POSITIVES…
After a successful trilogy of movies, it’s easy to conclude that Toy Story 4 is just not a necessary addition to this most loved franchise. Wrong! It’s an amazing installment that somehow made a solid case for itself, of potentially being the best one out of all of them.
The plot and premise is really strong, and it capitalizes the recurring tropes from the previous installments, and fine-tunes them all into this animated masterpiece of storytelling.
A huge strength of this movie’s story, is that it contains thought-provoking thematic layers and layers of themes. Covers so much ground in things to say, that I want to share here… but spoilers!
I will argue that this is possibly the funniest Toy Story out of all of them.
From sight-gags, clever word plays, running jokes, wacky hi-jinks, to your simple but effective straightforward funny moments, this movie made me laugh much more than I thought I would.
Give some comedy medals to Tony Hale as Forky, Key & Peele as Bunny & Ducky, Tim Allen as Buzz Lightyear, Ally Maki as Giggle McDimples, Jeff Garlin as Buttercup, Keanu Reeves as Duke Caboom, plus many more. There are some funny stuff that these characters say and do.
Speaking of characters. The whole cast is super solid here, but shout out to Tom Hanks as Woody, Annie Potts as Bo Beep, Christina Hendricks as Gabby, and Joan Cusack as Jessie.
I will also argue that this is possibly the most dramatically emotional Toy Story out of all of them.
Emotionally packs a huge wallop! This movie just knew how to trigger a huge variety of feelings from me, via multiple scenes throughout the story. Wait until you get to the conclusion.
Although the after credits is silly and brief, it’s also a very very satisfying pay-off to a joke from earlier in the movie.
Oh, and just in case I still need to mention it. Amazing animation work here. Just seeing Forky move around in his very limited way is simply fantastic to look at.
Thank you to Director Josh Cooley; and all the people credited in writing this movie, for giving me a satisfying “new” conclusion to this storied franchise. You’re making it hard to choose on which had the best pay off for a series of movies, Toy Story 4, or Avengers Endgame.
NEGATIVES…
A lot of your favorite Toy Story characters from the previous films are mostly relegated to just being supporting characters, and don’t show up in this movie as often as you’d probably prefer.
There are some hanging plot threads that unfortunately were not addressed.
Some plot holes here and there.
Being a full grown adult, trying to hide the tears freely flowing out of his eyes, in a full movie theater screening.
P.S….
LOVED IT enjoyeditlikedititsokayitsmehitsterrible
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