Rating: G
Runtime: 1 hour, 40 minutes
Director: Josh Cooley
Quick Impressions:
I thought the early teasers for Toy Story 4 looked terrible. I love Tony Hale and all, but remember Toy Story 3, those agonizing moments of solidarity in the incinerator, and the bittersweet, heartwarming, sob-inducing scene featuring Andy playing with his beloved toys one last time as he hands them down to Bonnie? You’re going to follow that with a story about a plastic spork named Forky who doesn’t think of himself as a real toy? Really? The next teaser I saw featuring Key and Peele was a little better. (And I found it clever that the movie posters were so evocative of Disneyland’s newly re-branded Pixar Pier.) But I was still wary.
Fortunately, despite what the somewhat sketchy trailers made me fear, the movie itself is actually fantastic. Is Toy Story 4 as strong a film as Toy Story 3? No. Is it the best family movie I’ve seen so far this summer? Yes, definitely. No contest. Consider tickets bought for this movie money well spent. Your family will enjoy it.
The Good:
The extremely beloved Toy Story franchise has never been my favorite Pixar project, but after twenty-four years, I’ll confess that it’s beginning to wear me down. When I heard one Toy Story theme play repeatedly during the film, I longed immediately to go to Disneyland. That particular piece of music plays so often in Disney’s California Adventure (especially in the area right by that fake gas station/real bathroom across from Soarin’ and Smoke Jumpers Grill). And I do deeply, deeply love Disneyland. I’m trying to learn to love Disney World, too. Hearing that familiar music, I kept thinking, “I can’t wait until we go back to Toy Story Land. Why is it still so difficult to get Fastpasses for Slinky Dog Dash?”
Toy Story 3 is a bit intense and dramatic for my tastes. (I prefer the quick, bright comedy of the oft insulted Toy Story 2, my favorite of the series simply because it’s so funny. My favorite part is the post credits bit with Mrs. Potato Head helping her husband pack. “Monkey chow? For what?” “Well, for the monkeys, of course!!!!”) I will acknowledge, though, that Toy Story 3 is a near masterpiece, an extremely well done, emotionally resonant film, a perfect ending to the story. So why make a Toy Story 4 at all? That’s what I kept thinking when I saw those early teasers.
But I quickly forgave this new installment of Toy Story for ruining the perfect ending of a franchise to tell us the misadventures of a talking spork when I realized that the film was actually going to focus on Annie Potts’s Bo Peep.
How perfect! How lucky that Annie Potts wasn’t around for Toy Story 3. At the time, I thought I heard that she was unavailable, but now I can only find the suggestion that Bo Peep was cut from the story because she (as a porcelain lamp decoration) wouldn’t survive the incinerator. So I’m not sure what happened there.
But the absence of a key character (who was always Woody’s love interest) from Toy Story 3 definitely did leave the door open for another feature length adventure to come together organically. Why Forky is a toy is an existential crisis he’ll have to work out for himself, but what exactly happened to Bo Peep is a question I’ve actually wanted answered since Toy Story 3.
This new movie basically exists to answer that question. It answers another question, too. What happens to all of us after the perfect ending? Toy Story 3 may have been the perfect ending to the series, but life doesn’t usually stop just when we’ve reached the perfect ending. Toy Story 3 gave fans the emotionally resonant finale they’d been hoping for. But the characters in the story were just beginning a new life, one full of uncertainties.
I love that we are now given a protagonist who is on the other side of the story’s perfect ending wondering what to do with himself now. And I love the way that Forky’s existential crisis is really just a metaphor for (or at least a distraction from) Woody’s own existential crisis.
Toy Story 4 is quite well written, especially for a movie that was rewritten and reworked so many times during production. The results are surprisingly coherent and well crafted. I don’t know if how well everything came together is a happy accident or the result of all of that intense reworking. At any rate, the movie is good. It actually has something meaningful to say, plus humor, soaring visuals, genuine heart, and some deliciously creepy sequences of hair-raising suspense.
