GUYS…IT AIN’T THAT BAD - Toy Story 4
For the past few months, I’ve been seeing a lot of people ganging up on Toy Story 4. Countless negative reviews about it, some people wanting to write it off as non-canon, and I’m sure as you all know, that damn 6 hour rant. And I had to start asking the question “wait, really?” I mean, yeah, I’m not gonna act like it doesn’t have its problems, and it certainly doesn’t hold a candle to the first three, but I still argue it still stands as a quality conclusion to the franchise…well, it was until Disney greenlit a terrible sounding fifth movie…and Lightyear too, I guess. But again, I’m gonna take the chance to get into what works, what doesn’t work, and what ultimately keeps it afloat. Now, keep in mind that this isn’t a means to debunk any negative feelings you may have toward this film, this is all my opinion. I’m not gonna gaslight anyone into liking the movie - you’re still allowed to think it’s a bad film. I’m just here to play devil's advocate and give my two cents on this feature. Let’s begin.
Let’s actually start off with the problems I had with the movie. A common criticism I’ve seen everyone make is regarding what they do with Buzz and his little inner-voice gimmick. And while I don’t think it’s as bad as people make it out to be, I still don’t like it that much. My biggest problem with it is that it’s a very “one-joke” subplot. Every time we cut back to Buzz, you pretty much know what the joke is gonna be. He’s gonna use his voice box to get out of a jam, boom, done. Subplot. Bam. Plus, once he reunites with Woody and Bo, he loses a lot of his plot relevance until he gets back to the RV. He just becomes someone who’s just kinda along for the ride. Granted, I’d make the argument that after the second film, the writers didn’t really know what to do with Buzz, but a little more significance would be nice. In fact, that’s another issue I had with the film: unless we’re talking about Woody, Buzz, Bo and maybe Jessie, the original side characters don’t serve a ton of purpose, if at all. Granted, they get one scene near the end, even if the scene itself is a little dumb, and I do understand why they couldn’t use Mr. Potato Head, considering the passing of Don Rickles, but at the same time, name one thing Rex did in this film, or Slinky, or even Hamm. They feel more like window dressing to the bigger picture. This is especially disappointing considering this is meant to be these toys’ last hurrah, so giving them more screen time would make more sense to give them proper sendoffs. The only exception to this is Dolly, and I do kinda like her presence in the story as the leader of Bonnie’s toys. She’s kind of the Woody to Bonnie’s Andy, a role that I always assumed belonged to the porcupine in Toy Story 3. But even then, it doesn’t last long since, like the others, she doesn’t get a ton of screen time. I’d even add that Ducky and Bunny, as hysterical as they are, don’t add a ton. I know, they’re meant to be the comic relief, but that role gets filled later by Duke Caboom and Giggle McDimples, so why are Ducky and Bunny tagging along? From here on out, my problems are pretty much just nitpicks, like if Bonnie doesn’t care about Woody, why is she playing with him in the RV? But my last major problem with it is the biggest problem anyone has with the movie: did we really need it? The series arguably had a top-notch ending, perhaps the perfect way to cap off the series. And while I give credit to the writers that they didn’t just undo the emotional impact of it and instead expand on it (trust me, I’ll get to that in a little bit), but still, when it was announced I was getting very “cash-grab sequel” vibes. But again, that was pretty much subverted once I saw it, since I don’t see it as a lazy add-on at all, I consider it more as the series’ epilogue. Though, from what I’m hearing about the fifth film - now that’s a movie that feels like a cash-grab. Alright, that’s enough negative chatter - let’s talk the good stuff.
One of the reasons I think Toy Story 4 works is the way it serves as a finale. I won’t get into everything about this here, since I wanna save a certain aspect for a later paragraph, but while not everything works, such as how they don’t use the classic characters, but the film is chock-full of references to the past films and even some of the shorts. I’m gonna get this out of the way, I’ll admit that there were times when I first saw the film when I was basically that “pointing Leonardo DiCaprio” meme with some of the sight gags, such as the gang stopping by the Dinoco gas station from the first movie, the reveal of the title being a shot-for-shot recreation of how it was in the first, Woody chasing Forky down outside the Poultry Palace restaurant from that one short that played before The Muppets, Woody being acquainted with the clock dude from the Halloween special, and my personal favorite sight gag, Woody hiding behind a lunchbox with a Battlesaur from that dinosaur special on it. Granted, a lot of them aren’t subtle (except maybe the clock), but they’re still nice touches either way. Another way this works as a finale is through Randy Newman’s score. First and foremost, I wanna give a shoutout to the song “I Can’t Let You Throw Yourself Away”, which not only serves as a great song that ties into the scene really well, but it’s overall just a jam. Definitely one of the most underrated Toy Story songs. There’s that little “Lonesome Cowboy” ditty as well, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t find that one a little forgettable. As for the score, Newman cleverly utilises a ton of the classic motifs from the original films. Examples of this being the score from the opening of the second film blasting when Buzz looks for Woody in the carnival, the rescue mission at the beginning being set to the score from when Buzz and Woody flew to the car in the first film, Woody’s main theme playing over the Disney logo and, my favorite part of the whole score, the fact that Woody starts his new life, effectively ending his story, with the same music that started it. It’s a beautiful sendoff to the character that always moves me to tears every time I hear it. And again, there’s one more aspect as to why this is a great finale, but we’ll get to that in a little while.
