What to Watch: Toy Story 4

by Mike “You’ve Got A Friend In Me” Lunsford, Editor-in-Chief of the Great Geek Refuge

I’m a Disney fan. There’s no point in trying to act tough or macho about it, I love just about anything Disney puts out, especially now that they own Marvel and Star Wars. There are some of their movies and projects that don’t interest me and initially, Toy Story 4 was one of those “meh” pieces of media. What other story could they possibly tell with Woody, Buzz and the gang? I felt like Toy Story 3 was a great way for those characters to ride off into the sunset. But, as my life happily has become, my viewing choices were impacted by my son. He saw that the movie was out on Blu Ray and HAD TO SEE IT. So there we were. I gotta give the kid credit; he chose wisely.

For you spoiler-free folks out there, I give this movie 9 out of 10 stars. Yes, it is that good and I probably should have made the time to see this in the theater. Toy Story 4, like it’s predecessors is a wonderful family movie. It blends the concepts of action, adventure, child-friendly animation, suspense, comedy and thoughtful narrative concepts into a well-rounded film. It is so much more than eye candy.

This movie was incredibly well crafted and deals with some pretty heavy concepts that fly right over the kids and nail their parents in the forehead. Don’t believe me? Without spoiling it for those of you who haven’t seen it and want a fresh take, the movie boils down to this: what do you do with your life when your sole purpose no longer exists? Pretty deep for an animated movie that has a talking spork as one of its main characters. All the spoiler-y stuff is below the aforementioned talking garbage.

Still with me? Good! Let’s dive into the rich, creamy spoiler-filled bits of this movie. I mentioned above that this movie has some serious substance. Let’s start with one of the more interesting aspects of that.

Before I get to the crux of the “big reveal,” let me state that I went into this movie knowing what would happen. Often with new movies, I want to know the details and I’ll look into it to see if it’ll be worth my time. When I read that Woody was leaving the other toys, I rolled my eyes. “There’s no way this story can hold up,” I thought. “After losing Andy, why would Woody leave all of his other toy friends?” The answer was Bo Peep, but there is so much more to it than that.

As you can see from the poster, Bo Peep is back for Toy Story 4. How did that happen and where did she go? Well…nine years earlier, after the events of Toy Story 2 and prior to the events of Toy Story 3, Bo Peep and Woody were trying to rescue RC, Andy's remote controlled car. They were successful and just as they finished the rescue, Bo is donated to a new owner. Woody considered going with her and is ready to leave…but then he heard Andy desperately looking for him and changed his mind at the last second. It was a harsh reminder of how these toy’s lives hinge on their owners and the connections they form with them. Because of Andy’s love for Woody, he would do everything he could to stay with him. But because of the indifference Andy’s sister showed towards Bo Peep and her sheep, they now belonged to someone else.

Time passes on and years later the toys now belong to Bonnie who plays with them often. Woody is struggling, though. He’s gone from the go-to toy for Andy to an afterthought in Bonnie’s closet. He tries to find something to do that will be meaningful, so on the day of Bonnie's kindergarten orientation, Woody sneaks into her backpack to ensure things go smoothly for her. He sees Bonnie struggling with her first kindergarten interaction so Woody covertly recovers materials from the trash, including a spork, some pipe cleaners and popsicle sticks to give her an art project. Bonnie turns the spork into a handmade toy she names Forky that magically comes to life. However, he doesn’t know anything other than his role as a spork, and considers himself to be trash (which is a whole new level of existentialism for the Toy Story franchise).

Forky becomes Bonnie's favorite toy and Woody takes it upon himself to prevent Forky from throwing himself away, as he hilariously does often as we first meet him. Woody eventually explains to Forky how much Bonnie loves him and he his won over to his new life as a toy.

“You see Forky, a common trend amongst youngsters is to call themselves ‘trash’ and your definitive statement that you are trash resonates with them!”

As Woody and Forky are walking back to catch up with Bonnie and the toys (great band name, btw) they walk into a town on their way to the RV Park where Bonnie’s family stopped for the night. They find an antique store that houses Bo’s lamp and eventually they run into Bo and her sheep. This almost cosmic chance reunion shows Woody that Bo is a “lost toy” who is far from lost: she helps other lost toys find homes and in doing so, found herself. Now I understood his motivation. Without Andy, with Bonnie not really being that into him, what was Woody’s life? He could be with Bo Peep and he would be happy. They could help toys find owners together and make a difference.

The other toys are featured in the movie, but this really is a Woody story. It’s about his struggle, his desire to find meaning. What we see from him in this movie is incredible character growth. No good characters are static; they have to change in order for them to be interesting, otherwise they are boring and wooden (no pun inten….no, no…I meant that one).

In fact, another interesting facet of this movie was the incredible message that Woody embodies. When he and Forky come across Bo Peep’s lamp, they go into the antique store and meet one of its long time residents, a talking doll named Gabby Gabby (Christina Hendricks). She’s as cute as she can be but hides some pretty dark motives. Plus, her actions were pretty intimidating and frightening.

“What are you talking about, Mike? She’s adorable! How could she possibly do anything…”

“Oh…the dummy. That’s…unsettling.”

“OH GOD, THERE’S AN ARMY OF THEM?????”

Gabby Gabby was a sympathetic villain. She had been stuck in the antique store most of her life and never had an owner. On top of that, her voice box was broken, so the prospect of her finding an owner at this point was pretty slim. She noticed that Woody’s voice box worked perfectly and asks Woody for it, mind you, as her ventriloquist dummy paws at it. He politely declines, while being appropriately creeped out. He and Forky try to get out there as fast as possible but Forky ends up stuck in the antique store with Gabby. And let’s not mince words here, Gabby Gabby was the villain. She kidnapped Forky, kept him hostage (he was kinda too dumb to get it, but whatever) and tried to take Woody’s voice box from him. Her methods were far from virtuous.

