Toy Story 4

“I was made to help a child, I don't remember it being this hard.”

Filmology Rating: 3.5 out of 4

Toy Story 4 is the last film in this Pixar-animated franchise. It was directed by Josh Cooley. Shockingly, this is his feature debut.

This film continues where the last one left us. Unfortunately, this film does not live up to the last three films. However, that is not to say this is a bad film. The first three are perfect, but the fourth is just very good.
This is a troubling film to review because it is attached to three other perfect films. The biggest issue with this film is that it focuses, exclusively, on Woody, Bo Peep, and new toys while the first three was about Woody and Buzz. Buzz is almost an afterthought in this film; he doesnt have much to do.

This film introduces some new toys. Keanu Reeves is, of course, the main one to point out. He is great and fits into the world well. However, I could not get over how utterly annoying Keegan Michael Key was. He felt like a scrapped character from an Illumination film.

With prior notions and Keegan Michael Key aside, this film is still very good. This film focuses on Woody to wrap up him as a character. He has always been a selfless toy and, for once in his life, he finally deserves to be selfish. It was a great arc to his character.

Gabby Gabby is the latest addition to the role of "evil toy." As always, these type of characters are given motivation, but it felt very copy and paste of Lots-O-Huggin.

If you're a fan of the original toys such as Jessie and Rex, you won't be seeing much of them. They spend the majority of the film in an RV where we occasionally cut back to them to remind you they're still in the film. However, they are given something to do later on.

While the first three films were about themes that went beyond being a toy, the theme of this film is dealing with abandonment and purpose. It was all executed well in a way that serviced the emotional beats well.
While the first three films had excitingly-goosebumpy moments like "We're falling...in style!" "Ride like the wind, Bullseye!" And the entire ending of 'Toy Story 3', 'Toy Story 4' never had "that moment" that made it unique to me. Personally, this franchise ended with 'Toy Story 3.' Please stop now.

Rating: See It

-Nolan