Pixar doesn't need the hard sell. When they drop a movie, people go to see them.
After the hat trick of the Toy Story trilogy, I must admit that I was a bit curious about Toy Story 4, and not because I was so excited to see more Toy Story. I was curious, because, for all intents and purposes, the toy story had ended. Toy Story 3 (2010) had put a pretty neat bow on everything. And, considering how hard it is to do good sequels, much less a complete trilogy, one would have had to assume that Pixar wouldn't go back to that well.
Right?
Right??
I. What Is It?
This is the story of Bonnie's toys. On her Kindergarten orientation day, she creates a new toy out of some old bits and bobs from a trash can. This toy keeps trying to escape, convinced that he is trash. Woody takes it upon himself to save this new toy, and runs into an old friend in the process. This is a story about identity and freedom.II. Beautiful Animation
The animation in this film is nothing short of stunning. The animation perfectly blends realistic elements with cartoon-y aesthetics to construct a compelling world.
The devil, as they say, is in the details. The animation team take wonderful pains to make sure that the toys and objects move and react like real objects with weight and a kind of rag-doll physics. Forky's googly eye keeps dropping out of place; the lights shine and reflect off of Bo Peep's porcelain skin; Gabby Gabby's ventriloquist dummy goons leer in slack-jawed smiles.
Pixar is the cream of the crop as far as animation goes. Toy Story 4 does not disappoint on that front.
- This is one of the prettiest animated films on the market, hands down.The devil, as they say, is in the details. The animation team take wonderful pains to make sure that the toys and objects move and react like real objects with weight and a kind of rag-doll physics. Forky's googly eye keeps dropping out of place; the lights shine and reflect off of Bo Peep's porcelain skin; Gabby Gabby's ventriloquist dummy goons leer in slack-jawed smiles.
Pixar is the cream of the crop as far as animation goes. Toy Story 4 does not disappoint on that front.
III. Shallow
There are so many deep themes to explore in this movie, but the film just does not seem interested in exploring them.
Forky is having a full-blown existential crisis. What is he? WHY is he? How the fuck did Bonnie animate a pile of trash into a life form? That's some serious Dr. Frankenstein shit. The film tees up some wonderfully deep ideas... and then abandons them to retread the "save a lost toy" story that has become a bit tired. Forky's crisis gets shunted to the side in favor of slapstick laughs, which is a shame.
Woody has some reservations about becoming, and a bit of interesting bias against, a "lost toy." He and Bo Peep have a micro falling out (that lasts all of 2 or three in-film minutes) when he, dramatically, questions her understanding of a toy's relationship to their human because she is a "lost toy." He is routinely forgotten about by Bonnie, and keeps trying to assert himself into her life, only to be left aside again and again. That is some nuanced shit to deal with. But the film doesn't want to get bogged down in its own ideas. He makes his decision at film's end seemingly on a whim, and the film rushes on to another happy ending, this time parsed out over a multitude of unnecessary inter-credits stingers.
Bo Peep could have been an incredible feminist hero, but all of her frustrations with a man who struggles with not being in charge and makes foolhardy mistakes because of it are left largely unexplored, save for a few cutesy chidings. Bo Peep is a survivor, and she's better at this than Woody. The movie never really allows her to be the main character. It keeps stubbornly coming back to our tired old cowboy.
Buzz, criminally underused in this film (as are most of the old toy crew, even though they each get a line or so of dialogue), even has his own crisis of identity. Woody tells him that he always listens to the voice in his head. Buzz believes that his talky-box is that voice. He spends the movie pressing his own buttons, finding relevance in his own prerecorded dialogue options. The movie plays these largely as jokes and bits, and flatly refuses to face the fact that Buzz is searching for his own soul. His own agency. Buzz Lightyear ends up in character regression, bumbling around like an idiot so the plot can move forward.
Remember when, in Toy Story 3, the toys all linked arms, facing their imminent destruction in the emotional climax at the dump? Remember how deeply affecting that was? Remember what a fascinating and complex truth that was for a group of fucking toys to come to terms with? Toy Story 4 has plenty of opportunities to ruminate on complex ideas like that, but routinely shortchanges those ideas in service of keeping the story moving along.
Look, I know that this is a "kid's film." But that argument really doesn't hold any water when you consider how unafraid the previous three films were to explore difficult ideas. Yeah, the kids always had a good time, but their parents were left contemplating complex ideas about love, and friendship, and identity. This is not an awful movie. It is just terribly mediocre. And when you take that in the context of the strength of the previous films, it's a bit of a letdown.
It's almost like they were just interested in making another boat load of cash coasting on the strength of the original trilogy.
Forky is having a full-blown existential crisis. What is he? WHY is he? How the fuck did Bonnie animate a pile of trash into a life form? That's some serious Dr. Frankenstein shit. The film tees up some wonderfully deep ideas... and then abandons them to retread the "save a lost toy" story that has become a bit tired. Forky's crisis gets shunted to the side in favor of slapstick laughs, which is a shame.
