The Old Magic Is Largely Gone

Rating: 5/10 (1 July 2019)

The first three Toy Story films comprise one of the tightest, most well-executed film trilogies of all time. Fans literally grew up with Andy and his toys (or could relate to the journey), and the ending of the third film is one of the best and most emotional in any franchise, animated or otherwise. When a fourth film was revealed to be in the pipeline, I was skeptical that it could never reach the heights of the original three. But Disney/Pixar kept reiterating that they had an idea that "couldn't be denied", so of course I was intrigued to see what the next chapter would bring. Unfortunately, though not a terrible film by any means, I found Toy Story 4 to be largely lacking that "old magic" that made the trilogy so perfect.
For a basic overview, Toy Story 4 sees Bonnie playing with Woody (Tom Hanks), Buzz (Tim Allen), and the gang much like Andy had before her. But then Bonnie goes away to kindergarten and comes back with a new favorite: the craft-project "Forky" (Tony Hale), a spork who is technically a toy (even in the most rudimentary form). Despite Woody's efforts to guide Forky through the new toy's identity crisis, Forky escapes and necessitates a man-hunt (or toy-hunt, if you will) to keep Bonnie happy on the family vacation. While on the chase, Woody meets up with old flame Bo Peep (Annie Potts), now a completely independent toy who survives on her own without an owner. Being pulled in multiple different directions, Woody must come to terms with his destiny and make hard choices he has never yet been confronted with.
The main word I'll use to describe the experience of watching Toy Story 4: awkward. As an adventure tale it is a decent enough romp (Pixar can practically do that in their sleep), but in terms of the deep character analysis that the Toy Story franchise has become known for, this one just doesn't live up to the billing.
The biggest problem with the movie is that it seems utterly fractured in what it wants to be. Is this a movie about helping a burgeoning toy come to grips with himself? Or is it a treatise on Bo Peep's independence vs. Woody's slavish devotion to an owner? Both of those are very interesting topics in their own right, but they don't function well together in a film that only runs about 100 minutes long. It really feels like one of those ideas should have comprised the core of this film, not both trying to exist concurrently. I think I would have preferred the latter approach, (as I do not believe the Forky character was a strong or important one, overall) really deepening the interplay between Woody and Bo Peep.
Another problem that overall schism leads to is that besides Woody, Forky, and Bo Peep, all the other characters serve a pretty limited function. Buzz has a storyline that seems pretty asinine, while the likes of Jesse (Joan Cusack), Rex (Wallace Shawn), Hamm (John Ratzenberger), and Mr. Potato Head (Don Rickles) are hardly given any lines or really anything interesting to do. Of the new characters added, I only found Duke Kaboom (Keanu Reeves) and Combat Carl (Carl Weathers) to be funny or interesting. Vintage doll Gabby Gabby (Christina Hendricks) has an arc that just doesn't play out very well, while carnival plushes Ducky (Keegan-Michael Key) and Bunny (Jordan Peele) feel odd and out-of-place.
Of course, part of the overall issue with TS4 is still its three predecessors set such a high bar to clear. Most of the time, animate films directed ostensibly towards the children's market will not appeal to adults in nearly the same fashion. But Toy Story was the rare trilogy that had me laughing with and crying over the characters long into adulthood. Neither of those two things happened to me while watching TS4. I legitimately chuckled no more than a few times, and never did I feel that deep connection to the characters that I once had.
So, despite being a perfectly acceptable animated film, "acceptable" is just not enough when compared to the previous efforts in this series. My guess is that kids will still eat this one up, but adults may leave the theater feeling as if that "old magic" has been sapped from the proceedings.