Toy Story 4 includes a fun Alien reference which welcomes Fox into Disney. The merger between the two companies was completed back in March, and the latest Pixar (who are also owned by Disney) release contains an Easter egg for one of Fox’s biggest franchises.
Despite some concerns over its existence, Toy Story 4 has proved to be another great addition to the series. Introducing us to Forky, a spork made into a toy but who believes himself to be trash, it's been a hit with critics and fans alike. In Toy Story 4, when Forky escapes from their owner, Bonnie, it leads to a road trip adventure in which Woody, Buzz, and the rest of the gang arrive at a carnival. While Woody is off attempting to find Forky, Buzz is looking for Woody himself, but ends up being discovered by a carnival worker and put on display as a prize to be won. It’s there he encounters two stuffed toys, Ducky and Bunny, voiced by Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele respectively.
Looking to give Buzz a bit of a rough welcome (which isn’t to be read as a commentary on Pixar to Fox), Ducky, with some help from Bunny, starts kicking Buzz in the head. As he does that, he says “in space, no one can hear you scream.” It’s obviously poking fun at Buzz being a spaceman, but it’s also a neat reference to the iconic Alien tagline. Just moments before this, Ducky also says “in a galaxy far, far away.” It’s another little nod to Disney buying Fox, which holds the rights to the original Star Wars trilogy. The carnival is a great source of Easter eggs, as it's also here that the famous Pizza Planet truck is spotted as well, as a tattoo on the ankle of the same carnival worker who picks Buzz up.
Of course, given Toy Story 4's release date, and the fact that Key & Peele signed on for the movie long before the Disney/Fox deal was done, and likely recorded most of their lines last year, it may not be a deliberate nod to the merger. Key and Peele were also allowed to improvise a lot of their dialogue, so it could've come from that too. Still, regardless of intent, watching Toy Story 4 with knowledge of the takeover makes it work as a really fun Easter egg above just being a reference to Alien.
There are many more Easter eggs to be found in Toy Story 4 too, including Keanu Reeves' Duke Caboom dropping a line from The Matrix, and just about every other Pixar film being featured in the background of different scenes, like the bottle cap from Up and Boo from Monsters, Inc!
