Pixar producers have full-body reaction when asked about possibility of "live-action" Toy Story

"Don't say that loudly," long-time producer Lindsay Collins begged an interviewer. "You know that Disney's gonna be like…"

Pixar producers have full-body reaction when asked about possibility of

Interviews exist in a strange place between the real and the manufactured, as the media and the media-trained come together for a whole variety of reasons that range from entertainment to self-promotion to the profound doctrines of corporate-branded messaging. So it’s always fascinating to see a genuine human moment emerge from one—as when an interviewer for the British Academy Of Film And Television Arts asked Toy Story 5 director Andrew Stanton and producer Lindsey Collins whether they might consider a live-action version of the franchise some day, only to get something akin to full-body revulsion from the pair.

As visible at the 9-minute mark in the above clip, Stanton is the more restrained of the two, simply suggesting that the idea would be a “hat on a hat.” But Collins is a bit more forthright, starting to groan “I hope not” before the question is even finished. “Please god, no,” she adds, before cautioning that the walls have mouse-shaped ears. “Don’t say that loudly. Don’t say that loudly! You know that Disney’s going to be like…” And then Collins makes what we can only assume is her impression of a gigantic entertainment company smelling loose cash somewhere in the water.

Pixar has been spared the glut of live-action remakes Disney has indulged in, to multi-billion-dollar effect, over the last two decades. (Indeed, the mothership studio has mostly stuck to remaking films that were originally animated in its traditional 2D style, which is one of the things that makes the upcoming live-action Moana and Tangled movies such a departure.) It’s not actually clear what the hell a “live-action” Toy Story would even look like—the whole point of the movies has always been that they look a lot like actual real-life toys moving around in the first place—but Collins clearly knows that can’t stop the Mouse from going anywhere it detects there might be money. “No,” she cuts back in, all-business, after a bit of joking around with Stanton—who immediately echoes her sentiment. “Hard no.”

 
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