Toy Story 4

2019 fourth movie in the trilogy

Rating: 16/20 (Jen: 18/20; Dylan: 17/20; Abbey: 19/20; Buster: 20/20)

Plot: Bonnie, nervous about starting kindergarten, makes a new toy friend out of a plastic spork to help her deal with the change. When the family goes on a vacation

Things I've learned about the Toy Story franchise in the last week: Andy doesn't have a dad because of budget issues. Pixar couldn't afford to create a father for Andy. Something similar happened with Toy Story 2 actually. I always figured the inclusion of that weird old man who plays chess against himself in the Pixar short into the Toy Story world was a choice, an Easter egg like putting that Pizza Planet truck in every movie. Apparently, it was also because they couldn't afford to make a new character and decided just to reuse that guy.

Something else I realized after watching this and thinking about all four movies: These series of films has a lot in common with Bergman's "silence of God" trilogy. Maybe it's just because those are fresh on my mind, but if you take the idea of Woody's kids being god figures, it's hard not to see the connection.

I've gone three of these movies thinking they're about the relationship between children and their toys or maybe the relationships within this gang of toys. When this fourth installment was announced, I wasn't sure it was a story that needed continuing. That third movie ended things tidily enough.

But this isn't Toys Story, is it? It's Toy Story--as in the story or journey of a single toy. And that toy is Woody. This isn't a story about the relationship between toys and kids or the collective journey of a clan of kids. These are stories about Woody's growth and development as this sentient toy, a journey filled with existential crises, doubts about his gods or his role as a toy, and his discovery of his identity. Yes, the movies all have arcs for other characters. Buzz gets his in the first movie. Jessie gets hers in the second. But these are Woody's movies.

In the first movie, Woody understands his role but not in mature ways. His spirituality is a selfish one, childish with room for jealousy as soon as there's a situation that threatens his place in his universe. He learns about friendship most obviously, the power of congregation. In the second movie, his own egotism is his antagonist to the point where he doubts his God. He's agnostic Woody, ready to leave Andy's room behind and live in a Godless world. In the third movie, he faces false gods, temptations, and eventually death before converting at the end in a kind of spiritual rebirth.

I have no idea what I'm talking about in the above paragraph, but I wish I did. I feel like I could win a Pulitzer or something.

So what's going on with Woody here? He's the guy at the end of the third movie, focused on keeping his kid happy no matter what his role might be in the room. And it's good for our cowboy hero that that's the case because Bonnie barely pays any attention to him at all. Bonnie is a Bergmanian God, so what's Woody going to do when his God has abandoned him? What's that snake in his boot going to tell him to do?

I don't want to get into this anymore because I don't know what I'm talking about. There goes my Pulitzer! Also--spoilers. Maybe we can talk about it in the comments?

The first Toy Story looks so cheap in comparison, and if you watch it 150 times, you'll notice the continuity errors. There's beauty in individual shots, but seeing some of the shots in this make that movie look like crap. Or like a Dreamworks joint. The amount of details in the antique shop where a lot of the action takes place is staggering. Amusement park lights are nearly as beautiful as the myriad of colors displayed in Coco. A cold open that details a rescue mission and the loss of a character showcases a neighborhood and rainy streets that just don't look like they're animated.

The voice work, as expected, is great. The old favorites are all here, even Don Rickles who apparently is doing voice work from the afterlife. Rex's dinosaur girlfriend might have the funniest lines, at least near the end. I really loved what they did with Bo Peep, a great female character after having next-to-nothing to do in those first two movies.

A lot of the old characters don't have a whole lot to do, but it doesn't take much time to fall in love with the new characters. Keanu Reeves' Duke Kaboom even gets a fun and slightly touching story arc of his own, and I thought the villain, voiced by Christina Hendricks, is a lot more nuanced than the bear in the third movie. And she's got a trio of ventriloquist dummies as henchman, and if you know anything at all about me, you know I love ventriloquist dummies. Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele always threaten to annoy, but they were my daughter's favorite characters, so I can't complain. And hey, Bonnie's got a dad! And as a dad myself, I found that character a little too easy to identify with. And Tony Hale as Forky? There's enough depth and existential angst in Forky's story to make a fourth Toy Story work, and he's just around to get the plot going.

It's hard to think of what doesn't work in this movie. The humor works. The action sequences work. The characters and their relationships work. The themes work. After Toy Story 3 came out, I was ready to declare the three movies one of the best trilogies ever made. Though I had doubts with this fourth one, it completely delivers. This is the best quadrilogy ever made.