For the most part, third installments of a film series have been a bit of a mixed bag.

So could that same fate befall this summer’s upcoming “Toy Story 3”? Director Lee Unkrich doesn’t think that will be the case.

“When we set out to make ‘Toy Story 2’, we knew there weren’t many good sequels out there,” Unkrich tells SciFi Wire. “There are only a few, like ‘The Godfather Part II’ and ‘The Empire Strikes Back’ and not many more. So it was really an honor for us when ‘Toy Story 2’ came out that a lot of critics likened our work to those films in terms of being a sequel that’s at least as good as the original.

“In setting out to do three of course, what good third films are there?” he added. “Now I wasn’t counting series like the James Bond films, but the only one I could think of was the third ‘Lord of the Rings’ film. It’s a solid, good film, but then I thought it wasn’t really fair, because it’s part of one big story and not a sequel per se. But when I thought about it, that’s when I personally had an epiphany and thought that I need to think of this film as part of a large story. I need to think of ‘Toy Story 1, 2 and 3’ as being one big journey emotionally for these toys, for Woody in particular, and that’s what we set out to do with this film.”

The latest installment opens with Andy Davis ready to leave for college. He packs up his beloved toys to get stored in the attic, but they get donated to Sunnyside Day Care instead. What initially seems like nirvana for toys quickly becomes a nightmare as the gang gets beat up by a classroom full of drooling, destructive toddlers. Meanwhile, Andy realizes the mistake and works to reunite with Woody, Buzz and his childhood plastic pals.

Unkrich said the idea of leaving childhood behind for adulthood and the impact it would have on the toys actually came out of a failed first idea for the sequel.

Exclusive interview
Related Sections: Animation Interviews Movies News Trailers Video
Director: Why Toy Story 3 won’t suck; plus, new Ken!

If you’re a fan of Pixar, then you know they don’t crank out sequels. Matter of fact in their 15 years making 11 computer-animated, full-length features they’ve made exactly two sequels: Toy Story 2 (1999) and this summer’s 3-D Toy Story 3.

Why?

Because the Pixar creative mantra is always “story first.” No story = no movie. And that’s why it’s taken 11 years to produce the latest (and probable last) story about Woody the cowboy (Tom Hanks), Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen), Jessie the cowgirl (Joan Cusack) and the rest of Andy’s beloved toys.

In an exclusive interview with SCI FI Wire last month in New York City, Toy Story 3’s director Lee Unkrich revealed that The Lord of the Rings was actually a key inspiration.

“When we set out to make Toy Story 2, we knew there weren’t many good sequels out there,” Unkrich said frankly. “There are only a few, like The Godfather Part II and The Empire Strikes Back and not many more. So it was really an honor for us when Toy Story 2 came out that a lot of critics likened our work to those films in terms of being a sequel that’s at least as good as the original.

“In setting out to do three of course, what good third films are there?” he added. “Now I wasn’t counting series like the James Bond films, but the only one I could think of was the third Lord of the Rings film. It’s a solid, good film, but then I thought it wasn’t really fair, because it’s part of one big story and not a sequel per se. But when I thought about it, that’s when I personally had an epiphany and thought that I need to think of this film as part of a large story. I need to think of Toy Story 1, 2 and 3 as being one big journey emotionally for these toys, for Woody in particular, and that’s what we set out to do with this film.”

Toy Story 3 opens with Andy Davis ready to leave for college. He packs up his beloved toys to get stored in the attic, but they get donated to Sunnyside Day Care instead. What initially seems like nirvana for toys quickly becomes a nightmare as the gang gets beat up by a classroom full of drooling, destructive toddlers. Meanwhile, Andy realizes the mistake and works to reunite with Woody, Buzz and his childhood plastic pals.

Unkrich said the idea of leaving childhood behind for adulthood and the impact it would have on the toys actually came out of a failed first idea for the sequel.

“We actually had an idea for years, but the political machinations between Pixar and Disney prevented us from making ‘Toy Story 3’,” Unkrich revealed. “Luckily when Disney finally ended up buying the studio, that opened up the floodgate of freedom to finally make the sequel. Interestingly enough, the sequel that we thought we were going to make for ‘Toy Story 3’ for all those years is not the movie we ended up making. We started talking about it and really getting deeper into it, and we realized it was a cool concept but it wasn’t a deep enough story to sustain a feature. That panicked us, because we never wanted to make a sequel just for the sake of making a sequel. We wanted to do it because we had a good story, but all of a sudden we found ourselves wanting to make a sequel but not having the story. We felt like we were doing it all backwards. Luckily we pounded away on it for a couple of days and talked about what was really important to us and how we could tap the emotional depth of the stories we had told so far. We came up with what over four years is now ‘Toy Story 3’.”

“Toy Story 3” opens in July.