Annie Potts gets such a large, prominent role in the story. I found that delightful. Bo Peep didn’t get to share that perfect ending in Toy Story 3. She deserves an enlarged role in this installment. We have a lot of unanswered questions, plus the character has changed a lot since her days as Molly’s lamp. (A lot. She’s strong, brash, independent, bold. She’s practically a different person. But that’s okay. It’s been a really long time since Toy Story 2, and if I’m being honest, Bo Peep’s absence in Toy Story 3 made far more of an impression on me than any of her meek contributions when she was around. I’m not knocking the performance in any way. But Bo Peep was mostly there to support Woody.) Personally, I was glad to see Bo Peep featured so prominently in the story. I wouldn’t have liked to see such a spotlight on a brand new character, but I feel she deserves a chance to shine.
Other excellent additions to the cast are Keegan-Michael Key as Ducky and Jordan Peele as Bunny. As you might expect, these two are often hilarious and supplied almost all of my (almost) four-year-old son’s favorite scenes in the film.
Keanu Reeves is also delightful playing the poseable figure of Canada’s greatest stuntman, Duke Caboom.
Another great new character (possibly my favorite) is Christina Hendricks as the sometimes sinister Gabby Gabby.
Make sure to keep your eyes and ears open at all times. Toy Story 4 is absolutely overflowing with Easter Eggs and celebrity cameos. Not until after the movie did we learn about all of them, but really keep your eyes peeled during the scenes in that antiques store. And keep your ears open throughout the film for cameos by Carol Burnett, Betty White, Carl Reiner, Alan Oppenheimer (aka Skeletor), Mel Brooks, Bill Hader, and more. June Squibb and Carl Weathers also appear in small roles. And I have to admit that Tony Hale managed to make even the garish, horrifying Forky pretty darn charming.
Best Scene:
Probably the two strongest scenes in the film involve new character Gabby Gabby, perfectly voiced by Christina Hendricks. The scene introducing her is perfection. We get a little taste of it in the one trailer that finally made me say to myself, “Wait a minute. Maybe this will be good.”
For me, it’s hard to imagine a more perfect scene than Woody’s initial visit to the antique store. It’s wonderfully creepy and atmospheric. The store itself could not be more visually rich. It is replete with Easter Eggs. You will never find them all on your first viewing. When Woody came across Gabby Gabby for the first time, the movie finally got my attention.
The final scene with Gabby Gabby is amazing, too. (And there’s an earlier moment with her that sets up this signature Pixar moment and deserves at least an honorable mention.)
Best Action Sequence:
Buzz Lightyear has some extremely funny (and action-packed) moments that I won’t spoil, but as Ducky and Bunny, Key and Peele really steal the show. At first, they’re only mildly amusing, and I was fooled into thinking their part wouldn’t allow them to be genuinely hilarious. But I was wrong.
Their plans for how to deal with the lady who runs the antique store (June Squibb!) are easily the funniest part of the entire film. My younger son died laughing. He turned four today, and he sometimes has trouble remaining focused at the movie theater, but this scene had his full attention. He laughed out loud in delight, and so did I. Of course, I’ll admit the soaring feeling of elation I experienced during this scene may have been partially the result of relief that he was engaged with the movie and behaving himself for once. He loved this part so much, though, and kept referencing it in gleeful whispers throughout the rest of the film. After the final scene, he exclaimed in delight, “Good ending! Good ending! But now there’s one more thing! Winner, winner, chicken dinner!”
Best Scene Visually:
As you would expect, visually this movie is a stunning masterpiece that looks like it was made at great expense by some of the best animators in the world. (How to Train Your Dragon 3 is even more gorgeous, though, if it’s a contest.)
Early on, there’s an extremely amusing scene of Forky spending an entire night trying to throw himself away. The scene works without any dialogue at all. It is laugh inducing for sure. And even funnier is the idea that such an expensive, carefully crafted animated feature derives some of its most effective moments of humor from a spork with crudely drawn features trying to throw itself into the garbage.
