Curse this fearful life of infinite sorrow!
In the haphazardly endearingToy Story 4, Woodys more precarious than ever.
Kindergarten-bound Bonnie (Madeleine McGraw) doesnt play with him at all.
Credit: ©2019 Disney/Pixar
She removes his Sheriffs badge and gives it to Jessie (Joan Cusack).
The future of wild western law enforcement is female, and Woodys gathering dust bunnies in the closet.
Running the room was my job, he recalls fondly.
Disney/Pixar
All iswasfor Woody now.
He lost the lead role.
Bonnie adores Forky, as all humanity soon will.
Hail Forky, the worldcure!
The charming monstrosity abhors Bonnies love, though, and would rather return to the warm embrace of nonexistence.
Woody always desperately clings to life: His kid, his friends, his sense of personal self-worth.
Whereas Forky keeps jumping into a garbage can, struggling to escape from toyhood.
Forkyistrash, says Forky.
It brings to mind theBride of Frankenstein, when Boris Karloff declares WE BELONG DEAD.
Frankensteins monster was the original Forky, turns out.
Toy Story 4has much more going on than Forky, unfortunately.
(Sorry: Unforkunately.)
On the trip, Woody finds himself in a store called Second Chance Antiques.
(Established 1986, the sign reads, the same year Pixar became an independent company.)
So Gabby Gabby is groovy groovy, and Forky is forking great.
This overstuffed movie throws in another complication, though.
An opening flashback explains what happened to Woodys lost love Bo Peep (Annie Potts).
The porcelain shepherd reappears at the carnival with a new attitude.
What changed her so?
Some kids play rougher than others, she says.
You wouldnt believe the things Ive seen.
Lady, have you seen Forky?
Im of two minds here.
Bo Peeps arrival offers Woody a new kind of conflict.
He wants to take care of Bonnie, and hes badly missed Bo Peep.
Problem: I dont really understand the difference.
Theres a pile-up problem, too, so many new characters alongside all the old ones.
Did development of this movie get lost somewhere between sequeldom and spin-offery, juggling old toys with new stories?
Kids wont care, though they will wonder why Jessie gets relegated backwards to seventh banana status.
HerToy Story2role remains the best character arc in any Pixar movie from the B.F. era (BeforeForky).
Some repetition sets in.
Jordan Peele and Keegan-Michael Keyvoice carnival toyswho look a tad familiar.
Still, his stunt-casting is the kind of referential gag Pixar used to avoid: Yes, heWhoas.
Is this a cash grab?Toy Story 4doesnt hit the emotional highs of the previous films.
There are good jokes that work and heist setpieces that dont.
The ending is moving, though now you distrust any finality with this saga.
Woodys story inToy Story 4is an emotional, if familiar, journey towards self-realization.
Bo Peep offers him, and us, a stranger perspective.
She shows him the glorious horizon of the outside world.
Who needs a kids room, she asks, When you could have all of this?
Shes a toy who wants to tell her own story.
It looks more plastic than any spork.
Cast your googly eyes, instead, back to Forky.
It took Pixar decades of technological innovation, but they finally made a beautiful piece of trash.B
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