Toy Story 4 Review

When it came to the idea of a "Toy Story 4," I think I was one of the more cynical people around. I did not want it. Pixar had completed what I thought was the perfect trilogy, culminating in "Toy Story 3" rather easily being my favorite Pixar movie, with "Toy Story" right behind it in second place. I technically thought that "Toy Story 2" was the worst of the trilogy, but putting that label on it sounds about as unfair as picking a worst "Lord of the Rings" movie because "Toy Story 2" is still a really good movie, even though it winds up in more of the middle range of my Pixar rankings. I liked calling it the third best of the trilogy. So bringing this franchise back for a fourth movie after they had already perfectly finished it seemed motivated by money alone, given that "Toy Story 3" made $415 million domestically and $1.067 billion worldwide, both of which were highs for Pixar before the likes of "Finding Dory" and "Incredibles 2" came around. Given that I don't think Pixar is at their best when they revisit franchises, I thought this movie was destined to simply exist as a subpar Pixar film made solely for a quick cash grab. With how much I love the previous three films, I was not ready for the franchise to be tainted like this. Why can't Hollywood just leave things alone?

However, I was willing to let the marketing campaign for this movie to win me over. I took them a while, but they finally released a teaser trailer... with them all spinning in a circle. Clearly they were banking on name brand alone to sell this. When they finally released the official trailer, we had a movie about Bonnie making a new toy out of a spork she named called Forky, said Forky getting lost, then Woody and the gang tracking him down in a carnival setting? In other words, it looked like it was cut and pasted from "Toy Story 2," but with them chasing down Forky instead of Woody. I was not convinced. Yeah, Bo Peep was back, but what was her role? And we have a whole bunch of new toys we meet at the carnival played for humor, but it didn't seem like there was any substance here. I wanted to be won over, but every ensuing trailer or TV spot just made me more cynical about this whole thing. The best thing someone told me was that whatever happens with this new movie, the Andy trilogy will always stand as one of the best trilogies, even if the Bonnie movies are only average. I decided I would accept that. This new movie can still exist. Even if we get more of them, I decided to not let it tarnish my beloved Andy trilogy. So come what may, I suppose.

Yet after all of this, you can imagine my surprise when the reviews came in just as positive as the first three movies, at least in terms of the Rotten Tomatoes score. As of Sunday evening with 299 reviews counted, it stands at a 98 percent, with a 95 percent audience score. Even some of the trusted YouTube critics I follow, who also admitted to be highly skeptical, revealed that they were won over. I honestly didn't know what to think of this. I was never excited for this and the marketing gave me no reason to be. Part of me wanted to still be cynical about this, but that was probably just me being stubborn. I tried to figure out how to be excited, but that sensation of excitement never came. Even when I was walking into the theater with my ticket purchased, the feeling of joyful anticipation for a new movie one has been looking forward to never came over me. This was just another movie I was seeing. More than anything, I was curious as to what was going to happen to me when the movie started playing. And, well, I'm here now to report that it took me no time at all for the Pixar magic to completely change my grumpy, cynical heart. The opening scene of this movie is gut-wrenching. From that moment on, Pixar grabs you by the heartstrings and never lets go.

In looking back at this whole experience, I've decided that the marketing of this movie wasn't very good. Granted, it scored huge at the box office this weekend with $120.9 million domestically, which is the highest in the Toy Story franchise and fourth highest animated opening of all-time. Sure, it didn't hit the heights of "Incredibles 2" ($182 million) or "Finding Dory" ($135 million). But its opening is still nothing to scoff at. Plus it has no real direct competition until "The Lion King," which opens July 19, meaning it should hold great. This all means that they did something right with their marketing. But in terms of them portraying what this movie is about, they completely hid the core of their film. The movie I thought I was going to get was nothing like the one I was treated to. On one hand, you can praise Pixar's marketing team for not giving anything away. But on the other hand, I would've liked for them to give me something that suggests what this movie is. Had I been given an idea about this movie's actual plot, I could've spent more of movie time being excited for this instead putting out so much negative energy. Because of this, I've made the decision to spend my review telling you what this movie is actually about.

With that comes a bit of a warning. Although this will not be a spoiler review as I will not dive into the resolutions or super deep into the plot, a warning here has to be made. If you were already on board with this movie and you would rather not be informed about the details that I think Pixar foolishly hid, then feel free to exit this review, watch the movie, then come back to see what I have said about this. If you need a bit more convincing or you're not overly concerned about me diving into the plot, then let's continue. At this movie's emotional core, this is a again a story about Woody. Over the course of the last three movies, Woody has come a long way. At first he was Andy's favorite toy and rather proud of it. He become rather bitter and angry when Buzz came in and seemingly took his place. But after 17 years with Andy that included lots of drama and character growth, Woody is willing to do whatever it takes to make Bonnie happy. Yet he's finding it to be a harder transition than he was expecting. Bonnie prefers other toys. During Bonnie's first day of kindergarten orientation, she creates Forky, yet when Forky comes alive in Bonnie's room, he wants to escape. Woody puts it upon himself to make sure Forky stays with Bonnie because that's his one thing he has left.

