Toy Story 4 is a 2019 animated comedy about a new toy who joins Woody and the gang, revealing how big the world can be for a toy.
Surely, with 2010’s Toy Story 3, it seemed there was nowhere else to go in this cherished Pixar franchise, the story able to close the endearing tale of a boy and his toys with surprising heart and humor. Hearing that they would go back for more seemed at first an impossible if not unnecessary move, but here we are, and so once again it’s time for another Toy Story adventure and unsurprisingly, the famed animation studio finds what it takes to deliver a deeply personal, funny, and significant chapter in the series that earns its place in the family.
Giving us a brief glimpse into a turning point in Woody’s life, we return to the present where we pick up a little bit after the events of Toy Story 3, where the gang is happily enlisted into the gaggle of friends little Bonnie (voiced by Madeline McGraw) has populating her bedroom. She’s soon about to head to kindergarten and the little girl doesn’t have much interest in Woody (voiced by Tom Hanks), instead making Jessie (voiced by Joan Cusack) her go-to toy. Either way, Woody doesn’t skrimp in his duties to take care of his new owner, and sneaks off to school in her backpack, watching as Bonnie makes a new toy out of a plastic spork, calling it Forky (voiced by Tony Hale). Forky, now being a toy, naturally comes to ‘life’, and then quickly becomes Bonnie’s favorite. Problem is, he thinks, because he’s made of recycled materials, he should be in the trash. When he gets lost on a family trip, it’s up to Woody to rescue him, though that’s not so easy.
If you remember Bo Peep (voiced by Annie Potts) from the first two films (and of course you do) – and were dismayed by her absence in the third – she makes her return here, the prologue explaining what happened and then cleverly finding a way to insert her back into the story. That aside, the film wisely steers away from the expected, forcing Woody to the peripheral as a favorite, often left in the closet as Bonnie doesn’t much care for a boy sheriff. That’s a smart twist, Woody coming to terms with his role as a just a toy, suddenly saddled with caring for a piece of plastic that has no concept of what it means to be a toy, obsessed with fulfilling his destiny as garbage. Naturally, this has a few teachable moments for Woody himself.
Once Woody and Forky are on the road trying to get back to Bonnie, Toy Story 4 spreads its wings, packing in a whole host of new characters (and a few old ones) and a number of twists in the road. This includes a fun bit with Buzz Lightyear (voiced by Tim Allen) learning of a thing called an ‘inner voice,’ and hoping it can help him find Woody. Then there’s scene stealing moments from a daredevil toy named Duke Caboom (voiced by Keanu Reeves) and a couple of stuffed animals named Ducky (voiced by Keegan-Michael Key) and Bunny (voiced by Jordan Peele). There are of course, many others, and while the cast of characters continues to swell, director Josh Cooley and screenwriters John Lasseter and Andrew Stanton (with six others) do a near miraculous job of keeping it all accessible and easy to follow. This is a very simple story told with incredible complexity and as usual, stunning attention to detail, advancements in animation continuing to redefine the genre.
Toy Story 4 knows where it comes from and the impact its predecessor had, not trying to outdo the tremendous emotional impact of that film. That’s not to say those emotional peaks and valleys we’ve come to expect in the series aren’t here, because certainly a team like this knows exactly how to earn them. This is a fun, brightly colored, and sentimental journey back into the Toy Story universe that almost unbelievably improves upon itself with each outing, mixing comedy, drama, music, and just plain good old fashioned humanity into the wonder of imagination.