Don Rickles has been the voice of Toy Story’s Mr potato head since the first film released in 1995. Unfortunately, he passed away in 2017 at the age of 90 before he had the chance to record any dialogue for the upcoming Toy Story 4. However, this doesn’t mean we’re going to be missing out on his dulcet tones in the new movie, quite the opposite in fact.
Toy Story 4 director, Josh Cooley put out a tweet confirming rickles’ involvement in the film. Check it out below :
“Some people say funny things, I say things funny.” -Don Rickles
All of his pieces may be replaceable, but his voice is not. Honored he signed on for TS4, honored he’s in TS4. pic.twitter.com/Q7cTRSQNwh— Josh Cooley (@CooleyUrFaceOff) March 28, 2019
How he’s appearing is, as of yet, unknown. When he passed away Rickles’ reps confirmed that he hadn’t recorded anything for Toy Story 4 so unless that wasn’t quite true we will probably be hearing dialogue he’s recorded for the other Toy Story movies, TV shows or video games.
This isn’t a new situation for Pixar, they brought back the character of Doc Hudson in Cars 3 using unused audio recordings from the first film. Actor Paul Newman passed away in 2008 some 9 years before the film released, so who knows what unused recordings of Mr potato head they have lying around after 24 years of the Toy Story franchise.
However they do it, it’s at least nice to have Don Rickles back as Mr potato head for Toy Story 4 instead of another actor trying to replicate his voice, as no matter how close the imitations are they’re almost always noticeable and it just wouldn’t be the same without Rickles.
There’s not long to wait to find out, Toy Story 4 opens in theaters on June 21st. We’ll bring you more as we know it. In the meantime are you excited for the release of Toy Story 4 or could you care less? I for one look forward to it and hope for an improvement over the depressing 3rd film. There’s life in these old toys yet.
