Toy Story is one of the most iconic and
well acclaimed movie series of all time, especially in the animation world.
After a 3rd movie that supposedly ended the franchise, most said that
there’s no way there could be another film. Shockingly, Pixar has now made an
attempt to continue what many thought had a perfect ending with Toy Story 4. With all the doubts and how
good the end of the trilogy was, would this possibly unneeded 4th
installment live up to the stands of what the other films were? The answer is
both yes and no. Toy Story 4 does
stand its own as a great sequel, properly expanding upon its characters and
world, however in comparison to the other film, it doesn’t quite reach the
highs emotionally that the other three films met.
A
Better Epilogue than a Continuation of Three
The Fourth Toy Story has the toys dealing with Bonnie starting Kindergarten,
where they end up meeting a new friend she created known as Forky. When a road
trip with her family gets a bit chaotic with Forky becoming missing, it’s up to
Woody to find him and along the way; he ends up encountering both familiar and
new faces on his new journey. In many ways, Toy
Story 4 continues the franchise in a lot of clever ways in terms of what
the world of Toy Story is like,
giving some very unique ideas and morals the franchise. This is mostly dealing
with the characters as we see a lot of growth for most of the major ones and
some of the new ones introduced bring in a lot of charm, emotion and depth that
every single Toy Story movie had to
offer. It still continues that trend of being very charming movies that hit the
emotional punch at the right places, but there is a downside. The biggest
obstacle Toy Story 4 has to face is
following up an ending that was so wrapped tight and perfectly told with the
Third movie. Unfortunately the way it wraps up in this movie, while is a great
idea and does have a lot of emotional weight to it, doesn’t quite hold a candle
to how the third movie concluded its story. Without revealing too much, it does
contains emotional weight, but also feels a bit rushed in a sense when it
concluded as maybe there could have been more of a built up to this ending. As
it stands, it’s a great way to conclude the series, but the way getting there
and how quickly it felt when we got to this ending, it doesn’t feel as earned
as it probably should. Not to say the ending or the movie itself is poorly
written, because there’s still a lot done excellently here, and as sequels go,
it doesn’t loses its steam as much as one would initially expect. As it stands,
while 3 is a more satisfying and proper conclusion to Toy Story, 4 serves as a very good epilogue for the series, as it
ties up more loose ends and character conclusion that was refreshing to see in
this film. This makes for a great movie that isn’t as good as its predecessors,
but still well written and a good expansion on the franchise.
Great
Additions to the Cast both Old and New Faces
With every Toy Story feature, there is a lot ways to witness both old faces
back on the big screen while meeting new ones with each installment. The Forth
film definitely adds in terms of characters both old and new, but some missed
opportunities have occurred in this department. Easily the best character in the
film that is a fundamental to Toy Story
is the legendary cowboy himself, Woody. Woody definitely has the most growth as
a character in this film, having more maturity in his personality compared to
all of the other films. Not only that but the character ends up learning more
so in this film than he has in even the other installment, which adds a lot of
mature theming to this film as a whole giving it so much more depth making its
lead real last hurrah in the franchise. As for the other returning characters,
they are still fun and add a lot of humor to this film, however they’re not
given a whole lot to do in this movie story wise compared to other films. Side
characters like Jessie, Ham, Trixie, and Rex do have some fun moments and lines
but they never amount to too much in regards to plot. The only character that
gets a little more time is of course everyone’s favorite Space Ranger, Buzz
Lightyear. He joins the adventure a lot, and has a new gag in the film which,
while pretty funny as a whole, seems a bit odd considering that it makes Buzz a
lot less intelligent than one would initially think. The other older toys
mostly do not have much to do since this film introduces a ton of new
characters and luckily they actually are very well done in this feature. Forky
being the main new addition to the team is a pretty funny character being one
that adds a whole new concept for the series with toys being made and becoming
sentient and this particular toy questioning his existence. A very clever
concept, however the downside is, the film doesn’t really expand upon this idea
of how toy become sentient beings and Forky himself becomes more of a plot
device at points being the one that helps get Woody into this conflict to begin
with. He still makes for a funny character, but he would have been stronger if
he became more than just that plot device. The other new additions include a
Stuntman type action figure named Duke Kaboom played by everyone’s favorite
badass Keanu Reeves and a plush duo played by Jordan Peele and Keegan Michael
Key, who are easily some of the funniest characters added into the toy story
movies. They are ones that really give the film a personality and filled with a
ton of fun moments that are downright hilarious, especially with Key and
Peele’s characters in particular. The main antagonist in this movie is also
done cleverly, without revealing too much, this character starts out as an
expected villain but as the film goes on, you see the true nature behind this character,
By the end, they become sympathetic and fascinating character to watch that you
want to succeed which is very refreshing given Disney’s track record of twist
villain reveals in recent films. By far the best new addition to Toy Story 4 isn’t so much a new
character as much as it is an old favorite returning for the first time in
decades. Bo Peep returns in Toy Story 4
and this time not only is she a better character being more than just a
straight up love interest, but she ends up being the one to help Woody through
his newfound journey. She adds to the whole theme of moving on, making for a
very good dynamic and is also just an all-around enjoyable character to watch
and great to see her return after her absence from Toy Story 3. While it is mixed at points, Toy Story 4’s characters definitely help flow the film along as one
excellent character piece, especially for Woody himself.
Perfects
The Craft this Series Revolutionized
There is no denying Toy Story influence in the animation industry. The first film is
very dated visually by today’s standards in terms of CG, despite looking
incredibly impressive for the time. Now that Toy Story 3 came out being a vast improvement over the original
visually and looking more on the quality of modern Pixar films, you would think
that is when the medium of CGI was perfected for this franchise. Well, it seems
like Pixar has done the impossible as Toy
Story 4 is jaw dropping beautiful and might be the well-constructed Pixar
movie at the moment. Right from the beginning, there’s a shot of a toy car
struggling to get out of the mud in the rain and that particular shot looks so
impressive from every aspect, you’d almost forget you’re watching an animated
movie. Toy Story 4 amazes with its
visuals with so many of the textures, shadows and lighting looking almost
identical to real life, being incredibly impressive. However, unlike certain
films that forget to put the charm and expressiveness with all of their
impressive visuals, Toy Story 4 does
not forget that it is an animated movie. The characters despite looking more
real than ever, still have many expressive faces and movements in terms of how
they are animated. Something as simple as a Spork with Googly eyes tends to
have so much passion to how they emote and Toy
Story 4 captures these animated characters beautifully. Toy Story 4 might be one of the most
impressive animated films Pixar has ever made, and it has to be seen to be
believed in terms of how masterful the artist’s work on this is.
Not
A Perfect Finale, But A Good New Installment
The question remains, does Toy Story 4 need to exist? After the witnessing
this film, not necessarily, the third Toy
Story concluded perfectly and in a way doesn’t need to have more movies.
But now that a Forth is here, it is at least reassuring that despite not
needing to exist, it is a very commendable effort to continue the Toy Story franchise. It’s a flawed piece
of work from Pixar not taking full advantage of the opportunities it has, but
it still is an incredibly charming movie with so much heart and character to.
At the end of the day, that’s what Toy
Story is all about, being a franchise that has a lot of heart with some of
your favorite characters on a little adventure and the forth movie stands as a
good Toy Story movie. It may not be
the best in the series, but it still is a quality installment Pixar’s most
famous franchise ever.
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