It's The Best Weak Squash...

Rating: 7/10 (31 July 2019)

As a child, Toy Story was something I would love and savour. Woody was a hero, one of the protagonists of my childhood; not to mention Buzz.
Toy Story 4 is a visual marvel, no doubt. The lighting and textures are GORGEOUS, and the sound design is similarly spectacular. The story is what knocks this down a few tiers.
The thing is, this movie is pointless. The story is easily the weakest, far weaker than the rest of the three masterpieces, and the themes of the film, namely what it means to be a toy, aren't explored creatively enough or thoroughly enough to merit anything else than a brief sense of sorrow.
It's lost potential. You don't see much of the characters from the prequels , and the ones that appear the most (Woody and Buzz) seem like they were written by people who don't really know the characters, diluted into much less soulful characters than they once were.
That being said, there are moments of comedy and moments of sadness. Toy Story 4 is certainly not bad, as I found the comedy to be some of the best of the four films in the series.
Undoubtedly, Toy Story 4 is a film worth watching, but the diluted nature of both the plot and characters warrants only a 7 to the prequels scores of 9, 9 and 10 respectively.