 Toy Story Tunes Hawaiian Vacation is a six-minute short from 2011 set shortly after the events of Toy Story 3. It's shown in cinemas as a lead-in to Cars 2 because Pixar needed to remind you that they made Toy Story before you watch a race ahead with cars. In the short the characters Ken and Barbie stole Wayne Bonnie's school bag from sunny side daycare hoping to come with her and her family to an Hawaiian vacation. However, they end up stuck in Bonnie's room and I met by Woody in the gang who are making plans to play with themselves or Bonnie's Ken's really upset as he was planning a full retreat for him and Barbie that would have ended with their first kiss. Woody, Buzz and Jesse decide to go out of their way to help their friends put together a Y-themed home adventure for the two. Cue hijinks and little cutaways and the pair are totally into it and it culminates in their first kiss as the gang reflecting the joy that it brought them. Every single character is something to do in this. Everyone's pulling their weight and has some direct involvement in the plot. It reminds us of the connection this group has. They're a family, right? They stick together or some shit. With the third film it brought about the end of the story wrapping things up with a satisfying and sensical conclusion. Their old owner outgrew them, said his goodbyes and gave them to somebody who'll keep them safe. This short of the starter cars too was a no surprise to be sure helped by the nightmare that came after it. It seemed like these Toy Story tunes as well as the short films Toy Story of Terror and Toy Story that Time Forgot were the future of Toy Story. Cue little adventure serials that keep the toys where they were at the end of Toy Story 3 character-wise. If they wanted to make another feature, it'd have to be new characters with the new story or the gang passing on the torch to a new group of characters. No, not like that. Otherwise it could end up being that stale and stagnant straight-to-DVD feel that we got from The Incredibles 2, Finding Dory and Monsters University. The curtains were closed on the main event. Tears shared, laughs had, decade-spanning stories that took us from the first fully CGI animated film in 1995 to 2011 to close the final chapter. Then eight years later, Toy Story 4 came out. Now I love this film, and it is exceptionally poorly written. Regardless of my subjective feelings, the writing is objectively that bad. It contradicts the character's motivations from the previous three films, as well as them all being inconsistent in this film alone. More than ever before, the rules to this universe have broken. The logic within this world is exhausting. Immediately the first three films had their issues with world-building and logic, but not to this degree. And the originals overcame these issues with strong storytelling and character writing. But this one, the minor graze that was Toy Story's inconsistent world-building and logic, has begun a gaping, seeping wound, and the character writing has been knee-capped. If you enjoyed Toy Story 4, all the power to you, that's not what I'm arguing against in this video. I've never tried to convince you not to like a piece of media, or that you're not allowed to like it. You don't have to explain or justify yourself and the reasons why you like something. That's entirely subjective. There's a difference between liking or disliking something, and whether something is of good quality. There are films that I like that are shit, and I will happily admit to. I hate that I enjoy the 2005 Dukes of Hazard reboot, but my brother and I watched it as kids, and we and my friends would croak the dumb shit that they said in it. And it holds a murky, greasy, shameful face in my heart. It's terrible, but I love it. Unironically, I'm sorry. There are films that I don't like that are absolutely well-made. Like the thing, I wish I could enjoy it, but I personally can't connect with the characters, and I found it boring and repetitive. I can't in good faith say it's bad, though, because it's not. It's objectively well-made from a writing perspective. It's one of those movies that I appreciate more than I like. The characters are sounding consistent, and there's a logical throughline to the events that transpire. Here, it just doesn't crosswise with me. There are films that I like that are great, and there are films that I hate that are bad, like Toy Story 4. I'm trying to go at it like this. The aim or objective of criticizing this film right now in this video is to find issues with the writing. These issues are made evident through contradictions, inconsistencies, and gaps in the plot world and characters. I'll point out later in this video. Most of the character. On the other hand, you can use enjoyment of a film as an objective scale, i.e. did you enjoy it? The answer, however, whether or not you enjoyed it, that's subjective. It's going to be difficult to avoid the feelings I have toward the film and its issues. There'll be bits of subjectivity sprinkled throughout this video, but I'll try and keep the objective takes separate from the subjective. For example, this action or happenstance is inconsistent or contradictory to an earlier example, being objective versus this is boring, being subjective. Objective is the issue, subjective is how I feel about it. I could robotically inform you of all the issues of this film, but that wouldn't be as fun for me. I like swearing. Don't let the kids watch this one. Also, I am well aware that this is a kid's movie, which I apparently shouldn't care about because I'm an adult and this wasn't made for me. No matter that this film was clearly made with at least some intent of bringing in those who grew up with Toy Story 1 and 2, why else would they be bringing back both people? The fact that this is a kid's film doesn't mean it can't be great. It doesn't mean good writing doesn't matter. It's insulting to the writers of amazing kid's films. Some of them are my favorite films ever made. Some of the best movies ever made. Finally enough from Pixar. Toy Story 1 and 2, A Bug's Life, Monster's Inc, Finding Nemo, The Good Dinosaur, Lola, The Incredibles, Ratatouille, Wally, some of the greatest pieces of cinema, whether you're looking at them through a lens of kids movies, animated movies, or just films in general. If anything, the fact that these movies are of such high quality and are also kid's movies is important for two reasons. For one, these films are being watched by children and you can't need to be careful about what they present in terms of content and messaging. Think about show dogs making child beauty pageant grooming allegories, food fights inappropriate in your windows, couple with nightmarish animation and character design that no human should witness let alone a child, and playmobil the movie ignoring the implications of the main character trying to drug someone. Also the animated Titanic movies. Everybody's feeling fine cuz it's fun. The fucking animated Titanic movies. I doubt anyone would argue these movies are good or even appropriate regardless of the target audience. And two, it's pretty great that these writers would put so much effort into writing forward these movies that a lot of people just hold the attitude that they don't really need to be that good because they're just being watched by kids. Toy Story 4 failed its characters. Not just the big one, I'm saving him for last. The characters are the crux of Toy Story's staying power. The music, animation and character design, voice acting all aid the terrific character writing in the first three films of this series. And with Toy Story 4, the inept character writing hollows out all of these elements. I'm going to speak about how the returning characters are either ruined or abandoned in Toy Story 4. I won't focus on any of the new characters since they don't have anything before this movie. There are issues with them for sure. I'll only be mentioning them a few times though when recapping scenes along with some complaining about how annoying Ducky and Bunny are. By the way, this guy's name is Ducky too. The real Ducky. Also, what gives you my authority on these movies? Fuck you. Thank you for enduring this intro with that out of the way. Let's talk about Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head and the Three Aliens. It's interesting that Mr. Potato Head is portrayed as the villain in the first scene of Toy Story 1. This is during Andy's playtime scene when he's referred to as One-Eyed Bart. Outside of this, he is set up as the skivvy pessimistic Don Rickles type who's most opposed to Woody out of all the toys. He's the second biggest foyer to Woody behind Buzz out of the whole movie. I'd say he's sort of a red herring. He displays similar behaviors and attitudes towards Woody and General Toy Hood that would appear with lots of hug and bear and sticky Pete later on. That resentfulness towards another toy for being favored over them and bitterness towards the idea of being outgrown. He doesn't seem to like his position in Andy's playtime because he'll end up in Molly's cot by the end of it. He's pretty antagonistic to Woody. He mocks Woody's moving buddy plan. He could find it silly and unnecessary or just doesn't want to get stuck with Rex as a moving buddy. When Andy's birthday party is revealed to be happening much sooner than anticipated, Mr. Potato Head is shown to be shaken and at the prospect of being replaced. He ignores Woody's reassurance and is pointing out that Woody has been Andy's favorite since kindergarten and even goes so far as to call Slinky a kiss-ass. He seems overall pretty envious of Woody's position. There's a rivalry between the two. Maybe Mr. Potato Head was Andy's favorite before Woody came along? That's pretty open to interpretation though. He doesn't agree with Woody. Trust him even. That distrust in his eyes is proven right after Buzz is knocked out of the window. It's easy to see why Mr. Potato Head would have this notion about Woody based on the information that he's given and his preconceived idea of Woody's character. He knows on some level that Woody doesn't like Buzz. By the end of the film he sees that Woody has come around and Buzz and that to some extent the accident was blown out of proportion. Before this realization though he seems to be trying to enact some sort of leadership. When Woody comes back to try to rescue Buzz with RC from the moving van which the toys mistake as him coming back to finish the rest of them off. He realizes he overstepped his mistrust in Woody and as some sort of penance will go so far as to try and rescue him in the next film after Woody is stolen by Al. Potato Head shows a degree of regret and shame for what he did. He has to bring that up. He says to Buzz after he reminds him that him and the toys threw him at the back of the moving van. How about that? A character arc. Renovation. Agency. Nice. The end of Toy Story 2 he has attained some sort of redemption by rescuing the three little green men from the Pizza Planet Toyota truck. Eventually adopting the three as his own children at the behest of Mrs. Potato Head. In Toy Story 3 like some of the other characters he wants to leave and his room for sunny side daycare since the time of not being played with has left him jaded causing him to regress a little bit into his cynical ways. He's back to not believing in Woody mostly because of his lower quality of life rather than any sort of mistrust or enviousness of Woody. After it's revealed that sunny side daycare isn't all it's cracked up to be and that Andy was actually putting the toys in the attic he has an integral part to play in the daycare escape. Using his unique abilities of detach and a sarcastic personality he overcomes this regression by escaping the daycare and dump with the toys so they can get back to Andy and make things right. Noting. You know all that bitch stuff I said about Andy's attic I take it all back. There's another arc that's albeit pretty thin just for concerning the little green man in the adoption. In the previous film he seemed somewhat annoyed to the prospect of adopting the three little green men but in this one he comes around a bit I'll explain it a little bit further when I get to the green men. Back to the first film though we see that he's pining after a Mrs. Potato Head voicing such during the birthday party present reveal scene and Andy gets one for Christmas at the end of the film. Funnily enough they pair well together. Both are snarky quick-tempered and somewhat impatient exemplified by Mrs. Potato Head's upset with Lotso referring to her condescendingly as sweet potato. In TS2 she is kind of sidelined she makes sure that Mr. Potato Head is well resourced for the journey as well as giving him words of encouragement. Yeah she doesn't have the biggest role in this one. She does give the characters at home a more well-rounded profile as well as acting as an extra motivation for Mr. Potato Head and she does adopt the three green men at the end we can't forget that. Also just think where Mr. Potato Head would be without his angry eyes. She has a much more active role in the third film. Her missing eye plays an integral part in revealing information to our main characters. It shifts the character motivations revealing that Andy was in fact putting the toys in the attic. The eye shows Andy visibly upset that he can't find the bag of toys that his mom threw out. It acts as a little bit guffin for her to lose at the start of the film, gain at the end. Not a major character arc but something. She also helps in the sunny side escape and is terrified of the prospect of losing her babies when they're taken away by the trash compactors. After all the toys escape from the incinerator, the potato heads and the green aliens embrace as a family. The Pizza Planet Aliens are different characters in the first film than who they are in the second and third. So I'm going to speak about the ones more broadly in the first film than sectioned it off for the adoptees in the second and third film. These amazing things are presented as somewhat of a cult in the first film. Worshiping the claw as if it was an omnipotent being that chooses who is worthy of going and staying onto a better place they call it. Great world building showing us what some of these toys are going to be like when they're isolated from playability. I'd assume that they, like Buzz, don't know that they're toys and they're going to be played with once they leave. All they know is that the claw chooses who will go and who will stay. The claw is deaf! Makes you think what about those toys that fell on their way up? Because we know those claws are made to drop toys. Do those toys see themselves as unworthy now? Are they outcasts? Have they been shunned by the community? Not this one. This is the only person chosen. He versus the Mr. Poor, where his God has brought him to embrace his fate. Screwed by the pooch. So yeah, in the second film there are three very specific aliens that Buzz and the gang ran into after they hijacked a pizza planet truck to rescue... Woody, Jesse and Bullseye. Fuck, so many names. The Little Green men helped get the car moving and also rescued from falling out of the car by Mr. Potato Head. They joined Andy's toys after this and just can't help but express their gratitude to Mr. Potato Head. And yeah, get it up there and shit. In the third film, they're tagging along with Mum and Dad. Maybe they became acquainted with the guy driving the crane toy. In The Escape from Sunny Side, one of them gets their legs stuck in the binwheeler. Somehow. This allows Lotso to pull Woody into the dumpster with it. This brings the whole gang to Trashland, where the Little Green men go after mega claw. They're seemingly swept away by the giant Wally's. However, they were able to escape it. Again, somehow. It's not impossible, but I'm gonna say unlikely, looking at the way those dozers made. But alas, they escape. And they're able to operate the claw and save all their friends. They give us one final... THE CLAW! And place all of them back safely on the ground. They meet up with the toys on the ground and are finally embraced by their father. They're only took rescuing him from a fiery inferno. At the end of three, Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head and the three aliens join Woody in getting passed down to Bonnie. Sorry, that's our first group of characters. What are they doing in four? Shortly before the production of Toy Story 4, Don Rickles tragically passed away. As you can imagine, this left the future of the character pretty uncertain. But surely the logical thing to do would be to quietly and respectfully recast. Like they did with Slinky. Blake Clark's lessened wrasse, but increasing growl was certainly noticeable. Oh, I don't know, maybe it was just me. I mostly noticed in the line. Look, they'll only ever be one, Don Rickles. But artistic integrity, that's important to a film too, right? Right? Fucking no. Every line of dialogue from Mr. Potato Head in this movie comes from archive lines from the first three films and other Toy Story related media. His input on the plot is minimal at best. Seven jarring, non-contextualized lines and a laugh. What a legacy. Just whip the character out from the Disney Vault whenever you need him. Somehow it feels less respectful than what they did with Carrie Fisher. How is it honouring Don Rickles, all the characters to treat their combined selves like a laugh machine and a sitcom? Just really doesn't work for this character to have him so passive all of a sudden. Do you really think that overly opinionated spud from the first three films wouldn't have something to say about Woody's actions in this one? Like, Harry cares more for an unenthusiastic spook more than the rest of the crew? He'd be drowning Woody in snarky comments. Do you really think Mrs. Potato Head wouldn't have something to say out of concern or stress? You don't think both of them would worry about the changing dynamic with the introduction of Forky or him and Woody having gone missing? Do you really think this character? I'm not supposed to be babysitting Princess Droom, but we have to. He's been Andy's favourite since Skinda God. If Woody says it's alright, then, well, darn it, it's good enough for me. Only it sounds like a car ran over it. Mr. Potato Head to you, you backstabbing murderer. What a thing he starts playing with me more, Woody, huh? You're gonna knock me out of the window too? Wait, wait, wait, I got a better idea. How about we dull him? Hey, do you all take stupid pills this morning? Have you forgotten what he did to Buzz? And now you want to let him back over here? Murderer! No! Oh, that jury! I hope said pull your voice box out, you're free. What's time, T? Are we gonna do this all night? My thoughts are killing me. Now, let's move! Remind me to glue his helmet shut when we get back. Prepare to meet... I'm like a misfire, paid for an orderly transition. Orderly! Don't you get it? We're done. Finish! Over the head! Hold this. Love, we've been chewed, kicked, drooled on. Hey, no one takes my wife's mouth, except me. Fuck! Wouldn't have something to say. Completely pushed to the side, alongside Mrs. Potato Head, who are still Harris. She's still able to voice the character. So why is she stuck in the RV for 90% of the movie where the husband going all weekend at Bernie's on her ass? Could you give her something to do please? I mean, she does hold the terrible plan at the end. The plan that relies on Bonnie's parents being so ungodly stupid, while the toys endanger the lives of Bonnie's family and anyone else who just so happens to be in the way hijacking