Great endings don’t bring a story to its completion. They merely conclude the part of the story to which we’re privy. All the Toy Story movies have endings like that, each implying that Andy’s (and then Bonnie’s) toys will forge new relationships and embark on new adventures when nobody’s looking. The trade-off to this lack of finality is that it set up the circumstances in which Disney and Pixar were free to keep playing with Woody and Buzz long after the poignant coda of Toy Story 3, rolling out theatrical shorts and TV specials throughout the height of the studios’ zeal for sequels and re-releases. These offshoots draw on Toy Story’s emotional heft, but the best of them use the character traits and robust world-building established in the first three movies as springboards into rapid-fire visual puns or a thought exercise that asks “What if Toy Story 2 were a horror movie set in a roadside motel?”
Perhaps it’s a byproduct of its place in the franchise timeline, but Toy Story 4 feels more of a piece with “Toy Story Of Terror” and “Small Fry” than it does with the three preceding features. The antique shop at the center of the film is primed for the genre exercises of the holiday specials, and Buzz’s entire arc, launched by Woody’s offhand advice to follow his “inner voice,” feels like it would’ve been better suited for a Toy Story Toon. There are so many little ideas duking it out within Toy Story 4 that it’s a minor miracle director Josh Cooley manages to make them work together in a weird sort of harmony. Cooley was one of five people sharing screenwriting credit for Inside Out (not atypical for team-spirit-powered Pixar), but his feature-length directorial debut has nine names listed under “original story by” alone, and hey howdy hey can you ever feel it. In just 100 minutes, Toy Story 4 bounces from the creation and identity crisis of Bonnie’s DIY plaything Forky (Tony Hale) to the triumphant return of Bo Peep (Annie Potts) to multiple daring rescue operations that ultimately result in the redemptions of faulty vintage toys Duke Caboom (Keanu Reeves) and Gabby Gabby (Christina Hendricks).
But do you notice whose names are missing from that list? The core Toy Story ensemble, largely sidelined while Woody overcompensates for another status quo that’s rapidly slipping through his fingers. He starts the present day of Toy Story 4 being left behind, but increasingly he’s the one who isolates himself from the friends he led in Andy’s room and those he gained in Bonnie’s, to the point that when he meets back up with Bo—who’s refashioned herself as a Furiosa-like nomadic warrior queen, right down to the removable arm—she presumes he’s been lost. It’s hard to fight the feeling that the rip-roaring set pieces made possible because Woody follows Forky out of an open RV window are actually the result of a cold screenwriting logic necessary to a) reconcile the surplus of material within Toy Story 4, and b) deliver Woody to the conclusion that his purpose as Bonnie’s toy is fulfilled and it’s time to find out what’s beyond infinity.
So if the farewell sequence in this Toy Story isn’t as affecting as the one from the previous Toy Story—despite the valiant efforts of carnival lighting wistfully glinting off the eyes of characters we’ve known longer than many of our own friends and relatives—it’s not just the sense of déjà vu. It’s Toy Story 4 at odds with itself again, the old gang’s affection for Woody suddenly rushing forth at the end of a movie that works so hard to keep them all separated. In order to be anything close to coherent, this charmingly odd left turn from a nearly quarter-century-old franchise—where stuffed animals voiced by comic royalty daydream about wreaking havoc on humans—must short-circuit its emotional wiring. Toy Story 3 concludes with a Bellagio fountain of tears, inspired by a film rich with meaning and consequence and connection. Toy Story 4 is a going-away party for a co-worker who already had both feet out the door.
There’s also the nagging suspicion that another reunion is always just around the corner. While producer Mark Nielsen declared “It’s all original films after this one right now” prior to Toy Story 4’s release, the talent has gone on the record saying “never say never” about a fifth Toy Story. Meanwhile, the film’s credits are a reminder that the franchise now has two parallel storytelling tracks at its disposal, which have already supplied Disney+ with a Bo Peep flashback and a series of shorts where Forky ponders such topics as time, love, and cheese. The groundwork for Forky Asks A Question is laid in the homebound half of the Toy Story 4 credits, where Bonnie’s latest creation stares deep into the spork’s googly eyes and asks, “How am I alive?” It’s an incredible joke, and the broaching of perhaps the one existential hot button still available to Pixar’s flagship. The time before and after Toy Story 4 proves that the animation house is never going to stop making Toy Story content. But maybe the one thing staving off the production of another sequel is the fact that the only satisfying version of Toy Story 5 is the one that makes like Star Trek V and sends the toys on a quest to find, and maybe destroy, the almighty. Now that’d be a definitive ending.
