This review will contain
spoilers
As soon as this film was announced I was
nervous. They tied the story up so perfectly in Toy Story 3 and I didn’t think
that there was anything else to tell. As time went on and we got more
information about this new film, it seemed to me like it was a film that didn’t
really need to be made. When I heard that the film would be about finding Bo
Peep I was a little intrigued, but it still didn’t seem like enough of a story
to fill a nearly 2-hour film. But I thought I would give the benefit of the
doubt, mainly because it’s a Disney Pixar and they are usually brilliantly
executed and because I have an obsession with anything related to Disney. I saw
the early reviews come out saying it was a fantastic film. A load of Disney vloggers
raved about it after having been invited to an advanced screening so I thought I
might be proved wrong and it might actually be a really good film.
I went to see the film the day after it was
released and unfortunately, whilst it was a good film, I didn’t end up loving
it. I still stand by the fact that the 3rd film finished off the series
in the most perfect way. I think everyone who has seen Toy Story 3 is a little
bit traumatised by the ending of that film. It seems as though they are all
going to be killed off, but they get their happy ending. We got closure from
all the characters as they start their new life with Bonnie and Woody’s chapter
with Andy comes to a close. Toy Story 4, however, seems to be trying to cram all 3
films into one. We get introduced to new characters, we are expected to build a
relationship with them and then see them get their happy ending, so what was spread
out over the first 3 films, is crammed into 2 hours and seemed unnecessary to
me.
(Source)
Toy Story 4 starts off with a montage from the
first three films to set up for the journey that Woody goes on. It shows the
highlights of his time with Andy and acting out stories with Buzz, Jessie and
the gang, before cutting to his new life with Bonnie where we find out that he
hasn’t been chosen to be played with for a while now. Woody has always been the
leader of the group. He was always the one in charge when Andy wasn’t around. He
always made sure that everyone was safe and took control whenever they went on
an adventure or got into some kind of trouble. Even in this film, he takes it
upon himself to look after Forky, the new toy that Bonnie makes at Kindergarten.
He has to try and convince Forky that he is a toy and not just trash. Woody
even states in the film that Forky is the most important thing to Bonnie at
that moment so he has to make sure that he stays safe and where she can always
find him. Even if he doesn't admit it, you can tell that it hurts him that Bonnie no longer chooses to play with him, as he gave up Andy to be her toy.
Woody, Buzz and Bo Peep were the only original
characters that were in this film. Jessie, Rex and the others were there, but
they got hardly any screen-time in favour of a handful of new characters.
Gabby Gabby was an interesting, if slightly
creepy, addition to this franchise. She is a talking doll who lives in an
antique shop, but she was made faulty as her voice box doesn’t work. She believes
that this is the reason she doesn’t have a kid of her own to look after her.
She has a couple of ventriloquist dolls that push her around the store and works
as her henchmen I guess. When she meets Woody, she makes it her mission to
persuade him to give her his voice box, so that she can have a change of
belonging to a little girl whose grandmother owns the shop she is in. She tries
to tell Woody that he has had two chances to make a child happy, she just wants
once chance. He reluctantly gives in, which I was surprised about because as I
mentioned earlier, he was always so headstrong and sure that his sole purpose
in life was to be a child’s toy.
Gabby just wanted to be loved and she believed that she needed a voice in order to achieve that, she just went about it the wrong way. Part of me wishes that Pixar had gone down the route of Gabby realising that she doesn’t need a voice to be perfect, she just needs to be herself as I believe that that sends a better message to kids watching the film – you shouldn’t have to change yourself in order to be liked by others.
Gabby just wanted to be loved and she believed that she needed a voice in order to achieve that, she just went about it the wrong way. Part of me wishes that Pixar had gone down the route of Gabby realising that she doesn’t need a voice to be perfect, she just needs to be herself as I believe that that sends a better message to kids watching the film – you shouldn’t have to change yourself in order to be liked by others.
(Source)
Ducky and Bunny were added purely for comedic effect,
and it totally worked. They provided light relief in-between what the
characters were going through. Their crazy schemes, especially as they were
trying to get a key off of the old lady who owned the antique store were some
of the best parts of the film for me.
I did really enjoy the ending of this film. Woody’s
whole character arc in this film is something that seems a little out of
character for him because he is a natural leader who feels most comfortable
when he was a child waiting for him at home. But like I mentioned earlier, we
see that Woody hasn’t been played with for a while by Bonnie so when he meets Bo
Peep again, and she shows him this whole other world of being a ‘lost toy’ he
tries to convince her to come home to Bonnie with him but it doesn’t work. This
new Bo Peep is all about standing on her own two feet and looking after herself,
not needing one specific child.
The film ends with Woody letting go of his control and his need to be attached to someone in favour of staying with Bo at the carnival, where they can help loads of different kids find a new toy each day. Just like the end of the 3rd film, this ending does give a sense of closure, but it wasn’t particularly needed. If the third film had ended differently and hadn’t seemed like such a definite ending, then this would have been perfect to close the Toy Story franchise, but because of the first ending, being so perfect, this just seemed a bit drawn out.
The way I see it, I’m going to say the first
three are the Toy Story trilogy and this 4th instalment is a
standalone film. You get all the information needed about these characters in
this film. You get the brief recap of the first three and you also get a
flashback to what happened to Bo Peep to get her to where she is in this film,
so you don’t necessarily need to have seen the others to see this 4th
film in my opinion.
I did enjoy the film and the new characters; I
just don’t think it was a story that needed to be told. I’m glad that Pixar has
said they are now going to focus on original films, such as Onward and Soul,
which are the two new films from the studio to be released next year.
Rating: 3 out of 5
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