Oscars: ‘Toy Story 4’ Becomes 10th Pixar Film to Win Best Animated Feature

By Dave McNary

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – “Toy Story 4” has won the Academy Award for best animated feature for Josh Cooley, Mark Nielsen and Jonas Rivera — a decade after “Toy Story 3” took the prize.

It’s the 10th Pixar title to take an Oscar since the category was created in 2001.

“We just want to thank the Academy for honoring our film alongside so many beautiful animated films this year. We’re just proud to be among them,” said Nielsen after accepting the Oscar, “We take great pride in the fact that we get to make family films, and ‘’ is a love letter to our families.”

“We want to thank the moviegoing audience so much, especially those that grew up with ‘Toy Story.’ We hope that your adventures with Woody and Buzz made growing up a little bit easier,” said Cooley.

“Toy Story 4” topped Universal’s “How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World,” Laika’s “The Missing Link” and a pair of Netflix titles — “I Lost My Body” and the holiday film “Klaus.” “Missing Link” won the Golden Globe and “Klaus” took the Annie Award, placing both into play as possible Oscar winners among prognosticators.

“Toy Story 4” was by far the biggest grosser among the nominees with $434 million in North America and $1.07 billion worldwide.

The film, which debuted 24 years after the original “Toy Story,” was directed by Cooley in his feature helming debut. It follows Woody as he deals with a confused spork named Forky, voiced by Tony Hale.

The voice cast saw Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Annie Potts, Joan Cusack, Wallace Shawn, John Ratzenberger, Estelle Harris, Blake Clark, Bonnie Hunt, Jeff Garlin and Timothy Dalton reprising their character roles from the first three films. Keegan-Michael Key, Jordan Peele, Christina Hendricks, Keanu Reeves, and Ally Maki voiced the other new roles.

“Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse” won the category last year. Besides “Toy Story 3,” the other Pixar titles to have won the animated trophy are “Finding Nemo,” “The Incredibles,” “Ratatouille,” “WALL-E,” “Up,” “Brave,” “Inside Out” and “Coco.”

“Toy Story” was released in 1995 and “Toy Story 2” came out in 1999 — too early to gain recognition in the category.