Woody has some reservations about becoming, and a bit of interesting bias against, a "lost toy." He and Bo Peep have a micro falling out (that lasts all of 2 or three in-film minutes) when he, dramatically, questions her understanding of a toy's relationship to their human because she is a "lost toy." He is routinely forgotten about by Bonnie, and keeps trying to assert himself into her life, only to be left aside again and again. That is some nuanced shit to deal with. But the film doesn't want to get bogged down in its own ideas. He makes his decision at film's end seemingly on a whim, and the film rushes on to another happy ending, this time parsed out over a multitude of unnecessary inter-credits stingers.
Bo Peep could have been an incredible feminist hero, but all of her frustrations with a man who struggles with not being in charge and makes foolhardy mistakes because of it are left largely unexplored, save for a few cutesy chidings. Bo Peep is a survivor, and she's better at this than Woody. The movie never really allows her to be the main character. It keeps stubbornly coming back to our tired old cowboy.
Buzz, criminally underused in this film (as are most of the old toy crew, even though they each get a line or so of dialogue), even has his own crisis of identity. Woody tells him that he always listens to the voice in his head. Buzz believes that his talky-box is that voice. He spends the movie pressing his own buttons, finding relevance in his own prerecorded dialogue options. The movie plays these largely as jokes and bits, and flatly refuses to face the fact that Buzz is searching for his own soul. His own agency. Buzz Lightyear ends up in character regression, bumbling around like an idiot so the plot can move forward.
Remember when, in Toy Story 3, the toys all linked arms, facing their imminent destruction in the emotional climax at the dump? Remember how deeply affecting that was? Remember what a fascinating and complex truth that was for a group of fucking toys to come to terms with? Toy Story 4 has plenty of opportunities to ruminate on complex ideas like that, but routinely shortchanges those ideas in service of keeping the story moving along.
Look, I know that this is a "kid's film." But that argument really doesn't hold any water when you consider how unafraid the previous three films were to explore difficult ideas. Yeah, the kids always had a good time, but their parents were left contemplating complex ideas about love, and friendship, and identity. This is not an awful movie. It is just terribly mediocre. And when you take that in the context of the strength of the previous films, it's a bit of a letdown.
It's almost like they were just interested in making another boat load of cash coasting on the strength of the original trilogy.
IV. Tries to Have it Both Ways With its Villain
Gabby Gabby, voiced wonderfully by Christina Hendricks, is set up as a dastardly villain. She has a coterie of terrifying ventriloquist dummy guards that push her around in an old school baby stroller. She lords over the antique shop and seems to rule it with an iron fist.
The film wisely gives her a compelling reason to want to take Woody's talky box. Hers is broken; it has been since she was unboxed, and she never had a real experience with a human child because of her brokenness.
Unfortunately the film kind of cops out when it comes to giving her real villainy. Why wouldn't Woody just give her his talk box? It serves him no purpose. Other than that, Gabby Gabby doesn't really do anything to earn her sinister reputation with all of the other toys in town.
Remember Lotso, the terrifying stuffed bear baddie from Toy Story 3? Remember how downright detestable he was, even as he had a compelling reason for doing the terrible things he did? This film never reaches the same heights with Gabby Gabby, and, again, fails in comparison to the films that came before it.
The film wisely gives her a compelling reason to want to take Woody's talky box. Hers is broken; it has been since she was unboxed, and she never had a real experience with a human child because of her brokenness.
Unfortunately the film kind of cops out when it comes to giving her real villainy. Why wouldn't Woody just give her his talk box? It serves him no purpose. Other than that, Gabby Gabby doesn't really do anything to earn her sinister reputation with all of the other toys in town.
Remember Lotso, the terrifying stuffed bear baddie from Toy Story 3? Remember how downright detestable he was, even as he had a compelling reason for doing the terrible things he did? This film never reaches the same heights with Gabby Gabby, and, again, fails in comparison to the films that came before it.
V. Feels Long
This movie is only 100 minutes long, but it feels much longer. I think that is a consequence of how it breezes past all of its major ideas and flits from one contrived story-pushing moment to the next. The toys keep making bad decisions that elongate their adventure that feel less like organic complications and more like desperate screenwriters trying to wring a feature length out of a great short film. This movie could lose, easily, 20-30 minutes of runtime and still be a fairly effective film.
What's more is that the film feels overstuffed with nonsense when it could have been overstuffed with nuance and character development.
Oh well.
What's more is that the film feels overstuffed with nonsense when it could have been overstuffed with nuance and character development.
Oh well.
Why You Should See It
- While it isn't made of the same mettle as its forebears, it still has some laugh-out-loud moments and some creative ideas.
Why You Shouldn't See It
- It lacks the depth of the films that came before it.
Miscellany
- Don Rickles, who voiced Mr. Potato Head, died before he could record any voice work for this movie. At his family's request, the studio used previously recorded bits of dialogue from all of the various other Toy Story movies and tie-ins the construct his dialogue here.- Boo, from Monsters Inc (2001) is one of Bonnie's classmates at school.
- This film was released 24 years after Toy Story (1995). It comes 20 years after Toy Story 2 (1999), and nine years after Toy Story 3 (2010).
- This is the first Pixar film not to be accompanied by a short film since the first Toy Story.
- There are a metric ton of easter eggs in this film. I won't list them all. The Pixar team reached deep into their backlot of items to populate the antique store with bits and bobs. Keep a look out.
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