Duke Caboom’s big jump also looks really great. And who doesn’t love Keanu Reeves? (If you’ve been online lately, you know the answer is no one.) The police chase is also quite a giggle-triggering spectacle.
The Negatives:
Woody, Bo Peep, and the newcomers get amazing material in this movie, but the rest of the familiar characters are criminally underutilized, most glaringly Buzz and Jessie.
Now don’t get me wrong. Buzz gets plenty of stuff to do. His adventures definitely amuse the audience, loop in new characters, and help to resolve Woody’s situation. But there is no doubt that this is Woody’s movie, Woody’s story. Buzz is only involved in the main plot at all because of his devotion to Woody. I keep seeing Tom Hanks and Tim Allen all over everywhere promoting this movie together, but I personally feel that Buzz has an almost ridiculously reduced role in the actual film. He is funny, though. His part, though a bit silly, really is often genuinely laugh-out-loud funny. But I think he deserves a bigger share of the spotlight.
And Jessie has almost nothing to do. Granted, she’s still feisty and resourceful and charming, and the one thing she does do really helps a lot. But little girls who love Jessie (and adults who love Joan Cusack) are probably going to be disappointed by how infrequently she appears.
Actually, all of Andy’s original toys take a backseat in this film. (Literally. They are stuck in the back of an RV for almost the entire movie.) As I’ve mentioned, I’m a huge fan of the Potato Heads. As the movie went on and on, I kept asking myself, “Where are Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head? They need more to do!” But then about halfway through, I remembered, “Wait a minute! Didn’t Don Rickles die?” He did. For someone dead, he gets a lot of material, and I’m glad Disney was able to include his voice work in the film, so I officially rescind those complaints. But all of Andy’s toys whose voice actors are still living (including Slinky Dog who’s had a new voice for a decade) definitely need more to do. Bonnie’s original toys seem to have a lot more to say and do than Andy’s. All the performers are great and do wonderful work, of course, and I wouldn’t want lines taken away from Kristen Schaal, Bonnie Hunt, or Jeff Garlin, but I wish better parts had been written for Andy’s toys. I guess part of the problem is an animated feature for children does not have the runtime to give out a plum role to everybody when it’s burgeoning with zillions of characters like this.
I’m not sure how well the character of Forky actually works either. (I personally think they missed an opportunity to have Keanu Reeves say, “There is no Spork.” But we do get a cute meta joke with Reeves during the credits). I like Tony Hale’s performance, particularly the merry-go-round line because his delivery is so Buster Bluth there, but the whole thing…I don’t know. He’s more of a plot device than a fully realized character. He’s almost a Mcguffin. But then the story seems so self-aware about his irrelevance. He’s like a throwaway character who is literally garbage. Just when Woody convinces him not to throw himself away, the movie all but tosses him out. It’s so meta. I can’t decide how I feel about that. Is this what it’s come to for ol’ Sheriff Woody? He used to be the center of Andy’s world, and now he’s risking his life to babysit a spork. I feel like this is what happens to all of us at some point.
Bo Peep has changed a lot, too. I don’t particularly mind because her character is honestly more interesting this way. But some people might mind. (I don’t really know who these “people” might be. Can you imagine an adult man saying, “Okay son, I’ll take you to see Toy Story 4,” then shaking his fist and adding, “But so help me, if Bo Peep has changed…”) (Actually, I can imagine Homer Simpson doing that.) Seriously, though, if Annie Potts didn’t return to voice her, there would be almost no continuity at all for the character, but I’m not convinced that matters. The new Bo Peep is hard-edged, sure, but that’s what happens when porcelain hits the streets. She’s actually much more interesting than before. Little girls should love her.
Overall:
Toy Story 4 is the hands down the best “summer blockbuster” I’ve seen so far this (frankly lackluster) summer. It is also the best family comedy I’ve seen this year, though How to Train Your Dragon 3 is still the standout visually. All told, Toy Story 3 is superior to this sequel; however, if every movie were as good as Toy Story 4, people would take their family to the movies a lot more and complain about the experience a lot less.