'Toy Story 4' Tells a Beautiful, Well-Animated Story That Serves as a Perfect Ending to the Series

Take a look at this picture.

A few days ago, I was looking through some of my old article drafts, and I found this draft: an article I entitled, "Do We Even Need a 'Toy Story 4'?'. I hadn't edited it in over a year, and when I clicked on it, I saw that I didn't really have anything worth writing about.

Well, now that the movie is finally out, I can finally answer the question that my younger self asked.

Here's my review!

Toy Story 4 is an animated comedy adventure film written by Stephany Folsom and Andrew Stanton and directed by Josh Cooley. The film is a sequel to Pixar's Toy Story trilogy, which began in 1995 and has been running strong ever since.

This film follows the toys, now owned by Bonnie, as she creates a new toy named Forky using a plastic spork. Forky doesn't want to be a toy, and when Bonnie is on a road trip, Forky escapes, and Woody must get him back for Bonnie, as he also runs into an old flame: Bo Peep.

Now, before I talk about what I thought of the movie, I think it's important for you to have some context about me: I love Pixar films, and I think the Toy Story films are some of their very best. And I sincerely didn't want to see a Toy Story 4, because I thought Toy Story 3 was the perfect ending.

And I mean, I REALLY didn't want a Toy Story 4. I rage-tweeted about this movie MANY times in the past few years.

Good job, Jonathan. Pixar was definitely about to cancel the sequel because you tweeted at them.

Look at how edgy I was, making predictions about a movie that wouldn't be out for another four years. I was straight-up edgy.

And I'm glad to say that I was completely wrong. I thought Toy Story 4 would ruin the series, but I was wrong. Toy Story 4 is absolutely amazing, and I love it. I think it was a great film that didn't disappoint me at all.

The Story

Let's talk about the story. The trailers had me a bit skeptical about this film's quality, because I couldn't imagine how a movie about a suicidal spork could be any good, but Pixar reached into their bag of tricks and surprised me with a really good story.

I thought it was really interesting how this movie focused a lot on Woody and Bo's relationship after Bo mysteriously vanished in Toy Story 3, and I also really liked seeing how much Woody cared about Forky, and how much he wanted to save him, and it's a really fun, entertaining film.

The New Characters

This film introduces an incredible amount of new characters. We have Forky, who I wasn't sure about when I watched the trailers, but was actually a really great part of the film.

He was consistently making me laugh during his first few minutes on screen, and I love how goodhearted his character ended up being, and how Woody can talk to him and teach him about the world through his own lens.

Next, we have Duke Caboom, Canada's greatest stuntman. He's voiced by Keanu Reeves, and I thought he was a really good addition to the cast, as he had a lot of backstory and personality, and he was very entertaining to watch.

We were also introduced to Ducky and Bunny, who are voiced by comedic legends, Key & Peele. These two may have been my absolute favorite part of the film, as they were absolutely hilarious in every scene they were in.

I thought Key and Peele added a good amount of energy and comedy (as well as a little improv?) to their characters, and they had me laughing consistently throughout the entire film, up to the movie's multiple mid-credits scenes.

The Old Characters

First off, I absolutely loved what the writers did with Bo Peep in this movie. I was worried that she'd just be another damsel in distress plot device and Woody would spend the movie trying to save her, but this movie proved me wrong.

This is my favorite incarnation of Bo Peep. She was a strong, independent female character, and it was really interesting for me to see where her character had gone after she left Andy's custody. She was much more than just a flirty love interest in this movie.

But this leads me into my first issue with the movie, and it's that the other characters are kind of pushed to the side in order to have a bigger focus on Woody and the new characters.

And I understand why this was necessary for the story, but it's just a bit of a disappointment after how cleverly the toys were all used in Toy Story 2 and 3. In this film, the toys spend a majority of the film sitting in one place, not really doing anything to help resolve the central conflict.

We also had Buzz Lightyear in this film, who I thought was used pretty well overall, but I felt like he, too, was pushed to the side in this film a little, and given his friendship with Woody, I kind of wished he had a few more scenes in the movie, especially scenes with Woody.

The Villains

Another minor gripe that I have with this film is that this film is the first in the Toy Story series to not really have a villain. There's no real main antagonist throughout that we're really supposed to hate, and want to see defeated.

Now, I'm not saying this movie NEEDED a villain, because Pixar knows how to make a film without villains (Inside Out, Finding Dory), but after Toy Story 3 had one of Pixar's best villains due to his motivations and despicable acts, it simply felt like a step down for this movie to not have a villain.

Because this film doesn't have any villains, the story doesn't ever end up going in the dark places that Toy Story 3 went to, with the toys all being caged up, and this film ends up feeling less mature than Toy Story 3.

Since Toy Story 3 is my favorite film in the series, I can say that despite how great this movie was, it is not my favorite in the series.

The Animation

And because this is a Pixar film, we have to talk about the animation. The animation in this movie is off-the-charts spectacular. Last night, I watched the first Toy Story, and you can really tell how much their animation has evolved over the years.

Everything in this movie is photorealistic. The image you see above is part of a scene that takes place in the rain, and the way the rain splashes and looks on everyone is incredible.

I mean, look at this cat, for crying out loud! How is this not a real cat?! Once again, Pixar's animation is so good that it can be distracting at times, because when I watched certain scenes in the movie, I couldn't help but notice how much detail was put into the textures of every surface.

And there were many scenes in this movie where I didn't really pay attention to what was happening because of how well the surfaces in the film reflected light as well, with the animation of Bo Peep being the most prominent improvement.

Overall

Here are my final thoughts on this movie: it's great. I think this was a very worthy sequel to the first three, and the ending of this movie really justifies its existence amongst the Toy Story films.

It's definitely the funniest Toy Story movie, but it also made me really emotional as well, and I loved where they went with Woody's character, despite not using most of the other characters to their full potential. It's not my favorite Toy Story, but it is on par with the first film in my opinion.

I'm gonna give 'Toy Story 4' a 9/10.

I highly recommend this film, and I think it will resonate well with nearly everyone. And I want to see it again soon. But if your kid is gonna cry in the theater, please leave them at home. The movie theater is a place for ADULTS to cry, not children.

Thank you so much for reading.