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Hey, you know, as insignificant as it feels stacked up to its predecessors, I really liked Toy Story 4. I had to see it twice because the projector borked three quarters through the first time, and yet I didn’t feel it ponderous the second time at all. It has a much more languid vibe than the first three, and the animation is of course not only drop dead gorgeous, but imbued with love too. You’d be hard pressed to find many franchises where the 4th entry in the series is still, at least to some degree, a labor of love (well, there’s Resident Evil 4, but I digress).
It doesn’t have as huge a philosophical contemplation as 3, but how could it ever top that? It’s more in line with the first entry: There was a friendship story of Woody becoming pals with Buzz, now the friendship breaks off, with Woody going off to do his own thing. I’m sure a lot of people can relate when their besties get married and pair off, and soon you’re seeing them every year rather than every week.On the same side of a different coin the carnival/antique shop setting really captured the feeling of a bittersweet summer when you’re young, where you meet some new friends and have some new experiences, and at the end, you’re going to say goodbye to all of it, maybe forever, but the feelings are still going to be there in the rear-view mirror.
Well put! I wholeheartedly agree. It’s all about moving on and tying up loose ends as you go. That’s what growing up and maturity are about, and I think at this point in this particular franchise, it felt right for me. I liked it a lot and still do.Besides, as you said, the movie is stunningly beautiful. The shot of the chandeliers from atop the shelves, the layout of the antique shop and its plethora of things to look at, those creepy-ass ventriloquist’s dummies that stalk around the store on night watch, the whole sequence with Keanu Reeves’ character on the motorcycle, the hilarious chase scene in the RV, and so much more.
I also really loved it, I think it still speaks to the generation that grew up with it, and follows the trajectory of ones own contemplation that we can always find new meaning in life and there’s always room to keep on the pursuit of forging new relationships and new means of fulfillment.
I’d disagree that it’s philosophical contemplation is a serious step down from 3. There’s some serious empty nest analogies here that weren’t really addressed in Toy Story 3, that was much more about the process of letting your kid go once they’ve grown up. This is more about what do you do with the rest of your life once they are living their own.
Yeah, as much as it didn’t feel strictly necessary, it’s a lovely and well-made film. And even though the story does feel kind of scattershot, it manages to wrap itself up together pretty well and you start to understand why Woody longs for something different. Going into it, we thought Forky would be insufferable, but instead it’s a great, kind of dark joke! He tries to kill himself like a dozen times!
To be fair, I enjoyed Toy Story 4 quite the heck a lot because I found the themes to be quite poignant and affecting regarding one existence as not only a toy, but also as individual with choice to be something they’re not meant to be in first place. I liked that the whole series is more about Woody than Andy, in which we see him turning from toy who selfishly yearns to be loved into a toy who accepted that he couldn’t quite be as loved as he was before. Even the “villain” isn’t quite that evil like others in the series, which was refreshing change that I liked (though you gotta wonder how many toys she murdered over the years… ugh!). Hell, I love Ducky and Bunny in the film, they’re a huge riot with their Plush Rush schemes! Bo Beep and Duke Kaboom are also good in here with their own arc of self-acceptance in some forms.The only few knocks against the film is that Buzz Lightyear didn’t quite get his nice arc but finding his inner voice was a okay plot. It was disappointing that other Andy’s original toys didn’t get their screentime like they did in Toy Story 2 and 3. The ending is a nice touch with Woody finally accepted that he served his purpose and is free to choose what he wants to do for rest of his life. And I get the feeling that Toy Story 4 is the absolute final film in the series because lot of themes already been explored in the other entries. It was sorely felt in the final scene with newly made toy asking why that they’re alive. The “I don’t know” answer in mysteriously positive light felt like an appropriately final bow to the series.
