Disney Pixel has really stepped up it’s game lately. And boy are they on a roll. This has to be the year of the sequels and reboots. Toy Story 4 fits right into that category. Like a category 4 hurricane but a good storm. Director Josh Cooley has a followup to the Toy Story franchise that started in 1995. Two more stories followed in 1999 and 2010. I am here to tell you number 4 is absolutely fantastic, funny and entertaining. The animation is spectacular and that credit goes to Pixar as they have a tight grip on that achievement.
This has the same characters with some new faces. The focus here is all about Forky (wonderfully voiced by Tony Hale) a spork made by Bonnie in Kindergarten. Loyal fans will remember at the end of Toy Story 3, nine years ago, all the toys were given to a little girl (Bonnie) by Andy. After Woody (voiced by Tom Hanks) crawls into her backpack and throws some items from the trash up on her table to help with her craft project. Add a popsicle stick and a spork and there comes a wired-up new toy she named Forky.
During the end of summer Bonnie and her parents set out on a RV trip to a carnival. Forky wants to escape. On Woody’s journey through the carnival he sees his his old flame Bo Peep’s lamp in an antique shop and that sets off a new chain of events involving creepy dolls with bad agendas. I am glad Toy Story 4 stuck to it’s original formula. It’s one of the best Pixar sequels out there now and come June 21, you can verify that yourself. Let’s not forget about some famous actors who help voice these characters like the late and great Don Rickles, Annie Potts, Keanu Reeves (the voice of Duke Caboom) and the excessive team involved in the making of the movie. I always stay for the credits to actually see how many hundreds of workers have a hand in putting a film together no matter what the title would be. 4 1/2 stars (out of 5).
