Watch: New Toy Story 4 Trailer Teases The Return Of A Beloved Character

In the world of 'toys that have been anthropomorphised for our entertainment' there are few rivals to Toy Story. Sure, a passable argument could be made for 1998's gratuitously macho Small Soldiers, which envisaged a load of toy soldiers gaining sentience, their small statures belying their thirst for well-drilled military precision. I also personally know a bin-man who will get pretty irate should anyone say that 2007's Bratz movie is anything other than the seminal work of art of the 21st century - he once refused to collect someone's household waste for over 3 months who tried to take him to task over this. However I'm sure most people, sound of mind and pure of spirit, will be able to come together and agree that Toy Story is the greatest movie franchise featuring 'toys that have been anthropomorphised for our entertainment'.

Given this, it should come as a source of pure, bone-quivering excitement for all to have our appetites whetted for the impending release of Toy Story 4. The film, announced last year, is set to be released in the summer of 2019 and, being only 6 months away, the marketing behemoth has begun to stir. It will grow with inexorable intensity throughout the buildup of the film's release, attempting to create hype around a film that simply does not need it. Announce that there is another Toy Story being released and people will come from far and wide to see it. Elderly people in rural villages will avail of their local bus service, which operates at a catastrophic loss, to be ferried to their nearest cinema; Bedouin tribes people will lay down their shepherding tools, mount their camels and schlep it to their nearest Omniplex; remote Pacific Island tribes will whittle canoes and paddle into the horizon in search of their nearest screen, their satchels laden with snacks to be snook past the awaiting ticket inspector.

Well, as part of the beginning of their mass marketing mobilisation they have released a teaser showing the return of a beloved character, Lil' Bo Peep.