Celebrating a quarter century of fun and sheer brilliance

Rating: 9/10 (15 July 2019)

"Toy Story 4" (2019 release; 100 min.) brings the on-going adventures of Woody, Buzz Lightyear and the rest of the gang. As the movie opens, Andy has passed along his toys to a young girl, Bonnie. Bonnie regularly passes over Woody when choosing what toys to play with. But when Bonnie is denied taking a toy with her by her dad for her kindergarten orientation day, Woody makes a bold move and sneaks into her backpack. At school, Bonnie is alone but with the "help" from Woody, she makes a new toy, a spork whom she names Forky and she absolutely adores... At this point we're 10 minutes into the movie, but to tell you more of the plot would spoil your viewing experience, you'll just have to see for yourself how it all plays out,
Couple of comments: it blows the mind that it's been 24 years since the original "Toy Story" was released. Now a quarter-century later (and exactly 20 years since "Toy Story 2"), the gang is at it again. The movie is so well done on so many levels, first and foremost at the actual story-telling level. The film's pace is fast much of the time: only so many minutes, with so much to tell. Second, all of these characters are now so familiar to us, it's like going to a long-delayed family reunion. Then there is the supreme voice cast with Tom Hanks and Tim Allen being top notch once again. But the big surprise for me in "Toy Story 4" is how much of it is really intended for audiences that are not kids. One good example is the entire side thread involving the "defective" girl toy Gabby Gabby (sorry, I shan't say more). I was 35 when the original "Toy Story" came out, and my kids were 9 and 6, so you can do the math, yet we all still love this franchise. Here's hoping that we can do this again in another decade. But don't make it much longer than that. I'm not getting any younger!
"Toy Story 4" is now in its 4th weekend in the theaters. I purposefully waited that long so as to avoid some over the big crowds. This Sunday's early evening screening here in Cincinnati was attended perfectly from that perspective (about 25 in total, mostly extended families with young kids). Interestingly, I don't think any of these young kids were older than 6 or 7. In other words: none of them were even born when "Toy Story 3" came out (in 2010). It is no coincidence that "Toy Story" is the highest rated franchise ever in Rotten Tomatoes' history, and of course is Certified Fresh. "Toy Story 4" is a WINNER all the way.