I watched 4 last night for the second time coincidentally. The first time I was kinda hung up on how much work the movie had to do to prove it even had a place in the canon tbh, which isn’t a great headspace to be in. I wasn’t mad it existed, but 3 left on such a perfect note, and the shorts afterwards were good continuations while not affecting that 3 film masterpiece. I left the first time thinking it was a lot of fun, but still inessential. More in line with the other Pixar sequels, which are generally really good movies but nothing special. I left with a more positive impression the second time. I still think the first 3 stand together as masterpieces, but 4 is impressive in its own right. Mainly it looks absolutely incredible, and its really weird in a way the others aren’t. The body horror is creepy, and Gabby Gabby might be the best ‘villain’ they’ve had. She is manipulative, but sympathetic, a nice clean break from the last 2 villains who maybe shared too many similarities. My main criticism is that it sidelines the cast besides Woody so much. There are inklings of Jessie having a bigger story that never materialises, Buzz does next to nothing, and the rest barely have a line between them. Forky similarly begins as a fascinating exploration of whatever the hell he is, but quickly becomes more of a macguffin. After basically doubling the core cast by the end of 3 some of this is understandable, but it doesn’t really sit right. No doubt this is down to many many rewrites, and trouble fitting in screentime for everyone, but it is a problem. I do also like the scaling down of the story compared to the previous 2 movies. Once the first act is done and Woody and Forky are separated from the rest, the movie more or less takes place in three locations within the confines of a town square, yet has a tremendous sense of scale.
I agree with this. Toy Story 4 is gorgeous, and has got some clever new ideas, but doesn’t fully explore those ideas as well as it could have. The movie is quite good for what it is, but it’s hard for me to evaluate it in isolation, because the biggest emotional beats it swings for are informed by our relationship to the series.
So yea, the sidelined cast bothered me alot, but my biggest criticism truly is how it undermines Toy Story 3, a perfect ending I now find to be a bit tainted, since we know where they took things after that. It’s very much a product of a lot of what we do these days, basically “hot-taking” itself into oblivion. When you had what many were calling a ‘perfect trilogy’, I admit I am a little sorry Toy Story 4 exists. As you have explained, it forces fans to have to compartmentalize the franchise now- Like what people are doing with Star Wars or LotR, making sure to separate the set they loved from the ill-advised followups that undo the things they liked in the first place.
3 was already a huge risk, and paid off in spades. The shorts were nice continuations. 4 even makes it hard for the shorts to continue. What are they gonna do, have alternating adventures of all the old crew without Woody, and Woody and Bo traveling around? Not saying that couldn’t be the basis of some great stories, but both would be lacking as a result.
YES I CANADA!!!
I think Pixar’s in a really interesting place right now, because for all we know, there could have been a massive shift in their creative direction after Lasseter’s departure. We haven’t seen those results just yet, since every Pixar film goes through a four-year process and Lasseter got booted in 2017. So it’s in the next few years that we’re going to start seeing the phase of films that have zero influence from his direction.Hopefully, the studio’s learned from their missteps since their next five films are all supposed to be originals. I’m very interested to see how the next decade plays out for them. Toy Story 4 might have been the last Pixar sequel we get for awhile.
I’m only going from the wiki page, but I don’t think ‘Onward’ had much if anything to do with Lasseter’s influence, so yeah, your assumption is probably about right. I’m curious as hell to see ‘Soul’, myself. I think Pete Docter has been one of the best minds they’ve had over there for a while, and to see what he brings as both director and Chief Creative Officer of the studio is going to be very interesting indeed.
When Bonnie got the toys at the end of TS3, I thought, ‘Oh, boy! Now maybe we get some girl-centric stories!’ (I’ve never forgiven them for leaving Mrs. Potato Head behind in TS2), and we did, in some of the shorts, but then TS4 came out and we have to deal with Woody being upset because he’s not the master of the playroom (Dolly is!) and more buddy comedy stuff.
Bo was awesome, but man, was there a missed opportunity here – probably because of the lack of women working at Pixar.
I don’t think the story is just Woody’s. It’s about him and Bo. And Woody isn’t upset that he’s not in charge, but that he’s not being played wtih.
His interchange with Dolly is very much him being mad that she’s in charge.
That’s interesting, since I would argue Toy Story 4 is the most girl-centric of the movies. Bonnie, our child focal point, is a girl, and if anyone noticed, the few other key children in the movie are girls too. The villain is a girl, (who literally steals the voice of the male hero- do with that metaphor what you will) and coincidentally, is the only bad guy in the franchise not to be punished. This is an adventure wherein Woody, trying to get back home, is actually the wingman, while the more capable Bo Peep, takes point. Even at the end, the sherrif’s badge is given to Jesse, now symbolically the new leader of the gang. What more could you ask for?
I’m taking umbrage with everyone calling Gaby a “villain.” Sure, she’s the antagonist. But she doesn’t really do anything that bad, is honest about what she’s doing and why, and even convinces woody to give her his voice box of his own free will. My favorite part of this movie was her…plus the dummies and the sown together bunnies.
even convinces woody to give her his voice box of his own free will.
wasn’t that after she wasn’t able to force him to do so (I haven’t seen the film since it came out)? Either way, in general I was weirded out by the plot being based around a toy version of organ harvesting.
