My heart bust right out of my chest when Toy Story 4 was set to hit cinemas, 9 years after the release of Toy Story 3. It’s one of those film franchises that you hope never stop making sequels, because there’s always going to be more for the toys to do (in my mind, at least.)
Toy Story 4 has been well-received by the OG Toy Story fans who were raving about the story, even back when Bo Peep’s sheep looked like this:
The newest instalment of the Toy Story franchise lets Woody explore the options for his future, which feels far too real for the people who have grown up with the series and are currently facing existential crises (or maybe that’s just me.)
I personally loved the film so much, and I had an eagle eye out for those Easter eggs that Pixar loves to hide. I was pleasantly surprised by what I saw.
Very early on in the film, the toys’ new owner, Bonnie, attended her first day of kindergarten and in a blink-and-you-miss-it moment, a student walked into frame wearing a cochlear implant.
Pixar told GOAT that the student was a purposeful inclusion, and that the detail meant a lot to the simulation supervisor, whose son wears a cochlear implant.
One of the children in Bonnie’s class wears a hearing device—a detail that means a lot to simulation supervisor Henry Garcia, whose son is hard of hearing and wears a cochlear implant. Garcia and his team had to figure out how the device would properly interact with the student’s hair.
Pixar
In an official quote from Pixar, the producers of Toy Story 4, Jonas Rivera and Mark Nielsen told GOAT that they strive to show inclusion and diversity in their stories.
“We are thrilled to hear that audiences are seeing our deliberate effort to show the world, as it exists around us, in TOY STORY 4. This includes characters of varying races, family structures, and disabilities, including a child in Bonnie’s kindergarten class with a cochlear implant. At Pixar, we strive to show inclusion and diversity in our stories because representation matters.”
Jonas Rivera and Mark Nielsen, Pixar.
This step forward in accurate representation of the world around us means that more people are able to see themselves on the big screen.