Yet Another "Ending": A Review of Toy Story 4

directed by Josh Cooley
written by Andrew Stanton, Stephanie Folsom, Rashida Jones, Valerie LaPointe, Will McCormack, Martin Hynes, Cooley and John Lasseter

I'll be honest: when I heard this movie was being made, I groaned. Toy Story 3 which came out nine years ago, was the perfect sendoff for these characters, and even just the thought of a follow-up left a bad taste in my mouth. Sure, they had subsequent adventures in short films and TV specials, but these were inoffensive affairs that went down easy, like canapes at a party. It was nice to check in on Woody and the gang every once in a while. While I understood the logic behind a sequel, I did not at all welcome it, and I dare say, having seen the film, that Disney and Pixar have done very little to change my mind.

The movie starts with a flashback; it's been established by Toy Story 3 that Bopeep (Annie Potts) left the group at an undisclosed time between the second and third movie, and Toy Story 4 finally plays that moment out. It's a moment full of regret and heartbreak for Woody the Cowboy (Tom Hanks) in particular as he is forced to choose between his loyalty to Andy and his love for Bopeep, who is about to be given away to a new owner, and we already know how that played out. Moving back to the present after a brief title sequence, we now find Woody and friends at their new home with Bonnie (Madeleine McGraw). It's a period of adjustment for Woody, who is no longer the "head toy" of this group, that distinction belonging to Dolly (Bonnie Hunt). Desperately in search of purpose for a kid who doesn't seem to need him as much as Andy did, Woody finds it when he sees that Bonnie is terrified of going to pre-school. He then stows away in her backpack and, when she gets to school, sneaks a bunch of art supplies onto her desk. As a result, Bonnie makes herself a toy out a spork, pipe cleaner, clay and Popsicle sticks, names him Forky, and instantly falls in love with him. Seeing her attachment to her new toy, Woody takes it on himself to protect him, which becomes more difficult than Woody imagined when Forky comes to life (voiced by Tony Hale) and, in a franchise-first twist, rejects his status as a toy and constantly tries to throw himself in the trash. Thing get even worse when Bonnie's parents decide to take her on a road trip and Forky flings himself from the RV (a shot spoiled in the trailers, so give me a break). In his efforts to save Forky and reunite him with the others, Woody finds himself meeting an unsettling doll named Gabby Gabby (Christina Hendricks) who has an eye on his voice box, and then meets a most unexpected blast from his past.

I won't dare go into spoiler territory with this review, and to go into my problems with the film involves very heavy spoilers, so I'll limit my comments to Pixar's technique, which is utterly superb. Given that the last time viewers saw Bopeep onscreen was nearly twenty years ago the leaps and bounds in the way in which she is rendered are quite noticeable, even moreso than the improvements made to Helen Parr in last year's The Incredibles 2. Basically, the technical proficiency on display here is beyond reproach; Pixar may not be the innovators they once were (with Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse having stolen their thunder at the last Oscars for this very reason) but they are definitely at the very apex in terms of technique.

Bopeep is the highlight here, and Annie Potts really seems to relish her return to this role, which is bigger in this film than it has ever been, and of course Tom Hanks continues to make Woody the most likable animated character in Pixar's entire library. This is primarily their story, as the rest of the original crew are very much relegated to the background, with only Buzz getting the slightest hint of a subplot. New characters get the chance to shine, like Ally Maki as Giggle McDimples, Bopeep's tiny sidekick, Keegan Michael Key's and Jordan Peele's carnival prize toys Ducky and Bunny who have a number of funny scenes, especially their "winner-winner-chicken dinner" routine, and of course Keanu Reeves as Duke Caboom, who steals every scene he's in and, as incredible as this may sound, actually gets his very own character arc. If I'm honest, this movie has a lot of what made the original trilogy as enjoyable as it was.

Why the low score, then? Well, I'll have to go deep into spoiler territory for that elsewhere, but suffice it to say the writers took the characters in a direction that feels like a complete betrayal of everything that the previous films stood for. This kind of cast a pall on everything, to the amazing upgraded graphics, to Randy Newman's score and even the more entertaining performances. In fact, it made Pixar's patented third-act weepy moment that much more infuriating.

This movie is basically the animated version of Jason Bourne, a completely superfluous follow-up to a perfectly-concluded trilogy which is made with considerable technical prowess, but feels narratively bankrupt. In fact, TS4, goes one further; it actually spits on the values espoused by the old trilogy.

6/10