Pixar’s Painstaking Process to Keep Don Rickles as Mr. Potato Head in Toy Story 4

Pixar was determined that Toy Story 4 would feature the voice of Don Rickles. The actor played Mr. Potato Head in previous Tory Story films but passed away in 2017 aged 90. The LA Times spoke with director Josh Cooley, who described how Pixar included late actor’s voice in the new film.
“Toy Story 4” director Josh Cooley was overjoyed. “I can only see Mr. Potato Head as Don Rickles doing that voice. I can’t imagine anyone else.” It was a painstaking process to include archival sound of Rickles’ voice. Bit by bit, an editorial team mined more than two decades’ worth of Rickles’ voice sessions and outtakes recorded for movies, shorts, theme parks, toys and other projects. They “logged every word, every cough, every hum, just so we’d know what we had,” Cooley recalled. The 39-year-old director collaborated with screenwriters Andrew Stanton and Stephany Folsom to write general lines for Mr. Potato Head, and then they searched the archival database for the best fit.