Formula: Toy Story 3 + Road Trip
I'm going to try something that I did for the Aladdin
review...
- Toy Story didn't need a sequel. Toy Story 3 already put a perfect bow on the story.
- I wish Pixar would stop with all the sequels and commit to a new idea.
- I'm getting tired of Pixar shamelessly tugging at my emotions. Feeling something isn't the same as good story telling.
OK. With those obvious critiques out of the way, I
can get to what I'd actually like to talk about with Toy Story 4
(although I'm sure I'll touch on those thoughts again).
You can't blame Pixar for wanting to revisit Toy
Story again and again. It's the idea they built the company from. All three
movies have made huge money while being praised by critics and audiences. The
world of Toy Story is rich with detail and story. The fundamental idea
of what it is to be a toy has many rich existential and thematic directions it
can go in. My stance is, if Pixar wants to make another Toy Story movie,
I'll trust that it's for a good reason. No movie that isn't part of a planned
saga needs a sequel, so it doesn't matter to me how the last movie left
things or if another sequel represents "creative bankruptcy" or
something. A sequel justifies itself by being good.
And Toy Story 4 is good. It picks up not long
after the end of Toy Story 3. The toys are with Bonnie now. Woody (Tom
Hanks) has come to terms with the fact that he's not Bonnie's favorite. In
fact, she often leaves him in the closet entirely. When she comes back from
kindergarten with a new favorite toy - a dressed up spork she calls
"Forky" (Tony Hale) - Woody make it his mission to keep him safe.
There's one problem though: Forky thinks he's trash, not a toy, and keeps
trying to throw himself away. On a road trip, Forky even jumps out the car
window. Woody does too in an attempt to retrieve him. This leads them both to
an antiques shop with an old Gabby Gabby doll (Christina Hendricks) looking to
fix her voice box with one of Woody's parts. And Bo Peep (Annie Potts) is there
too. She's a lost toy now and surprisingly OK with that. As you can imagine,
all this leads to Woody having a spiritual crisis about what it means to be a
toy.
Toy Story has
never been too clever on a story level. They tell simple stories with similar
characters. The beats resemble each other, and that's OK. The fun is in
exploring a new corner of the toy world and touching on new thematic ground.
The antique store location is as rich with detail as anything the series has
done yet. They even manage to sneak in some carnival scenes. It's a great
reminder that there could be an entire Toy Story expanded universe and they'd
still only scratch the surface of all the applications of toys.
All the non-Woody main characters get pretty ignored
this time around. Buzz gets some good moments but isn't the co-lead that the
merchandising suggests. Jessie and all the other toys spend most of the movie
in the RV just worrying about when Woody
and Forky are going to show up. This is Woody's movie, and maybe Bo Peeps, and
that's fine. After Bo Peep disappeared in the third movie, this is a great
return for her.
The existential crises in this movie hit me a lot
harder than I remember from the first three movies. Forky's horror at being
alive is funny but also has moments of body horror. Gabby Gabby is the most
sympathetic villain of the series. She's creepy, but it comes from a good place.
She's never been anyone's toy and thinks the antique store owner's
granddaughter is the one chance she has left. Who hasn't had a crush on someone
and thought that getting them to like you would fix all your problems? That's
not just me, right? Right?! The four movie arc that Woody goes through is
incredibly satisfying, but it comes with a healthy does of "rethinking
your entire purpose in life", which is almost too relatable for me. I
really did love this movie, but it weighed heavy on me afterwards.
Look, we all know what to expect from a Toy Story
movie by now. Toy Story 4 is a worthy contribution to the series. It's
funny. It's smart. It packs a ton into <90 runtime. The famous (or infamous)
ending to the third movie is the ending the toys would write for themselves.
The ending of this movie is more true to the central conceit of the series.
Bittersweet but satisfying.
Verdict: Strongly Recommend
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