Review of Toy Story 4 (2019) by Urmumstr8 — 29 Jun 2019

*heavy, disappointed sigh* Guys, I wanted to like this movie, I really, really did, especially as someone who loves the original trilogy to death. Sadly, Toy Story 4 to me felt like a half-assed afterthought from Pixar; an attempt to milk the franchise even more because of how well the third entry did - much like with Finding Dory or Monsters University.

Here are five of my main problems with the film, though I wish I had the ability to go into more (screw you character maximum):

1) Several of the characters from the previous films seem to act in ways that are extremely contradictory to what they were like in previous films. Bo Peep is obviously the biggest example of this, going from a very quiet, dainty, lady-like, but still pretty sassy woman to this kick-ass, athletic action hero who pretty much fits all of the archetypes for a feminist "strong female protagonist" that exists solely to "destroy the patriarchy and show that women can do anything a man can do". Yeah, you know what I'm talking about, and you know as well as I do how annoying and overdone that trope has become in recent years. Yes I know that Bo supposedly went through a personality change from her experience being thrown away by two owners and being stuck in that antique shop for so long. However they fail to truly show how this series of events altered her outlook on life and her overall personality. Buzz Lightyear is another character that fits this description because of how clueless and kind of useless he is throughout the film. Seriously, how could Buzz not realize what an "inner voice" is and how come he never tries to take charge of a situation and act like a leader when necessary, which is something he did regularly in previous films? All he seems to do is just jump into things without any kind of thought or consideration, "humorously" miss the point of what people say to him, and occasionally try to offer emotional support to Woody. That's it; other than that, he hardly serves a purpose in this film. Its clearly a different character from Buzz Lightyear I grew to love from the previous films.

2) Very similar to Finding Dory, a massive chunk of this film is filler: wacky hijinks, "extreme toy stunts", and simply rushing from place to place. There isn't nearly enough time for any of the characters to settle and absorb what's going on and talk things over in a meaningful and emotionally-significant way. Instead, much of the time it's, "Oh no, we need to go here to rescue _____ or to meet up with _____. No time to discuss it, let's just go... and get into all sorts of hijinks and almost get caught or ripped to pieces every second of the way." 3) You barely see most of the other toys from the first three films (Rex, Slinky, Ham, Jessie, Bullseye, Mrs. Potatohead, etc.). I'm not counting Mr. Potato Head since Don Rickles passed away before the film was made, but all of the others barely get any kind of screen time and are simply there to state what's already been established or to make quick jokes that don't always work in my opinion. I've always loved these guys and it's such a shame they get sidelined so much in this picture.

4) There are more than a few instance where the toys seem to break the rules in terms of not being caught by humans or raising suspicion of their ability to come alive. What I mean is that there were a lot of instances where a toy will just make a noise or quickly place itself in a location where it wasn't before and the human would know that it wasn't there before. The humans in this film are completely oblivious and unaware of their surroundings, it forces you to suspend your disbelief way too often. 5) A lot of the major plot points and reasoning behind characters' actions seem very arbitrary and do not receive any sufficient explanation. For instance, why does Bo Peep not want to return to the antique shop to help Woody save Forky, and why does she suddenly decide that she does want to? I suppose the reason is that she spent several years there waiting to be bought by a new owner and she has a bad relationship with Gally. But as with many other things in this film, they do not tell or show enough to convince me that her choices are a result of natural progression and decision-making as opposed to just moving the script forward. Another good example of this problem, and perhaps my biggest issue with the film as a whole is this: Why does Bonnie no longer want to play with Woody? Why does she constantly leave him out of playtime with the other toys? This is probably one of the most important plot points of the film, giving Woody motivation for much of what he does throughout the film - and yet the film refuses to actually tell the audience why Bonnie decided to act like he doesn't exist anymore.