Toy Story 4 Micro Review

Spoiler warning! Review after the image...

In a nutshell, Toy Story 4 was pretty great! I admittedly haven't seen the the other Toy Story movies in a while, but I would say this is probably my second favorite in the series behind 3.

Toy Story 4 is probably the funniest movie of the series. Perhaps it was the company I went with or the energy of the theatre, but I found myself - someone who mostly just grunts in amusement - genuinely getting a good laugh pretty often. Most of the jokes were well timed and it rarely felt like they were forced or overbearing in context to the plot. Although maybe one or two of the jokes were predictable and caused some "dad joke" level groans, many of the jokes came out of left field and were a delight, like Combat Carl looking dejected after missing out on a high five or one character's obsession to send Bonnie's father to prison.

In most Disney / Pixar movies, I look forward to pondering the deeper themes that younger audiences might miss. In Toy Story 4 in particular, I was curious about Forky. I wondered how Disney would handle this character, who seemingly had issues with identity, purpose, and self worth. To be honest, I was concerned about Forky's apparent self destructive behavior, wondering how a younger audience would receive a "living?" being calling themselves trash and trying to throw themselves away. My fears were somewhat alleviated by the light hearted montage of Woody constantly pulling Forky out of the trash, and it helped that he associated trash to being homey, describing it as warm and cozy, but it still left me uneasy for a time.

Forky eventually understood that his purpose was to be there for Bonnie, and I guess for a toy that makes sense to protect their "kid", but if this was meant to be a message to the audience about self worth, i'm not sure I agree with the message. It seems to say that one's worth is based on another person's view or need of you.

On the other hand, maybe this was Woody's ill conceived philosophy that he passed on to Forky, and it wasn't meant to be conveyed to the audience as the main point. I think the bigger picture is that Woody eventually admitted that he felt useless, like he was still on a mission for his old kid Andy. He felt replaced as Bonnie started to bond with other toys, so instead of holding onto a "Mission" he had to learn to move on. Maybe the lesson here was to learn when things change and be able to adapt and see new good you can be doing.

I think other Pixar movies had a clearer message than Toy Story 4 - Ralph Breaks the Internet had a great message on insecurity and developing relationships that I really connected with and appreciated. The relational tension between Ralph and Vanelope was palpable and totally relatable. Toy Story 4 on the other hand didn't really deliver this same satisfaction for me. The ending scenes had a lot of chaos and loose ends to tie up, which was done well for the most part, but at the cost of losing a sense of clarity and closure. I couldn't tell you what I felt or learned at the end of the movie because there was just too much going on.

For me, the character development in this movie was a mixed bag. Woody was my favorite, loyal to the core and yet you felt his struggle and his tired spirit in his dealings throughout the movie. BoPeep was also a great character, developing her own way of life and independence from a seemingly tragic backstory about being sold to an antique store. Some characters were fine, Duke Caboom's arc was so-so, it felt like it was supposed to be heartfelt but actually came off as comedic to me.

Gabby Gabby was a confusing villain - she seemed to have this mob boss mentality, but not quite the backstory to account for it. Maybe it's just my preference for a stronger villain - I much preferred Lotso from Toy Story 3. I did enjoy that she got some redemption after being discarded by the girl in the antique shop, but I felt like her turn to being selfless and working together with the other toys later on was a bit too easy.

Buzz Lighter in this movie was disappointing for me. A repeated trope that was supposed to be funny actually got on my nerves. In the movie, Buzz was genuinely confused about Woody's "inner voice" and didn't say he had one. The rest of the movie he repeatedly presses his own buttons to hear his inner voice, which for the most part just turns out to be dumb luck. I think this had more potential to turn into a theme of learning his own inner voice without the buttons or learning to do the right thing regardless of what his "button voice" said. Even so, this doesn't follow how Buzz acted in the other films. Buzz clearly had a sense of right and wrong or what he should do in previous installments. I feel like this movie completely ignored any development buzz had from before, and I think that's a shame. Even the end scene where Buzz and Woody part ways, it felt abrupt and didn't do justice to the other 3 movies where Buzz and Woody were best friends - it felt like a stand alone film.

So, Overall, 8/10. Entertaining, but I think some better writing could have happened and the ending of the film could have been given better care.