Like many of us, Teresa Falcone ’14 has been a fan of Pixar’s Toy Story movies since the franchise’s start. But unlike most of us, Falcone was lucky enough to land a role in creating the beloved animated series’ most recent release, Toy Story 4, which hits theaters worldwide today.
“I was 9 when the first movie came out and in my 20s when the third movie came out,” Falcone says. “So I really grew up with these movies and it really hit me hard emotionally when Andy gave his toys away [in Toy Story 3] because he was growing up also.”
Since she was a child, Falcone’s love for Toy Story, drawings, cartoons and movies continued to grow, but it wasn’t until she had been performing for local theme parks for 12 years that she realized animation combined all her passions. So in 2011, she began pursuing a bachelor of fine arts in character animation at UCF’s School of Visual Arts and Design. Some of her work since then includes Sony Pictures Imageworks’ Smallfoot and Pixar’s Coco.
Falcone shares what it was like to work on the series’ latest installment on UCF Today.