This film is a U, was released on June 21st 2019, and this review will contain NO SPOILERS
Introduction
I, like many people, love the first three Toy Story films. They all have really endearing characters, some great animation, heartfelt and emotional moments, interesting themes, and entertaining sequences. But, best of all, I thought it was a trilogy that ended so fittingly and in a way that was satisfying. So, imagine how I felt when Toy Story 4 was announced. Why another Toy Story film? I don't understand why Pixar has pushed for so many sequels recently. None of their films scream franchises to me, aside from maybe The Incredibles. But, they managed to make not one but two absolutely fabulous sequels to their first ever film, so maybe there was enough momentum left for another one, even if the story seemed to be finished.
Thoughts Going In
As good as the reviews and buzz were for this film, I stood by my opinion that we didn't need a Toy Story 4. I watched Toy Story 3 just beforehand and that film is just terrific. What you notice about the Toy Story films is that they have progressively got better, and there was no way this could outdo that. But, who knows? Pixar might be able to smash it one more time with these characters, so I went in as open-minded as possible, but still with the belief that what I was about to watch was redundant.
The Story
On her first day of Kindergarten, Bonnie makes a new friend named "Forky", constructed out of various bits and pieces such as a spork and a pipe cleaner. Woody sees that this toy cheered her up on her first day, and he believes that everyone should protect Forky to keep her that way. However, Forky thinks he is trash, so after jumping out of a vehicle on a road trip and forcing Woody to come after him, they must get back to Bonnie along with the help of some new and some familiar faces.
What I Liked
To begin, I'd just like to say that this was definitely a positive experience. I have some issues but I'd like to make it clear that as a whole, the good outweighs the bad.
Once again, Pixar proves that they are the masters of computer animation. In this film, the textures on the toys are so real, the environments look so life-like, and smaller details help to make this a beautiful visual experience. When you look back on the first Toy Story, the animation doesn't hold up particularly well, so it is wonderful to see how it has progressed to the point where you begin to appreciate things like fluff, scratches, reflections, or other very minor details. The way certain characters move also made the animation seem more realistic, for example, Forky moves very stiffly as if he was an actual piece of cutlery, and a doll named Gabby Gabby has very gentle and restrained movements as if she was a real doll. I feel like mentioning animation on a Pixar film is redundant nowadays as they always do a great job.
The characters are also great, especially as Toy Story is a very character-driven series. There are plenty of fun, new characters. The most notable of which was Forky, who was fun to watch because of his naivety and also how he moved by mostly wobbling around. There was also Duke Caboom, a Canadian daredevil toy who had a tragic past of not being as good as how he was portrayed in his commercial, and thus being abandoned. He was very entertaining at many points and the voice of Keanu Reeves was a big part of this. Lastly, there were Ducky and Bunny, two plush toys who are meant to be won at a carnival, both of whom were goofy and really funny, constantly having the bizarre urge to attack humans. The veterans were also terrific, Woody is such a likeable and good-hearted character, and he always seems noble towards his child, regardless of who it is. Buzz was also good and his character had a new belief of following what is said when he pushes his buttons which lead to some great jokes.
The emotions were also very strong. There were some very sad scenes in this film. Not the emotional climax, but there is a moment that occurs quite far into the film which involves a lost child. I won't explain it but that scene brought me close to tears. So, remember your tissues if you do go to see this!
What I Didn't Like
OK, I have some major issues with this movie that hold it back greatly. The first of which is the one that I partially expected, this film doesn't add anything to the franchise. There isn't anything that happens which makes you look back on the previous films in a different way, and there isn't anything that makes you say "wow now I understand why they made this movie" or "wow that all makes sense now" or anything along the lines of that, it all just feels like an extension of what we all loved without any meaningful additions. Overall, the whole thing just felt very hollow, almost like a feature length version of those Toy Story shorts. But, the one thing that did feel like something was the ending, which brings me to my next issue.
I loved the ending of Toy Story 3 as I think it was the most appropriate send off for all these characters, not just for Woody even though he was at the centre of it. Here, it's all about Woody, and is only a goodbye for him, which makes the ending of the franchise only revolve around him. Which, don't get me wrong, I love Woody as a character and I understand he is the protagonist, but I'd much rather the ending where each of the characters have a moment to shine and then Woody gets his big moment, which is exactly what Toy Story 3 gave us. Also, the ending only fits the confines of a world in which toys do come to life. Whether or not our toys do come to life in the real world, the ending of 3 works no matter what because the idea of your toys always being there for a child to make them happy doesn't rely on them being able to come to life, so we can apply it to our own toys regardless of whether they can come to life or not. Here, you can't. The message it gives off only works in the world of Toy Story so it loses the magic of the originals where everything they went through such as being replaced or having their child grow up could be reflected in your own toys. So, this film didn't add anything meaningful to Toy Story as a franchise and now this great series has ended on much less satisfying note despite the fact that there was already a perfect one to call it a day on. This film's existence is also extra annoying because it robs Toy Story 3's powerful ending.