a car in tears too was a last resort desperate to catch up to Woody leaving for Japan against his will in tears for they have the GPS route and dad's empty head no hands on the steering wheel and his dad follow the GPS route to a T when he's not even given the directions anymore. Hey, don't they realize that the GPS now clearly free thinking and that it doesn't even have the same voice as it did earlier. Why doesn't he look down to see the plush unicorn currently pulling on the accelerator? How do the toys get to the pedal in the first place? Why doesn't the dad just keep his foot on the break? Just because they figuratively joined at the hit doesn't mean that you have to shut up Mrs. Potato Head because her husband's a voice box now. Like Buzz in this movie with his inner voice buttons. Can't wait to get to that. Oh, and of course, the little green aliens, those that were adopted and welcome into a family admittedly tenuously. How did they make their big comeback in Toy Story 4? They're at the start of the movie getting plagued by Bonnie that don't appear for the rest of the film. They don't come on the road trip with Bonnie and her family. The Potato Heads aren't worried sick about their babies being left at home. Absolutely, the arc felt last minute in TS 2 and 3, but it was still there. They become established characters. Not just little green aliens that say, ooh, and the claw. There's plenty of the complain about with how minor and rushed that relationship is in 2 and 3, but at least the trilogy didn't forget that they existed. Maybe the writers of 4 forgot about them being actual characters in the previous films. We certainly haven't though you heartless hack. On first viewing, that's what I thought they did. I just couldn't remember them being in the film at all. Under the impression that they were completely forgotten about and written out of the franchise with no explanation. They may as well have not been, hey. They could have had one of the little green pricks go with Woody. Leave the nest as Mrs. Potato Head cries farewelling her son. You could have had Mr. Potato Head say some chopped up line like, I love these on. They're a perfect movie, Mr. Potato Head. Hem is the buzz to Mr. Potato Head's Woody in a lot of ways. He is too sarcastic and cynical, but much more self-aware and subdued, especially in comparison. Not that he'll hide his feelings about anything, just that he's much more, well, that's how it is. As far as his duties within the group goes, he keeps watch on Eddie's birthday party guest rivals in the first movie, makes the most active comments whilst observing the guest rivals, and joins Potato Head in exiling Woody. Of all the toys, he is the most jaded and knowledgeable. He is precocious but backs it up with a degree of perspective and consideration. That's for the most part, at least. Obviously, he joins the other toys in believing Woody to have knocked Buzz out the window. This is what compels him to go after Woody and Toy Story 2 like Potato Head. Who too feels guilty, like you can see the look on his face just after Buzz reminds him all about the moving van. In three, he believes too that Andy was going to throw them out and joins the rest of the toys in wanting to go to Sunnyside. After the lots of revelation, his role on the prison escape is doing the manufacturing reset of Buzz and helping the gang return into his normal state, causing his Spanish mode. His overall personality and character remains pretty consistent. Not the biggest of growths, he also borders on a meta commentary for the series, kind of the character that the adults can relate to. He's basically John Ratzenberg's character in Cheers, but a piggy bank. Slinky is just the goodest of all good boys. R.I.P. Jim Vani. Slinky is established as an old friend of Woody, a loyal doggo. Slinky is always standing up for him. He gathered everybody for Woody's staff meeting at the first film, despite the projection of bad news he put on a good attitude. And he was the one to catch the Christmas lights that Woody tossed over from Sid's room after he and Buzz were captured. He used to Woody what Ghost was to Jon Snow in Game of Thrones. At least in season's wonderful. He uses his ability of stretch to get the toys out of pretty much any jam they find themselves in. In one, it was the moving van. In two, it was bringing the toys down to the street safely, a suitcase rescue. And in three, it was crossing the dumpster during the Sunnyside escape. In the moving van rescue at the end of the first film, he's very hardened himself for not being able to save Woody and Buzz. And this is probably also fueled by the fact that earlier in the film, he closed the blinds on Woody, the ultimate low point for every character in this big misunderstanding. Slinky, of all people, there for Woody from Daydart. Starting with him, even when all the toys thought that he pushed Buzz out the window, finally shut the door of the blinds on his friendship. He saw his best friend, alone in the psycho neighbor's place, unrestrained with his apparent victim's arm, pretending he's there to trick his friends. Slinky, feeling betrayed, turns his back on Woody, the final nail in the coffin. Of all the comic relief side characters, Slinky has the most involvement with the plot and main characters. When Woody can't find his head at home at the start of Toy Story 2, Slinky is the one to retrieve it. And without question goes with Buzz to find him after he's stolen by Al. In TS3, he helps Woody subdue the monkey, aka the world's worst kids toy, saving his life even with the power of tape. So essentially, he should be listed as Best Boy in the credits as well. Rex, Pixar's real good dinosaur, neurotic but unconfrontational, well-meaning but indecisive, clumsy. Rex's plight in the first two films is overcoming his fears. An interesting little subversion is how it's set up at the start of TS1 that Rex is trying to be a fearsome dinosaur that can't even scare Woody. It comes across like it's going to be a big point near the end where he'll have to scare something in the end, maybe something that's trying to harm Woody or Buzz. Instead, it's resolved in a montage after Buzz shows up with the song Strange Things Are Happening to Me and Buzz is helping him where Woody couldn't, just to show how much of a chat he is. But he stays nerdy throughout the rest of the film. Funnily enough, you can hear him roar, tumbling out of the box with the other toys with the rafter Woody in the end. He doesn't have a huge personality change in the first film like Woody or Buzz, but he does come to terms with the fact that Andy may get another dinosaur toy. And he's cool with that. He's even hopeful that it might be a leap-eater so that he can play the dominant predator. In TS2, Rex is now a pro gamer and has started playing a Buzz Lightyear game where he's unable to defeat Zurg because of his arms. He's shown to still be neurotic but communicates stuff a little bit better and is even willing to go on the most daring of quests, such as the rescue of Woody. He is still pretty awkward and scared of the major death-risking activities, such as crossing the highway, but is still pretty active throughout the whole rescue. He directs the car to follow out to the airport, chasing the luggage with the other toys, and even helps Bizarro Buzz defeat the real-life toy of Zurg. His clumsiness ends up helping them as he knocks Zurg down the elevator shaft, showing that he can use his tail here, which couples well with his using of the head to open up the grate earlier. And in 3, Rex joins the other toys in dissatisfaction with the lack of getting played with and also believes that Andy was going to throw him out. He helps them escape the rubbish bag on the curb with the powers of point and joins them at sunny side daycare. His role in the escape is to pretend to fight with Ham, so that Buzz will take them out of their cages to try and separate the two. Jesse jumps down with the plastic tub that Ham and Rex get on top on to wake him out of escape. He resets Buzz with the power of point again, causing El Buzzo. How racist! He joins his friends for the rest of the escape, they could stop by Lotto and end up in their trash, and in there they account for one another, look out for each other until they're rescued by the aliens. Before that, like the other characters, Rex embraces his friends as they face death together, and then after the rescue, he joins the rest of them as they're donated to Bonnie. Right! We're up to speed with the three Amigos. So what are they doing in Toy Story 4? Nothing. Zilch. In the intro prologue scene, we see that all the toys are helping to rescue R.C. who has been caught out in the gutter during the rain, but this is all before the mainstay plot of Toy Story 4 has no bearing on the rest of the story, other than some very fun character back and forths between Bo and Woody that we'll get to later. Otherwise it's completely throwaway, there's nothing in it that affects Ham, Slinky or Rex. Daddy, don't you definitely be able to see Slinky here. For the rest of Toy Story 4, Rex, Ham and Slinky just stand in the RV, silently gawking at all the characters who are bothering to take action in this mind-numbing plot. Oh, with a throwaway line or two. Once again, just complete disregard for the characters who have been with this series since 1995. Don't even help in that fucking RV plan. Oh, I forgot. They did do something important. They did have an effect on the plot. Because, because get this right, fuck is missing, right? The toys, our genius toys that have commandeered cars, snuck into airports, crossed busy highway intersections, broken at the top security daycare prison, escaped the incinerator, scaled the 23 floor building, put a spoon in Bonnie's hand while she's sleeping to delay the realization, fuck this. So Bonnie's toys were introduced in Toy Story 3. Dolly, Trixie, Mr. Pricklepants, Buttercup, The Peas in a Pod, Totoro and Chuckles. The last three aren't in Toy Story 4 at all, so Let's get them out of the way. Chuckles was Lotso's former best friend in Toy Story 3. He told Woody the story about Lotso's change and served as a primary motivator and reflection for Lotso's personality. He is the one who pushed back against Lotso's delusions regarding replacement. When the gang makes right all that Lotso had made wrong, at the end of the film, Chuckles smiles again. Directly he is smiling at a picture that Bonnie made. He doesn't make any sort of appearance in Toy Story 4. Not even in the background. He doesn't have to be a main character all of a sudden, but some acknowledgement that he existed in the past film would be nice, considering he was integral to the previous film's plot and doesn't seem to have relocated. Chuckles' voice actor and veteran Pixar animator, Bud Lucky, passed away a year before this film was released. If I can pretend for a second that Disney has any respect for the dead, I'd say they just didn't want to replace him. He's irreplaceable. Unlike Jen Vine! Considering all that Chuckles had to go through after leaving Daisy, it would have been nice for him to speak to Woody about feelings of replacement and abandonment. Give Bonnie's toys a purpose for being introduced into this franchise beyond the previous film. Fuck that, bring in the fork. A plush toy of the Tata character from the Ghibli film My Neighbor Totoro makes an appearance in Toy Story 3. After ending up in Bonnie's room following his escape from Sunnyside Dcare, Bonnie's toys help Woody find a route back to Andy's house using the family computer. Woody and his excitement hugs the big filthy Totoro plush. The plush toy was also there in an earlier playtime scene between Woody, Bonnie and her toys. He didn't appear in Toy Story 4 due to copyright issues. Director Josh Cooley and two producers I don't care about said it was a licensing thing, and that it would have been too much of a hassle to find a different part that would do him justice. Okay, first thing. Toy Story 2 was accidentally deleted during production, had to be deleted again less than a year before its release when the crew knew it was of low quality, and was built from the ground up to deliver the best movie in the franchise. That is hassle. Disney lost the distribution rights to Ghibli in 2011. That is the truth. Considering the sour relationship between Disney and Ghibli, you couldn't be bothered working out a licensing agreement in five years. I say five years because the announcement of Toy Story 4 came out in 2014, but production could have begun much earlier. Secondly, I have no faith in this team from Toy Story 4 as far as honouring characters goes. As I'll explain later, they insulted Buzz's intelligence and absolutely destroyed Woody's character. I wouldn't trust them with this background cameo, let alone the main characters of the Toy Story franchise. I mean, it's not like the first three films had licensed characters that they still kept to maintain continuity. No, now that never, no, not happened with no pound dollar, no llama. The peas in the pod have about as much going on as Totoro. They're basically just there for key comedic relief in Toy Story 3. They make fun of Woody and his cowboy self pointing out that he lost his hat. This is in sequence to when Woody escapes Sunnyside for the first time and ends up in Bonnie's room by mistake. They appear again in the end credits of three playing around in Mr. Potato Head's ass. For their big return on Toy Story 4, they're in the nostalgia-beating intro featuring You've Got a Friend in Me showing Bonnie playing with every single one of the toys. Remember that for later. After that, we get no more of the peas in the pod, they're not in the rest of the movie, not the RV or anything. All of these forgotten souls, the peas in the pod, chuckles Totoro, they could be somewhere in the house or all we know, we can hand wave that away. But even then it speaks to the quality of care taken to the character inclusion and progression of this franchise. Even Rocky came back in Toy Story 2. Toy Story 3 makes a point to address the fact that they've lost a lot of friends along the way. It really does make this fourth film feel so cut off and straight to DVD. The world is so arbitrarily small now, the stakes are tiny. This feels more like a short than Toy Story 2's Hawaiian vacation. What's the point of sidelining these old characters when the new ones are these blank sheets of paper that just move wherever Bo Peep says to? Out of all the new ones, Dookie Boom is the closest to having a purpose, a stake in this, and even then it feels like a parody of Jesse Enlotto's tragic backstories. Let's put the same filter in the scene, but play it for laughs this time. Why do you hate these characters? Why are they so unbelievably passive? Bullshit. If Woody gets in trouble in the next film and buzz by some miracle finds out, you know he's still gonna roll up his sleeves. Metaphorically and go help him out. He doesn't just stop becoming a character because he's had his story told. Just because a character's completed their major arc within a story doesn't mean that they stop becoming a character. It doesn't mean that they arbitrarily get sidelined within the next installment. I could say the same thing about Woody at the end of Toy Story 3, but instead what I will say is this. A lot of people point to Hans Solo's character in Return of the Jedi to highlight the fact that his major arc was completed in A New Hope and The Empire A lot of people think that he should have died at the end of Empire, but his inclusion in Return of the Jedi doesn't contradict his previously established character. If he had sat out the whole movie in a rebel cruiser, I wouldn't hand wave it away as he's already had his story told. He is still acting completely within character, fighting alongside the rebels for his friend Luke Skywalker and pursuing his romance with Leia. And you know, in fact, I'll do you one better. Can you tell me Buzz's arc in Toy Story 2? Because as far as I can see it, he doesn't really have an arc per se. I would say that he has a goal that he commits to and that he achieves by the end of the story. There's not a huge amount of character growth, there is just persistent. His dedication to finding and retrieving Woody is 100% in character, as it is for Rex Ham, Slinky and Mr. Potato Head. Of course you wouldn't want to send every single toy, it's going to make it harder for Buzz to account for them. Also what if there's a break in, what if all of a sudden Andy's mum finds all of the toys missing? Having a select few of the most able toys go with Buzz while the rest stay at home makes absolute sense. Whereas in Toy Story 4, Bonnie's toys complete lack of action flies in the face of the previous films. They are reduced to whimpering bystanders with the agency of an old water feature on a barring field. If you think bringing the old characters to the forefront of this story, putting them into the positions that the new ones are taking with Woody and Buzz would be shoehorned, then the only response to that is to ask if it is shoehorned for these characters to care about each other. Slink could have made that cabinet jump. Jesse and Bullseye could have distracted that cat. The Potato Head's Ham and Bonnie's toys could have held the line and kept watch. But we had to give Woody a new group to go to, a vastly inferior one of that. The only reason that every other character was brought onto the RV trip is to make the goodbye at the end more emotional. And even then there's an argument to make for all of them not wanting Woody to leave. The story has the emotional depth of that previously mentioned water feature. A cheap plastic short circuiting mud sputtering weathered old water feature. This line right here from Rex is the closest thing that these characters have to an input in Toy Story 4. Wide-eyed, dead-brained observations about the story. It would actually be better if every one of the toys in the RV left to find Woody. Seriously, you'd have a better chance of finding him, split up into grips and find whatever he can. Meanwhile, the RV Bonnie's modified that all of her toys are gone and her parents would be beyond confused. Where the hell are our daughter's toys? Has someone stolen them? They'd be all up and down that carnival. They wouldn't leave until they found every last toy. They could be discovered one by one and then all the other toys are commenting, ah damn they found Rex and Buttercup. We have less people to look around for Woody and Forky now. Making a process of elimination, every character gets pulled back to the RV based on their stance within the franchise. Some irony in the fallout. Like if the family found Buzz when he was strapped to that prize grate. Bonnie's mom has to win him back because she was a softball major or some shit. Maybe Woody's witnessing all this. It can be a much more worthy send off of these characters. It could help Woody's I'm leaving arc. Even then, I think it would have the opposite effect when Woody realizes what he already came to know in Toy Story 3. From now on, we stick together. I'm getting ahead of myself. So it seems we can sum up the roles like this. Minor characters are essentially cut from the Toy Story in 4. Supporting characters become single emotions, ooo, ee, ah, or emitting tools for the plot. And the main characters are murdered right in front of us. It's like celebrating happy, feel good, fun times, yeah boy, as everyone's falling down a chasm. I understand that analogy may seem a little bit over the top, considering I haven't really gone into depth about the major characters, but it sounded funny and kind of fit best to her. So