Before I go over the most important aspect, I quickly wanna go over the character Gabby Gabby. I’ve seen a lot of people on Twitter call her a lame excuse for a sympathetic villain. I know I said I didn’t wanna disrespect any opinions, obviously you’re allowed to dislike this character, but…what version of the movie did you guys watch? Spoilers for later in this review, but I love how the purpose of the lost toys is helping other toys find a kid. That’s a great subversion of the themes of the originals, and for Woody’s start to this gang, who better to start with than Gabby? At first, she seems pretty straightforward - she reveals that she has a busted voice box and incites the conflict by kidnapping Forky with her little demon puppets, got it, done. But as the film progresses, they actually do something I’m surprised they haven’t done in the past three films - talk things out. She reveals that upon hearing about Woody’s adventures with both Andy and Bonnie, she wants an opportunity to actually feel loved and appreciated by a kid. And in the end, Woody actually does something kinda surprising: he kinda lets her win. He actually hands over his voice box in exchange for Forky to give Gabby a chance to be played with. And at first, everything goes to plan, the kid picks her up, the lighting gets brighter and brighter, this is Gabby at her happiest. But in a surprising twist, the kid she wanted just throws her aside. We then see Gabby alone in a box, the lighting growing dark, she doesn’t even have the resolve to climb out. What was meant to be her highest point in life just became her lowest. This is what kicks off Woody's desire to help toys get owners, since through an elaborate plan with Bo and the others, she winds up in the hands of a lost little girl. She takes her home with her, finally allowing her to fulfil her lifelong dream. It's some really great stuff and I'm glad they decided to take a different approach with a Toy Story villain.
But above all, I think the thing that works the most about Toy Story 4 is how they portray Woody. The film takes a whole bevvy of interesting directions with his character that all tie into one key aspect: Woody is now being neglected. As you can imagine, going from one of Andy’s favorite toys to being tossed aside in a closet isn’t ideal for the guy, and he yearns to get back into the swing of things. Because that’s the purpose of a toy: being played with by a kid, right? Well, no. The movie plays around with that concept set up in the first three films and is actually about Woody finding his own purpose beyond being played with, which he initially finds in Forky. This is a side note, but seeing Woody all gung-ho about making sure Forky’s there for Bonnie contrasted with how he was in the first movie, wanting Buzz out of the picture? It’s a bit obvious as character development goes, but it’s still a nice touch. But Forky proves to be a bother with how he keeps trying to throw himself in the trash, culminating in him jumping out of the RV. Woody leaps out and, in an effort to bring him back to reality, inadvertently brings up Andy. Suddenly, Woody rambling about the important part of being a toy to Forky almost seems like he's revealing to the spork that he's still not over Andy. And from there, he's practically forced to talk to him about his time with Andy, ending in him realising that now, he doesn't have that strong a purpose. Afterwards, once Woody reunites with Bo, the in-depth character study with Woody kinda pauses for a little bit. They touch on it briefly, such as when Woody brings up Molly to coerce Bo into helping him find Forky, but they gloss over it to stick to the saving Forky plot...until we reach the third act. The mission failed, Woody wants to go back and do it again, an argument erupts, yada yada yada. But Woody lets it slip that getting Forky back to Bonnie is all he has left to do with his life. If he doesn't succeed, then what? What does he have left? He tries designating that to him being loyal, but upon seeing how Bo reacts to that statement, we kinda start seeing Woody briefly second-guess what he said, even if he ends up sticking to it by going in to save Forky. Then we get that scene I spoke about earlier with Woody talking things out with Gabby, where she confesses that all she wants is to be played with, and...well, you guys know. She gets the voice box, the kid she wanted throws her aside, and he gets her to another kid. And then we get the ending, where Woody ultimately leaves his friends behind to be a lost toy. I've seen a lot of people interpret this as Woody leaving his friends to specifically get with Bo, but if you ask me, that's not the case at all. As Woody approaches the RV, I always interpreted him contemplating as "does he wanna sit alone in a shelf not getting played with or stay behind and help other toys get a kid like he did with Gabby?". And it's Buzz that gives him the go-ahead by assuring him that it's okay if he doesn't come with them. If he was doing it solely to get back together with Bo, this scene wouldn't work at all. But because Woody's main motivation is assigning toys to owners, it becomes clear that his time being a child's plaything is done, and now he's given an opportunity to be basically his own person and fulfil his own goals. It's the best conclusion the guy could get.
And that's why I think Toy Story 4 is a great movie! Once again, I must repeat: if this post didn't convince you to like the film, that's okay - you're still allowed to disagree with what I think. And if there's something you liked about it that I left out, feel free to let me know. Bye!
About the Author: JF the LOLZOR
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