Review: Toy Story 4

The announcement of Toy Story 4 came as a surprise to me; Toy Story 3 gave the perfect conclusion to the franchise so I couldn’t see the reason why Pixar would return to it. But with all three films being incredible in their own way I was willing to see if Pixar could prove me wrong and make Toy Story 4 a worthy entry into the series. And having now seen it I can safely say...

I still don’t see the point of it.

Set a couple years after Andy gave all his toys to Bonnie, the little girl has given the group a new home and a new child to love although in the last few weeks she has been leaving Woody in the cupboard. With Bonnie starting Kindergarten, Woody breaks protocol to accompany her and make sure she isn’t scared and alone, even giving her the components to create a little spork toy she calls Forky. Much to Woody’s surprise though, Forky comes alive and immediately wants to throw himself in the trash since that’s what he’s made of (which is way too real for an animated film) but since Bonnie absolutely loves Forky, Woody repeatedly keeps Forky within reach so that he can fulfil his purpose as a toy, which turns out to be far more trouble than its worth.

During a family road trip, Forky manages to jump out the R.V. window forcing Woody to go after him, promising to find the others later. He succeeds but gets sidetracked when Forky is kidnapped by a sociopathic doll called Gabby Gabby who wants Woody’s voice-box to replace her own, but more importantly he’s reunited with Bo Peep who was donated to Gabby’s antique store nine years earlier and has been living in the wild since escaping. Bo agrees to help Woody with assistance from Buzz, two sewn-together plush toys Ducky and Bunny and Canadian stuntman Duke Caboom to get Forky back to Bonnie, but along the way Bo shows Woody that there’s more to life than helping just one child and asks if it’s worth the effort.

There’s a decent story here, with the rescue of Forky taking up the majority of the plot and the reunion between Woody and Bo giving the film some meat to its bones. Honestly the Forky plot seems to go in circles for a little too long with a stall between Forky capture and Woody finally being able to rescue him; granted that stall allows Bo to re-enter the picture and gives enough time for her and Woody to get reacquainted but it goes on just a bit too long. It’s one of the reasons why I can’t see the point of this film, the story just doesn’t support its own existence, which sounds harsher than I mean it to be, what I mean is that by the time the film reaches its ending – and it’s a good ending if slightly underwhelming following the perfection of the last film – I’m left wondering what does it add to franchise, some arcs are closed off but it still feels like an unnecessary footnote to Toy Story 3.

I’m gonna be saying this a lot so let me clear the air first, this is a good film, it’s funny, emotional and it’s nice to see these character again, but there’s no reason for it and they never give you one.

One of the film’s biggest flaws is in how it treats the supporting cast, the newcomers are good and I’ll get to them in a second but the toys we’ve come to know and love are basically sidelined, Rex, Hamm and Slinky have a few lines here and there, Mr and Mrs Potato Head are barely in the film (granted Mr Potato Head’s voice actor sadly passed away in 2017 so the fact that Pixar were able to use his voice at all is impressive) and while Jessie does her part, she doesn’t really factor in all that much.

Buzz does factor in a little bit more with his initial meeting of Ducky and Bunny (played by Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele respectively who both border on being annoying but bring it back with their great chemistry and their near psychotic nature) adding a decent layer onto the story to fold into the Woody and Bo plot. That being said he’s definitely pushed a little too far to the sidelines, even being dumbed down quite significantly to allow a running joke of his ‘inner voice’ which was funny but four films in felt like an odd addition to the character. With Woody at the forefront it made sense for Buzz to not share the spotlight but I would’ve liked the two friends to have a few more scenes together.

New characters to the series include Forky, played to neurotic perfection by Tony Hale, maybe it was me but I thought that despite the marketing Forky really wasn’t in the film that much, he started off as a pretty major character with his constant attempts to throw himself in the trash driving Woody to madness but once Bo’s introduced Forky becomes little more than a plot device, which is a shame because Hale does such a good job at making Forky annoying yet endearing. Also joining the series is Keanu Reeves as Duke Caboom, Canada’s greatest stuntman and world class poser, with Reeves getting serious in things like the Matrix and John Wick it was nice to see him cut loose and rediscover his comedy chops because Duke nearly stole the whole film. From his tragic backstory which still haunted him to the fact that he never really lands his stunts, Duke is just a ridiculously over-the-top figure and Reeves is fantastic, nailing the overly serious nature of Duke and mixing it with the cheesiness of a Canadian stuntman in a Pixar film.