let's move on to the important toys in Bonnie's collection that we're given a line or two. Dolly is set up as the de facto leader to the Bonnie Tribe of Swords in TS3. She's polite and helpful, welcoming Woody when she believes him to be Bonnie's new toy. She encourages him to get comfortable, even change his name if he'd like. Trixie is the techwiz Triceratops who helps Woody find a route back to Andy's house. While Woody's using the computer, Trixie gets a message from a dinosaur down the street, she says, getting all shy. Behind Juckles, she has the most input on the plot and arguably displays the most diverse character traits. Mr Pricklepants is a character actor. It's a fun and cute concept to have a toy who's obsessed with betraying their character and playtime well. The Pricklepants name is apt as he wants everyone to be quiet and still until Bonnie returns from the bathroom to resume playtime. He intrigues to have a little clash that's supposed to accentuate how silly she is and stern he is. When Woody tells them all that he came from sunny side, all of Bonnie's toys have a shocked expression, but Mr Pricklepants is the one to tell Woody about the true nature of the daycare and introduces him to Juckles. Buttercup the Plush Unicorn gets to talk because Disney is racist Buttercup is the casual jokester of the gang. He makes a joke about Woody not being able to escape Bonnie and is essentially the ham of this particular group. Those two characters are even shown having a laugh together at the end of Toy Story 3. Earlier in the film, during Woody's first play with Bonnie and her toys, there's a shot of Buttercup and Woody smiling at each other in a fashion that resembles the shot after Woody and Buzz return to Andy in Toy Story 1. This seems to indicate that Woody is finding some sort of content in this new setting, setting up the transition from Andy to Bonnie. At first it's a bit of an, oh no Woody is abandoning Buzz, Andy and the gang, but the next scene shows he's still keen to get back to Andy. And since at the time he thinks the sunny side is safe, he tells Bonnie's toys that if they ever get a chance to drop a line to the daycare, that Woody made it back. But of course once he learns of the truth for sunny side, he's like, I'm not going to leave my friends. Woody would never intentionally abandon Andy and Buzz and Jesse and Slingy and Ann. As quick as the scenes are with Bonnie's toys, that does cement them as a mirror of sorts to Woody and the gang. They are lead, they are a team, they bicker but work together. They're a family. In Toy Story 4, Bonnie's toys that actually return have less to do in more screen time. After our nostalgia teats are thoroughly milked with that opening scene, Dolly leads for about two minutes, putting down Woody instead of working with him or hearing him out, but a cup is turned from a dry sarcastic joker to a sociopath I guess. He has a running joke about wanting Bonnie's dad to go to jail. Cool. Oh yeah, and he nearly gets a bunch of kids killed in the heroic, wonderful return to the carnival plan, and Trixie obnoxiously badges Buzz about coming up with a plan. What was the point in repeating that? Was that supposed to be a joke? Why are you such an incessant asshole all of a sudden? You were so charming in the last one. But Buzz think for a second, about you come up with a plan. Oh and of course, she gets to... Voice the GPS in the RV escape. So essentially everyone's intelligence has been cut in half. I was thinking if we got a reference for the time past since Toy Story 3, we could at least gauge the character dynamics between Andy's and Bonnie's toys a little bit better. But we can't really tell. It hasn't been a few months, a few weeks, a few days. Closest thing we get is the reference to the amount of times Woody's been benched from playtime. Which was three times in one week by the way. It just really feels like the writers had no idea what to do with these characters. Bonnie's or Andy's toys. Let's talk about the timeline. The timeline was handled so much better in the first three films, even just throw away lines. Woody has been Andy's favourite since kindergarten Mr Potato Head says, So there's a history there. There's not much to confirm the exact passage in time between the first and second film, but we can see that Andy's sister's grown up a little bit, the family are now fully settled in the new home, and considering how natural the development of the story is between one and two, it doesn't necessarily matter to that one how long after the first it took. Considering the drastic developments in four, we needed some passage of time between the last film and this. In Toy Story 3 we understand that enough time has passed that Andy is able to go off to college and the toys aren't getting played with. There is a good consistent time frame between these three films that lines up roughly with each time that they were released. 95 for one, 97 for TS2 despite its 99 release, and 2007 for 2010's TS3. Those shorts I mentioned at the start of the review take place in between three and four, and if that all happened within a week, then holy hell does Bonnie have a busy schedule. If we consider the multiple playtimes Bonnie has at the start of the film, plus the fact that she's graduating from daycare to kindergarten, we can safely say maybe anything from a few weeks to a few months have passed. Do I need to be worried? No, no, my guys are better and don't hang in there. Good, just keep them calm until we get worried. Yes, ma'am. Bonnie's done with practice. Any minute. You hear that? Any minute now. I suppose I can give the film the benefit of the doubt. In this aspect it's just monumentally incompetent, not cosmically. This time frame will be important later, so... Remember. Bonnie is kind of a blank slate in the franchise. Like Andy, she more so serves to keep the toys together rather than being heavily involved in the story. Having said that, she does have a bit more overt depth than Andy, and is involved with a story of four much more than Andy ever was in the first three. In TS3, she is shown to be shy during her introduction with Andy's mum, as well as curious when she tries to peek into the box of toys. She is shown to care about her toys, at least when the plot wants her to. It seems as though she likes to involve all of her toys in playtime. She takes a particular liking to Woody, even going so fast to refer to him as her cowboy. Why doesn't she ask how Woody got back? A good question. For another time. But does she think it's a new one, and doesn't have any qualms of replacing a toy? Fuck off. We are shown in the fourth film that that isn't the case, since she is adamant in retrieving Valky. He's irreplaceable. Unlike Jim Va... How she knows that this is her particular cowboy doll is a bit weird. It is nice that already they have that connection. It really does feel like Andy made the right decision. Despite a snowing Andy for longer, he doesn't have all too much personality beyond imagination, excitement, grief or lost things. Edge of 17. He's kind of generic. A bit of an everyman. Right, no, there might be a bit more to him. He's totally cool with Molly breaking his toy bridge. He morphs it into his playtime. And there's also his embarrassment when his mum comes into the room and starts filming him. And at the end of Toy Story 3, he nearly doesn't give Woody to Bonnie. When you really look back at it, these toys have been with him for the majority of his life. He dismisses them as junk, but he nearly takes Woody to college. He's really upset that his mum may have accidentally thrown them out. He was going to put them in the attic. I mean, why has that toy just been sitting in his room for so long? He really does care for Woody and these toys. You can see it in his face when Bonnie makes Woody wave goodbye to him on his way to college. Still, he gets in his car, sits down, looks after them and gives him one last smile before uttering. Goodbye, guys. Then drives off, finally able to let go. It really does feel like this movie was about Andy coming to terms with the fact that he no longer needs Woody. The fact that Woody was so willing to go with the toys was showing that he was ready to move on. It was Andy who was kind of holding him back. He needed to give him to another kid. Let them create memories that will last forever. Huh, maybe there's a bit more to Andy than I thought. What does he get, his great care and love for his toys? Is it his dad like the theory so? An old family toy, his mum said about Woody. Shit, we're supposed to be talking about Bonnie. Okay, so get this. In Toy Story 4, Bonnie actually has the most solid character out of everyone. For like 10 seconds, but I'll take it. Her anxiety on the first day of kindergarten actually does follow on from her shyness in the third film. And her making forky with Woody's help unbeknownst to her is a really nice character moment. Showcasing Woody's determination to care for his kid no matter what. And also to showcase Bonnie's creativity and each friendship. What, I can say some good things about this movie. Unfortunately, that's all I can really say after that. This is totally personal, but I just found her so insufferable in this film. Every 10 minutes it's just forky, where are you? Seriously, she loses then finds then loses then finds that forks so many times in this movie it's infuriating. One of the least attentive characters in fiction. I know, I know she's just a kid, but seriously her parents are just as bad. Look at this shit. Where are you forky? There you are. I'll be here somewhere. Forky! Forky! Onto a note damning her character. Bonnie is shown in three, the two short films and the tunes that she cares for and plays with her toys equally. She has a name and acknowledgement for them in every other piece of media she's in. She picks the toys for the occasion and has this cute high toys by toys little phrase every time she leaves or collects her bag. So why all of a sudden does she all but ignore every one of the toys, Woody especially, with Forky coming into the picture? Why even bother bringing them onto the trip? Even before that, Woody is left on the sideline for the introductory playtime, as the filmmakers try to hammer it into your head that Woody is being abandoned. Or at least not the favourite, there's this whole badge thing that I'll talk about in Jessie's part. How binary can you try and make this? All of a sudden so ham-fistedly Bonnie is ignoring this one toy, who just so happens to be going through this crisis right now. Very purposefully, she never even acknowledges him by name. She's all of a sudden so careless and heartless right now because she's gotten this spork. It's you and me against the world you fucking utensil! It's like the filmmakers took that one little inconsistency, where after Andy gives Bonnie Woody, she doesn't recognise that he was gone, acknowledges him as her cowboy, and try to expand on that admittedly choppy moment. Why did you make her so unlikable when she got Forky? It's one of the major retcons in Toy Story 4 to have the story make sense, and it's what makes this installment feel so hollow. I'm sure you've seen this meme where Andy goes to see Bonnie and asks how Woody is, and she goes, who? And Andy's all like, I trusted ya! I saw a comment about how after three, it seemed like a sad ending because of course Woody would be miserable. How did you come to that conclusion? We don't have any indication of that at all in Toy Story 3. In fact, it seems to indicate the opposite. He would be more miserable if he ditched his friends. Woody was smiling at the end of Toy Story 3. He was with his friends. He was with a new kid. He was playing leader again, loving life in spite of the hardships they'd gone through. We get more of this in the end credits, in the short films, the Toy Story tunes. It's manufactured as hell completely forced onto Woody. Yeah, no, of course he would be depressed. He's not the favourite. No, Woody would never be that selfish. Did you forget the first film? If anything, this fourth movie has a way more depressing ending. When they get back from the trip, Bonnie's going to look around the room and go, where's Woody? The toy that Andy told her to take extra special care of. How is she going to forgive herself for losing Andy's favourite toy? Uh, I have a correction to make. Woody is actually acknowledged by Bonnie to some small, minor extent. It's in the montage of Bonnie playing with Forky on the way after the carnival, while Woody tries to stop him from reappropriating himself with the garbage. So get this. While we hear Randy Newman's new song, I can't let you throw yourself away, which is God awful, Bonnie is playing with Woody. So I guess the days of him being played with aren't long gone. He was actively being played with shortly before abandoning his friends and his owner. In fact, he's the only other toy played with after Bonnie gets Forky. Well, Bonnie, I'm sorry for being such a dick. Looks like Woody's concern really is just not being a favourite toy. The entire trilogy didn't matter. Alright, let's talk about somebody else. Introduced in the second film, Jesse and Bullseye come from a lineup of toys from Woody's Roundup. This is the TV show the Woody Toy is based on, and was the precipice for him getting stolen by Al. Another nice piece of worldbuilding that shows us just how old the Woody Toy is, and shows us that Woody is valuable in the eyes of collectors as well. In the Roundup TV show, Jesse was a sidekick to Woody, characterised by her yodeling, which has the power to summon critters, giving her a love of animals. In and out of the TV show, characterised by her relationship with Bullseye, and how willing she is to help the Davis family dog. In TS2, she eagerly welcomes Woody to Al's apartment, and is excited that the prospect of finally going to the museum, where she's been promised eternal appreciation and care by the twist villain, Stinky Pete. Another toy from the Woody's Roundup TV show. Jesse is an extremely enthusiastic and outgoing character. She's lively as hell, her and Woody initially hit it off very well, but her motives clash with Woody, seeing as he already has an owner, and isn't interested in the prospect of the museum. So initially Jesse seems like she's going to be an antagonist. Well at least her antagonistic tendencies. Being Woody's main detractor, Jesse's take action personality and obvious disdain for Woody wanting to be with his kid, make it very easy for him to accuse her of preventing his escape during that whole TV fiasco. She is very offended by Woody's accusation that she took the remote, so any inclination that Jesse might be a liar really doesn't sit well with her. She is honest to a fault, sarcastically lamenting Woody's desire to get back to Andy in spite of his disrepair. It's revealed later, after his arm is repaired and he's ready to get back to Andy, that Jesse's annoyance with Woody comes from abandonment issues, following her previous owner, Emily, having grown up. After Emily got rid of her, she's been locked away in storage ever since, showing a fear of enclosed spaces that's called back to in TS3 and the short films. She presents the futile nature of ownership of toys, and how they'll be outgrown and abandoned eventually. However, she's convinced to come to Andy's by Woody, so that she'll be played with by a kid again. We're part of her family, again she says to Bullseye, who was also very keen to come along. This firmly cements Woody and the gang's strong, familiar bond and love of being played with. They're there for their kid no matter how often they're played with, no matter what. These issues do flare up in Toy Story 3 though, when Jesse comes to the realisation that it's come full circle with Andy. This is Emily all over again, she says. Jesse sees Woody as misguided, in denial about the whole Andy situation, and doesn't believe him about Andy's mum having mistaken them for trash. Whilst in the trash bag, her anxiety about small confined spaces that I mentioned earlier flares up. After that whole misunderstanding, she goes along with the sunny side idea, seeing Woody as naive. At the daycare, there's a huge confrontation between her and Woody. Then the gang realises that sunny side is terrible, yada yada yada. There's a great moment where Jesse stands up to Lotso, calling him a liar and a bully. Her and Woody reconcile, and now they're on equal ground. She is the shining example for, as long as we're together, personally I see her as the heart and soul of the team. She's the first to join Buzz in accepting their destruction at the hands of the incinerator. She really puts a full stop on the gang's arc in Toy Story 3. Even if the rack ran, they can always get passed down. But she's got to stick together and make happy memories with each other and their kid. Bullseye is one of those toys that can't speak for some reason, even though he has a mouth. Seriously, learning the binoculars can talk, but Bullseye can't. I wonder if it was to try and make him seem more cute. And it worked. He's probably the only character more loyal than Slinky. I'm sorry, Doggo, I love you. He's another ball of energy. From his introduction in Toy Story 2, he's shown to be loving and dedicated to all. He only knows empathy. So Woody better not abandon him. He mainly serves to be a cute sidekick to the gang in 2 and 4, so there isn't much to say about him other than he's perfect. He tries to help get Woody's arm back in that whole TV plan I mentioned earlier. He helps move the prospector around. And without him, Jesse would have been stuck on that plane to Japan had it not been for this super powered horse toy that can catch up to planes going hundreds of kilometers along a tarmac as it's about to take off. On to Toy Story 3, Bullseye tries to get Woody to stay, but the cold, dead heart of Sheriff Woody, pride apparently, goes unmoved. But he still siphons a bit of empathy out of Woody. Woody has his character lapse of, I'm going to leave you guys and get back to Andy. Even though Woody doesn't change his mind in this situation, Bullseye does get him to recognize that he's being kind of a dick. And of course, later, Jesse and Bullseye, these two gems of characters, help with the escape from Sonyside and end up with the rest of the gang at Bonnie's. Now let's do something with the characters in Toy Story 4. Bullseye is completely sidelined, you know the deal. Sit tight in the RV, Bullseye, until you say goodbye to Woody at the end when the writers remembered that you two had a history. As for Jesse, she's given this weird, undercooked arc where Bonnie gives her Woody's badge during playtime as some sort of indication that she's going to be the new leader. I like the idea of Jesse taking up a leadership role, we've been trying that she's perfectly capable. Unfortunately, doesn't really work with the dynamic that they've set up in Bonnie's room. Dolly is established at the side of the film as the leader. You remember that story Fred, that had the staying power of two minutes? And in terms of taking action to find Woody, Buzz is the first one to do so, I'll be watched as fuck. And I assume that, uh, RV rescue plan was not Jesse's idea? Dear god, I hope not. The closest thing she has in leadership to this film is the plan to put holes in the tires of the RV, which does give the toys a lot of time to be sure. But it's jumbled up in this mess of unclear leadership. And she puts the holes in the tires by herself, somehow. That is one strong plastic toy. So at the end of the film, when Woody hands down the badge to Jesse, it feels so hollow. There's no indication that she's going to