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Some of us (including myself) would say that the first three episodes of Toy Story are the most beautiful trilogy in Hollywood history and that Toy Story 4 was an agonizing prospect for us. Nine years ago, Toy Story 3 seemed to be the perfect farewell for a perfect series. Another installment was therefore as welcome as a mustache and sunglbades painted on the Mona Lisa. We do not need to worry. In a few minutes, it is clear that the new cartoon, directed by Josh Cooley, will be as beautifully animated and as widely joked as the best work of Pixar. All lingering doubts vanish under the warm eyes of Woody (voiced by Tom Hanks), Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen) and the rest of the adorable and unsuitable group are reunited again.
It's a smaller entertainment, less moving and luckily less traumatic than the previous one
On the other hand, if Toy Story 4 does not tarnish the series, it does not show it either. It is a smaller entertainment, less moving, and thankfully, less traumatic than the last, less satisfying in its intrigues and less provocative in its themes. But it starts promising. Now that the boy of the previous three Toy Stories, Andy, went to college, the toys with which he grew up belong to Bonnie, a little girl who usually leaves Woody in the closet while she plays with everybody.
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To make things even more stressful for the very tense cowboy doll, Bonnie has to go to kindergarten and her parents insist she leave her toys at home. Woody, of course, hides in her backpack, but Bonnie builds herself a friend from a white plastic spatula, a red pipe cleaner and a wooden pacifier stick. She calls this bizarre creation Forky (Tony Hale) and, to Woody's surprise, not only does he become animated, but he becomes Bonnie's most precious possession. As improbable as this last twist may seem, it is not impossible: my own daughter was helpless when she lost her favorite toy, Spoony, the plastic spoon.
As in Pixar's Up, the most powerful part of Toy Story 4 is its opening 15 minutes. This is where the film exposes the concern of a parent when his child goes to school (certainly, a concern that Pixar also mentioned in Finding Nemo), and where he asks about identity and independence – and exactly how these magic toys can walk and talk, anyway. You can say that Toy Story 4 plays with these ideas. But, like a child who is bored, he throws them quickly and sends his characters on a crazy adventure, just like Up. As soon as Bonnie returns from the nursery, she and her parents go on vacation to a rented motorhome, taking her toys with them. Forky blames that he is "trash" and continues to throw himself into garbage cans and out of windows, a pseudo-suicidal habit both hilarious and macabre.
Forky claims that he is "trash" and continues to throw himself in the garbage cans. and out the window
Woody does his best to convince this tortured soul that being a toy can be as gratifying as a disposable utensil, but it is distracted by the sight of a storehouse. Antiques from a small town. Sneaking inside in search of her lost love, a figurine of Bo Peep (Annie Potts) that appeared in the first two films of Toy Story, but was absent from the third, Woody falls into Gabby Gabby's clutches (Christina Hendricks), a damaged doll has drawings on her stringed vocal box. He runs away, but Forky no, which means it's time to move on to one of the franchise's rescue mission plots.
Toy Story cartoons are never far from being horror movies and shivers come from the vintage. the ventriloquist mannequins who are Gabby Gabby's imposing bodyguards. The balanced humor comes from Duke Caboom (Keanu Reeves), a Canadian figure of the type Evel Knievel, as well as two squirming stuffed toys (voiced by Jordan Peele and Keegan-Michael Key), and Bo Peep herself. same, which has been reinvented. acrobatic action heroine to compete with Rey in the latest Star Wars suites. The problem with all these extra characters is that they oust the restless dinosaur, the grumpy piggy bank and the other Toy Story regulars we've come to know and love. Even Buzz Lightyear is given a minor minor role, although his "inner voice" is a great everyday joke.
Another problem is the complexity and repetition of the plot: the heroes and the ten credited writers take a lot of time and trouble to save a plastic spork that does not really care about being saved . The stakes are simply not important enough to justify their efforts. The difference between this toy story and the others is that Bonnie created Forky just two days earlier. His recovery is therefore not very important compared to the fighting in Woody to reunite Andy. Indeed, the film is about to recognize this gap when Bo Peep refuses to help recover Forky in the shop. "Children are losing toys every day," she says. "She's going to recover."
She will certainly do it: my daughter has not mentioned Spoony for years. In the end, Toy Story 4 deals with Woody's apprenticeship that toys may not be as valuable to children as he likes to think, but they can not delve deeper into this thesis without undermining the premises. of the whole series. Message confused and compromised: some toys are important and others are not. some toys must be with children and others can very well be heard without them.
When Toy Story 3 came out, newspapers reported that adult men were coming out of the cinema in tears. As wonderful as Toy Story 4 is in many ways, the strongest emotion it arouses is the pity of Bonnie's parents, whose driving holidays are spoiled by Woody and her friends. If only toys had left Forky in this antiques store, the whole family would have been happier.
★★★★ ☆
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