Movie Review: Toy Story 4

(Re-posted from my DA in honor of this movie winning the Oscar for Best Animated Feature)

Nine years. It had been nine years since the previous Toy Story movie, back in 2010. I was in high school then, and at the time I saw it, I have to admit, I never thought that there'd be another one.

In fact, when the news was announced that Pixar would o be making a fourth Toy Story movie, I think at the time a major part of the reaction was something along the lines of "Why?" So many people thought the ending of 3 was a pitch-perfect end to the story of Woody and Buzz and the rest of the gang. Though I have to admit, when the first teaser dropped, showing Tony Hale's hilariously neurotic new character "Forky" I was rather curious about the idea of the movie and what it might have to offer.

So, ultimately, does Toy Story 4 offer a compelling addition to the series about secretly-living toys?

Let's find out.

We open on a flashback, to several years ago, back when Woody (Tom Hanks) was still Andy's toy. On a dark night in a pounding rainstorm, Andy's RC car was left outside, and Woody leads the toys in a rescue mission, with the help of Bo Peep (Annie Potts). While RC is rescued from being washed away, the victory is tainted by Bo Peep being donated to a new owner; Woody contemplates going with her, but ultimately can't bring himself to leave Andy. In many ways this opening is a perfect introduction to the tone of the movie - this is a film that in a lot of ways (and which I'll get into more fully in just a bit) is all about partings.

What follows this opening, then, is a beautiful sequence showing Andy playing with the toys through the years, in one beautiful take that covers him as a kid from Toy Story 2 up to the famously moving scene in Toy Story 3 when he gives Woody and company to Bonnie (here voiced by Madeleine McGraw). But it is here, with Bonnie, that our story truly begins... as Woody is struggling with a kind of empty nest syndrome, or at least having to deal with the fact that he is not the favorite toy anymore. To his credit, he shows no jealousy or malice towards Jessie (Joan Cusack) for getting the top spot with Bonnie in playtime... but he's definitely feeling lost and desperate to have *some* importance or role in Bonnie's childhood.

Woody's opportunity comes, when he stows away in Bonnie's backpack when she goes to kindergarten orientation. Seeing that she's alone and upset, Woody slips out and scrounges together some crafting supplies, plus a spork from the trash, which Bonnie ends up making into a toy - "Forky". To Woody's shock, Forky later comes to life, and the new toy is deeply distraught by his newfound existence (he was made for food, darn it, then the trash!); repeatedly, Forky tries to throw himself away, and Woody exhausts himself trying to keep the homemade toy, now Bonnie's favorite, from doing that.

Bonnie's family goes on a road trip to end the summer. One night, Forky manages to evade Woody and jumps out the window of the RV. Woody goes after him, leaving Buzz (Tim Allen) and company behind. During the lengthy walk back, Woody and Forky have a talk, with Woody (kind of) persuading Forky of his worth to Bonnie - but the two toys are by no means out of the woods yet. After making it back to the town where the RV is, Woody gets sidetracked into an antique shop after seeing Bo Peep's lamp... but inside, they run into trouble when they meet the talking doll Gabby Gabby (Christina Hendricks) and her creepy ventriloquist dummy henchmen Benson. (*shudders*) Gabby has a defective voice box and wants Woody's, which is still functioning smoothly after all these years... and she won't take "no" for an answer. Woody manages to escape the shop, but Forky is captured and held as bait.

Woody winds up in the park near the shop, where a carnival has set up shop. Facing the impossible-looking task of rescuing Forky and reuniting with Bonnie before the RV leaves, he finds an unexpected stroke of luck in running into Bo Peep - who's seriously taken a level in badass, now living free as a "lost toy" (a term from the original Toy Story that makes its return here!) who helps other toys find new owners. She warns Woody about Gabby, but ends up agreeing to help him.