be the new leader. Plus, right after she gets the badge, Buzz is shown to be the one leading everybody. At least from how they presented, it's all just so confusing. These payoffs feel very cheap because they don't pay off. Jesse doesn't do anything leader like before or after she gets the badge. She's just passive for the whole movie besides the sabotaging of the tires. Where is that strong will from TS2, that determination to achieve her goals? Doing her part in TS3 to call out Lotso and to rescue her friends. Even in Toy Story of Terror, she heats the advice of the new combat car and overcomes her fear of confined spaces to save Woody from being shipped away by the toy thief in his pedagwana. Seriously, that short film in Toy Story that time forgot is so much better than TS4. Jesse, man. All that resourcefulness and passion in TS4, she's wasted on a prank and a bad pun. What's an absolute waste of quite possibly the best character in this entire franchise of all people? She should be the most against Woody leaving at the end. She should be dragging his ass off that carousel and throwing him down the RV hatch of the roof for being a silly selfish prick. As if she'd be okay with him leaving with no context to his journey in the film other than he didn't get played with three times in the one week. Also, don't you think Jesse had some reservations about going on to Andy after Emily? Don't you think after all those years left in storage, abandoned, forgotten, unloved, made her envious of the favorite toy treatment? Quite possibly. But she's happy at least to be a part of a family. A fact that Woody, and I suppose everyone else seems to be forgetting. We're a band from now on. We stick together. When it all ends, I'll have old Buzz Lightyear to keep me company for Infinity and beyond. Would have been so great to at least have a scene between Jesse and Woody where they just talk. That's the thing, nobody talks to each other in this movie. None of the characters seem to remember that there's over a decade of history here. Unless it comes time to make fun of Jesse or Buzz's character development. Or to pull on your heartstrings with the most desperate tug imaginable. There is absolutely nothing in this film that rivals the character work from the dialogue in the first three. But come on seriously, just imagine Woody and Jesse sit down and they have a chat, a heart to heart about things. Jesse says to Woody, I know that she's not Andy. I can't really say that Andy was the same as Emily to me. That not being the favorite was a huge change because I was in boxes, I was in storage for years. Bonnie isn't Andy. She isn't Emily, she's Bonnie. And I may not be the favorite, but I am her toy. I am loved and I feel that from her. And you and all of our friends and family, I'm grateful to share in that experience. So whether you're the sheriff today, or I'm the sheriff tomorrow, Mr. Prick pants the day after, I am there for Bonnie when she needs me. And we're there for each other. Something along those lines, it would be great. Use the characters you have. But then we would probably have some line from Woody's. But I'm in love with her, because that's what this entire franchise has been about, right? The love between Woody and Bo. It was there. All three movies. Definitely. Definitely, definitely. Definitely, definitely, definitely, definitely. Speaking of, Bo Peep is Woody's love interest in Toy Story 1 and 2. Emphasis on the interest. Other than that nostalgia-baity intro in Toy Story 4, there isn't really much to suggest that they were the love of each other's lives. Look at these clips and tell me she's not as Towie as a Roman sandal. What do you say I get someone else to watch the sheets tonight? I found my moving buddy. What do you think? Does cucking seem like a thrill or a threat? It's about how much they want to fuck. Anytime the conversation is about something deep and meaningful, it's about Andy. Her being suggestive isn't a criticism. Hurry it up, sister. Don't let yourself get tied down. The criticism comes in the form of how they try to retcombo and Woody's relationship. We'll explore that more when we get to four, but for now, let's look at her roles in 1, 2, and 3-ish. There is a bit more to her than just a porcelain joy. In one, she has some words of comfort to give Woody regarding his jealousy of Andy favoring Buzz, telling him Andy will always have a place for him. Which is essentially the lesson that Woody learns by the end of the film. She tries to stop the argument between Woody and the toys after Buzz is knocked out the window, disagrees with Potato Head wanting to throw away Woody's chance of escape, sad the reflex on how Andy misses Woody and tries to help Buzz and Woody get back into the moving van by directing a rescue plan. In the second, she's still the bearer of wisdom and helps Woody calm down at the start of the film, as he grows increasingly anxious about having lost his hat before going to cowboy camp with Andy. After our steals Woody from the yard sale, Bo ponders why someone would want to steal him. As Buzz and the rescue team leave to find Woody, Bo wishes luck right on his cheek. When she greets Buzz as her old moving buddy in tears for, it makes me think these two definitely had a rendezvous with Star Command. Yep, that's the joke. At the end of Toy Story 2, as they're severinated by Weezy, the squeaky penguin, she's seen standing side by side with Woody. Cute. She's then given away between two and three, the fourth film explains how. She is mentioned once by name of the third film, as Woody is acknowledging the friends that they've lost between the two movies. Rex says her name right to Woody's face because he doesn't know how to read a fucking room. Rub and salt on the wound there, mate. Either way, the mention of her name does make Woody sad and glare off for a moment before acknowledging her, Weezy and Edge, as good toys who went off to new owners. It was kind of upsetting that we didn't get to see what happened to Woody's ceramic pixie dream girl. Cute Toy Story 4. I gotta say, I don't actually mind Bo's character in the fourth film. I don't like how she got there or what they do with her, but turning this soft spoken, delicate and cheering from the bench level towing into a resourceful, thrill-seeking, independent adventurer was kind of exciting. It's more of a superficial appreciation. I can see if this was executed well, it could have been great. There's one character moment that I think holds pretty well, and that's when her arm breaks clean off while helping Woody off the ground, scaring the shit out of Woody, but she just laughs it off and tapes it back together. It doesn't really fix the fact that she's porcelain and should have broken many times throughout this film, but I guess they tried to address it. So have some brownie points on me. How is she still able to move her fingers though? Completely removed from the events of this story, I think it could have been an interesting place to take the character, but there's two problems here. The first one relates to how she got to this position in Toy Story 4. There's a prologue that flashes back to a scene that takes place after Toy Story 2. After playing with his toys outside in the dark just before the rain, Andy forgets asking in the rain, so Woody devises a plan with Bo to save him. I've seen some complaints that Bo is too active in RC's rescue, which I don't really agree with. We've been shown that she does have an active role in many plans of the Toy Story franchise. She directs Rocky Gibraltar to unlutch the ram for Woody and Buzz in Toy Story 1, as well as holding out a barrel of monkeys on her staff in an attempt to rescue Buzz. This same barrel of monkey chain rescue is used by Bo Peep in the flashback in Toy Story 4. So that's consistent at least. And so the toys are successful in rescuing RC, but a stranger has pulled up in the driveway and has come to collect Bo Peep. It's clear Andy's mum has either sold or donated her. As she's swept up in the box and taken away, Woody goes after her. The driver's left his keys in size, so that gives Woody and Bo plenty of time to speak. How lucky! In the driveway, Woody fails to get her out of the box and come back to Andy's room. I'm not Andy's toy, she says, and it's time for the next kid. I'm sorry, what? You made your mind up, fast didn't you mate? Whether or not you classify yourself as Andy's or Molly's toy, you're still leaving behind a host of friends that surely you want to say goodbye to, right? You tried to get Woody to come with you? What? So if this takes place shortly after two, we can say Molly is still a toddler. Granted, we'd never see Molly show any particular fondness for the lamp, even just giving it a goo goo eyes as a baby. Other than Woody telling Giggle McDimples later how much Molly loved her in a lovely bit of tell-done show. But Bo has been played with Andy at least since 1995. She features heavily in Andy's old family movies at the start of Toy Story 3. She's in almost all of Andy's playtimes as Woody's damsel in distress. You know what, screw it, she is Andy's toy. The only way we can really look past this is to imagine a scene where Andy and his mom talk about how they have to give Bo people away. Maybe she found out Bo people was worth a lot of money and wanted to sell it. Maybe Andy got made fun of of playing with a girl's toy. Maybe it started scaring Molly. This does go to show that it's not completely out of the realm of possibilities, but the way they present it, this is insulting, contrived, and completely revisionist. Woody takes this lying down because he's lost all agency as a character. And Bo proceeds to suggest that Woody come with her, saying toys get lost all the time. Are you kidding me? Leave the entirety of Andy's toy spontaneously. No goodbye to Buzz, Jesse, Bullseye, the Potato Heads, Rex, Weezy if he's still there, Slink, Ham, Arcy, Lenny. Leave them without a leader, worried sick of where their friend could be. Did he go with Bo? Is he lost, hurt, or stolen? Did Al come back and finish the job? Maybe Sid stole him so he could worship his idol to forbidden living toy that sounds like Tom Hanks. What a terrible suggestion, Bo. You know how upset Andy was when he thought he lost him. No, it's just some super of the moment thing, like when Luke Skywalker considered killing his nephew in his sleep because he had a bad dream. It's not quite on that level, but it's certainly telling. So that's the setup we get from her prior to the main events of Toy Story 4. It really doesn't do a lot of favours to her character, reconning her status in Andy's room and trying to convince Woody to leave Andy and his friends. The movie would honestly be better without this scene. It wouldn't make a murky mess of Bo's character, but the rest of the movie does do that just fine. And I guess it sets up Bo's big return to the franchise. We would have had no idea. This scene is seriously trying to convince us that Woody cares for Bo Peep to such an extent that he would consider leaving Andy and the toys. Did you watch the first three films that this one is supposed to be a sequel to or did you read a screen rant article? So that's Bo's setup. The definition of clunk. Now for the second half of that clunkiness and that's the execution of her character in Toy Story 4. There's a lot of issues with the mechanics of how her character is able to survive this world, as well as her values and motivations. It really comes out in her interactions with Woody. First let's talk about her relevancy to the plot. Unlike the other toys from the previous films, Bo was integral to this story's plot and she gets a huge amount of screen time and input. She helps Woody find forky and sets up most of the plans for Rescue and Escape, including the park, multiple trips to the antique store and around the carnival. She has connections with multiple new characters that continue the main plot thread, including Duke Kaboom. Isn't he impressive? Upon reuniting, Woody starts reminiscing on how much Molly loved Bo allegedly. Woody uses this trying to appeal to her humanity so that she can help him find that piece of shit forky. In their first rescue attempt, Bo loses her sheep because they don't know how to unclench without Bo's say so and she gets angry at Woody for this, telling him to stay out of her way. I could see why people thought that she was going to be the villain. Woody highlights how scared Molly used to get as a child and that Bo's lamp light would comfort her. For a tiny split fraction of a second, Bo seems to show some perspective. She has a solemn expression, seeming almost envious of that old love. This doesn't inspire her to help Woody, it's like she realizes how important a toy can be to a kid. But it never gets brought up again, they don't do anything with it. And despite it seeming like a precursor to her appreciation towards Woody's loyalty, her and the story contradict this at every turn, so let's get into it. The most egregious example is her argument with Woody after the second failed rescue attempt of Forky, which was such a confusing, a cliche ridden mess of dialogue, I was half expecting Bo Peep to say, this isn't what Andy would have wanted. We can do this. Nobody is with you. It's over. Okay? Nobody wants this. I do. Of course it's all I have left to do. I don't have anything right. So the rest of us don't count, but that's not what I meant. Danny needs Forky. No. You need Bonnie. Open your eyes, Woody. That's good. You have to. I'm not the one who's... After the gang barely escapes the antique store lady's cat, Woody checks that everybody's okay, then quickly reaffirms the gold that they need to save Forky. And Bo brings up the fact that a lot of the toys are injured, and that nobody is with him. This is over. Whatever happened to no toy left behind? Listen to Buzz right now. This is the smartest thought he's had in this movie. All you have to do right now, Buzz, is interject and will stop a lot of this bullshit conflict. But no, instead we have Bo Peep implying that Woody is just tossing toys at the side so he can save this one. When if it wasn't for Woody, the cat would have torn Forky apart. Bo chooses herself and her sheep in this situation, choosing to cross the line before retrieving Forky with Woody. And she's the one calling Woody selfish. And then we get one of the most emotionally manipulative lines in Toy Story. He cuts it all I have left to do. This is so painful and infuriating to hear. I'll go into more depth about it in Woody section. But basically we have a line of dialogue from Woody that seems to color everything he's done up until this point is selfish. Just something he has to do to fulfill a need for purpose, otherwise he doesn't have anything else. And Bo's response is trying to drill in this idea even further, telling him he's only doing this to get some sort of validation out of Bonnie. And tells him that there are plenty of kids out there that he can get that validation for even easier that won't inconvenience her and her friends. Woody calls it loyalty, doing it specifically for Bonnie. He tells Bo that she wouldn't understand that. Bonnie, look at it. Bonnie needs Forky. No, you need Bonnie. Open your eyes, Woody. There's plenty of kids out there. You can't be just about the one you're still clinging to. It's called loyalty. Something a lost toy wouldn't understand. And based on this scenario, he's absolutely right. With this new It's All I Have Left To Do mantra placed at the front of Woody's personality, this colours his relationship with Bo as his newfound purpose, implying that he's doing it for selfish means. Do you realise what you've done? All I can think right now is why they're so bent on being with each other. Bo's all about independence now, looking after number one and living life by her own terms, free of ownership. Save for that, soul-crushing line. Woody's comfort has always been in schedule and the status quo. His meetings at the start of Toy Story 1 before Andy's party, his anxiety about not being able to find his hat that all toys be well accounted for while he's on cowboy camp at Toy Story 2. And his insistence that the toys stay together initially for Andy in Toy Story 3. These two were a complement to each other in the first two. Bo used to remind Woody why he found these things so important, but now she gaslights him for having a sense of loyalty and for putting the needs of others above himself. But that's okay, because Woody's saying he's just doing it to make him feel better. Later, there's this strange scene where Bo and her friends are getting ready to get on the carousel so that they can live with the carnival the next day. Bo seems to have an epiphany about the argument with Woody, giggle what's her face, puts Woody on blast for having a conscience. Bo says that Woody only ever does what's right by his kid and that you've gotta love him for it. She just heard him say, I'm doing this because I don't have anything else left to do. What part of that translates into the loyalty that you love so much about him? If anything, this character assassination kind of puts a rift in that. What do you want? And when the test of his loyalty comes at the end, he chooses Bo and renegs on the idea of doing only what's right by his kid. How can she appreciate this about him when his decision and what he said after their argument goes against that? This is a muddy puddle of character motivation and cause and effect. Nothing connects one to another, it is broken. To round off this section, in the short film Lamp Life set shortly after Toy Story 4, we see what Bo was up to between leaving Andy's room and when she was reunited with Woody. So that means Woody made his decision to leave Buzz and everybody before he even heard why Bo had this mindset that she had in four. Woody was so set in his ways, ready to become a lost toy before he even found out why Bo had become one. Originally, this terrible manipulative and now redundant short was the scene in Toy Story 4 according to this IndieWire article where the director Valerie Lapointe, another one of the masterminds behind Toy Story 4, tells us that this was made with cut scenes. It was supposed to be a flashback in four and honestly it should have been. It doesn't really do a fantastic job of explaining why Bo wants to be a lost toy but it does explain how she became one. Turns out she made many a kid happy and didn't face nearly the degree of drama Woody at the gangfest, which was nothing according to Giggle. Do the writers want us to like these new characters? Sorry escaping a tyrannical daycare and nearly getting incinerated aren't exciting enough for you. Nevertheless, they should have just used that clip reel of different places that she's been as the intro for Toy Story 4. It would have been better than the pointless nostalgia bait that we got instead and it would have made a slightly better case for Bo Peep. Bones, bones, lives, lives, year, year. Yeah, stuck man. Star Wars Lightyear was a one time space ranger turned toy. I really don't think it's any exaggeration to say he is the most iconic character of the entire franchise. To infinity and beyond is one of the most iconic catchphrases of all time. Zerg's Planet, one of the most boss compositions of music in all of cinema. That was the sting of music he just heard. It's the only piece of music from the films that I thought I just had to use in this review. It is that good. As a character, he is every inch a hero. I think I'm making it quite obvious who my favorite character is. Allow me to make the case for why he is so cool. He offers his safety to try and save White Combat Carl and Toy Story 