When Bonnie got the toys at the end of TS3, I thought, ‘Oh, boy! Now maybe we get some girl-centric stories!’ (I’ve never forgiven them for leaving Mrs. Potato Head behind in TS2), and we did, in some of the shorts, but then TS4 came out and we have to deal with Woody being upset because he’s not the master of the playroom (Dolly is!) and more buddy comedy stuff.
Bo was awesome, but man, was there a missed opportunity here – probably because of the lack of women working at Pixar.
Speaking of the shorts, Partysaurus Rex is to the shorts what Toy Story 3 is to the main film franchise.
I don’t think I’ll ever see this movie.I don’t have anything against its existence. I’m not outraged by it “spoiling the purity of the franchise” or anything like that, I don’t begrudge anyone enjoying it and I’m perfectly content if people feel the series can keep going. If I happen to be at someone’s house and it gets put on, I won’t leave the room, and I’m sure I’d have a good time watching it. Everything I’ve heard suggests it’s a perfectly enjoyable movie.But… eh. I’m not gonna seek it out. The original trilogy is satisfying enough for me. This just seemed redundant. I watched the trailers, and they were seemed to be trying just a little too hard to fan those flames, a little too hard to insist on how bittersweet this series of movies is and how my heart was going to be broken all over again, that I’ve just had enough. I’m tired. I’ve reached my station and am happy for the train to carry on without me. Sometimes friends have to say goodbye, sometimes you have to accept that something’s no longer for you and move on. Sometimes a journey just has to end.
The story really doesn’t match up to the previous three entries, and Forky isn’t as funny/clever as the studio probably thought he would be, but the artwork at the carnival is some of the most stunning animation the studio has ever produced. That’s not exactly a ringing endorsement for a Pixar movie, where the technical side is more memorable than the story side, but at least it’s a reason to give the film a try.
> Forky isn’t as funny/clever as the studio probably thought he would be
If you want to endure an exercise in ponderousness, I’d invite you to watch the insipid “Forky Asks A Question” shorts that are currently playing on Disney+. Apologies to Tony Hale, who is basically doing a thankless job, but you really get the sense that Forky isn’t the kind of character that’s “good in small doses.” He’s the kind of character that finds a way to annoy you even when he’s not actively speaking, which is (unfortunately) almost never.
I’m one of those people who really enjoyed ‘Incredibles 2′, and ‘Toy Story 3′ was better than any third movie in a series has any right to be, but there was a point when I realised sequels were going to be business as usual for Pixar and it saddened me a little. I’d liked the idea that each Pixar movie was it’s own little thing, a meticulously crafted gift that was linked to the others only by the quality and general philosophy of the studio. (Which is also why I’ve come to loathe the “let’s connect every Pixar film into a shared universe!” internet theories.) You’re correct when you say a journey has to end, and I just think in this case it’s at the conclusion of each movie.
ok fine whatever but just watch the part with bunny and ducky’s plan
I firmly believed this movie shouldn’t have been brought into existence, and saw it on opening day with great trepidation. I was…greatly relieved when I walked out of the theater, not only because I didn’t sob at the end, but also because it didn’t let me down.
In addition to the gorgeous, touchable photography and Woody’s arc of going through the motions when he’s accomplished his life’s mission by doesn’t know what else to do, there’s a definite offbeat surreality to TS4 that I really appreciated, and hoped for as soon as I heard they were making Josh Cooley the director, which pleasantly shocked me.If you haven’t ever seen Cooley’s old blog, you’re missing out. The highlights being “The his series of Little , and his.
