I went to see “Toy Story 4”. I came out emotional. It was beautifully written, a fun experience and honestly, it always feels good to reacquaint myself with the “Toy Story” gang. 

 

 

However, the more I think about it, the more I find I have mixed feelings about it. I mean, I liked it. However, as opposed to “Toy Story 3” which was just an amazing conclusion to this story that had me bawling my eyes out… “Toy Story 4” felt digressive and dare I say… unnecessary. It even felt like it went against the story we have been told over the course of 3 movies and over twenty years.

 

Let’s start with the beginning. “Toy Story 4” starts by telling us what happened to Bo Peep, a character from the second “Toy Story” movie that had disappeared and was not mentioned in “Toy Story 3”. This right here was a red flag for me. If you have to flash back to a character you had ignored for a film to be able to tell your next story, this tells me you are out of ideas. Of course you are, “Toy Story 3” put a beautiful bow on a wonderful trilogy. “Toy Story 4” felt like you undid the bow to add a note to their gift. But that note was not necessary. (We all know is the thought that counts.)

 

Anyway, I digress. So we find out that Bo Peep was given away after the second film, leaving Woody heartbroken, but again, this is something that wasn’t addressed in the next film. Flashing back to this moment allows for this new conflict to emerge for Woody in this installment where he feels abandoned by Bonnie, his new kid. Bonnie doesn’t seem very interested in Woody so he’s worried that he will be given away, like Bo was.

 

 

Woody does his best to gain Bonnie’s love. He even gets in her backpack on her first day of preschool even though it is not allowed. Bonnie has a hard time on her first day but, thanks to Woody’s help, she builds a wonderful new friend, Forky, out of some leftover trash. Bonnie takes her new friend back home and Forky comes to life. To Woody’s dismay, however, Forky does not appreciate his new life as a toy. He believes he is trash and wants to get back there as soon as possible.

 

Bonnie and her parents go on a trip together and of course take the toys. During the trip, Woody and the gang have to do their best to keep Forky from escaping and going back into the trash. Forky ends up escaping, though. And of course, Bonnie is devastated. So Woody goes out to find him. Getting Forky back to Bonnie won’t be so easy, though.

 

 

During this adventure, Woody finds Bo who tells him she has been living as a lost toy for years. She has clearly toughened up. She and her sheep have created a robot skunk to travel in and roam the streets freely. Woody doesn’t quite get why Boo feels happy like this. He doesn’t believe she can be happy. But Bo has clearly gone through a lot of rejection and she doesn’t want that for herself. When Bo speaks of this rejection, Woody can’t help but think about his current situation with Bonnie. He hasn’t been chosen for playtime in a long time… however… he needs to get Forky back to Bonnie or she’ll be very upset. 

 

What do I miss in this story? Like I said, after “Toy Story 3”, I was set. That was the perfect ending to the trilogy. If you had the need to reopen it, you better have a beautiful message to send me and make this goodbye to the gang something special. However, this film works only as a goodbye to our hero for all these years: Woody. His goodbye, however, happens due to a change of heart he has that goes against everything he has preached for three films. I am not saying it is unbelievable. I am saying it feels too quick, too sudden. Especially considering he makes this decision partly because of Bo Peep, a character who, I insist, was not even mentioned in the third film and was brought back through a flashback at the beginning of this film as if she was suddenly very important to Woody. I don’t know about you, but I’ve had the feeling through three films that Woody had two loyalties: his kid and his gang. This gang, however, is almost absent in Woody’s emotional journey. When the time comes to part ways, they don’t even make an effort to convince him. Where’s the “You’ve got a friend in me” feeling I’ve been having through the previous films? Where’s the gang going on adventures together? They almost died in film 3 which should have made them even closer. This feeling is hardly there in this film, as Woody goes through this emotional journey with Bo. 

 

 

When this film started I felt like it could mirror “Toy Story”. Instead of Woody bringing Buzz home, it would be Buzz returning Woody the favour. Buzz would find his inner voice, gain some character growth and find the comforting words Woody needs to hear to return to Bonnie. Instead, the inner voice gag goes nowhere. Buzz, our co-protagonist for all these films, is relegated to comic relief. Again, appreciated comic relief, however, it’s a bit frustrating that a character like Bo Peep has evolved more that Buzz. Yes, Buzz’s inner voice gag was fun… but part of me kept thinking that by the end he would have a breakthrough, where he would actually be able to hear his real inner voice, allowing for character development. Allowing for Buzz to be a possible new leader for the gang. That doesn’t happen however. Buzz is relegated to a side story with Ducky and Bunny from the fair which helps lighten the mood, but seems like a waste when we end up seeing in the end, that this film is the goodbye between Woody and Buzz. We’ve lived so many adventures with these two… couldn’t they have lived one more together before saying goodbye? The same way Woody evolved as a character, would it not have been more satisfying if Buzz did so too?

 

“Toy Story 4” is not a bad film. Pixar know what they are doing. The problem “Toy Story 4” had is that it had a powerful trilogy behind it. If I had seen “Toy Story 4” as a standalone film or even… if it had a whole different gang of toys as protagonists, I would have enjoyed it more. As a continuation to this wonderful trilogy, it left me with a bittersweet aftertaste to be honest.