Toy Story 4 Review

     Well Toy Story 4 was a childhood ruiner. Ok. Ok. I feel as if I'm going too far with saying that. The truth of the matter is that the movie wasn't bad, overall. Actually I thought the movie as a whole was pretty good. The highs of the movie were probably some of the highest highs I have seen in the entire franchise, but man when there were lows, there were low lows. In 2010 after I had seen Toy Story 3 in theaters, I was astonished by what I had just watched. The movie was perfect, and it brought the franchise to what I thought was a perfect ending. When they announced Toy Story 4 was happening, I was nervous, but excited at the same time. 9/10 times Pixar usually make their films correctly, so I had high hopes for the film. Like I said, the film as a whole is above average. The animation is beautiful. Most of the new toys were cool, and I just genuinely like the Toy Story setting. But as I said, the lows were so low. I'm going to talk about main points that I liked and disliked about the film.


Things I liked:

- I loved the opening scene where the film shows us how Bo was taken away from Andy's house, and I really liked the little cameo by R.C. Right off the bat, the movie gets emotional when Woody does not join Bo in leaving. It gives us a promising start to the movie.

- The addition of Forky was great. When I first saw that there was a new toy made from a fork, I thought it was so corny, but I thought Forky provided great comic relief throughout the film, and it wasn't overbearing. I liked when he he and the toys were about to leave the store, he murmured "He is so creepy." Things like that is what I liked about Forky.

- The antique store provided a fresh, great setting to the franchise. I would have never thought Pixar would have something with an antique store, but they did and it worked. It had a very creepy feel to it especially when Woody and Forky first arrived there. The creepy music and dummies gave me tension. I actually think it might be the best setting of the four films. Also, just the character of Gabby Gabby alone was great. Christina Hendricks did such a fantastic job as Gabby Gabby. Her story arc in the film was maybe the best one.

- The last aspect about the film that I really enjoyed was Bo Peep's transformation since we last saw her in Toy Story 2. She got a new look, and her character was given so much more depth and emotion to her. When I saw Toy Story 3, I was bummed when it was revealed the Bo was no longer with the group, so I was glad that this movie was going to bring her back and show us her whereabouts.

     Those were the very positive things that I liked about the movie. Now let's talk about the movie's negatives. First up is Bonnie. Yes, Bonnie as a character overall. Oh my God. She is insufferable. I felt good about her after the ending of Toy Story 3, and I thought she was a respectful replacement for Andy, but man, did the filmakers mess up her character royally Andy wanted a promise from her that she would take care of all of his toys, but overall he wanted her to look out for Woody, and she doesn't at all. She completely ignores him and doesn't pay him any attention. This basically takes the last movie's ending and makes it null. I thought it was such bad writing, and it really made me angry at Pixar for what they did with Bonnie's character.

     Now, let's get to that ending. Eyeroll. That's all I did. Yes, I get it. Woody no longer had a purpose with Bonnie due to cringey storytelling, but the other toys' goodbyes to him felt so rushed to me. If this had been the last film (which I don't think it will be), then that last scene with those characters together was so not memorable. I feel incomplete that these toys that have been together for all of these years are not together anymore. I wish Pixar would have just the toys go on a roundtrip with Bonnie, and they meet Bo Peep again and she joins them. Honestly, that sounds very simple, but I would have much preferred that rather than Woody splitting up from his original group to join Bo Peep in saving "lost toys."


     Those were my biggest issues with the movie. There are a few more that I won't really talk about because they are quite small, but those negatives about the movie brings this film down significantly. I really wish that Toy Story 3 was the last film because I thought it brought a touching end to the franchise, but this movie really just cancelled out that movie for me and that is extremely disappointing. Like I said, the great things about this movie are extraordinary. I probably would have had this movie at an 8.5 or 9 had the things I really hated about the film not been in it, but since there were really bad things about the movie, I am going to give the movie a 7/10. I hope that if they do a 5th movie, they try to correct their mistakes from this one and maybe have Woody and the gang reunite again. Then again, that would just negate the ending to this film. Maybe it's better for us to forget the ending of this film or for us to forget what a giant turd Bonnie was.

Thank you for reading my review of Toy Story 4. If you want, please leave a comment about the film!