Quentin Tarantino doesn’t want to play with Toy Story anymore.
The famed director recently appeared on an episode of the comedy podcast Club Random with Bill Maher, where, among other things, he discussed the difficulties of wrapping up a trilogy in a satisfying manner for the audience. Because of his love for the initial Toy Story trilogy, the Kill Bill helmer said he had “no desire” to view subsequent films.
“I don’t watch all the animated movies and stuff, but I’m a big fan of the Toy Story trilogy,” he said in a clip that has since gone viral on X (formerly known as Twitter). “I think there’s only one trilogy that completely and utterly works to the Nth degree and that’s A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.”
He went on to describe that the Clint Eastwood-starring Italian film series, which founded the Spaghetti Western genre, was successful because it followed a “one director vision” in filmmaker Sergio Leone through all three films.
“It does what no other trilogy has ever been quite able to do,” he told Maher. “The first movie is terrific, but the second movie is so great and takes the whole idea to such a bigger canvas that it obliterates the first one. And then the third one does the same thing to the second one, and that’s kind of what never happens. You’ll see this big jump from the first to the second and they don’t really land the third one.” The Pulp Fiction director cited the Mad Max films as a series that is unable to stick the landing.
Like the Dollars Trilogy, Tarantino said that the Disney animated franchise is able to accomplish this feat and for this reason, he has no interest in watching beyond the junior installment.
“In the case of Toy Story, the third one is just magnificent,” he explained to Maher, who said he had never watched the films. “It’s one of the best movies I’ve ever seen. And if you’ve seen the other two, it’s just devastating. But the thing is, then three years later or something they did a fourth, and I have no desire to see it. You literally ended the story as perfect as you could, so no, I don’t care if it’s good. I’m done.”
Perhaps to the chagrin of Tarantino, Toy Story 5 is currently in development, with Disney CEO Bob Iger confirming at this year’s D23 Expo that Pixar Animation stalwart Andrew Stanton (the two-time Oscar winner behind the original film) would return to helm. A release date for the pic, which will follow what happens when children become obsessed with technology, is set for June 19, 2026.