Meanwhile, Buzz tries to search for Woody on his own, but gets snatched up and put up as a carnival prize. He manages to escape that, along with plush toys Ducky and Bunny (Keegan Michael Key and Jordan Peele) and they meet up with Woody and Bo. The group attempt to rescue Forky, with the help of some other friends of Bo's - a pocket toy cop, Giggle McDimples (Ally Maki), and stuntman motorcyclist Duke Caboom (Keanu Reeves). Unfortunately the rescue goes awry and the toys are lucky to escape; Woody by this point is desperate to rescue Forky, as much for his own need to have something as much as anything else. Left alone in the aftermath of an argument with Bo, Woody ends up meeting with Gabby, and finally agrees to trade his voice-box for Forky. The deal goes through and Forky is free to go... although Woody, after seeing how desperate Gabby is for a child to love her, can't help but empathize and offers her a place with Bonnie. The toys head for the carnival, to try and reunite with everyone, and it is in this finale that we come to the film's biggest emotional scene...

Namely, that Woody ultimately chooses to stay with Bo and start a new life with her, realizing that Bonnie will be fine without him. It's a deeply bittersweet scene, and a powerful display of acting from all involved, as Woody says goodbye to Buzz, Jessie and the rest of his friends. The movie's ending - with Woody starting anew as he and Bo travel with the carnival to help other toys, while Jessie becomes leader of the toys at Bonnie's (and Forky falls in love with another homemade toy) - is one that I felt managed to be ultimately quite uplifting; this movie is in many ways one that is about partings, and about continuing on with what life offers you. Its lesson, at least the way I look at it, is that you cannot cling to the same state of living forever: life and the world goes on, and you too must go with. It's a mature theme, that I think does a fairly good job coming across in the story.

Toy Story 4 is, beyond a doubt, Tom Hanks' movie. He delivers a simply outstanding performance as Woody, in every single way. You can feel all the emotions of this character - his warmth, his decency, his need to belong, his pride coming out in some low moments, and ultimately, his kindness shining through in the end. This was, in my opinion, a great farewell for the character. Similarly I was quite pleased by Annie Potts as Bo Peep - she'd always been a kind and caring presence in the first two movies, but here she really gets a chance to flex her acting muscles and deliver a very engaging performance, one that strongly shows why she and Woody have such chemistry together. I do wish that we'd gotten a bit more material with Buzz and Jessie, but really none of the toy characters have any off notes in their performances, and it was good to see them all together once more.

Several of the new characters are portrayed quite well. In particular I liked Tony Hale's hilariously neurotic performance as Forky, it manages to combine some truly hilarious freakouts with some touching childlike naievete as well. He played well off of Tom Hanks and offered several good moments. I personally really enjoyed Ducky and Bunny, in particular the recurring gag of them proposing plans for dealing with a situation - which just involve them trying to attack someone. One of these sequences goes on for such a lengthy amount of time, building and building, that I was outright guffawing in the theater! Keanu Reeves as Duke Caboom was a real treat too - in several ways it's a character like Buzz but still manages to be distinct and entertaining in his own right.

And finally, I must admit, I was quite interested and pleased by Christina Hendricks as Gabby. In many ways she makes for an interesting reversal of the usual "twist villain" from prior movies - compared to Stinky Pete and Lotso, who start out seeming helpful and then reveal their nasty true colors, Gabby starts out intimidating and gradually is revealed to have these glimmers of decency (she treats Forky with nothing but politeness, and reaches out to Woody by empathizing with his desire to feel needed) that allow her to find a happy ending. Yes, she's fixated on taking Woody's voice-box, by force if need be, but ultimately she's shown to be utterly desperate to have a child to play with - and utterly crushed when the girl she'd pinned her hopes on is not interested. It was quite a surprise, but in the end I was happy to see the way that this movie subverted how I thought things would go with its antagonist, and I'm happy about that.

One last note - while some people have voiced criticism or complaints about Bonnie neglecting Woody in this movie... well, I hate to say it, but folks, she's five. Little kids go through their fixations, and even a smart one most likely wouldn't *get* how important a toy like Woody was to Andy. Frankly, I find it impressive that she held onto him for so long. It's sad, but fairly realistic I feel.

Toy Story 4, everyone. It's a good movie. A bittersweet one, but still a damned good one. The animation is breathtaking, the humor is quite often on-point, and the character work is still top-notch. Maybe it's not the perfect happy ending of Toy Story 3, but I feel that this movie's lesson is just that: happy endings don't last forever. Life goes on...

And it's up to you, what you make of it.