1. He makes sure his friends are safe by telling them to look out for something that they were already aware of. He gives haircuts, encourages physical fitness in spite of their problems. He gives dogs, encourages his friends, apologizes for his crimes, refutes false proclamations of medical activities. Goes along with playtimes, even if he's not a space ranger. I guess what I'm trying to say is... He knows what a fucking conscience is. The level of stupidity they have Buzz stooped to in this movie is just... That little voice inside me would never leave me alone if I gave up. Who do you think it is? The voice inside of you. Who do you think it is? Buzz's main... arc? In this story is learning what a conscience is for the first time in over 10 years. After Woody refers to a little voice inside of his hair... Holy shit, Buzz's inner voice has more lines of dialogue than Mr Potato Head. Yeah, like I was saying, Woody refers to his conscience as a little voice inside of his head. And here's the thing. Buzz thought he was a real space ranger in Toy Story 1. He lacks self-awareness, not basic intelligence. He's telling me that Buzz has never heard of an inner turmoil or an inner conflict, even when he thought himself to be a space ranger. The entire concept of a conscience is pretty intrinsic to his ideology. He's been shown to want to help toys and distress in between saving the universe. Within 10 years of living in Andy's room, you're telling me he's never heard of a conscience referred to as a physical manifestation of a little voice in one's head? It's one thing to mistakenly refer to a s'more as a s'more, but this is just embarrassing. I've never been a space ranger, but I can imagine the idea of a conscience comes up a bit more often than campfire treats. Now, Buzz and a TV jot down in the last movie say he's dumb now. There is absolutely nothing in the previous films to suggest that. In fact, the only thing that seems to have been affected is his memory, from not so kidnapping him and reverting him to demo mode until now. There are, however, plenty of examples to the contrary. It seems his emotional, physical, motor-functional, cognitive abilities haven't been affected by the TV smash. Even if we were to use the TV excuse, there's nothing in the fourth film that bolsters that. It's not referenced as a potential cause of Buzz's sudden drop in intelligence and none of the toys acknowledge his newfound dumbness. Also, also, if the TV really did have these adverse effects on Buzz, then I've got some bad news for Woody. So it really looks like they wrote this entire thing around the fact that he called a s'more or s'more one time. When Woody and Falkie are confirmed missing, Buzz Lightyear doesn't do his thing and make a plan, potentially with Jesse. He is instead dumbfounded, stumbling over his words. The same toy he got the group out of a garbage bag on the curb in Toy Story 3, thanks to a throwaway line from Mr Potato Head. Instead of sending out a group to look for the pair while the others stay behind, keep watch and stob on his family, Buzz starts pushing on his buttons to give him some inspiration, and so jumps out of the RV with no explanation after it tells him no time to explain, let's move, and proceeds to do so for every single decision in this film, except for the important one of course. He ends up stuck to a carnival attraction where he meets the closest thing Disney executive marketing research board algorithm machine can get to, uh, rub and tote from Transformers Revenge of the Fallen. Yeah, I stole that from E-Pap, but I think it's a pretty apt comparison. After escaping the attraction and the worst characters in cinema, Buzz presses a button on his chest that tells him to look up, he looks up, there's Woody. How lucky. Is this a reference to how Buzz sees Woody as a god s***? This thing pretending to be Buzz Lightyear reunites with Bo Peep. Our good friends duck and bone total on. All three agree to help Woody and Bo get forky back from villain Gabby Gabby. Buzz, Rub, and Tug have the specific task of stealing the antique store cabinet key from the old lady who owns it. We get a bunch of unfunny imagined scenarios from Toadal Duck and Bumble Bitch, where it seems they desire beating up the old lady for absolutely no reason. Man, imagine if they teamed up with Buttercup. Imagine the Bloodsport. We get a member bearish joke from one of the scenarios, resembles the opening scene from Monster Sync. Hey, that's Disney. Remember this movie we made? You love this thing, right? Everything we touch is gold, right? Give us your money. Thankfully none of the poultry's plans come to fruition. Instead the antique store lady drops the key right in front of them. How lucky. Because they just so happen to be standing where she usually stores it. It would have been so much better to see Buzz actually get resourceful and come up with a plan like the leader that he is. I know the current plan in TS2, the whole crossing the intersection thing is eh. But he was still able to use his resourcefulness to nearly catch up to Al in the toy barn. The way he was able to navigate through using the zipline and trampoline, he would have gotten there if it wasn't for the sliding door. And even then he's able to get through using the toys that he knocks over from a nearby toy stand. There was also the Pizza Planet cups in Toy Story 1 as well as his fucking flight. And in 3 we had his Roller Toy pole vault that he uses to get over that great above the door, so he can talk to Lotso. In Toy Story 4 we see him enact the slingshot manoeuvre thanks to his inner voice. There's a lot of voices in these buttons that weren't there in the first three. And even then it doesn't work, so we can't even see Buzz's competency on display when he's doing somebody else's plan. Even his emotional stakes are ruined by these buttons. And this is the most egregious example, because after the blow up between Bo Peep and Woody, where he reveals he's in it for himself, Buzz can't figure out whether to leave Woody or go after him. He resorts to button mashing, which is conveniently all playing the leave the situation prompt. Get fucked. Buzz wouldn't just leave Woody because a button told him to. If this were any of the past movies, he would run after Woody and tell him about Bonnie's backpack being left in the antique store. That way they could figure out a better plan other than sending Woody to get his voice box ripped out in exchange for Forky. What a worthy tread. Buzz has important information to give Woody. They could stop him from getting captured by Gabby, her goons, or even the cat. And right now he's sending him into the lion's den. Buzz does not give up on his friends, especially Woody. He follows the same rhetoric of no toy left behind. Imagine if in this situation, instead Buzz goes after Woody, fails to convince him about the backpack. Instead the pair are captured by Gabby's ventriloquist dummies. And then Buzz has to watch Woody get his voice box ripped out. Buzz can call out, no Woody, don't do it. And Woody can be like, it's okay Buzz. Gabby deserves her play even though she doesn't. It would have made this scene so much more impactful. But no, instead the writer set to find arbitrary methods of leaving Woody all alone. His only defense are pencil, as his pull string is torn from his body. This movie really did impress me on one front, and that's how efficiently they murder an entire cast of characters. So later when Buzz arrives back to the RV, he sure body will remember the backpack she left in the antique store. Get ready everyone, because I do not think that you are prepared for this galaxy brain payoff. Bonnie forgets that she forgot her backpack, and the RV is just about to leave. Buzz starts wildly pushing his buttons as you do, trying to get the answer he needs from his inner voice. The noise Buzz is making attracts Bonnie's mum, she thinks he's broken and subsequently is about to put him in the cupboard. Why does she think he'll be any more quiet behind the cupboard? Who knows? Stop asking questions and just watch the pretty lights. I'm sure by this movie's logic that if Buzz had been put in the cupboard, he would have miraculously been drowned out. Despite being behind only a few centimetres of wood and having plenty of space between the cracks of the door, it's not like it's lined with a fridge seal. As he is being put into the cupboard, he calls out, mimicking the sound buttons on his chest. He calls out, Your backpack is in the antique store. Let's go. Let's go. The antique store. Your backpack is in the antique store. Let's go. This somehow gets Bonnie's attention. At least it gets her to remember the backpack, but neither she nor her mum, who is currently holding the toy that just started stuttering before saying your backpack is in the antique store, in a tone that sounds much clearer than the pre-recorded comments from his buttons, realize that the toy just spoke. Even though it's loud enough to cause a clear, boomy echo in the cupboard. This is incredibly, epically, monumentally, inconceivably, unthinkably, unimaginably, unconvincingly, dizzlingly, bimbogglingly, universally, bullshit. By all things lawful and good in this existence, Bonnie's mum should have heard that and gone, what the fuck? And then throw it out the window, set it on fire, let dad run over it a few times. This is objectively terrible writing. I am struggling to think of a dumber moment in cinematic history. I'm sure there is, but right now, they just made cars to the second worst movie that Pixar has ever made. There is no possible way that Bonnie's parents didn't just hear the voice of Tim Allen, telling their daughter she forgot her backpack in the antique store. Remember that scene of Woody revealing his consciousness to Sid in Toy Story 1? At least in that scene, it was isolated to Sid alone and his sister would believe him to be crazy, most likely any would. This scene in Toy Story 4 is the most damning proof of the Toy Sentience in the entire franchise and Bonnie and her family seem to simultaneously fail as human beings. Bonnie's mum must be selectively deaf or something. Like I could seriously imagine some ridiculous novelization that says Bonnie's mum had hearing aids that weren't working at that time, and that Bonnie's dad was in on it with the toys, a complicit conspiracy theorist. Don't you see guys? Buzz was using his inner voice. How stupid do you think your audience is? Oh yes, this is a kid's film. How stupid do you think kids are? A bacterium could recognise how nonsensical this is. You insult children, you insult the older members of the audience, you insult Buzz Lightyear. There is no saving this film. If we could improve this scene, even the tensiest of tiniest bits have Buzz speak through his voice box like Woody did in Toy Story 1. At least if Buzz spoke through his voice box, we could have Bonnie's mum pull the toy back out from the cupboard and go, huh? It just shrug it off as her hearing things. Have any of these mannequins that you parade around as human characters. Acknowledge what Buzz did in some shape or form. That would still be dumb, but at least it wouldn't have curdled the brain. Moving right along. The final nail in Buzz's coffin is, of course, letting Woody go because he sees how much he pines for Bo Peep and tells him Bonnie will be okay. That is not what is in question, but even then, you don't think she'll be wondering where her cowboy has gone. The toy ended nearly snatch from her, the one he spoke such high praise of, before passing the mantle of Woody's owner to her. The toy she was actively playing with alongside Forky on this very trip. I'll save the rest of everything wrong with this line for Woody section. Meanwhile, Buzz completes his demented arc, telling Woody to listen to his inner voice. Listen to your inner voice. Christ alive, but the writer's trying to tell us that only now does Buzz finally understand what a conscience is. His telling of Bonnie's backpack still being in the antique store brought about this realization? He can finally speak for himself, after putting his friends in danger of their existence being uncovered and reality changing forever in the process. How does this work? How did he realize this? He understands the flawed moral concept of revenge when he confronts Woody after the latter try to terminate him in his own words. He has faith, belief. He understands the concepts of delusion when he crosses paths with the bizarro Buzz and Toy Story 2. He knows what a conscience is. He didn't need an arc taking up the entirety of a movie, learning to comprehend wrong and right on a subconscious level. He understands those concepts and the ethical quandaries that come with the consideration of them on an internal level. He also knows how to speak for himself. Buzz has a firm belief in doing good, doing right. He engages in acts of sacrifice, accepts defeat, knowing when to pick his battle. The motherfucker accepted death in the third film. He even encouraged his friends to do the same. He knows what a conscience is. Buzz's big brain analysis of Woody's own mono inner subconscious voicelessm should have been you can't find meaning in not being the favorite. Despite the fact you are actively providing happy memories for the kid Andy trusted you to. I'm sorry you feel that way. But let's talk about this and work through it together. We haven't been able to have a proper discussion on this since the writers keep wanting me to fuck off with Key and Peele's first owners. But you have to know you are surrounded by family and you have a home. You are still being played with, you haven't been abandoned or forgotten. This is all you have left to do? Good thing the world revolves around you, Woody. Then promptly finish it off with a help him remember the character he used to be. But nope, what we get is what we get. And when Rex asks Buzz if this means Woody is now a lost toy buzzer plays, he's not lost. Not anymore. So how long has he been lost exactly? How is it that Woody feels so without meaning when the end of the last film seemed to imply otherwise? He is with his family and a kid that loves him. At least until the movie tries to tell you otherwise. Those two things are everything that I've been led under the impression he wants. He's done a clear cut character study in the first three. Fuck me for paying attention. No no no, clearly what he really wants is freedom from the titans that keep him subjugated like cattle. And to get a bit of that Lara Croft sheep herder action. Come on Buzz, how much do you really know this guy who's been your best friend for 10 years? This is exactly what he wanted. The first three films were so obvious and this being his main goal, yeah? Yes, character renovations can change between films, even if it's been set up from the very start of a franchise. Frodo left the Shire wanting to destroy the ring. For a brief moment inside Mount Doom, he wanted the ring all for himself. The difference between Lord of the Rings and Toy Story, other than a lot of other differences, is that Frodo had the corrupting power of the ring. Toy Story 4 gives Woody a retcon and some poontang. If anything, the other toys should be feeling left out. Imagine being Buzz and the gang, realizing that as far as Woody is concerned, they're a burden or a trap that prevents him from having real purpose. What a great way to hollow out the humanity of Woody's friends and family and Bonnie to boot. After the whole Lost Toy Statement, Buzz says, and from afar, Woody replies, and beyond. Vapid and meaningless. Remember at the end of Toy Story 2, when Buzz asks Woody if he's worried about Andy growing up and Woody's reply is, It'll be fun while it lasts. Besides, when it all ends, I'll have old Buzz Lightyear to keep me company. For infinity and beyond. Well, I suppose it was neither infinity nor beyond in the end. I genuinely think this whole Colin response thing here at the end is here to confuse us otherwise. In TS2, this line was used to describe the gang's persistence and loyalty to one another, specifically between Buzz and Woody. It is also a bad adventure and discovery, yes, but it's always tied into the sturdy relationships between the main cast. To infinity and beyond usually follows characters growing together or reuniting after the adventure has split them apart. Oh. Oh, it's a subversion of expectations. Using it for the opposite happenstance just feels so contrived and manipulative. This is the opposite of to infinity and beyond according to precedence. Honestly, saying the opposite would have made more sense. Something like, yeah, that'll do. Suits the tone of the scene. Here, infinity and beyond just sounds like a false stand-in for I'll always be there with you or I'll never forget your cliche. And, well, they can't serve vague expectations with a cliche now, can they? The hilarious thing is that in the lamp life short film Woody is laughing with Bo about the whole experience. Honestly, they should have called that film lampshade. Buzz has been through it all and they were all supposed to stick together through infinity and beyond. At least that's what these first three movies taught me. Fuck me for paying attention. All right. Here we go. This one is going to be really grilling, but I've made it this far. There is no way I'm going to let what happened with Woody go without scrutiny. Sheriff Woody is the main character of the Toy Story franchise. Buzz may be more iconic. The other toys definitely have their share of the limelight, but at the end of the day, Woody was the focus for every film. His jealousy and misbehavior that came about when Buzz arrived in Andy's room and became the new favourite toy took centre stage in the first Toy Story, as well as his eventual redemption. Woody's fear of being outgrown and the history of his toy's self were the focus of the second film. Keeping the gang together and finding out where they need to go was his primary motivation for the third film. I feel as though three definitely explores his role as a leader more thoroughly than the other two. He's tested more so than ever before, but we still get clear examples of his leadership in the first two. He rescues a lot of toys. He rescues Buzz in the first film from Sid. He rescues Wheezy from the art sale. Jesse from the plane at the end of the second. And in three, with the help of the gang, they escape essentially prison. Every film seems to really build upon his ideals of no toy left behind. First film, new toy, who's questioning their own place in the world. But Woody installs a sense of confidence and assurance in them, and they escape captured together. Second film, old toy, wine out. Woody puts himself at great risk to rescue him. This is echoed in his rescue of Jesse, which is pretty much the same scenario although on a much grander scale. And then in three, he's like, fuck it, I'm rescuing everybody. Notice how every character I've talked about so far, the relationship with Woody has somehow entered the discussion. It's easy to shrug off as just he's the main character, but I think with everything I've talked about in the other character sections and the examples I've just listed off for Woody's heroism, I think it's pretty clear that he's the connective tissue for this franchise. He can be selfish and stubborn, there's a layer of this he has to overcome in pretty much all the films. But his dedication to his friends, his kids, his role as a leader in helping them overcome any obstacle, that's what comes out on top. When Buzz arrives, a surprise present from Andy's mum, Woody's cockiness is thrown in his face as being Andy's favourite toy he didn't expect to get replaced. He