You pitch that idea and that adds a lot more depth. This is not just a movie about the toys finding Forky. It's about Woody losing his sense of purpose and grasping at anything he can to feel useful. Forky is just a tool to help progress this plot. He's not the central focus. Although he is actually a hilariously adorable character. He's constantly running towards the trash because that's where he thinks he belongs and I found that amusing. In one instance while Bonnie and her parents are out traveling with all the toys, Forky successfully escapes and so Woody leaves everyone to go find him. And that's where he runs into Bo Peep, who is as equally important in this movie as Woody. In fact, this is a movie about Woody and Bo Peep. We learn that Bo Peep has become a lost toy without an owner and she's perfectly fine with that. She's discovered her sense of purpose beyond a child's room and has a new gang of toys she's with. Woody is so enamored with the fact that he's finally found her and Bo is so happy to see Woody that she agrees to help him with his silly quest, but yet Woody just can't fathom who she has become. There seems to be an irreconcilable difference between the two of them is bound to keep them apart simply because a difference in philosophy.

This dynamic between these two characters is something that I found fascinating. I don't see any problem with focusing on that during their marketing. If we knew that this is a movie about Woody and Bo Peep, not a movie about Forky, I would've certainly been a lot more excited about this and I'm sure plenty of other people would be, too. Because, yeah, as strange as it sounds typing this up, "Toy Story 4" is practically a romantic drama between two toys, done in perfectly acceptable G-rated fashion that will not be one bit awkward for younger kids. The only thing you have to worry about with young kids is the movie's villains, that being the Gabby Gabby doll and her army of Slappy dolls that look like they got taken straight from "Goosebumps." These are the characters they run into in the antique store and they're legitimately terrifying. In fact, it's to the point where I question this movie's G rating. This should've been PG, and a fairly heavy PG at that. Although as I think about it, "Toy Story 3" was also pretty intense at moments with Lotso and that creepy baby doll. If your kids got through that just fine, they'll handle "Toy Story 4." If that was too much for them, then you might have to be careful with this one, too. You may have to make this a parents night out.

Back to Woody and Bo Peep, though, I thought their relationship was charming and believable. I mean, we had it set up in a comedic way in the first couple of movies, but when everyone threw a fit that Bo Peep wasn't in the third movie, perhaps Pixar took note of that and made sure to feature her front and center in this fourth movie. That was a brilliant plan. But this time, their relationship isn't just a comedic, silly means. It's real. And it sounds strange to say that toys can fall in love, but they experienced just about every other emotion in the first three movies, so why not? And when you can create a romance drama out of a Toy Story movie and not make it seem weird, but rather have it feel natural, I think that's genius. But more than being just an emotional movie about these two toys' relationship, this does what a good Toy Story movie is supposed to do. It uses toys to teach us a good life's lesson. And this is where I'm actually going to be careful because I don't want to actually give the resolution away, but this movie cuts deep. Granted, it doesn't cut quite as deep as "Toy Story 3" (in fairness, few movies do), but I still left this movie with teary eyes. I'm not one to actually have tears flowing down my face, but this movie got to me.

When I was driving home from this movie, the thought crossed my mind that perhaps this is a movie worthy of a perfect score. Spoiler alert, I'm not going to give it one. But the fact that the thought crossed my mind says a lot. I think the biggest reason why I'm not going to is because the movie is very tangential. We have our main plot that I've dove into, but we also have a whole bunch of subplots. Granted, I actually enjoyed a lot of these subplots. But having all of them means that there was a whole lot to balance and the final result isn't the most focused film in the franchise. A lot of our original characters from the first three movies, outside Woody, Buzz, Bo Peep and Jessie, get sidelined for the most part. They have their cameo moments, but I think the previous films do a better job of giving them equal weight. However, they are sidelined in favor of a whole host of new toys. Key and Peele voice a stuffed duck and a rabbit from a carnival. Keanu Reeves voices toy stuntman Duke Caboom. Ally Maki voices a mini Bo Peep sidekick named Giggle McDimples. Those are our main crop of new toys and they're all hilarious. And of course we have Tony Hale as Forky and Christina Hendricks as Gabby Gabby, which I've previously mentioned. All of these characters were great.

In short, I went into this movie very skeptic. "Toy Story 3" wrapped up the trilogy so perfectly that I didn't like the idea of "Toy Story 4." I was willing to let the advertising convince me to become excited, but it never did. Yet in perhaps the most pleasant surprise of the year, "Toy Story 4" ended up becoming the conclusion to this franchise that I didn't know I needed. No, this isn't a situation like the Bourne trilogy where the first three movies are their own trilogy while the fourth and fifth movies branch off and do their own thing. "Toy Story 4" is directly connected to the first three films and thus this is no longer a trilogy, but a quadrilogy wherein all four films are pretty close together in overall quality. How does "Toy Story 4" fit into my Pixar rankings? Oh man, I have no idea. These days I need like six months to figure these things out. There's just become so many great Pixar films that becoming a top 10 Pixar film is an honor and cracking top five might be impossible. I will say that "Toy Story 3" and "Toy Story" are my top two Pixar films and "Toy Story 4" won't break that up, but when I split Pixar into four tiers, "Toy Story 4" will definitely be somewhere in the top tier. And if they decide to do a "Toy Story 5," I've learned my lesson. Bring it on! My grade for "Toy Story 4" is a 9/10.