Pixar’s notorious for sneaking easter eggs about their upcoming films into their latest releases. For example, there’s a boy in Finding Nemo reading a comic about Mr. Incredible, you can see the shadow of Dug from Up in Ratatouille and Inside Out contained a statue of Arlo from The Good Dinosaur in a flashback sequence.
With that in mind, hardcore Pixar fans often scour the home releases frame by frame to see what they’ve missed, and now it appears they’ve discovered that Keanu Reeves’ character Duke Caboom from Toy Story 4 is in Incredibles 2. You can check out his appearance in the gallery below, being tucked away in the corner of Jack-Jack’s playpen.
So, who is Duke Caboom? Word is he’s from the place where discontinued toys are sent (where Bo Peep reportedly goes to find her missing sheep) and, from his design, seems to be a take on the iconic Evel Knievel Stunt Cycle toy from the 1970s. We got a better look at the character after pictures from Toy Fair 2019 were released, and judging by the red maple leaf on the front of his motorcycle, Caboom appears to be Canadian.
As far as I’m concerned, the addition of Keanu Reeves to a film can only improve it, so I’m pretty psyched to see what his character’s going to be like. Reeves recently discussed the role in an interview with Collider as well, saying:
“I got a call, which was really cool, out the blue from the lovely people at Pixar and the creators of this number, this edition, or continuation of the story. They pitched the character to me, and then we spoke and they allowed me to kind of riff on it. I’ve done four recording sessions with them so far. It’s been a lot of fun.”
Word was that the actor felt that the character in its initial stages was a little too much like Buzz Lightyear, but they’ve allowed Reeves a bit of room to improvise and he’s apparently made Duke Caboom his own.
While I definitely liked Toy Story 3, I’m still a little wary of the studio continuing the story after all this time. Then again, I said that about the last film, too, and look how great that turned out. With any luck then, Pixar will knock it out of the park once more when Toy Story 4 lands in theaters later this year.
