<\/a>If you’ve been paying attention to Lee Unkrich’s Twitter feed<\/a>, you know that college-aged fans have been sending him messages about how much they enjoyed Toy Story 3.<\/p>\n

It’s more accurate to say that they loved the first 65 minutes of the highly anticipated sequel, since they were in for special "cliffhanger" screenings<\/a>. So, what’s the story behind this unorthodox marketing tactic? New York Times has the scoop<\/a>!<\/p>\n

Disney and Pixar made the internally controversial decision to show a big chunk of the film after realizing the teen\/young adult audience has been largely untapped. With backing by John Lasseter and Disney Studios Chairman Rich Ross, the move went forward! <\/p>\n

The idea is that "Andyites" (a term referring to 18-24 year olds who literally grew up with Andy) would feel the nostalgia from preview screenings. Later, they’d spread the word on Facebook and other social networking sites. The campaign started rolling out a few weeks ago with more screenings throughout the month of May and everythin seems to be going as planned.<\/p>\n

It’s clear that although backlash was possible, Pixar was confident enough in their absolutely amazing 11th outing that they went through with this. Here are some Twitter reactions, click to see the full tweet: "Amazing<\/a>" "Pixar did it again<\/a>" "Epic beyond all epic<\/a>" "Blown away<\/a>" "Incredible<\/a>"<\/p>\n

You can read the full article<\/a>, with tales from corporate, pre-screenings and more, over at The New York Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n

So, can we call Toy Story 3 a hit yet?
\nToy Story 3 opens in wide release on June 18th, 2010!<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"