Pixar: Oscar-Winning Pixar Animator Pete Docter On 30 Years of 'Toy Story,' the Future of AI in Animation and New Sequel (Exclusive)

If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, The Hollywood Reporter may receive an affiliate commission. It's been 30 years since Buzz Lightyear first declared, "To infinity, and beyond!" - prompting the space man's action figures to fly off Toys 'R Us shelves as one of the most-wished (and most sold-out ) Christmas gifts during that time. More from The Hollywood Reporter "The fact that [ Toy Story ] hit the popular culture was never [expected]," Pixar co-chief creative officer Pete Docter tells The Hollywood Reporter . "Working on it, it was just a bunch of us nerds. It felt like working in our garage. It was a whole rental space, not really fancy and a small team, so it was very casual and loose." Pete Docter during the making of Toy Story . Docter was recruited by Pixar co-founder John Lasseter to join the computer animation studio in 1990 fresh off graduating from California Institute of the Arts. He was the supervising animator on Toy Story and went on to earn Oscars for best animated film for Up , Inside Out and Soul . He appointed co-chief creative officer of Pixar and Disney Animation Studios alongside Jennifer Lee in 2018, a year after Lasseter stepped down from the role . "I just am still amazed. It's on the top bunch of movies on Disney+ . Thirty years later you look at it, and to be honest, it sort of looks like a video game now given how far computer animation has come," Docter adds. "But I think that's just a testament to the great acting; that we had both great actors, the voice actors and the animation is kind of all over the map, but it was enough there to get people to fall in love with the characters. It's crazy to think it's been nearly 30 years." Toy Story 5 was among the animation follow-ups announced by Disney. The new film will be written and directed by Andrew Stanton, who took home Academy Awards for best animated picture for Wall-E and Finding Nemo . Released on Nov. 19, 1995, Toy Story starred Tom Hanks as the voice of Woody, a classic pull-string cowboy doll, and Tim Allen as the voice of Buzz Lightyear, a new astronaut toy. The film earned a a total of $394.4 million worldwide and spawned three sequels and a spinoff, Lightyear . (All are streaming on Disney+ .) To celebrate the franchise's 30th anniversary, Pixar is releasing collaborations including sneakers from Adidas, makeup from ColourPop and eyewear by Ray-Ban Kids. The collections also include Mattel figurine sets , seven-inch Woody and Jessie action figures and a Click Figs Buzz Lightyear figurine . Ray-Ban Kids x Toy Story Buzz Lightyear Optical Frames. Ray-Ban Kids x Toy Story Buzz Lightyear Sunglasses Frames. ColourPop's new Toy Story collection ($10 to $99) includes eyeshadow palettes in character-inspired matte and glitter shades, lip glosses, volumizing mascara, lip masks and more. Adidas will release a Jessie-inspired kids Gazelle sneaker finished with cow print stripes. ColourPop x Pixar's Toy Story makeup collection . Adidas x Toy Story . Docter sat down with THR to look back on Toy Story 's 30-year history, what fans can expect from the fifth film, where he sees the future of animation in the AI age and more. Below, keep reading and watch a new ad spot for Toy Story exclusively at THR , plus shop the just-launched movie merch and toys. Compared to pre-1990s animated shows and movies, today's kids' shows feel so fast-paced. How will that play out in Toy Story 5 ? If you go back and look at Bambi - I'm picking an extreme that's kind of intentionally slow because it is about nature and watching the changes seasons and things - I think films have definitely sped up. Even Toy Story one to Toy Story 4 , the level of visual sophistication, including the pacing, we're just trying to keep in touch with the rhythms of the world and it's definitely faster. So I will say Toy Story 5 , I think [writer and director] Andrew's done a really great job of letting moments breathe in unexpected ways. Things that you're like, wait, is this a Toy Story movie? Just some of his choices, which I think we need at this point. We've had four of 'em already. We got to keep people surprised, so it's going to be fun. Which was important to us at the time when Toy Story came out, there wasn't a lot of films that did that. There were a lot of 'em that were like four kids and nothing really other than maybe from Japan or something for adults. And so our goal was to, in the same way Spielberg did with Indiana Jones and Star War s with George Lucas, we'd love to bring animation into something that we as 20-, 30-year olds can enjoy. What stood out to you when you were bringing all of the nostalgic toys to life in the first Toy Story ? The most fun had unexpected casting. Being one of the writers on it, the ones that were the most fun had unexpected casting or flipped the way you see the character. I don't really remember how I used to see Mr. Potatohead, but