'Toy Story 4' Has Been Postponed, But That's OK

When it was announced that Toy Story 4 was in production and would be released in the summer of 2018, fans were obviously thrilled. Many of us were also concerned about just how Pixar was going to break our hearts with this fourth film (like they did with the intense emotions of the third), and now it seems as though that answer has finally arrived in a much more literal manner than any of us expected: Toy Story 4 has been postponed until 2019. And, yeah, it sounds bad guys, but I promise you there's some light to this dark cloud.

For so many of us, the Toy Story movies has been a big part of our lives. We grew up enjoying the first two installments, and, when Toy Story 3 was released in 2010, it made entire audiences of adults absolutely bawl their eyes out (I'm not too proud to admit that I was one such adult). But you shouldn't bawl over this delay in the fourth film. Firstly, the reason that Toy Story 4 has been postponed is actually a pretty positive one.

As stated by The Hollywood Reporter, Incredibles 2 is taking the original release date of Toy Story 4, with the two films simply swapping their release dates around. As reportedly stated by a Disney insider to THR, this is said to be due to little more than a simple accelerated production schedule for Incredibles 2.

And let's be honest: who doesn't love that first Incredibles movie? As much as I adore Toy Story and am greatly looking forward to seeing the fourth film from the series, I'm also just as eager to see just how amazing the second installment of The Incredibles is going to be. But I'm also happy to hear that Toy Story 4 isn't being rushed into release.

The fact that Disney has the confidence to swap the release date of the two movies around seems to signify that they're happy for Toy Story 4 to be developed in the time that it needs to be done right. After all, the Toy Story movies have been something of an iconic franchise. They're full of nostalgia, and, as a cinematic property, even come with some enormous sentimental value for audiences of all ages.

When you're dealing with movies like that, you don't rush them out. You take your time to develop every aspect of them into something that's fresh and exciting, but that are still capable of reliably evoking certain feelings in its audience. Even more than your average Disney Pixar film, the Toy Story movies come with a heightened set of expectations to them — you expect them to feel magical, special, and familiar. And four films in, that can prove to be a difficult combination to simply nail on demand while maintaining the same high quality as previously. Frankly, Disney Pixar can take all the time in the world that they need to get this right. As an audience, we're not going anywhere.

And so, yes, Toy Story 4 may now be delayed until the summer of 2019, but something tells me that it'll benefit from that delay and be more than worth the wait when it finally arrives in theaters. And until then, at least we get to see Incredibles 2 a whole year earlier than expected. See? That bad news wasn't all so bad, really.

Images: Walt Disney Pictures/Pixar Studios; Giphy (2)