ends up getting himself and Buzz lost after he tries to get Buzz out of the way between him and Andy. They fall into the clutches of toy torturing for fun Sid. But in captivity, Woody learns to appreciate Buzz, and just how much he means to Andy, understanding that he won't always be the favourite. So yeah, Woody comes out of it a bit of... person? And the bond really gets strengthened amongst the toys, as we see in Toy Story 2. This bond is what helps reinstate Woody's love and faith in his kid. There will come a time when Woody won't be played with by Andy anymore, he can't stop Andy from growing up. But he will face that when the day comes. With Buzz Lightyear by his side. Sir, I can't stop Andy from growing up, but I wouldn't miss it for the world. Still, he does slip up in Toy Story 3, he lets his self-righteousness get the better of him. He calls everyone selfish for an honest misunderstanding regarding being left on the curb, thought to be trash. He learns not to abandon his friends for his own desires, no dino dwing, and comes back into the lion's den of sunny side daycare to rescue his friends. No toy left behind, they stick together. Woody is a leader through and through. He has faltered, he's not perfect. Of all the heroes in this franchise, he's probably the most flawed. His carelessness is what got Buzz lost in Toy Story 1, he nearly goes along with the Tokyo trip in Toy Story 2. Oh yeah, before I go on, I want to address a comparison. I've seen a few people say that Woody leaving at the end of Toy Story 4 is the same as if Woody were to choose the Museum of Toy Story 2. I don't necessarily think it's the best equivalency. At the very least, Woody is going to be helping toys get owners and be with his world bo peep. Whereas in Toy Story 2, it was him being manipulated by Pete and Jesse into thinking the museum would be a better option, even though he is guaranteed by Buzz. Never to be loved again, at least to the same capacity I know I've already mentioned that Pete is also a little bit manipulative, but she's mostly just inconsistent with what she values about Woody. And to be fair, I suppose Woody is inconsistent in and of himself in that movie. See, the fact that he considers leaving for the museum in Tokyo doesn't mean he is just willing to abandon his friends, he is actively being manipulated by the Roundup gang. It takes Buzz and the original Woody's Roundup TV show, the chosen machine of the Woody toy being played with that reminds him of what he was really made for, what his real purpose is and what he really enjoys, what he wants to do. So Toy Story 2, he was held at pickaxe point and forced to go to Tokyo and everybody treated this as the terrible thing that it was. In Toy Story 4, he is gaslit into thinking this is what he wants and then everybody is just happy with how things turned out. Something else to look at, and that's how in Toy Story 3, when he leaves the gang at sunny side near the end of the first act, it is absolutely treated like a bad thing. The characters leave off on a bad note, Woody tries but fails to convince them that Andy wasn't going to throw them out. He seems insulted or at least hurt by Jesse's exclamation of Andy is all grown up. So he relents but calls them selfish and tries to make them feel bad for wanting to stay together and be safe. They are misguided but Woody is too stubborn to give the toys patience and show them how Andy really does need them. So he does leave them but it sends him on this journey that allows him to find out the truth behind sunny side as well as find a new home for the toys. Woody returns to the daycare to rescue his friends, acknowledges that he was wrong and promises that from now on, they'll stick together. So yeah, no, neither of these events support the ending of Toy Story 4. But let's have a look at what it's trying to tell us. At the start of the movie, like I mentioned, we get that flashback where the gang is showing rescuing RC shortly after Toy Story 2. Like, some dude turns up and he's been bowing, Woody considers leaving the gang. Excuse me? Not long before the scene, Woody had just gone through his I Wouldn't Miss It for the World arc in Toy Story 2. He was really going to ditch Andy and his friends for Bow Peep, not try and get her back into Andy's room after she hopelessly harshly and somewhat inaccurately states I'm not Andy's toy. What if Woody hadn't heard Andy's voice? Would he seriously have gotten in that box? What happened to Infinity and beyond, Woody? What an awful taste to put in the audience's mouths in the first fucking scene of the movie. I really don't get how anybody can like this if they're a fan of the first three movies. Like I said, it's fine if you do, but please tell me why in the comments. Every single piece of character development, every arc, every emotional payoff, feels like it should have huge asterisk next to it. This movie really pretends to get the relationship between Woody and Anne. And… I forgot someone. What the fuck have they done with this kid's face? He looks nothing like he did in the first three. His hair, eyes, and face mapping got better textures than mentioned at rendering as the three went on. But they say the same. Why does he look so different? What the fuck have they done with Andy? He's just part of the plan to present an uncanny Valley version of our favorite character to make the decision what he makes at the end because ultimately these aren't the same characters on my base writing standpoint that we saw in the first three because I'm getting my tinfoil hat back on. God, I never entered this movie! Well that was fun. Sorry about that, are you really okay? Let's go back to it. Oh my, the intro seems to have forgotten that Andy nearly snatched Woody off of Bonnie. It's not like that was an important element of the final scene from the previous film that messes with this one's entire setup. The unnecessary flashback of the first three is unnecessary, then we get a short montage of Bonnie's play times. In that little montage we see that Woody is getting benched for a couple of them. Generally the first time I watched this, I didn't realize Woody was getting benched. I just thought since he was an older toy that, Bonnie wanted to set him aside for the rougher play times, especially since Andy asked her to take extra care of him. I thought it was just a cute montage that made it look like Woody was watching over the play times. His role was a wise old sheriff who looked after the town or some shit. Considering how all of the prior transitions in this intro kept Woody in the same position, I thought it was just a stylistic choice to keep him on the chair. The zoom in on the boot with Bonnie's name on it also confuses the message. Rather than feeling like evidence of Woody being abandoned, it comes across as more so the toys are now settled into life with Bonnie and they use Woody's unchanged position in the scene as an anchor. Long story short, it gave me a happy awe, not a sad awe. This is to show us that Woody isn't getting played with anymore guys. Nope, not at all. I mean come on, he was benched three times in one week. Kids don't play with toys more than three times in one week. I played with my toys one day, had a break, went back the next day. Motherfucker, these are rules that you give to a partner who's obsessed with 40K. My little brothers play with their toys three times before breakfast, but that's only one of two reasons proven wrong of why Woody feels this abandonment. Second reason holds more water than a sandbag. He's anxious about his new role as Bonnie's toy. Why? No, seriously, why? I understand the dynamic change where he's no longer the sole leader of the crew, but he wasn't truly just expecting to be the favorite toy and nothing less, right? He knew not to expect another Andy. He seemed at least comfortable from the ending credits of Toy Story 3, as well as all the short films that came after. If only there was a movie called Toy Story that taught Woody that he won't always be the favorite. Thank God this movie called Toy Story 4 came along and told me that movie doesn't exist, unless they want to make some snidejabs out of the course, but we'll burn that bridge when we get to it. Remember that feeling of content with resending? That the story had finally come full circle, the gang and Andy had their goodbyes, Woody and Andy were able to move on. Toy Story 4 has undeniably ruined that. Andy trusting Woody to Bonnie take good care of him? This film has taken away that conclusion and failed to live up to the intent of that exchange. That satisfying payoff of Andy getting to almost communicate with Woody as close as possible without actually speaking to each other and breaking the rules, just how much he meant to him. Then this film comes along and is like, back to the relevant motion picture, we see that Woody is upset that he's not being played with as much. And it's fair enough that he has this feeling, it could be sad to be shafted, he handles it well for the most part, showing some growth from the first film. He doesn't try to trap Jesse behind a desk, he just soaks in the corner and plays with cards. His main chagrin though comes at having his badge taken off of him and put on Jesse. Why is he upset by this? Him is given Mr Potato Head's hat to become Evil Doctor Port, Chop and Toy Story 2, owners pick and choose with their toys and even change the retire all the time. Imagination, curiosity, Woody and the gang are well aware of this, why does Woody hold the badge in such high regard? The only time before this where it's been treated with any sort of legitimacy or importance in the franchise is when Buzz mistakes Woody for a cop in Toy Story 1. All of a sudden it means so much to him, Woody is not just his badge. Funnily enough, I've done my due diligence and watched every film short in the Toy Story canon and I found something interesting. In the short film, Toy Story that Time Forgot, whichever one you go watch, it's just Toy Story 4 but better, Trixie has her entire mantle of dinosaur taken away by a Christmas tree ornament. But in a stunning turn of eventism, she learns that all she has to do is be there for Bonnie, no matter if it's as a dinosaur or anything else. Anyway back to the movie, that's better because the animation's nicer. Woody is excited that Bonnie is finally starting Kindergarten. I suppose the writers remember that Woody was Andy's favourite since Kindergarten and thought it was clever. It's like poetry, it's like poetry, it's like po- He finds out he won't be taken, that none of the toys could be taken for some reason? I don't know, is this a common thing in Kinder? They just wait for their kids to take their own toys? I never have that. But Woody sees that Bonnie is very shy and scared about her first day, so won't rest knowing she's uncomfortable at school. He stows away in her backpack and witnesses his owner cry in loneliness at a table after this verified white supremacist steals her arts and craft shit. Woody can't bear the tears, so sneakily throws rubbish at her so that she'll make something. This is excellent foreshadowing for later in the film when Gabby Gabby steals Forky. It's okay to steal because it gives Woody purpose. Bonnie makes a nightmare creature not even Lovecraft would dare conjure Forky the Fork. Her original, Forky the Fork, Ducky the Duck, Bunny the Bunny, really intuitive naming their Pixar. At least Lenny wasn't called Banock or something. Didn't want to call Ducky Bill or some shit. Now we've got two duckies. Anyway, Bonnie creates life from inanimate objects and Woody feels some kind of responsibility for this thing because of the joy it brought Bonnie. That's fine, makes sense, Woody sees all of his owner's toys as family, but why is he so adamant in doing it all himself? Even with his old, forgotten purpose, he had his friends there to help him. What has he ever said, no guys, I have to do this myself to anything? As if he wouldn't want a hand-keeping Forky safe, as if the other toys wouldn't want to help him or just not do it regardless. Especially Buzz, he jumped down from the magnetic roof in the landfill, risking his life to help Woody rescue Lotso from the shredder near the end of Toy Story. Ah well, Bonnie's parents thought that she did such a great job of going to Kinder Orientation that they're going to take a trip for a few days. So a montage ensues, Randy Newman sings through every hole in his face to give us, I can't let you throw yourself away. Though none of those instruments get played as hard as Woody does. Watching every one of Bonnie's toys just completely still idling out while Woody struggles to keep up with Forky looks surreal. The other toys just watch Woody struggle to keep this linchin utensil who wants to die alive. Fun! Oh yeah, and Bonnie plays with Woody, but that doesn't matter. Buzz and Woody later end up having a chat after the montage whilst they're still on the road. Woody is fucking tired, shown to be literally struggling to stay awake whilst watching over Bonnie and Forky. Like an asshole. Buzz asks if Woody is okay. Woody says he doesn't remember it being this hard when Andy was little. A lot of people have interpreted this as him speaking about the past films, but the actual quote to Buzz is, you weren't around when Andy was little, but I don't remember it being this hard. I understand the confusion, I actually thought the same myself before I double-checked, but even so I think the complaint still holds water. Like sure, being with Andy through Kindergarten might have been a breeze, but you were also the favourite toy, and didn't put an entire burden on yourself to look after a suicide or sport. Let Buzz help, he's Buzz Lightyear, he wants to help. Woody's rationalization is that if he let Buzz or anybody help him, he'd be giving up? How? You're just letting someone help you do the thing you are still doing. Are you giving up by asking Bo Peep for help later? Everything you've done in this series, you've received help from others somehow. This has never been an element of your character. Teamwork has been the name of the game since the first movie, Comrade. When Buzz helps Woody escape Sticky Pete on the conveyor belt, seething him from getting pickaxed, Woody hadn't given up. What's Woody's plan here? He's never going to sleep again, so he can keep an eye eternally on this trident of terror. Let people help you, Woody. Help me, help you, help me, help you. You help me, help you, help you. So Woody refers to the dilemma as having a little voice inside of him that won't let him rest until he does this. This cues Buzz's intellectual decline. Awesome. Buzzer's dementia distracts the pair from Forky as the plastic prick is now escaping through the open window at the back of the RV. How convenient that this family is totally okay with leaving the window open on their RV on a drive like this. Woody goes after him and Lucky Ham gets a second to tell Woody the distance he needs to make up when he catches up to Forky. Ham is right behind the passenger seat, already looking at the GPS before Woody even asks him. He speaks loud enough for Woody to hear him at the other side of the RV, but neither dad or mum hear him. Is dad asleep at the wheel? Sure, it makes sense that mum would be asleep, but how does dad not hear him? Maybe this is set up for the parents' terrible hearing that gets a lovely callback later on involving a backpack in an antique store. Woody jumps out the window after him without even considering trying to stop the RV. I guess because that would have probably involved the other toys and only Woody is allowed to go out to Forky. No one else can be inconvenienced or willingly put the time into helping their friend of more than 10 years. If Woody got the RV to stop, that would be giving up. But he asked Ham for help with the directions. Isn't that giving up? I suppose he wanted them to be safe and not parked on the side of the road in the middle of the night, fair enough. Still, it's so strange how Woody can have the most selfish motivations yet act so selflessly going out of his way to help his friends, putting himself in danger. It's like they flipped his good intentions and flawed actions from the previous three films and somehow concocted an angelic narcissist. Woody finds Forky really quickly. Maybe there was supposed to be a large passage of time indicated by the single cut from Woody outside of the lane marker then inside. But honestly, this just looks like a small continuity error. I'm happy to give the benefit of the doubt on this one though. Woody finds Forky the cunt and the two make their way back to Bonnie. Along the way, Woody tries to convince Forky to embrace his toy hood. He accidentally says Andy's name instead of Bonnie as well when outlining to Forky his new responsibilities. Interesting, this indicates that he is finding it hard to adjust to the new environment because it's just not Andy's room, but this is the first time this behavior and outlook has been hinted at. This mindset from Woody has been vacant for every bit of media outside of Toy Story 4, that's Toy Story 3 and the two short films. Fuck it, let's throw in the tunes for fun. But going into Toy Story 4 straight from 3 alone is jarring because the ending and mid-credits scene show that Woody is content and even engaging in some of his leadership behaviors found in the previous ones, reading out the letter from Sunny Side being one of them. This hollows out the baseline of the story. The reasons for Woody feeling this way are in this film, albeit sloppy, but they weren't even a footnote on the franchise before this film. Contrived is an understatement. Back to pain, strain and arbitrary feels, we get Woody and Forky having a big old laugh at Buzz's delusions in the first film which Woody calls annoying. Thank you, Mr. Cooley. It's so great to see Woody have unresolved resentment for that situation that happened over a decade ago. So glad Woody was looking for validation this entire time that he was right and Buzz was wrong. That wasn't the point of the first film, you walking talking for Dora. Hey guys, remember this moment? Well Toy Story 4 just excavated that scene's emotional weight. Cheers. So the tales and rationale excited Forky, he wants to be a toy now, or at least he wants to be Bonnie's trash. They hurry back to Bonnie, arriving within hours for a trip that should have taken at least a day. Passing a nearby antique store, they just so happened to see Bo Peep's lamp in the window. Wait, Woody, don't you want to make sure that that wasn't just a quick stop for Dad that the RV is definitely still there? Go back and maybe drop off Forky? Maybe find a way to store the RV so that you can head back later? Maybe ask the other toys who would like to see Bo Peep. You are leaving a lot to chance. What if it takes you too long and the RV heads off? All that purpose is just installed into Forky will be nothing and he and Bonnie will be very upset. I think. But he can't shake the need to see Bo again, and this is fine, totally fair. Honestly if we didn't have that opening flashback, it would have been better to see this as just Woody wanting to see an old friend, rather than the lamp he nearly ran away with nine years ago. Back to the stupidity, we meet our villain, Gabby Gabby. She has a broken voice box and wants Woody's because they're around the same age of toy, maybe? A bit contrived, but it's minuscule next to the other problems of this movie. Woody doesn't like the idea of having his insides ripped out, so he tries to escape with Forky. They are chased by Gabby's minions, mute, ventriloquist dummies. They end up capturing Forky, but Woody escapes by getting