to make their own. It is great fan fiction and would be splendid as Toy Story 4
I love this idea, it’s really good. I feel like Andy should work at buy and large;)
forgot that this was someone’s idea and got super into it and was like ‘yeah, I wonder how he knew all of this’ face palm
What about bonnie? Good story though I really like it!
She is the girl who is 13. (I think)
That would make sense. I was just going to say what happened to Bonnie? But if she grew up,than she wouldn’t want/need the toys anymore. But how did they end up with Andy again? I suppose it’s possible that someone (like her mom) took the toys back to Andy,but that wouldn’t make any sense. Why not just donate them? Has anyone else thought of this? Please respond.
they would come back to andy because remember in the ending of the second one he ask bonnie to take care of these toys so that meens that andy could ask for the toys back for his new kid
This is so great! I didn’t think I would love it this much!!!! It literally brought tears to my eyes. I do like the idea that Andy’s dad left the family though based on the facts but otherwise this is perfect!
The story idea seems pretty nice, though parts of it feel rushed for me, don’t know why. I kinda hope this happens~
It most likely won’t, but it’s a fun discussion about a hypothetical script.
Wow that’s great! I love the idea. Well actually I love it more because there’s grow-up Andy in it. Lol. Yes, I love Andy. Piece out! Anyway, I think we can use Andy’s Dad dead theory though it’ll make the story more desperate. The death of Mr. Davis really effected Ms. Davis. She became desperate and tried to move on so she choose to erase any memories about him. That’s why there’s no photo, or any other things about Mr. Davis.
It would be nice to see this become a movie, because then it would explain Andy’s past more. Another thing: what if his dad worked for Buy N’ Large?
Holy God that would lead to the pixar theory
I don’t know. I think it would be an—emotional, movie,but I don’t think I’d like to see that. I think I’d like to see the toys move on from Andy,and have an awesome adventure at Bonnie’s. And I actually think that maybe I don’t want to see the toys at all. They’re happy; they’ve found their home. Instead,the movie could be about some OTHER toys that (maybe) have some relationship with THE toys,but go on their own adventure. Also,I don’t really want to see Andy grown up. It hurt a little to let him go,and seeing him grown,no longer a child…It’s just too much. I hope you understand.
fantastic! hope this goes through
“As they leave, Hamm is photocopying his butt…”
I laughed so hard! XD
I love that idea I think it would be a great movie.
Made me tear up just reading it. That would be great
Mr. Negroni I’d hate to hate on this I mean it’s not that it’s a bad story but how was woody the only one who saw the journal and wasn’t etch gone in part 3. Plus the toys act stupid in this but everything else is good
You mentioned in a post that Andy’s parents are separated, and that Andy’s father is not deceased. Yet now, based on the journal you brought up, and the photo of Andy and the man it the hospital, that Andy’s father is deceased. Now is he dead or not? Explain. Elaborate.
Also, in Toy Story 3, it is mentioned that Etch-A-sketch has been sold at a yard sale. So how can he be in Toy Story 4? Unless, of course, that person who bought Etch at the yard sale was Bonnie
Maybe it’s a different etch-a-sketch. Or someone could’ve bought etch and it just happened to get to Bonnie. It IS set 6 or 7 years after Toy Story 3. There’s plenty of time. Speaking of Bonnie, I’m confused about something. In Toy Story 3, Bonnie was about 5 or 6. In this script, she’s 13. How is that possible? Could someone try to explain, please?
I absolutely love it . It was very touching it would be lovely if they did this. I love the secret journal and the toys going back to andy. Very full circle
Aaron Helman retweeted about it. This means that MORE people will read it now thanks to him.
He wrote it in the shower? That’s insane
I do not think this is a good idea thank God it’s not actuality , but thats just my opinion
Um, who is the villian? We had sid, then stinky pete, then lotso. Who would the villain be? People like us might say Andy’s stress with work, his neglect for his son, or his suppressed sadness about his father’s death but what about the kids? There has to be a clear villian with a clear motive for the kids. Also I don’t like this personally for one reason (well, one major one any way); I want to see more of Mrs. Davis and I want it to be proven that she is Emma jean. If this was true I would like to have Bonnie’s mom call Mrs. Davis Emily during the opening sequence.
I am engrossed but Bonnie is 10 or 11 my daughters are 10 and play with their toys
I didn’t personally expect nor want this movie to happen but I’ll remain optimistic. However I feel like we need to get a 5th installment for this to be a good movie. If this is an Andy movie it will be awful. I want this movie to be our adventure with Bonnie. We need Bonnie to be the kid in this. I think she should be about 7 years old or so and we should see this as the toy story 2 of Bonnie’s story. The next movie we will see had as a teen and have the whole you story 3 thing again. At the end of the fifth film we see Andy do the whole toy retrieval for his son thing. As far as what I want these !movies to do for the theory I want Mrs. Davis to be called Emily somewhere in the 5th. I also want Andy to say “if only dad was here to see this” when he is holding his son and woody. I know that things like the family pictures and stuff supports the dead beat dad theory but I think that would be to hard to be worked into the story. Also what if Riley from inside out is Andy’s wife? I’m pretty sure in the timeline she would be around two years younger than Andy. Thoughts?
Great plot theory, but a few plot holes. Etch is gone is Toy Story 3, you have made and conquered the theory of Andy’s dad not being dead but having left (so just change that a little bit in the journal), and there is no evidence of the journal in the first three movies so it might be a bit disapproved amongst fans.
I’m sorry Aaron, but… no. This story is really touching, but I’ve got 3 problems with it: One, Toy Story 4 is set to be a romance story. This has been confirmed by the creators. Two, the Etch-A-Sketch wasn’t one of the toys that made it to Bonnie in Toy Story 3, and it would have to somehow be reunited with its old pals through some sort of coincidence in Toy Story 4. And Three, the toys have a perfectly good idea of what it’s like to have a job because, as one of the creators describes, the toys treat themselves like they’re working at a job, with Woody (the “boss”) saying things like “We’re having a staff meeting” or “We’re closing up shop” throughout the movies. However, I have to hand it to you that toys don’t know THAT much about the outside world, which we know because Rex called a sidewalk a “white zone” in Toy Story 2 and Andy’s toys have no idea what daycare is at the beginning of Toy Story 3.
Regardless of all this, I like the idea behind your story – or should I say your toy story. It’s really emotional and it ties several loose ends. Good work.
I love this plot! I hope they use it. 😊
Leik if u cri errytiem
You just made me cry. 😅