This is a movie that didn't need to be made.

Rating: 4/10 (26 June 2019)

If the primary reason of the film was to tell us what happened to Bo Peep, just apologize and print a Golden Book about it. As it is, we don't get that answer until halfway through the movie.
There's nothing new here. We've already seen the creepy toys (dismembered baby doll & melted soldiers & screaming monkey) so what does a ventriloquist dummy (or three) add? We've already dealt with the lost/abandoned/forgotten/unplayed-with/fallen-out-of-favor tragedies of toyhood. We've even seen the embittered, mafia-esque villains, super-capable Barbies, and carnival-prize extras. The newest idea, exploring what it means to be a toy vs trash, barely scratches the surface when it turns out Forky is just the McGuffin to get Woody and Bo back together again, but again it takes half the film and a montage to get that far. Bo Peep is somewhat interesting as a hardened survivalist, but there's no substantial emotional tension between her and Woody, who were obviously in love with each other in previous episodes. Bo's callousness and Woody's accusations seem forced, attempting to add tension with no build-up. Whether they come together in the end doesn't matter because they've spent hardly any time realizing what the audience already knows, and that's a poor shortcut on the part of the writers: assuming everyone watching is invested in the relationship so their principals don't have to *feel* it on screen.
Speaking of the writing, why is Buzz Lightyear obsessed with his "inner voice?" While humorous, that's a thread best done in Toy Story 2, after Buzz understands he is a toy, but before he has to lead two rescue missions outside Andy's house and help his best friend make life-altering decisions.
The best part of Toy Story 4 is the cinematography. The details were amazing: I don't remember seeing the starbursts of Woody's irises before. From dust bunnies to cobwebs to Forky's pipe cleaners and the chandeliers, Toy Story 4 is very pleasing to see and take in. But this is not a travelogue where stunning scenery carries you past disjointed storytelling. The three plot lines (Forky, Bo Peep, Gabby Gaby) are better suited as STV specials, but not as a unified story. At the end, I'm left wondering if the filmmakers even bothered to watch the previous three Toy Story films to remind themselves of where their beloved characters have been, and what they've become, that culminated in one of the most powerful and satisfying endings to a franchise in animated cinema: Toy Story 3. Pixar should have left it there, because you don't want the latest thing you've done to detract from the best thing you've done.