the attention of the little girl that Gabby wants to be owned by. Her name is Malady and she likes Woody, because who wouldn't like a cowboy doll that sounds like Tom Hanks? They go for a play in the park, which Woody ends up leaving when she goes for lunch. I suppose he's getting in practice for his ultimate abandoning at the end of the film. Then a rampage of schoolchildren invade the park, so Woody has to hide by sheer fucking happenstance. He is picked up by a girl sitting on the roundabout and who is she also playing with? Bo Pea. This is how they reunite. It's a nice idea to have Bo and Woody reunite as they're being played with, but by George, by Jim, and by Krikey this is a coincidence. The two get away from the playground and start to reconnect. When speaking about life at Bonnie's, we get more of the sense that Woody isn't too happy there. He ignores Bo and her friend giggles delight to Woody having a little girl for an owner. Then immediately goes on to reminisce about Andy and Molly. I'm really sorry, but if you think this film was less concerned with nostalgia and more concerned about moving things forward, you're kidding yourself. Did you watch Toy Story 3 by Annie Chance? This film is an absolute retreat into the past. That's almost literally the resolution for the main character. Woody fills her in on the 4K situation and convinces her to help get him back. Woody appeals to the fact that Bo used to be loved by Andy's little sister. This makes Woody the third most manipulative character in the film, behind Gabby Gabby and Bo, of course. Woody and Bo make their way to the antics store, running into Buzz along the way, who quickly gets keyed and peeled so that we get more of the budding romance between the cowboy and the sheep. Bo starts talking up Lost Toy Life, which starts Woody's fetish for this gross, shitty, disgusting, gum-infested piss and shit and vomit-stained, littered carnival. On top of the carousel, she shows him a view that is pretty weak in terms of scale that we've seen before. Later, the antique store glistening of the chandeliers strikes a bit more as a new visual. The only thing it has up on the adventures and vistas the toys experienced over the past decade are the advances in animation technology. Remaster those first three films, and Woody's seen this epicness in adventure that dwarves a ratty old carnival. The flight with Buzz at the end of the first film, the airport runway rescue, he's seen shit Bo was only ever dreamed of. But regardless, that stuff was always scared him. He's always been a homebody. He's always been comfortable when he's with his owner and his friends in the safety of home. Remember his reaction to getting lost at the petrol station in Toy Story 1? He's terrified of being alone, of being with our friends, of being without his owner. But Toy Story 4 is trying to tell us how cool lost toy life is, and Woody is so drawn in by the idea of being a lost toy. So fuck you Toy Story 1. Like they could show us a new side of lost toy life and how it really isn't all that bad, but trying to link it in with the development of Woody's character just doesn't work. Cause you have three movies telling you otherwise. So within this idea of recontextualizing lost toy life, you have to ask yourself would Woody be so attached and open to the idea if it wasn't coming from Bo? What Woody needed all along was to be lost with the love of his life. So now we're up to the part of the film where they enact the terrible plan to rescue Forky. So yeah, I'm looking at this plan and I want to go on just a little rant here. I'm going to go a bit off script, might be messy. Um, yeah, so if we really look at it, uh, Bo and Woody cross with Duke Kaboom. They've got that line that's not retractable by any pulley system or anything, so what they're going to have to do is uh, um, they're going to have to tie it onto something once they get to the other side of the cabinet. The problem with that is that, um, once they're shimmying over the line, pretty quickly those ventriloquist dummies could untie it. Um, yeah. And like, there's no way that Duke could get his bike back across there, surely. Would that line be able to hold all of them? Would they have to go one at a time? There's just so much time that they're offering themselves here that they don't have. Those dummies are easily going to catch up to them and they're going to be fucked. So it seems the best thing to do would be to swing, but even then we saw that Ducky, Bunny and Buzz weren't able to pull just a few of the toys up. Again, Duke Kaboom and his bike, if he was on there, then there's no way all of the toys are getting back up to that bookshelf. Also, Duke falling down, uh, on his bike was probably the best move because it keeps the cat distracted and the cat won't be jumping up trying to get at the string that the toys are crossing. I understand that the string would have been higher if they got to the top of the bookshelf. That was their aim. But even then it's really risky just thinking that the cat won't be able to get up there. We know how nimble cats can be. So the best thing to do would be to distract him either by what they were doing with Duke, maybe some cat food. Surely they could find some in the antique store. There was a myriad of different options that they could have taken here. And the plan not falling through properly is not Woody's fault. Like I mentioned, if he hadn't swung down to get forky, he would have been torn apart. Bo callously and thoughtlessly just starts swinging across that rope leaving Woody So Woody takes action to rescue forky. The closest I could say to any of this kind of being his fault is that he did sort of pull them off the bookshelf. But even then the scenario would have been if they had by some miracle all gotten up to that bookshelf, forky would have been torn apart by the cat. Him getting everybody to the ground and they being led out by Duke through the conveniently placed ramp is probably the best thing that could have happened. Absolutely terrible plan. Bo and Duke should be ashamed of themselves. Woody did nothing wrong. All the hashtags. Woody is shown to be rushing through a lot of the earlier plans to get forky, which is a bit out of the character, but you can sit at the ticking time clock above his head that is the RV could leave at any moment. So of course he's going to be rushing. Why are all the other characters acting like they have all the time in the world? Bro can mingle with a bunch of people at the antique store nightclub and also show Woody a bunch of really pretty chandeliers. You've got shit to do. Alright we've made it to the scene or at least the scene before the scene. The line that makes my skin itch, it's all I have left to do. So let's go. The very first film puts Woody's needs in one thunder or microscope and explains why he doesn't always have to be top shit. As long as he's there for Andy, he finally practices what he preaches at the start of the film he says to the other toys. That is his purpose I suppose you'd say. He puts aside his desires to be the favourite to accept Buzz's friend and recognise that it's not about being the favourite, it's about being there for your kid. In the scene where Woody is trapped underneath a storage crate and Buzz is trapped to the rocket he commits to this idea reaffirming Buzz's faith in toyhood. There are three facets of this and that's his admission of guilt, truly recognising the fluctuating love a kid can have for their toy and ironically giving Buzz another sense of purpose after he comes to grips with the fact that he's not an actual space ranger or a toy but he's a cool toy. His owner loves him very much. He may not have this universal purpose but he's got family and he's part of something. He's a toy and he's a toy. Buzz's determination is reignited by this, he helps Woody escape the crate. His response being, The toys face this together. No toy left behind. They may have their different experiences, some of them may not be the favourite but they stick together, help each other out for themselves and their kid. In Toy Story 2 the climactic scene is Woody telling Buzz he can't come back to Andy's room because he needs to help the rest of the roundup crew stay out of storage. This scene shows that Woody has been manipulated into thinking one more rip and Andy's done with me and that going to the museum will bring him long-term adoration for being Woody from Woody's Roundup. And with this Buzz returns a favour to Woody. Somewhere in that pad of stuffing is a toy who taught me that life's only worth living if you're being loved by a kid. And then when Woody tells him that this is his only chance Buzz again responds, Watch kids for behind glass and never be loved again, some life. Guys can we just remove Toy Story 4 from can and to preserve Buzz's character. There is just so much growth and development here. After Buzz and the toys leave Woody walks off and starts watching an episode of Woody's Roundup. At the end of Witcher, Kid starts playing with a Woody puppet from the show and it reminds Woody, Woody truly values. And it's not because it's Andy, it's because it's his kid. Of course they have an attachment as any favourite toy in their kid would but the sentiment remains regardless of the kid. He's there to watch somebody grow to create memories for them for him. But I wouldn't miss it for the world. It brings him joy to bring joy to his owner. Then Woody goes back with them. Of course there's the hijinks and hilarity, but when they go back to Andy's room Buzz asks him if he's worried about Andy outgrowing him and Woody says, It'll be fun while it lasts. I'm proud of you cowboy. Besides, when it all ends I'll have old Buzz Lightyear to keep me company. For infinity and beyond. Notice how he said Buzz Lightyear and not Bo Peep. During the earlier mentioned hijinks and hilarity, Woody asks Jesse and Bullseye back in our apartment if they want to come back to Andy's room. Because, no toy left behind, he knows they'll be cared for by Andy. So we have two new friends in Andy's room. In Toy Story 3, throughout the whole film Buzz is telling Woody that they must keep their cool and stick together. Very different from the Buzz we see in Toy Story 4. Woody thinks that letting Andy unknowingly neglect the toys, keeping them in storage but bringing Woody to college is the best move. I wouldn't really say this is being there for their kid in this case. The kid doesn't want to play with them except… was he really going to play with Woody at college? Or maybe just stick him on a cupboard or a shelf like a trophy. Woody doesn't want that. He can't do that. That's not being there for his kid. The idea of no matter how much we're played with will be there for them doesn't really apply because they're not being played with at all. So Woody places a note on the box of toys originally attended for the attic and takes them to Bonnie. I mean, Andy hadn't been told by his mum that the toys were thrown out and Andy isn't really sure about where this note came from. He didn't ask his mum or anything. Bit weird, but ok. So yeah, Andy passes the toys down to Bonnie and surprise surprise, Woody snuck into the box so he could be with his family and also there for the next kid. Woody is ready to move on. Andy is the one to hesitate. He was going to bring this toy to college, potentially have it stay on top of a shelf or inside a drawer. Thank you Mr. and Mrs. Head. The only toys in college are the boy toy folk artist who keeps toying with my emotion. Andy sees a little girl is going to give this toy all the love and affection that he once gave to him. He can't take Woody to college, leave the others in an attic, collect dust and not get played with. He can't abandon them, he can't be selfish. Take extra care of Woody, he says. He'll always be there for you. Guess not. This all I have left to do line is engorged beyond belief with arbitrary and convoluted needs for continuing a concluded story, a concluded arc. But nope, the writers wanted their fan fiction. Woody was ready to move on, his purpose was Bonnie, his purpose was family. I don't have anything else motherfucker you have buzz, Jesse, bullseye, slinky, Rex, ham, Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head, they're green children. Not to mention Bonnie's toys and Bonnie herself. Woody's lack of purpose does not have a through line in Toy Story 4. His purpose was never to make one kid happy forever and he understood that, or he came to understand that. All you had left to do at this point was to keep what remained of Eddie's toys together and that's not over just because they're with a new owner now. And I guess that's not having anything else, but mate you frothed this shit in the first three. But yeah let's put a pin in there for now. Let's jump back to the scene where alone and cornered and desperate to get forky back, Woody gives up his voice box to Gabby Gabby so that she has more of a chance to get an owner now. Because we're all so invested in that right. Everyone loves Gabby Gabby, the spiteful, murderous, vengeful, torturous kidnapper. It's time that she got a chance to bring a kid happiness. She deserves the joy. Like I mentioned earlier, Gabby's defect to her own voice box has prevented her from being able to get an owner. Woody gives up his voice box because being played with is the most fulfilling thing a toy can do. At least it isn't this soon. But with Duke and Bozaks, we see that you don't need to be played with by a kid to be fulfilled. The writers love having their cake and playing with it too. That's fine for toys to have different motivations, different ideas of what can be fulfilling. We see that in life all the time, whether it's people's own careers, their partners, or helping others. The problem is having this come from Woody after Gabby's just been rejected by Harmony, the girl she was desperate to get a voice box for. And Woody has been convinced, at least to some degree at this point, that being a lost toy may be the avenue for him. You know, the guy who hasn't shown these characteristics or motivations in any of the previous Toy Story films or shorts? Woody, who has all of a sudden been unable to adapt to a life without Andy, tells Gabby she can adapt to a life without Harmony. Harmony was my chance, sounds an awful lot like this is all I have left to do. Both of these comments are given the old switcheroo because Gabby ends up with a little girl from the carnival and Woody ends up with Bo. That's the character development? Woody's rationale that gets Gabby to change her mind feels very cherry-picked. He tells her about his owner Bonnie and how she is waiting for Gabby, but just doesn't know it yet. Giving Gabby the chance to be Bonnie's toy if Bonnie will accept it. What if you're wrong, Gabby asks and Woody says in response if you sit on a shelf the rest of your life you'll never find out will you? The issue with that is this film introduces a secret third option behind getting played with and not getting played with and that's just being a free lovin hippie-dippy lost toy. Well is there anything about sitting on a shelf Woody? What if she took the lost toy life with you guys isn't that better? Rather than going after someone who just may not want you. I guess the difference being that Gabby's never experienced that whereas Woody has. But they both start off the character developments in this film wanting the same thing. They present it as if both of the toys aren't wanted. Gabby because she's broken and Woody because he's... old? And here's another problem. Bonnie may be waiting for Gabby, she just doesn't know it, but she definitely is waiting for Woody and she does know that. She does want him. She will recognize he is gone. She will because Woody is her toy. She chose him and he offered Bonnie accepted. She has been actively playing with Woody up until this point. Why would you keep that in the movie if this is the point you are trying to make? What point are you trying to make? Some toys want an owner. Some toys want to be a lost toy. Nobody wants to be on the shelf. Alright fine. Is he simple enough to follow? But if wanting an owner is A and wanting to be a lost toy is B this is what the writers try to get Woody from and to. We've gone through every possible reason he could have this viewpoint and at every single justification it shoots itself in the foot. There is contradictory information that is compromising the points of development. He is still getting played with. There's nothing to suggest these hang ups about Andy until this film. He is still with his friends and family and spent the entire trilogy learning how to overcome the ideas of being outgrown and not being the favorite. What does Woody want? At this point you could do a fifth movie when Woody's like that's it guys I'm going to reveal toyhood to the human race. Then we would get Pixar's small soldiers. But yes Gabby's on the good team now never mind the fact that she kidnapped Forky and held him for ransom until she gaslit Woody into giving up his voice box. She pretty much called him selfish for existing implying that because Woody's already had these happy memories it's her turn now. Why don't you guys just find some way to get it to some repair shop or something I don't know just saying kidnapping and ransom should be a last resort. She was sad you misogynist. She changes her mind at the drop of Woody's cowboy hat when she sees a little girl all by herself lost in the carnival and decides to go rescue her by uh leading her into a darker and more scary place just so that she can find her. Kids go into dark lately scary looking places you'll find toys. Woody is of course on board with all of this because he's had all of his conviction and commitment thrown out the window. Gabby gets picked up by not Bonnie. Mission successful. I like this idea of Woody helping other toys get owners where they otherwise may find it difficult to like he's had his time in the sun and now he guides others to treasures that he cannot possess. But the film would have had to portray Woody as sufficiently useless sufficiently abandoned by Bonnie to justify this outlook because he's still getting played with. Like I said earlier he's the only toy who shares the playtime with Bonnie's new favorite toy. After the whole bads drama at the start of the film where he never see the other toys played with by Bonnie just walkie and footie. We can assume they were played with some time during the drive up to the carnival because the other toys do move positions and it can be believed Bonnie picked them up and played with them. However with what we've been shown it looks like Woody and Forky were the only toys played with on the trip. Bonnie is an insert for the riders she just wants the toys there for set decoration. Now let's talk about the voice box. Nothing comes of this for Woody. The assumption is that now he's finally useless spring full circle his feelings are being sought at the start of the film. It doesn't matter if he won't be played with as long as another kid as long as another toy is happy. This essentially becomes his occupation after the film. But we aren't shown that Woody has now eternally damned himself to a life of unplayability. The reason that Gabby Gabby wasn't played with is because she was broken she could be considered dangerous by a parent or kids may be worried about breaking them further which is why Andy didn't bring Woody to cowboy camp. Same with Weezy's broken squeaker or though that could be the same thing as just it's annoying to have a squeaky toy that just whistles instead of squeaks. With Woody his voice box is no longer there at all. If someone were