We’ll Probably Never Tire of the ‘Toy Story’ Shorts

Will Leitch
·Editor

When we first heard that Pixar was going to produce a couple of (and maybe more) "Toy Story" shorts, we were a bit concerned. After all, a large part of the emotion of "Toy Story 3" involved saying goodbye to these characters. Was that a fake goodbye? Were they just playing on our sympathies but still planning on hanging around forever, until we got sick of them? If we were gonna say goodbye, we were gonna say goodbye. Then we saw the "Toy Story: Hawaiian Vacation" short that ran before "Cars 2," and we didn't care anymore: We love those guys so much, they can hang around forever, as far as we're concerned.

So, there's another "Toy Story" short running before "The Muppets" called "Small Fry," and USA Today has the details.

A Happy Meal-type toy at a fast-food restaurant yearns to break out of his display case to play like a real toy. He kidnaps Buzz Lightyear in an attempt to take over his play-filled existence. "It's like the Prince and the Pauper tale for toys," says writer/director Angus MacLane. "Except one of them happens to be 3 inches tall." The life-reversal forces the real Buzz Lightyear, voiced by Tim Allen, to deal with a support group for discarded, unloved fast-food toys.

OK, so that's kind of cute. There are no more "Toy Story" shorts planned after this one, but they have to do more, right? Heck, if they just lock Tom Hanks and Tim Allen in a room and make them say every word in the English language, they could do these until the end of time, which is just fine with us. It might be hard to nail down Hanks, but we're pretty certain Tim Allen doesn't have anything better to do.

'Toy Story' Gang Reunites For 'Small Fry' [USA Today]