The most interesting new character was Gabby Gabby, voiced by Christina Hendricks with a delightful, sociopathic glee. I won’t say too much on her so as not to ruin it but as the main villain of the film, Gabby’s reasons work to give her a good excuse for how she is and while she is a little too smiley happy murder, where her story goes will catch you off-guard.

At the heart of this film though is a love story between Woody and Bo, Hanks once again gives Woody that sense of righteousness and leadership that made him so great in the first three films, but with a slight edge of resentment since Bonnie has been neglecting him of late (so much for Andy telling her Woody was the best of them all). None of this takes away from Woody’s trademark can-do attitude but it does paint him in a different light especially once you find out why he’s so focussed on saving Forky. We’ve seen Woody be lost before – the whole of Toy Story 2 covered this – but this is different, before he had Andy, a kid he relied could always rely upon, now he has Bonnie who seems to be moving onto the other toys and for a natural leader like Woody it can be a difficult pill to swallow. The return of Bo into his life allows Woody to experience life as his own person rather than at the whims of a child, to see a different, more freeing side of life that he never considered before.

Having been absent from the last film, Bo Peep – played again by Annie Potts - makes a hell of a return, now living as a drifter who goes from playground to playground, giving a child a small amount of happiness before moving on. It’s a world away from the passive Bo we knew from the first two films but it does make sense, having to live as a toy without an owner for years would force someone to pick up a few bad-ass talents and Bo has several of them, clearly having a grand old time in her new life. Despite that though, as much as Bo is showing Woody a more freeing lifestyle, Woody reminds her of a simpler time where the love of one child was enough, the film makes it very clear that Bo never needs Woody to help her – in fact his presence causes things to go sour a couple of times – but their past relationship and the joy they brought to each other when living at Andy’s reignites a spark in her mind. I really liked what they did with Bo and the reinvention they did for her character, some people might argue for unnecessary Girl Power but those people are idiots.

The film is the feature debut of Josh Cooley, a member of the Pixar team for several years going by his resume and to his credit he does a good job here, first and foremost the animation is outstanding, I revisited the first three film leading up to this and while they still hold up in terms of quality, the level of detail that they’ve been able to put into these films now is outstanding (I think I read that the scene where Woody is covered in dust set a record for most particles on screen in an animated movie). Even just the aesthetics of the scenes is amazing with the carnival being all bright sunshine, neon lights and absolutely stunning while the antique store was dusty, muted browns and greys filled with dark corners and freaky ventriloquist dolls. Granted I would’ve liked to have seen a few more locations but I liked the juxtaposition of the two main settings.

The film wasn’t lacking for humour or action either though definitely on a lesser scale than the other films, there really wasn’t a moment that can stand out as ‘iconic’, not in the way that Falling With Style or When She Loved Me or The Furnace were in the last three films. Don’t get me wrong, there are great moments, most of them involving Duke Caboom and I’ll rank the scene where Buzz steals the antique store keys as one of the best laughs I’ve had in the franchise, but nothing hitting the levels that I’ve come to expect from this series. The closest we get is a gut-punch scene with Gabby that I won’t get into but the emotional weight is there, I’ve seen a lot of people say the ending tore them up but honestly I’m not 100% of it, it’s a good ending and I like the emotions Pixar put into it, but story-wise it feels like an odd place to go.

Toy Story 4 is a hard movie to really pin down because it is a good film, it’s beautifully put together, the voice cast once again does a great job with Hanks, Potts, Hendricks and Reeves bringing life, laughs and pathos to their roles and it has the emotional beats you expect from a Pixar film even if they don’t hit as hard as you expect. But it adds nothing to the franchise, there’s no reason for this film to exist following on from the perfect ending of Toy Story 3, sure you can argue that it closes out certain arcs but to what purpose, what was left hanging at the end of the last film that needed to be closed off here. It’s hard arguing for the necessity of a film when I’ve watched countless horror franchises and to date don’t have a problem with the amount of Freddy or Jason films, but Toy Story is different, Toy Story had a definite endpoint and they’ve kept going. The optimist in me wants to say that they didn’t do it for money, they Pixar genuinely believed there was more story to be told and maybe I’m just biased because I didn’t want there to be anymore, but the cynic in me looks at the lacklustre supporting cast, the dumbing down of Buzz and the complete 180 of Bonnie’s feelings towards Woody and has to wonder if money played a bigger factor than I want to admit.

7.5/10, my bias for the franchise wants me to put it to an 8 because I did like the in parts. But as a whole product it found it lacking.