Toy Story 5 producer shares unseen letter to Taylor Swift as request fuels a heated debate
Topics: Taylor Swift, Entertainment, Cinema, TV And Film, Reddit, Toy Story
Madison Burgess
Featured Image Credit: PIXAR
Topics: Taylor Swift, Entertainment, Cinema, TV And Film, Reddit, Toy Story
It’s finally the day… get your popcorn ready, as Toy Story 5 has officially been released around the world - and it’s already sparked a major debate.
Jessica Choi Smyth, a producer of the long-awaited film, sent the internet into meltdown on Thursday (18 June) by revealing the letter she sent to Taylor Swift, asking her to write a song.
We know now that the result of the request was ‘I Knew It, I Knew You,’ a catchy song that the 36-year-old pop star had created for Jessie.
In her emotional letter, Smyth gushed that Pixar had ‘hopes and dreams’ of a collaboration and outlined exactly why the story is one that Swift would care about.
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She wrote: “3 years ago, I joined the Toy Story 5 team as an outsider to Pixar. I had spent much of my career working on big franchise films (Thor Ragnarok, Avatar, Cats), so my then goal was to work with strong female creatives on equally big films focused around a female protagonist.”
Smyth admitted, “I hesitated when asked about TS5, considering it was historically a male-centric franchise, but after reading the script, I had an opportunity to change that.
“The Toy Story franchise has always been about Woody and Buzz. This will be the first of five where the primary focus is Jessie, the yodeling cowgirl, and her journey embracing her beautifully eccentric style of leadership and character.”
The producer wrote that ‘huge efforts were made’ to build a team around Jessie that could ‘do her justice,’ such as bringing in the first solo female animation supervisor on a Pixar film in 30 years.
She added, “Despite concerns around us moving away from a Woody-centric or Buzz-centric Toy Story film, we believe Jessie’s story deserves to be told and told well.
“We are so inspired by your journey, carving a path in a male-dominated industry and advocating for it through music, and we believe if Jessie were not but a tiny toy, she would be equally inspired and would also have the world in the palm of her hand.”
We’re not crying, you are.
After Smyth shared the letter, a debate broke out on social media, with Reddit users arguing over whether the movies are male-centric or not.
One fan wrote: “I always felt the story was about Andy, with the bigger theme of growing up with toys. That's why for me the story ended with Toy Story 3.
“As for masculinity, whatever was going on behind the scenes, whatever the ratio of men to women was, I never felt the theme was 'for boys'. It was about childhood which is universal.”
A second agreed: “I actually never thought of Toy Story as a ‘male-centric’ franchise. Maybe that’s because as a little girl I always played with stuffed animals & toys, so I connected with it. I also loved Bo Peep and Jessie.”
But, a third argued: “Literally the first three movies center around a boy and his cowboy and spaceman and them saving the day. So, yes, the stories told are male-centric.
“We’re used to having to relate to male-centric stories when we aren’t given similar stories that are centered on females."
They added: “As children, this is yet another seemingly subtle way to indoctrinate into patriarchy. As adults we should be viewing these movies more critically, despite our nostalgia.”
A fourth reasoned: “You could argue the first Toy Story is male-centric, but I hardly think that applies to the franchise as a whole, which has always had strong, well-written, dynamic female characters.”
While another fan agreed: “I thought Toy Story was ‘unisex’ lol, you had Jessie, a female lead, and Woody/Buzz, male leads. About toys who just happen to belong to a boy and then passed onto a little girl. I called my brothers action figures, dolls, and would play with them.
“Toys are just universal. Maybe the writers made it more boy-driven, but I never saw it like that. I was also born in 2001, so I wasn’t around for the og hype.”