as soon as [Don Rickle's] voice and the sarcasm and the sort of adult nature - he's a brilliant actor and an even more amazing comedian. And to be able to harness his sarcasm and dour, that was an unexpected marrying with that character I think at that time. That was really fun. One of the reasons I'm in this whole thing is because of Disneyland, so to have Toy Story at the theme parks is kind of a mindblower. We make this stuff and it all is inside the computer. It doesn't really exist for us. We've animated the whole movie, but it's all kind of virtual. So to be able to walk around in the space at the Disney parks is like we've had this weird dream and now it's real. It's so cool. Where do you see the future of animation, especially given concerns about AI? I think we are at in so many ways, right? We're at this weird crossroads or a new horizon, a lot like streaming. It's not new anymore, but I think it's still a little bit of the wild west of what exactly the types of shows people are looking for and the delivery mechanism, the storytelling. I think we are at a place now where two, three generations have grown up on Toy Story specifically. And so what's going to be new and surprising to them, I think we're always trying to reach for that. We've got some cool stuff in the works that is an attempt to answer that question in our way, but I think it'll be really interesting. And the technology, the same thing. Toy Story was a real game changer for a lot of my peers that studied hand-drawn animation. That's how we thought. I pictured, I'd be sitting at a desk drawing Mickey Mouse and instead I'm with a mouse and I'm moving a puppet virtually in screen. And people were like, "What?" at that time. And now that's become a commonplace. And I think the latest is AI that just makes people go, what? I type in polar bear in the city having a Coca-Cola and it happens. So how useful is that? I think the answer is that in the end, why do we watch these things? It's to feel something, to speak to our own experience as human beings. And AI can do that somewhat. And I think it's a great tool for people who know how to use it to say something about the human experience. And so I think it will be a game changer, but still most effective and most powerful in the hands of artists and storytellers. My experience so far in a lot of different ways, it's kind of like it takes something and sands the edges down, so it makes the blob average. And that could be very useful in a lot of ways. But if you really want to do something brand new and really insightful and speak from a personal angle, that's not going to come from AI fully. It only ever create swhat's been fed into it. It doesn't create anything new, it creates a weird amalgam of stuff that's been poured into it. What are some of the most nostalgic toys for you? I mean, we had Operation the game where you're supposed to pull the bones out without making it buzz. Friends of mine had a lot of action. My parents were anti-war folks, so we didn't have any GI Joes. But my big thing was when you go to a friend's house is the karate chop action and when you can push buttons and make things happen, that was cool. So Buzz is obviously a tribute to the best of action device kind of things. I had a lot of puppets. I think I had a Slinky Dog. Of course, the Slinky Dog we created in the movie is a little different than the one that existed at the time. I just like mechanical stuff - when you put the slinky at the top of the stairs and it sort of goes shing-shing down the stairs. Looking back on the first film, were there things that kids saw that adults didn't, or vice versa? I think one of the reasons maybe the film speaks to adults is that we really saw the movie from kind of an adult point of view there. They're kind of parents, these toys, they're there to serve the kids and to help them grow up. And that's difficult in a lot of ways as being a parent. My wife said, "From the moment they're born, our job is to prepare them, to leave us to go be successful in the world." And that's really difficult. But I think that's what the movie, that's maybe why it's got lasting power, it's not just a candy fluff. It's got some guts to it. One thing that was surprising to me when we made the film, we were battling back and forth. Is this Woody's film, or is it Buzz's film? Maybe it's both of them. We settled on what I think is pretty clearly Woody's movie kids, especially boys. It's Buzz all the way. It's funny because he's a diluted character who thinks he's a spaceman. I don't know what that says about kids. And I think the adults really project onto Woody in the same way that we did as the writers. But the heart of it, which hadn't been done at the time was instead of making it a musical or a princess movie, it was a buddy film. It was these two characters who butt heads, who hate each other, who grow to love each other to the point of self-sacrifice. And I think that's a really beautiful story, and it's one we've come back to several