What’s In A Date? Incredibles and Toy Story sequels in 2018 and 2019

Bryan RipperBlog

With so many exciting Disney films being announced, it’s hard to imagine getting excited for a movie coming out in 2 to 3 years from now, but Disney is generating much buzz over the announcement of release dates for their latest sequels.
Toy Story 4 was recently announced as having a release date of June 21, 2019. This is a year later than it was originally slated to be released, which was June 15, 2018. In addition, The Incredibles 2, which wasn’t slated to be released until 2019, now has a release date of June 15, 2018 (the date Toy Story 4 was originally slated to open).

With these dates so far out, it’s not hard to predict an almost inevitable change in release dates. Usually, films are only at the early stages of or in the middle of production when they announce the release dates that early. They’re more goals than anything else. However, the fact that these two films just switched release dates has me pondering a couple of specific reasons why Disney could be making this move.

The most obvious clue, for me, lies with the other competing films that these movies are slated to open with. The new Incredibles film will debut between “Transformers 6” and the “Jurassic World” sequel. “Toy Story 4” will debut between a currently untitled DC comics film and “Transformers 7”.

Is it possible that Disney didn’t want their Incredibles sequel to be in a flooded market of superhero movies? Its original release date was sandwiched in between a DC comics film and a Transformers sequel. I kind of think of Transformers as more of an action movie than a superhero movie, but I think it’s a close enough genre. Maybe it’s possible that Disney didn’t want to take a chance on their highly anticipated sequel being, yet, another superhero movie being release over 3 weeks in the middle of the summer.

Then there’s the suspicion that Disney is just further along in production of the Incredibles sequel than they thought they would be. More skeptical people might suspect that the Toy Story sequel is not coming along as well as expected. We’ve heard, many times, of studios having to rework plots and storylines or even bring in new writers and directors for films that just weren’t working. Could this be the case for “Toy Story 4”? I certainly felt that “Toy Story 3” would be the final film of the series. When they came out with “Toy Story of Terror” around Halloween, I thought my suspicions were confirmed. I figured holiday specials is all we would get from the Toy Story franchise for the foreseeable future. So, for Disney to revive Woody and his pals for another full-length feature film, it needs to be great! Good just won’t cut it. Otherwise, they could have just left the book closed with Andy going off to college and Woody, Buzz, and the gang finding a new home with Bonnie. Could it be possible that the story just wasn’t working for the caliber of film that Disney knew a Toy Story sequel had to be?

Of course, these are just ponderings. I’ve never worked anywhere near the movie business, and I don’t even pretend to know what goes into selecting a release date for a film 2-3 years into the future. I do know, though, that these 2 films have been highly anticipated, and their prior counterparts have made a tremendous amount of money. “The Incredibles” earned $633 million worldwide, and it won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature in 2004. “Toy Story 3” is currently Pixar’s highest grossing film with $1.1 billion worldwide. These are, obviously, films that Disney would want to be very strategic with.

Either way, the fact that we get one film in 2018 and another in 2019 is exciting to me, as a Disney fan. I think both of these franchises are 2 of the best franchises Disney – Pixar has to offer, and I’m certainly looking forward to both of these, even if they are quite a long way away.