When I heard that they were making a fourth Toy Story movie, I thought it was a terrible idea. Three ended on a pretty definitive note, and I just didn’t see where they would take the series. Once you’re staring down death and coming to terms with your own obsolescence, is there really anywhere else you can go?But I think Toy Story 4 smartly found a way to continue the story of Woody and friends. It’s definitely slighter than the other films, but I actually think that works to the movie’s benefit. You can’t just keep on making films about death, so here it’s about what happens when you lose your purpose? What happens when the life and duties you’ve established to give yourself meaning disappear? I prefer to think of Toy Story 4 as a coda or epilogue to the first three films. The events are smaller and more contained, and we’re focuses mostly on Woody. But Woody is a surprisingly complicated character. It was mentioned in this series that he starts off being such an asshole, and we see him grow and change over the course of four films. He never goes back to being the same person in the first film, but he’s still recognizably himself. And what a journey this character goes through. I said this at the start of this series, but I genuinely think of the Toy Story films as a piece with the Up series, the Before movies, and The Adventures of Antoine Doinel where we see a character transformed by life and time. (And Toy Story 4 is a lot better than Love on the Run).It’s incredible that an animated family film can explore these topics. And the central metaphor of the Toy Story films is just so incredibly malleable. Toy Story 4 is most clearly a metaphor for parents becoming empty nesters, but that’s not the only meaning you can read into the film. I’ve seen a couple of other readings in these comments. I think we’re prone to like stories that come in threes. It’s the number of fairy tales and trilogies. But life isn’t tidy like that. And the Toy Story movies are ultimately about existential questions that we face over the course of our lives. Like a lot of people, I avoided Toy Story 4 in theaters because I didn’t see a reason for it to exist. So when I got Disney+ I rewatched the first three movies before watching the fourth, and going through the series like that absolutely enhances them. I still think the Toy Story series as a whole is Pixar’s great masterpiece. If I had to choose, I would say, stop now. But if they truly wanted to continue, I’ll try not to underestimate them again.
Does the fact that, in the Toy Story world, putting eyes on something gives them life, explain the Cars universe in any way?
Bonnie grew up to become the automotive engineer who created the cars that took over the world in the ‘Cars’ series.
TS4 felt like a minor MCU film to me. Much like (oh say for example) Iron Man 3, it’s a perfectly good movie, just one that feels ultimately inconsequential/unnecessary and I feel like I’d be just fine with it not existing.
This is a great, accurate articulation of why I felt a little at arm’s distance with this movie. It certainly has its pleasures — Keanu hamming it up, the reunion of Key and Peele — but I couldn’t quite place my finger on why it never moved me like the previous three despite definitely working hard to do so. But youre right, it always feels like nothing more than a coda for Woody after the perfect resolution of TS3; even Buzz is a complete afterthought here. And the movie is basically comprised of vignettes to get Woody to his singular ending; while not to the disastrous degree of Secret Life of Pets 2’s “three TV episodes stitched together as a movie” architecture, the movie just never has that classic Toy Story narrative focus. But still, even a Toy Story that can’t hit the heights of the past is welcome, but like Andy and Woody learned, it’s time to move on.
I just don’t get the Toy Story universe. They just keep getting more and more active as the movies pass, and by Toy Story 4, they’re basically immortal, indefatigable animals who can thrive in the wild and run for miles without ever needing to eat or sleep. They’re always moving whenever people aren’t looking directly at them, even moving their eyes around when people are hugging them and such.Ideally, I’d think that toys were brought to life by the magic of love. A kid can make a spork into a toy, and it comes to life, but once that love goes away comes death. So they’re afraid of going to a collector or museum or something not because they’d be essentially buried alive in a glass coffin for however many decades, but because as that love goes away, they’re going to turn back into plastic and cloth. Otherwise, it just seems impossible that we wouldn’t have armies made of many of the billions and billions of discarded toys rising up from garbage dumps to take us over. They can move right in front of our eyes, and they can’t really be killed; dismember them and the parts still live. It’s just completely insane.
Is this the first film to do a joke with the Pixar logo? Because it’s a good joke and worth waiting through the end for.
It’s truly one of my favorite moments in the film.
The Toy Story series has always raised deeply existential questions, but this one brings it to a level that almost takes one out of the universe altogether. Beyond the obvious unheimlich/abject body horror stuff of Forky, there’s the whole problem of Bo Peep, a porcelain figure who somehow found a way to shed the dress that was part of her body, and whose rigid figure now moves with the human-jointed agility of an Olympic athlete. And how can the male voicebox of Woody be transplanted into Gabby Gabby, restoring her voice? I’m all for ontological exploration, but it’s kinda too much. Also, screw Woody’s decision at the end. Doesn’t it kind of sully the perfect ending of Toy Story 3 knowing that Andy is going to return from college only to find that Bonnie no longer has Woody? BLAH!
Gabby gabby and woody use the same record player for their voice. Gabby gabby tells him her record is fine, it’s just the player that’s broken
I might be remembering this detail wrong, but I think both of their pull-string voice boxes were miniature phonographs that could operate with interchangeable discs. Gabby Gabby’s defect was in the phonograph player. All she needed was to place her disc into a working player.Back in the 80s, there was a line of plush college mascots that would play their fight song via similar battery-powered players. A friend of mine somehow managed to get a Penn State Nittany lion that played the Purdue fight song, due to having the wrong disc included.
