Toy story is a very interesting franchise, the first movie is a landmark film being the first Pixar movie, catapulting them to prominence, the first fully computer animated movie it was even nominated for a few Oscars. Then you have the sequel, Pixar's first sequel and another critical darling. It seemed like that was it and Pixar seemed to have moved on then 10 years later you get Toy Story 3, critical darling, nominated for a ton of awards and seemingly the end of a trilogy. If you grew up with Toy Story like myself then the initial 3 movies have seemingly played out in real time, Toy Story 3 came out during my first year of University and it really resonated with me. So when toy Story 4 was announced I really did not know what to expect. There were some loose ends namely Bo Peep but overall I felt 3 was a very satisfactory ending. The good news is Toy Story 4 is a really good movie.
Forky and Woody
Toy Story 4 picks up a few months or possibly a year so after the conclusion of toy Story 4. Andy's Toys are enjoying their new life with Bonnie though Woody is having a bit of a hard time adjusting isn't really over loosing Andy. During the course of the movie Bonnie creates Forky a toy make of a Spork and the Toys find themselves on a road trip visiting a small town with a carnival, Forky gets Lost, Woody goes after him and shenanigans ensue. Its at this town where we see the return of Bo Peep. We get a flash back to Bo Peeps departure and while sad it isn't the first 10 mins of UP. Toy Story 4 asks some big questions especially about the nature of living Toys though it does not really go too deep. At its core its Woody's story as he learns to deal with his new place in the world while also being offered an alternative with the return of Bo Peep.
Most of the original cast return, though unfortunately due to some of the cast dying over the years Andy's toys are somewhat sidelined in this movie in favor of the new comer toys found in the town. Standout newcomer is Tony hale's Forky who has some of that Buster DNA. Apart from that Tom hanks is good as always, Annie Potts as Bo Beep gets a greatly expanded role and while Tim Allen's Buzz is good he kind of gets sidelined a bit with a bit of weird side story. Christina Hendricks as Gabby Gabby is the main villain though refreshingly things are a bit more grey in this movie. Key and Peele are in the movie with a pretty funny Gimmick and Keanu Reeves is in this because 2019 is the year of Keanu.
RTX On
Toy Story 4 is much more of an Adventure movie similar to the first 2 as opposed to 3 which ended up being partially a heist movie. The setting is quite cool especially the carnival which is very visually interesting and creates all those specular highlights you see on the posters/marketing material. The antiques shop is also quite cool with a lot of interesting things are you may expect. The movie does not look too different from three aside from the specular highlights.
Overall Toy Story 4 is a very good movie, it’s a fitting end/epilogue to the Toy Story "Story" for now and is much better than it deserves to be. Personally I feel Toy Story 3 is a better, more final, more poignant ending. 3 was an ending for the Toys, for Andy and even the Sid cameo gave more finality for it. For me Toy Story 4 plays out more like an epilogue mostly for Woody. But it’s a damn good epilogue. I can't see any new Toy Story movies coming out for the foreseeable future but you never know with the House of Mouse. Maybe we get post-apocalyptic Toy Story 2077 in the future but as it stands it’s a good ending, maybe not as good as Toy Story 3 but good nonetheless.