to pick him up and go play with him not having any knowledge of a share of Woody before they just see his own back. They could assume it was just a tear and that no pool string had been there before. So sure it's sad but also from a medicine we're never gonna hear him say there's a snake in my boot or somebody's poison the water hole again. But the thing is there really isn't much sacrifice here kids could still be willing to play with him. There are exceptions to what I said before there are kids who even if they knew what a sheriff woody doll is they may be willing to play with a broken toy. In that scene where Woody and Bo reunite that little girl on the roundabout who finds both of them is playing with Bo in spite of the tape on her forearm she doesn't even use Woody's pool string. In fact the only time a kid pulls it is when uh melody? Rhythm? Harmony? The little girl from the antique store plays with him and yeah I guess it's a good thing that he had the pool string there to get him out of that jam when he was being chased by Bonnie's uh Gabby's minion. But this scene with the little girl was it supposed to be this big thing about oh man how cool is Woody's pool string look how important it is to his character. He'd be nothing without it. For the most part she and the girl on the roundabout and Bonnie play with him like any old plush toy. If it had to be hammered home how useless he was without this pool string we'd have to see a scene where Bonnie takes one look at Woody and goes what no pool string I don't want to play with you anymore something along those lines. We know Woody had insecurities about being broken and damaged evidenced by his nightmare about Andy throwing him out because of his arm in Toy Story 2. However at the end of the film Andy fixes him and he is still played with in spite of the uneven stitching and slightly more stuffing in his arm. Woody shakes it off. Art complete. Even if Bonnie were to see Woody after the voice box removal her reaction would most likely be what the fuck you stole my cowboy's pool string. But you want to know what I think? I think the writers wrote around the iconography of the character similar to what they did with the badge. None of this works. The ideas aren't committed to, the avenues aren't explored. The goings on are cut off at arbitrary points where the potential is barely teased. It's incomplete. And what we have as it stands with that adequate explanation to how we got here makes it a contradiction. So after the villain gets everything that she ever wanted without remorse for what she did or any inclination towards redemption we get a development in the other amazing arc where Duke of Broom can jump. He can jump on his motorbike. He jumps from one side of the carnival to the other. Great. Buzz flew in Toy Story 1. Why does it feel like Duke is here to make fun of some of the series best payoffs? Yep. Zip. Go across the wire. Nobody can see this. Great. Now. We're here. The moment we've all been waiting for. I know I have. As Woody is leaving to go back to his friends and Bonnie he is visibly upset to have to leave though. And that's fair enough. She's an old friend. He clearly missed her to some extent in Toy Story 3. And of course he was retconned to have nearly left with her the last time the two parted ways. Hello it's me on a terrible mic. I just forgot to point out that this is clearly supposed to be a mirror of the opening scene. This time I suppose Woody's the one leaving Bo. It's still him that the decision falls onto which is pretty interesting. Once again he has to be the one to make the compromise. I suppose it's not a compromise for him though because this is what he's wanted all along apparently. He just chose not to do it in that flashback at the start of the film because he needed more time to grow. This is what he's been really building towards. So all the other characters, Buzz, Jesse, the potato heads, they were all just a stepping stone for Woody to get back to Bo I suppose. So Woody walks up to Buzz. He's lost for words and uh, Buzz's response to seeing his friend upset his best friend of over 10 years. Pretty much an adopted brother at this point. The one who learnt that life is only worth living if they're being loved by a kid from Woody. The one who Woody promised to stick with through Infinity and beyond. What does he say? She'll be okay. At first Woody thinks that Buzz is talking about Bo and he's clearly not happy with this. Doesn't bring him any comfort to know that a independent free thinker like Bo is going to be fine without a clingy cowboy doll. But Buzz corrects himself and tells him that Bonnie will be okay. Essentially giving his blessing on behalf of the toys and Bonnie for Woody to live. Have you guys seen Endgame? Avengers Endgame, a pretty flawed movie. I'd say more bad than good. Definitely not as good as Infinity War, but there's one moment that I think was probably the, well not moment actually, just one facet of that movie that I think was probably one of the best things that the MCU has ever done. And that's Iron Man using the Infinity Stones to stop Thanos and save the universe. Killing himself in the process. I know that Loki has made it pretty much that he had to do that otherwise he would have been melted, but still. He is visibly in pain and worried about his death and the implications of having used the Infinity Stones. He's surrounded by his concerned and desperate friends. There's a lot of stress and confusion. Like is everyone okay? How do we save Tony? But Pepper Potts, his wife, kneels down to him and tells him we're gonna be okay. You can rest now. Tony Stark for every film since Iron Man in 2008 has worried about the safety and concern of all people. The ones he cares about and those he has an effect on. It's what inspires him to shut down Stark Industries weapons manufacturing when he sees it as a ladder for evil to exploit the system he put in place due to his carelessness and ego. To make Ultron in the hopes of bettering his abilities to keep the peace. To sign the Sokovia record so that he and the Avengers are held responsible for the damage they make for the actions they take. He can't allow people to suffer needlessly. He can't turn a blind eye to the suffering he may inadvertently cause. If he can do something he'll do it. It's pretty much perpetual turmoil for him as there will always be something beyond his control. And things won't be always perfect in the long run, even after what he does in Endgame. But Tony wants to better the lives of people around him and improve the systems that are already in place. Even if it means sacrificing himself to do so. As we see with his defeat of Overdive, Stain in Iron Man, his near-death in the first Avengers film and of course the end of Endgame. He uses his technology for security, therapy, bettering the life on Earth as best he can after he becomes Iron Man. The amount weighing on his conscience is pushed to the forefront with the knowledge of his weapons falling into the wrong hands and people getting hurt by the actions of the Avengers without repercussion of restoration. As with his family he is not willing to let them come to harm or face danger if he's to try and bring back the people who are snapped away by Thanos. But he won't ignore the potential to save them either when the time travel solution shows up. So when he wields the ultimate power, the responsibility and potential for harming others weighs on him. Is everyone still alright? Are his family okay? Is everyone safe? Did he mess up, cause something else to happen with the Infinity Stones? But Pepper tells him what he needs to hear. You did it. You saved us. Everyone is okay and you don't have to worry anymore. You gave it everything you got. You found a way that fixed things without causing any unnecessary damages. At least as far as we've seen. He dies knowing he succeeded. He finally made everything right without hurting anybody. Oh sure Thanos was upset and Tony did kill him and all of his army but eh bad guys. It's the perfect ending for this character and easily the most satisfying conclusion in Endgame. I'm not really crazy about the MCU. I think there's more bad movies than good. I kind of jumped off the hype train around Ultron and fucking Falcon and Winter Soldier and WandaVision. They're an absolute fass. But what they did with Iron Man was nothing short of impressive in terms of character writing. The fact that like 23 movies and they were able to conclude it so well and he remained the strongest characters. Look there's great characters in the MCU don't get me wrong. You got Captain America, Black Panther, Black Widow, Captain Marvel. So yeah I just felt the need to highlight it and you may be wondering why this links in with Toy Story 4 and well Buzz tells Woody that he doesn't have to worry because Bonnie will be okay without him. There are so many ways in which this is monumentally wrong but let's be broad and attack three main topics. Firstly it's a lie. Buzz can't know that. He doesn't know that Bonnie's gonna be okay without Woody. Her love and care extends to all of her toys. The only thing Buzz knows for sure is that Andy asked Bonnie to take extra special care of Woody. Bonnie knows all of her toys by name and plays with him fairly and changes up the roles to make sure no one takes the spotlight. We just watched a whole movie where we see how worried she gets about losing a toy. Or was it just losing Forky because that wouldn't add up with everything that we've seen of Bonnie outside of Toy Story 4? It creeps into this one as well. She still brings along all the other toys on the trip with her. It also maintains her high toys by toys admiration and acknowledgement thing when she gets home from kindergarten. This does not add up with what we're told about Woody's apparent shafting at all. I'm really sorry that I keep repeating myself but this movie does not have a leg to stand on and it keeps looping back to these exact same points. The writers just wanted their story in this universe without considering what it may do to the characters that they're using in it. Similar to what Ryan Johnson did with Luke Skywalker in The Last Jedi. So one more time for good luck. Who knows what her reaction will be when she finds out she lost Andy's favorite toy. What Andy would think when he learns the toy he trusted to her that he wanted passed down to the right owner and taken good care of has been lost. Secondly, this isn't just about Bonnie. This doesn't tie in with Woody's purpose as far as the saga goes. Not just this film. Arbitrarily tacking on Woody's purpose has been fulfilled. Having to have the characters say that in the fourth film when the ending of the third pretty much did all of that. As well as giving him new purpose with Bonnie's ownership and keeping him and his family together. But now you're saying that what he really wanted was to be with Bo Peep and help other toys get owners. And to be lost and free to make his own decisions. They are to retcon his relationship with Bo to achieve the first point. And ignore the fact that Woody bringing joy to a kid that's always been a reciprocal relationship. He loves being a part of it no matter what his role is. But now you've taken him away from that and told him that what he needed all along was the thing that he was terrified of. And again, what about keeping the family together? How is Jesse going to feel about this? Spool's eye slinky. How will Buzz be knowing he may never see Woody again? Oh man, at least if Andy committed to taking Woody to college they could have still seen each other and maintained some degree of connection. Andy could have visited. They could have sent each other letters. But the carnival is travelling. There is no fixed address. The spot they are in now could be hundreds of miles away from home. There is a high chance that say for some mega convenience in a hypothetical Toy Story 5 Woody and Buzz will never see each other again. This is goodbye forever. This is the opposite of that to Infinity and beyond from Toy Story 2. And finally, and this is some more of an extension of the first half of point 2, but this is not a completion, although Tony Stark Iron Man. Woody's final act is not him finally fulfilling his purpose satisfying his motivations from previous films. It's going against all of that. He runs off to be with Bo Peep and leaves his friends and owner behind forever. He thought goes everything he wanted since the first film to be there for his kid and stick together with his friends and family. This would genuinely be like Iron Man ignoring Captain America's place for help with the time travel plan so that he can be with his family and live out the rest of their days together and kept telling him humanity will be okay. It is all the contradictions. To Infinity and beyond has nothing on the so long partner from the previous film. Woody gives Andy all that he can give him in the ways of memories and being there for him while still being there for his family at the end of TS3. The connection between Andy and Woody is important, but for over a decade Woody and Buzz were like brothers. They actually directly communicated with each other. The closest thing that Woody got was the goodbye. The goodbye from Andy where it's like he's directly communicating with him. Sorry, movie. You're telling me that Woody is gonna get over Buzz and everybody like that. But with Andy he's having hang ups all of a sudden. Who's to say he's not gonna have sudden hang ups about not seeing Buzz or anybody in the next one? Anything could happen at this point. All bets are off man. So long partner? That was Woody's Iron Man end game moment. This is not Infinity and beyond in Toy Story 4. This is to rear most and nothing. To buy bitch and be gone. To let buy guns be by gone. Woody is lost more now than he's ever been. Everything that made him Woody has essentially been erased. There is no progression between what we see before Toy Story 4 and then what is dumped in our lap by it. It is nothing. It is nullifying. It removes any requirement to have watched the first three films. This movie is better off without them honestly. It won't fix every issue at this point. It would be like putting a bandaid over a cadaver. But it might just give it a wonky hind leg to stand on. Of course it had to start raining when I was about to finish this section. But essentially it's as if an entirely different script for an entirely different movie with entirely different characters was written and they put a fresh coat of paint on it and changed the character names to those from Toy Story. There are scenes where they reuse the exact same music cues note for note without any deviation or development. They reunited you with old characters and those you thought lost as they didn't appear in the third to give you a sense of no, this is the conclusion. But that's the problem you see. They're not the same characters. I wore out the VHS as I own for both of them when I was a kid. The sound design is kind of embedded in my head. One of the best movie going experiences I ever had was seeing Toy Story 3 with my family enclosing the book on this story that anyone loved. It was a satisfying end to an admittedly flawed but undeniably monumental trilogy. When I heard about the fourth film I was very doubtful despite the stellar animation and the return of a character who could have a pretty interesting story to tell about their time away from the gang. I just couldn't help but dread what they were going to do with these characters. It felt cheap to do characters, the setting, the basic synopsis. It seemed so desperate and pointless. I went to see with my partner and was getting sucked in by it though. It nearly won me over. I was overlooking the terrible pacing, plot contrivances, character assassination because I was convinced it would all be made right with everyone going home at the end of the adventure. I never expected them to do what they did with Woody. I was shocked. I was upset. My expectations were well subverted but it was not earned by any measure of rationality. Putting vague ideas of purpose that weren't present in the original trilogy were downright contradicted and retconning Woody's loyalty. I was telling myself that I was overreacting that it was just a kid's film. I'd learn to love the ending but nope. This is a bad movie. It's insulting to the first three and what they accomplished. The story that they were trying to tell and I'm tired of Hollywood's focus on pulling the rug out from under the audience of classic franchises. Paying no mind to set up and pay off. Star Wars, Terminator, Game of Thrones, Predator, the DCEU. Although that was kind of fucked from the start. Star Trek, Ghostbusters, Alien, Cloverfield and of course Toy Story. It nullifies and disrespects the work of creators past. It tells me the issue isn't that these big studios like Disney and Warner don't get it. They get it. They just don't care. They want to be different by any means necessary. You think Toy Story is about sticking together as a family no matter what? Let's have the leader abandon them for a romantic interest. You like these characters and their intelligent responses to a film's challenges? Let's make them stupid. You like this when you're a kid? Not anymore. Feels great. Thank you all so much for watching my video. I've never ventured into commentary review stuff on YouTube before personally but I've long been an admirer of many content creators on this platform. I really had a lot to say about this film and I thought this would be the best platform to voice it. As well as try my hand at editing and commentary. It took a long time to put this one together but I'm sure there's much to improve on. I welcome and appreciate any and all feedback so let me know where I can improve or anything I may have gotten wrong whether it's video making or the film itself. All the music used in this video is linked in the description including songs of my own so there but same as self promotion. I've linked some creators in the description as well whose videos and creativity definitely inspired a lot of this video. If you liked this video feel free to drop some suggestions for other topics to cover in the future as well as let me know what you thought of the film. If you liked it I can't reiterate enough how that is totally fine and I have no issue with people enjoying it. My issues are with the films writing and hopefully I've offered a different perspective to consider about the film. I'd happily discuss this film with anybody. There are things to appreciate in the film but I found the issues to far outweigh whatever this film does well. Of course the voice acting, animation, sound design, all stellar but that's just not enough to save the movies writing. Anyway I have links to other contents. Other content I've made music and short stories mostly linked you guessed it in the description. Points of contact are there too if you do want to discuss. Once again thank you all so much for watching this I had to move the station around quite a bit so sorry if it's a bit inconsistent I tried to just match it up in post as best as I could. Also I was a bit unwell during the middle portion of this video so if I sound like I'm slurring a bit I had a huge true fake that I couldn't put off like weeks of work to to just let that go away I had to get this review done. I doubt I'm gonna do anything as intensive as this again but I do have a few ideas for some fun videos to do down the track but yeah let me know and yeah subscribe to Igor Elinick bye. Hey Luca totally stole this line from the Simpsons. Don't say revenge uh revenge. Simpsons sue Disney. Oh