Christina Hendricks' 'Toy Story 4' Villain Is "Like The Godfather", And Here's How Keanu Reeves' Stuntman Helps Woody And Bo Peep
By Ben Pearson/March 28, 2019 1:00 pm EST
In Pixar's Toy Story 4, Mad Men actress Christina Hendricks is lending her voice to a new character named Gabby Gabby, a villain with a voice box defect who's been living in an antique shop for more than sixty years. Also joining the Toy Story universe for the first time is Keanu Reeves, voicing a stuntman named Duke Caboom. In new interviews, director Josh Cooley compares Hendricks' villain character to the Godfather, and Reeves explains how Caboom factors into the action.
We already knew the basic details about both of these new characters, but as we inch closer to the sequel's release, more information is coming to light. Josh Cooley, who is making his feature directorial debut with this highly-anticipated sequel, tells Entertainment Weekly that Gabby Gabby is similar to Marlon Brando's Vito Corleone, aka the Godfather:
"She can just tell her henchmen of ventriloquist dummies to do her bidding for her, and they do. She's like the Godfather, where she doesn't really have to do much to do a lot."
Comparing things to The Godfather seems to be all the rage right now, but I must admit that I never anticipated hearing that comparison in connection with anything involving Toy Story 4. Hopefully Woody doesn't wake up with Bullseye's head in his sheets.
"I've always loved The Twilight Zone and that Talking Tina-type of thing," Cooley said. "We've never seen creepy, old dolls like that in Toy Story, and this was an opportunity to do that." Speaking with People, Hendricks herself painted her character in a more sympathetic light:
"Because of this defect, she has never known the love of a child or been able to fulfill her destiny to love one back. She has spent her whole life in an antique store looking out at the real world."
Meanwhile, Reeves told People how his stuntman character gets mixed up in the movie's plot:
"Duke becomes an important part of [Woody and Bo's] mission. They use his skills as a motorcycle daredevil, but what they ask him to do confronts his fear of failure. So he has to kind of face his fear in order to help the greater good."
We already know that one of Duke Caboom's problems is that he's never been able to do the stunts that are advertised in the commercial for his toy, so it sounds like we might be looking at another triumphant Pixar moment of Duke finally accomplishing something he's been unable to do his entire life.
Toy Story 4 arrives in theaters on June 21, 2019.