Review: Toy Story 4

I don’t know about you guys, but I thought that “Toy Story 3” ended in a pretty good place. 

Nevertheless, I couldn’t help but feel just as excited as my 2010 self would have when I walked into the movie theater last week. Toy Story is a big deal.

Toy Story is a big deal, and “Toy Story 4” did not disappoint. There were a couple moments of “will Pixar be able to make me care about this?” …and then within the first five minutes I was crying and decided that yes, it would appear that they could. I loved a lot of things about this movie, but I was really impressed by the way they kept the old characters and made new characters that the audience loved just as much. My siblings and I were happy to see RC in the movie and I thought that Forky was really funny. My one complaint was where were the beloved Bucket O Soldiers?

These movies, man. They really tug at your heart strings like no other. To me, they are really a testament to the power of the moving image…that a movie about anthropomorphic toys can make you feel heartbroken, joyful, nostalgic, wistful…The scene where Woody is walking along the highway with Forky, explaining Andy to him, really got me. You could go into pages and pages talking about the existential themes of these movies, but truly – they aren’t about toys, they’re about us.

If there were any unanswered questions left by the third installment, it was definitely the whereabouts of Bo Peep. I can’t complain about having that loose end tied up. Yes, I could say it was an unnecessary addition largely motivated by money. But it’s hard to be cynical about that when you’re crying over (SPOILER ALERT) Woody saying goodbye to Buzz and his friends.