Toy Story 4 Rides Out Its #MeToo Drama

The not-so family-friendly backstory to an otherwise beloved animated classic

Credit: © Pixar

The Toy Story gang is back, and they’re out to save the immortal soul of a googly-eyed spork. For years, it seemed as if a fourth installment of the animated classic was never going to happen. Yet, as a testament to the staying power of Pixar’s well-oiled machine, an entire generation that grew up watching Woody and Buzz Lightyear is now old enough to bring their own kids to the theaters. But what’s striking — yet not altogether surprising — is that on the backdrop of this family-friendly franchise, virtually every marker of Hollywood bad behavior is lurking behind the scenes, from gender and racial inequity to #MeToo.

The first of many issues came in November 2017, when Rashida Jones, of Parks and Recreation fame, abandoned the film alongside her writing partner, Will McCormack. When pressed to detail her reasons for the split, Jones called out Pixar’s lack of diversity, where women and people of color were seldom given “an equal creative voice.” A year later it was John Lasseter’s time for the exit door, but not entirely by choice. Multiple women had come forward with harassment allegations against the former Pixar chief, detailing a pattern of groping, kissing, and comments about employees’ bodies that was so pervasive, they had shorthand nicknames for the strategies they used to dodge and avoid him.

One can be a damaging presence in the workplace without being as aggressively toxic as Weinstein.

It took almost five years for Toy Story 4 to finally get off the ground. Film critics have largely declared the attempted reinvention of the 24-year-old franchise a success. But as the film hits theaters Friday to glowing reviews, it’s a good moment to consider: What results have the past two years of activism in Hollywood wrought?

Those who lamented that Lasseter was no Harvey Weinstein didn’t have long to decry the #MeToo movement for going too far. Lasseter took a supposedly self-imposed six-month leave of absence after the harassment allegations first came to light in 2017. Disney opted against renewing his contract when it ended last December. But mere days after his…