The first ten minutes of the upcoming Halloween-themed Toy Story television special Toy Story of Terror has been screened at the D23 Expo. The roughly half-hour program is set to air on October 16th on ABC.
***SPOILERS: Description of the short’s plot.***
In the footage, (descriptions courtesy of ComingSoon’s Sila Lesnick) we see that our toy friends are neither in Bonnie’s room nor in some fast food place. Instead, they’re in the trunk of a car (Bonnie’s parents drive a minivan, though) watching a film about Dracula on a small portable television set. There are some fun bits where thespian Mr. Pricklepants picks apart the cliches that are apparent in the horror film they are watching. The car stops at a hotel, the toys are in a backpack (Bonnie’s?), the atmosphere is creepy…
Mr. Potato Head goes exploring, but he goes missing! The gang searches, coming across Potato Head’s arm along with his tracks. Apparently he’s stepped into some mysterious green ooze! Almost all of the toys are taken away by a “fast-moving, mysterious force” whilst searching, leaving Woody, Buzz and Jessie! Making their way out of a vent that leads into the hotel’s bathroom, Jessie is separated from the two and is grabbed by a Combat Carl doll (voiced by Carl Weathers) who is missing an arm. He warns her that the place they are staying at certainly is not safe! But that strange force grabs Combat Carl. Jessie runs, we don’t see what captured the doll. Cut to black.
***End spoilers***
It’s good to see this special taking the toys to more locations, rather than just doing something in Bonnie’s house. It seems like Pixar and Pixar Canada have nailed all the spooky Halloween elements quite well, and the short should be chock full of horror movie references (The Shining ought to get a significant amount of spotlight!) and whatnot. But best of all, it seems like it’ll be more than worth watching. Hopefully more surprises await us in the full special!
The short Toy Story of Terror will be debut on October 16, 2013 on ABC.