Why does Gabby need a phonograph to have a voice? She can talk.
It’s a great insight that Toy Story 4 feels more like those post Toy Story 3 shorts and specials (no mention of the Toy Story that Time Forgot? Love that one). I had already been able to really reconcile my problems with the film (mostly the diminished status of the original cast and Buzz’s antics) by deciding this movie was really a spin-off solo movie for Woody. I adore Bo Peep’s return, so I’m glad we got this.
I always assumed that those specials were discarded ideas for Toy Story 4, especially because some of the characters in the shorts and specials show up in the background of this movie inexplicably.
I’m not sure, Toy Story of Terror and That Time Forgot seem very geared to their holiday themes. (I don’t think the shorts were ever ideas for full films). I would be really surprised if they were ever intended for anything else.I would say the background appearances is just fan service and easter eggs for fans of the specials. I liked seeing Combat Carl again in TS4 as a cameo- it filled out this world.
Like most, I also agree that this is a slighter film than the previous 3. But in all honesty, it doesn’t make it any lesser of a movie. Agreed, its a bit of a bummer that the supporting cast is sidelined, but when it comes to storyline, the Toy Story franchise has always been Woody’s story. The original Toy Story was the closest the series got to being a dual lead movie. This in a way is the most personal of the Toy Story movies as it really is completely about Woody. It doesn’t reach the dramatic heights of Toy Story 3 but it is still well deserving of being part of this series and is a better sequel than say Finding Dory or Incredibles 2, both of which I enjoyed.
I actually liked the beginning of Toy Story 4, with Woody stowing away in the backpack and throwing the supplies for Forky at Bonnie. And while it wasn’t as strong as the early scenes, the stuff where Woody and the gang try to handle Forky was amusing. Then the movie gets derailed in the second half to focus on Bo Peep while Forky becomes an afterthought and the other toys are shoved to the background. My tolerance was already starting to wane, but as soon as Woody and Forky fell off the RV and got into the antique store, I was pretty much done with the movie. Much like Toy Story 2, one of my biggest problems is that Woody and Buzz were separated for most of the movie. Those two work so, so well together and having them apart for more than a scene or two just does not work.
At least with Toy Story 2, Buzz was actively searching for Woody with the rest of the gang. This time? Buzz is just an afterthought, just like much of the cast is. I just couldnt enjoy it because of it. I love Woody, but the movies worked best when everyone was involved
I don’t have much to add except that the animation is incredible all the way through (as usual) but particularly stunning in the opening sequence (particularly the rain) and in the antique shop, where there are shots that look like just a hi-def camera in a real store.
Also the ventriloquist dummies were unbelievably creepy, which is also a testament to the animation, in its own way.
I went to see it in the theater and left around half way through because I was just bored. I ended up watching the rest of it when it got to Disney+ and it’s… fine. Woody is a terrible. If Woody wasn’t so annoying, maybe I’d have an overall positive impression of the movie, as it is, like… 2 out of 4 stars.
This movie has one of my favorite post-credits tags (and yes, I mean post-credits, not mid-credits). It’s so small but so delightful.
Time for a Toy Story TV show spin-off that will see Woody and Bo travelling around America, solving toy crime in a different small town each week.“This troll hair was pulled out with incredible force. To do that, you’d need a Kung-Fu grip.”“But that means…”“GI Joe might not be the Real American Hero everyone thinks he is.”
This may be shallow, but I genuinely went in to this film hoping that Tony-Hale-as-Forky having an existential crisis would, just once, shout “I’M A MONSTER!”.
I saw this film when it came out and by the next week I forgot like 90 % of what happened.
I actively fell asleep in the theater. I had never fallen asleep in a theater before. Act 2 was extremely dull and boring to me. I watched it a second time and it was a bit better, but I felt like the movie didnt need to exist and for me, ruined the franchise a bit after how it ended after the third one
I grew up with these Toy Story movies, and I love all of them, but while TS4 is not perfect—there are a handful of missed opportunities to iron out character arcs in meaningful ways—it’s far more thematically satisfying than TS3, and its ending is far more moving. We don’t really know Andy. And we only kind of care about him because of how the other toys see him. Seeing Woody actually say goodbye to characters we’ve spent decades with is so much more powerful. It’s also the kind of ending you never see in movies. It’s like a softened riff on Richard Dreyfus’s arc in Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Anyway, Toy Story 4 rules, and trumps the semi-overrated Toy Story 3–which, again, I love, and that I have cried during every time I’ve seen it.