A crushing disappointment on many fronts

Rating: 4/10 (22 October 2019)

I am not sure where to begin with this film. The unnecessary extension of the franchise isn't what bothers me about this film. It isn't that the script is unfocused. It is that Buzz is reduced down to an extended cameo that is just one joke. It is not the film's theme about Woody retiring does not really track with any of the prior films. Or that Gabby Gabby's entire arch is unearned and she gets her big moment because of a lazy writing cheat. No what really bothers me is just how generic it is.
I know this is going to seem like a trivial point but if you compare Scud (bad dog in Toy Story) and the cat in this movie you can see how Pixar's fixation on photorealism and re-arranging tropes render the film exceptionally rote and dull. The cat in this film is far more realistic looking than Scud ever was. There are more than a dozens shots that look like a real cat that one can find on the internet. The fur is rendered in minute detail. Scud's eyes were weird looking. His legs looked like toothpicks. He was odd. But he stood apart as character with his own identity. I guess one could argue that Scud is less polished than the cat. But the cat is an utter failure as a character. There is nothing about it that sets it apart from any other cat. AND given that the cat's narrative function is largely the same as Scud's it blends into the background.
This film is disappointing because it is so flavorless.