Luxo Jr BallAs the world prepares to slowly disappear under the tangible haze of excitement generated by the world-wide release of Pixar’s Toy Story 3, director Lee Unkrich could be forgiven for sitting back and basking in the adulation already streaming his way. Instead  the excitement gauge has been turned up even further with the news that Unkrich has today confirmed via his Twitter account and also on MSN that a brand new Toy Story short will play in front of Cars 2.

Toy Story 3

In response to being asked whether he had intentionally “sewn up” the ending of the third installment of the phenomenally successful series, Unkrich offered the following:

Well, I really tried my best to end the story of Andy and his toys and bring that story to a close in a really nice way at the end of this film. That being said, we know that people love the characters, love Woody and Buzz, and would hate to say good-bye to them completely. I don’t know that there would ever be a ‘[Toy Story] 4.’ We don’t have any plans for one — but we are trying to find ways to keep the characters alive. We have announced we’re going to do a short film in front of ‘Cars 2’ that uses the ‘Toy Story’ characters. We’re going to keep them alive; they’re not going away forever.

So it’s good news for fans of the franchise who feared that Toy Story 3 would be Buzz, Woody and Cos final playdate with destiny.

Speculation will no doubt now centre on what Unkrich plans to do with the short in terms of story- whether he will go for a whole new stand alone story like the other Pixar shorts so far, or if he will follow the example of the supplementary shorts that have appeared on Pixar’s DVD releases like Burn-E and Mater and The Ghost Light and tell a story that runs parallel to the timeline of Toy Story 3’s events. My guess would be that Pixar will settle on a stand alone story, set after Toy Story 3 closes that gives a brief snapshot of what the characters are up to further into the future, but which doesnt go too far in depth as to when its actually set.

Either way, the prospect of a further Toy Story film (even a short) is an exciting one, and even despite the potential for the franchise to be extended past its welcome (in the vein of The Land Before Time for instance), I would welcome more from the franchise in future.