Concept over story

Rating: 5/10 (8 August 2019)

These four movies have largely had the exact same plot which revolves around lost toys finding homes and strangers seeking companionship. While the third really elevated the simplicity of these movies for me by showing the darker emotions that stem from being cast out, the fourth is such a weak return to form that it leaves me wondering why it even needed to exist.
The plot is only there to service the statement that the creators wanted to state, which I will leave out if you haven't seen the film yet. A non-existent villain, weak time constraints, a very on-the-nose new character, and a whole lot of melodrama about growing old that is not unique to this movie make me wish that the final "revelation" about the toys was fit into the third entry or just ignored altogether. It's something that sounds sweet outside the movie, but the point is hammered into your brain so blatantly that it loses the deftness with which Pixar so famously tells their stories.
All in all, the film felt mediocre and served as a weak goodbye to these characters that already cemented their friendship powerfully in the previous movie.