I also have an issue with Bo Peep. I suppose it does make narrative sense to reintroduce her into the mix as she was integral to Woody, and the opening sequence in which they show how she was given away was very well done. However, they forgot something kind of major, that being that she didn't really have much of a character. I didn't really care for her much in the films she was in before as she didn't do much and all she did was serve as someone who was kind to Woody, not much else. So, I struggled to bring myself to care about where she was coming from even if the film did its best efforts to make you care. She also came off as unlikeable. Sure, she would get annoyed by Woody at certain points as he acts very desperate throughout a lot of the film but I felt she was very bitter at times. So, I don't think bringing Bo back was necessarily a good choice, even if it makes sense in the context of the story.
I loved the ending of Toy Story 3 as I think it was the most appropriate send off for all these characters, not just for Woody even though he was at the centre of it. Here, it's all about Woody, and is only a goodbye for him, which makes the ending of the franchise only revolve around him. Which, don't get me wrong, I love Woody as a character and I understand he is the protagonist, but I'd much rather the ending where each of the characters have a moment to shine and then Woody gets his big moment, which is exactly what Toy Story 3 gave us. Also, the ending only fits the confines of a world in which toys do come to life. Whether or not our toys do come to life in the real world, the ending of 3 works no matter what because the idea of your toys always being there for a child to make them happy doesn't rely on them being able to come to life, so we can apply it to our own toys regardless of whether they can come to life or not. Here, you can't. The message it gives off only works in the world of Toy Story so it loses the magic of the originals where everything they went through such as being replaced or having their child grow up could be reflected in your own toys. So, this film didn't add anything meaningful to Toy Story as a franchise and now this great series has ended on much less satisfying note despite the fact that there was already a perfect one to call it a day on. This film's existence is also extra annoying because it robs Toy Story 3's powerful ending.
I also have an issue with Bo Peep. I suppose it does make narrative sense to reintroduce her into the mix as she was integral to Woody, and the opening sequence in which they show how she was given away was very well done. However, they forgot something kind of major, that being that she didn't really have much of a character. I didn't really care for her much in the films she was in before as she didn't do much and all she did was serve as someone who was kind to Woody, not much else. So, I struggled to bring myself to care about where she was coming from even if the film did its best efforts to make you care. She also came off as unlikeable. Sure, she would get annoyed by Woody at certain points as he acts very desperate throughout a lot of the film but I felt she was very bitter at times. So, I don't think bringing Bo back was necessarily a good choice, even if it makes sense in the context of the story.
The film also feels a bit too silly compared to the other films. The toys come to life far too much in the presence of humans and their movements go down unnoticed so frequently that it made the human characters less believable and more stupid. For example, at one point, Buzz is on a prize rack and Ducky and Bunny start to kick him along with yelling. How could nobody see that? It's been established that it is the middle of the day and there are people at the fair so, how? There's another moment when Duke Caboom makes a big jump across the fair, how did nobody see him? Sure, it was entertaining, but it still raises the question. There are also some ridiculous moments where the toys do things that make this world seem, once again, less believable. At one point, they hack a GPS and start driving a vehicle to get somewhere, with said place being somewhere that vehicles can't drive up to, and that just crossed the line for me. Sure, there were moments like this in the originals, such as Woody and Buzz landing in the van after flying in the first Toy Story, or the gang driving the Pizza Planet truck in Toy Story 2. But, they worked because the instances of them were well executed. Woody and Buzz flying at the end of the first film is one of my favourite scenes in cinema, and the Pizza Planet truck chase in Toy Story 2 was really fun to watch when seeing all the toys playing different parts to make the truck drive, and the fact that they were just driving on a road, a place where you usually see vehicles. But here, it is so excessive and unfunny that it was just unacceptable and it took me out of the film.
Conclusion
Did we really need more? Toy Story 4 was by no means bad or even average as an experience. The animation was superb, the characters were mostly great both old and new, and there were some really powerful and heartfelt moments. However, the whole thing just felt superfluous. I didn't walk out of it with a new perspective on the Toy Story world. The only thing it really added was a less satisfying ending to a series that already had the most satisfying ending it could've had. Throw in some ridiculously gimmicky moments and it really weighed this film down. This is a definitive case of some things being best left as they are. That said, I don't dislike or resent this movie at all, and I won't let its flaws ruin the masterful work that went into the previous entries. It is the weakest Toy Story film by a significant margin, but it is certainly better than other Pixar sequels such as Cars 2 or Finding Dory. However, Toy Story deserves so much better as it is a franchise that both means a lot to me and has made a huge impact on cinema. So, if they were going to go through with following up their perfectly rounded-off trilogy, they needed to do more than what they did.
I'm going to give Toy Story 4 a 6/10
Also... PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE DON'T MAKE A TOY STORY 5, PIXAR.
No comments:
Post a Comment