But here’s where things get interesting: Woody still helps Gabby. After the rest of the toys have left to go their separate ways following their failure to retrieve Forky from Gabby, Woody goes back for Forky telling Buzz Lightyear “this is all I have left,” in a heartfelt moment. He approaches Gabby and her nightmare-inducing-ventriloquist-dummy-army to try and get Forky back. While he was her “prisoner”, he had told Gabby all about the life that Woody had with Andy. She tells Woody how that is all she’s ever wanted: to have a child that loves her as much as Andy loved him, to just have one of those amazing moments with a child. Woody, trades his voice box for Forky. He also tries to help Gabby find an owner in a truly selfless act. She was downright frightening and nefarious in her plans and he still chose to help her? Damn, that’s a lesson for us all. On top of that, when the girl Gabby has been trying to attract (Harmony, the granddaughter of the antique store’s owner) sees her and hears her with her fancy new functional voice box, she flatly declines her Grandmother’s offer to take her home and tosses her in an old milk crate. Ouch. Woody could have left her right then. He could have grabbed his trash-buddy Forky and called it a day, but he stuck around and helped Gabby. And why did he help her even after she tried to forcibly remove his voice box, kidnapped his friend and made life in general difficult? Because it was the right thing to do. Because she wasn’t that much different than him. All she wanted was meaning in her life and never having an owner, she never got to have that experience. That’s empathy. That’s sympathy. Those are both qualities all of us can use in today’s world.

Eventually they start making their way back to Bonnie. After Bo Peep shows up to help him get back to the RV, Woody asks Gabby Gabby to join them, saying that Bonnie will love her. He didn’t have to do any of that. Again, he could have left her there, heck, he could have created another Forky if he really felt like it but instead he chose to help another toy because he knew that it was the right thing to do. They all leave for the carnival, trying to get back to the camper and the other toys. Gabby Gabby sees a scared, lost child and decides that this is where she wants to be: with this lost little girl. You see an immediate connection between the two and it’s an incredible moment. Again, Woody gave Gabby Gabby the chance to be good, the chance to do something like live with the other toys and be with Bonnie but instead she chooses to do something risky. She was burned hard by Harmony and putting her self out there again was risky, but she did what she knew was the right thing and it paid off incredibly. And you walk away from watching this moment thinking “it is worth it to put yourself out there to do something noble.”

And a technical note, the carnival scenes were incredible to watch. It looked photo-realistic and the lighting effects were a marvel to behold.

With some help from the rest of the toy crew, the RV is there to meet Woody, Bo Peep, Duke Caboom (Keanu Reeves), and new additions Ducky and Bunny (Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele). As Woody is saying an emotional farewell to Bo Peep, Buzz sees how Woody is struggling with another goodbye. He tells Woody “she’ll be alright…Bonnie will be alright, Woody.” This shows Woody that the other toys understand how difficult the transition has been for him and they want him to be happy. Woody hands his sheriff’s badge to Jesse (a callback to the beginning of the movie when Bonnie pinned it on her vest to play) and leaves with Bo Peep. That initial “oh, come on! Woody would never leave all his friends like this!” thought I had was completely bogus as you see that Woody, Bo Peep, Giggles McDimple, Ducky, Bunny and Duke Caboom are traveling with the carnival to help other toys find children. He has a purpose again. The message coming from the other toys, that it is okay to not see your friend any more because they are doing something that gives them purpose is a wonderful one. These toys understand that their lives are ones of ownership. Once their kid gets tired of them, they are often gone with no fanfare or anything of the sort. They have to carve out a purpose at times, and Woody’s choice is that much more selfless with this understanding.

Some other notes:

• Keanu Reeves as Duke Caboom was wonderful. He is the Canadian Evel Knievel and has the same swagger as any daredevil would, except his story is tragic. He was a Boxing Day gift to a young Canadian boy, but like all of us have experienced, the toy did not live up to its advertising. Young Rejean throws Duke away after Duke can’t complete the stunt jump as shown on TV. He is thrown away the same day, and Duke is never the same. He is not sure he can actually accomplish the feats shown in his commercial but he gets a shot at redemption with Woody and the gang. Reeves plays the character well and you can tell he had a lot of fun doing it.

• Key and Peele as Ducky and Bunny were hilarious. They were the typical cute and fluffy carnival toys but Key and Peele were given the opportunity to shine with their comedic abilities. They gave some amazing depth to these characters and they really were the comic relief for the film. One of the funniest parts of the movie is the clip below.

• Buzz Lightyear got to have a bit of character growth as well. Seeing his running mate, Woody having a crisis of meaning, Buzz tries to help as best he can. Woody talks about his “inner voice” and Buzz, well, he’s not the brightest of toys, struggles with the concept, thinking Woody was referring to his push-button talk feature. You can see that Buzz sort of understands this as his voice feature doesn’t give him the advise he’s looking for at times but it in the end, he sees that Woody’s destiny lies beyond life with Bonnie. Buzz lets Woody know that she’ll be OK without him, but he really meant that all the other toys will be, too.

I really didn’t think I would give a crap about this movie. It seemed like it was just another Disney cash grab. Hey…I love Disney but I’ll readily admit that they go for the low-hanging fruit all the time (see all of the “live action remakes” they are doing). This was definitely not that. It had some really deep concepts and and incredible message about find meaning in your life by helping others and moving on from painful losses. Oh, and of course respecting the sanctity of Boxing Day.

“Yes we Can-ada!”

Toy Story 4 is a delightful movie for the entire family. As any good Disney flick will do, there will be plenty to entertain the kiddos and tons of stuff to keep their parents interested too. I give this 9 out of 10 little green aliens. You need to see it.