Toy Story 4 (2019) Film Review: A Black Sheep Or Completely Necessary?

Some time after "Toy Story 3", Woody is feeling rejected by his new owner, Bonnie. As he struggles to find his self-worth, he makes it his duty to keep Bonnie's new toy, Forky, from throwing himself in the garbage. As the two get stranded during a road trip, Woody runs into his old fling, Bo Peep, a sinister doll who wants his voice box, and other side characters to make the other side characters useless. It goes without saying that this film is really unnecessary as the previous three films ended off so perfectly that it feels like a disservice to make any more sequels. Even if the filmmakers plead that this was made out of passion, the film feels like it wasn't half the time. Sure, the humour and the development and maturity of Woody's arc is very well-handled, but the writing feels mostly contrived and forced in order to keep the story flowing. Unlike the other films, where the characters and events feel genuine or realistic, this one tends to feel lazy to have certain points of the plot to keep moving. An example is the flashback to when Bo Peep gave Woody the choice to come with her rather than to stay with Andy. The way the scene plays out feels so unnatural and forced that it doesn't make sense for Bo not to come with Woody back to Andy's house. The writing just feels restrictive in a way. I will say that I appreciate the maturity of the film as it feels like an evolution from the previous films of the franchise.

The characters is where the film goes all over the place with, as it not only tries to get returning characters to shine, but introduce new characters at the same time. However, due to the extended cast, things get very jumbled. The only character that is allowed his development and arc to conclude is Woody. His journey of self-worth and identity is for the most part portrayed nicely. Sure, there are some odd nitpicks about how he goes to his final decision, but it's quite clear that the film was mainly focused on giving the character his own type of swan song. The villain, Gabby Gabby, is also a great addition as a morally grey character who has solid reasonings for why Woody should give up his voice-box and even a solid, albeit oddly humorous, twist regarding his desire. My only issue with this whole voicebox dilemma is that it doesn't really change Woody other than that he no longer has an automated voice. Duke Caboom is also a fun new addition for his Canadian heritage and confronting his failure for being unable to pull off a jump. Outside of these characters, the rest are a mixed bag. Forky is a funny character for the first act, but after he gets captured by Gabby Gabby, he just becomes the MacGuffin as he just instantly accepts being Bonnie's toy pretty quick into the runtime. Ducky and Bunny get the most laughs, but they don't prove their usefulness in the journey and their arc to find a child goes nowhere. Giggle McDimples is also another pointless character to include. As for the older characters, the film insults their roles by either dumbing the characters down to be barely helpful or just underused. Buzz is enjoyable as always, but his new character quirk of listening to his "inner voice" makes him much dumber than he was in previous films and makes choices that he wouldn't normally do. Jessie went from being a major side character to just getting like five lines of dialogue that sound exhausted and lazy. The other side characters are just part of the background with some getting a moment to shine as they help out or just literally do or say nothing. Lastly, there's Bo Peep, the character prominently returning to the franchise after being removed in the third film. While she becomes a typical action girl who does actually add something to the plot and Woody's arc, the issue is that the characters just never had great chemistry with each other. It's not bad, but it's not as strong or as well developed as say, Woody and Buzz's friendship in the first film. And considering that the film is pushing on their chemistry to be a factor as to why Woody leaves the gang in the end, it's a pretty big issue for the character.

This film perhaps has the best animation Pixar has put out. From the realistic effects of the textures and elements, to the mixture of both colourful and grounded settings and lighting, the animation is gorgeous. The environments are almost photorealistic, yet the characters feel natural in their surroundings as their polished looks blend in with the new environments. It's just impressive to see how the animation in all of the films improve on each other such as the improved textures and the amount of humans shown. However, the town setting is one that I'm not the biggest fan of, as it overstays its welcome and the road trip could have been a much more interesting backdrop for the story rather than the old dusty town that is only used for the carnival and antique shop, which could have been in different locations and still utilized a similar plot if there was a rewrite or two. I will say that I did like the idea of the unplayed toys finding ways for any kid to play with them and how Bo Peep helps them out, not worrying about having an owner due to her newfound independence. Randy Newman returns to score the music and it sounds like typical Randy Newman. I did like the song, "I Can't Let You Throw Yourself Away", but other than that, it's the same themes that you're familiar with in the franchise. Despite being directed by a first-time feature film director, this film once again shows the extreme amount of polish Pixar films always demonstrate.

"Toy Story 4" is a hard one to talk about. On the one hand, it matches up to the rest of the franchise with the excellent animation, the somber maturity of its themes, the characters of Woody, Gabby Gabby, and Duke Kaboom being both enjoyable to watch and characterized brilliantly, the score by Randy Newman, and the humour being the best out of the franchise. However, the film suffers from a contrived, lazy script that forces the plot to go the beats the filmmakers wanted, Bo Peep's chemistry with Woody isn't strong enough to warrant dramatic tension, the majority of the characters are either unhelpful, serve as just comic relief, or dumbed down to the point of regressing their characters, and I found the town location to be just boring. It's clearly not a bad movie, in fact, it's quite competent in some areas. The screenplay is the major issue as it just doesn't feel as tightly written as the previous films and feels, in some ways, rushed. I don't hate this film, but I will say that it shouldn't have existed if it was going to be inferior to the previous films, making it my least favourite of the franchise.

Verdict: 6.5/10. Decent overall, but could have been so much better. Still worth a watch if you love the franchise though or the theme of moving on from the past.