It hits all the beats a Toy Story film should, although somewhat less effectively

Rating: 9/10 (23 June 2019)

Toy Story 4 is another story that tackles the difficulties of growing up and moving on. On Kindergarten orientation day, Bonnie (McGraw) creates another toy: Forky (Hale) who has an existential crisis about his place in the world. While on a road trip with Bonnie's family, Forky ejects himself from the family RV, thinking he is trash, that is when he learns what it means to be there for Bonnie and what it means to be a toy. Along the way, he runs into some new faces and some old ones as well. Through many adventures and missteps does Woody realize his place in the world.
What the Toy Story movies have always done well is make the audience laugh and this is no exception. Ducky (Key) and Bunny (Peele) steal every scene they are in and are definitely the best additions to the cast, other great additions are Duke Kaboom (Reaves) and Forky who are welcome new addition with their own quirky character traits and well developed character arcs. Although what Toy Story movies do better than any other animated movie do is make the audience cry, and yes, this movie did in the best way possible. Growing up with these characters over twenty years can make one nostalgic for the times they were a kid and think back to all the toys they have had and the lives they might be living now. Toy Story 4 basically takes everything that made the first three great and does it again, but with new ideas and new characters. Although it comes at a cost, and that is it minimizes the screen time of all the characters that were so necessary to the first three movies.
Some characters like the Potato Heads (Rickles and Harris), Rex (Shawn), Jessie (Cusack) and Bullseye for example take a back seat while Woody (Hanks) and Buzz (Allen) get all the fun with Bo Peep (Potts) and Gabby Gabby (Hendricks). It is a similar problem that the Last Jedi has as well. An abundance of new characters and old characters is great, they don't have to have arcs, but they should not just sit around while the plot happens. They should be more involved in the story or they should be removed completely. These old characters only exist in the story just because they have to otherwise fans would be upset. What is really unfair to fans is saying a character is in the movie and then having them do basically nothing.
My only other problem with Toy Story 4 is the re-animation of old characters like Andy and his mom. It's understandable that animation has progressed over twenty-four years, and it is understandable that animation quality has improved over nine years, since the last movie came out. However the animated appearance of these old human characters is a little unsettling, similarly to that of Princess Leia and General Tarkin from Rogue One. It was done well in Toy Story 3, so I am not sure what happened here. All that being said, the animation is phenomenal, the ceramic, glass and scenery as well as cotton is animated with immense detail, and the toys look more realistic than they have ever, there is no uncanny valley with the toys, or the settings.
This is admittedly my least favourite Toy Story movie, but it is still fantastic. It was originally billed as a standalone sequel, however it relies too much of previously established nostalgia to really be its own thing. Admittedly what separates this movie from the group is that it doesn't have that one suspenseful scene. For example, the first one had Woody and Buzz flying through the air, the second had the airplane chase scene, the third one had the toys holding hands in a furnace, number four had no such scene, or if it did, it did not have the same effect as the other three. It's not necessarily a bad thing, in fact it is a good thing that this movie isn't repeating similar beats as the first three. It is essentially the least Toy Story-like Toy Story movie.
In the end, the Toy Story trilogy is perfect and did not need a fourth movie in the first place, however I gladly welcome it, love it, laugh at it, cry with it and sometimes even be scared of it. I didn't ask for it, but I am glad it is here. Although the whole movie is basically an elongated episode of 'Tidying Up with Marie Kondo', if the objects were sentient.