Toy Story 4 (2019)

The Low-Down: 24 years ago, Pixar’s Toy Story quite literally changed the face of animation as we know it. The film presented an entirely new way of telling a story, bringing characters to life via CGI – pixels over pencils, so to speak. At the same time, Toy Story set a new high standard for storytelling in film, proving conclusively that animated movies aren’t just for kids. In the intervening decades, the franchise has even made a strong case in favour of sequels – demonstrating that they’re not necessarily soulless cash-grabs. Toy Story 4 is very much a part of that grand tradition. This is smart, soulful, sublime film-making: somehow entertaining and profound all at once.

The Story: Sheriff Woody (voiced by Tom Hanks) is trying his best to adjust to life with Bonnie (Madeleine McGraw) – the little girl who inherited Andy’s beloved childhood toys at the end of Toy Story 3. Even though he’s forgotten more often than not, Woody remains intensely focused on Bonnie and her happiness. This means going into full babysitter/bodyguard mode when Bonnie creates Forky (Tony Hale), a spork with twists of wire for hands and clumsy wooden popsicle sticks for feet. As Woody tries to keep the trash-oriented Forky safe, he’s swept into an accidental adventure – one in which he meets old friends and learns new truths about who he is and who he has yet to be.

The Great: Perhaps the most remarkable thing about Toy Story 4 is the fact that it feels like the natural, necessary final chapter of a story told in four parts. There’s no way that any of this could have been planned when Pixar first introduced us to Woody in 1995, but the progression in both narrative and character development feels utterly organic. Woody has spent the last three films grappling with his existential fear of being lost, forgotten or replaced, from his first meeting with the brash Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen) to the day Andy outgrew him and went away to college. This film challenges Woody – and his audiences – to think hard about second chances, about changing how you look at yourself, about finding and embracing a new purpose in life. As such, Toy Story 4 might be the most philosophical movie you’ll see this year, in the best possible way.

The Not-So-Great: There actually isn’t all that much to complain about. The plot machinations can feel a little clunky at times, but Stephany Folsom and Andrew Stanton weave so much joy and humour into their screenplay that the film still zips along. As this is very much Woody’s movie, fan-favourite legacy characters like Buzz and Jessie (Joan Cusack) inevitably end up taking a back-seat. Even then, however, they each still get moments to shine. You might find yourself both thoroughly amused and mildly annoyed by the antics of Ducky (Keagan Michael-Key) and Bunny (Jordan Peele), a symbiotic pair of new characters who were clearly inserted into proceedings for comic relief.

Forking Funny: Give it up for Forky, surely the best new animated character of the year. Voiced with a bewildered tenderness by Hale, Forky is a delight – a walking, talking identity crisis created out of one little girl’s love and imagination. Even better? With his magnetic attraction to all nearby trash-cans, Forky is a fandom meme just waiting to happen. A close runner-up is daredevil stuntman Duke Caboom, who reportedly owes his ridiculously charming posing and personality to current internet darling Keanu Reeves’ commitment to the role. Toy Story 4 even manages to make its main antagonist, Gabby Gabby (Christina Hendricks), both terrifying and endearing – although there are fewer shades of grey when it comes to her ventriloquist-doll minions, led by the determinedly creepy Benson.

Cowboy Blues: Ultimately, Toy Story 4 belongs to Woody, and rightfully so. He is this franchise’s Captain America, in more ways than one. This film pays loving tribute to Woody’s big heart and unwavering, self-effacing loyalty, even as it shakes up his life and world-view when he encounters old friend and possible paramour Bo Peep (Annie Potts) again. (Bo, by the way, is now super-cool and as far away from a fragile damsel-in-distress as anyone can be.) Woody’s decisions and revelations about himself will make you weep with the most complex and bittersweet of emotions. There is joy and sorrow here, hope and heartbreak, final farewells and new beginnings, often in the same moment. In other words, it’s the stuff of life itself, and it’s glorious.

Credits Where Credits Are Due: You’ll definitely want to stay throughout the credits of the film, which are peppered with closing scenes that are essential to tying up the overarching narrative. At the very end, you’ll even be rewarded with a happy ending for one of Toy Story 4’s most minor of characters.

Recommended? In every possible way. Toy Story 4 is a masterpiece of film-making, story-telling and animation. Delightful and devastating in equal measure, it might well be the silliest and most soul-stirring film you’ll see this year.

Toy Story 2 (1999)

Conventional wisdom, it appears, means nothing at all when it comes to dream-making machine and animation giant Pixar. After all, conventional wisdom would suggest that a sequel is pretty much always half as funny and twice as lame as its predecessor, made simply to cash in big-time at the box office. Well, Pixar only went and made Toy Story 2, widely recognised as one of the handful of sequels that might actually surpass the original film in quality. Certainly, way back in 1999, TS2 received a rapturous critical welcome and went on to cement Pixar’s standing as the animation studio with the greatest likelihood – among all its competitors – of dethroning long-reining, practically unchallenged king Disney. (Turns out it was an inside job, after all…)

We’re re-introduced quickly to the toys we loved so much in the first film: after their earlier misadventures, sensible cowboy Woody (voiced by Tom Hanks) and once arrogant astronaut Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen) are getting along just fine… until their owner Andy (John Morris) leaves for cowboy camp but breaks with tradition in bringing Woody along after the toy’s arm is practically ripped off. This doesn’t mean Woody stays home pining (ha ha!) after Andy, however: through a fluke, he is kidnapped by toy collector Al (Wayne Knight), who recognises Woody as the invaluable star of a merchandise chain from decades ago and, dollar signs in mind, needs him to complete a set to be shipped to a museum in Japan. Brokenhearted and concerned that he will inevitably be consigned to the dustheap of memory as Andy grows up, Woody convinces himself that he’s better off becoming a matched set with yodelling cowgirl Jessie (Joan Cusack) and Stinky Pete the Prospector (Kelsey Grammer). But he doesn’t count on the determination of his friends, led by the determined Buzz, in returning him to Andy’s side…

As with the best Pixar movies, the film-makers have prided story over special effects. The animation, of course, remains world-class, and even eight years later still holds up marvellously. But Pixar has always been intent on having the visuals service the story, and in this regard, has come up with a corker of a tale that’s achingly simple and resonates with both children and adults. In fact, with the benefit of age and some maturity (hopefully, anyway), it’s easier to appreciate the delicate themes layered into the story, behind the cute new characters (bug-eyed aliens who adopt Mr Potato Head as their saviour), snarky banter and madcap action as Buzz leads a troop of toys across town to save their friend. It’s a remarkably clever, sensitive look at pretty ambitious themes: what you leave behind when you grow up, the need to make difficult choices for the sake of the one you love (in a platonic sense – Woody has to decide between feeding his own ego and remaining steadfast to a boy who might, in a matter of weeks, forget about him entirely).

The best movies boil a world of ideas and emotions down into something so simple and touching you can’t help but be affected by it, and TS2 boasts just such a classic scene that perfectly encapsulates this particularly rare kind of movie alchemy. Set to a gentle, heartrending ballad When She Loved Me performed beautifully by Sarah McLachlan, drenched in autumn colours, the scene that delves into Jessie’s back story is luminous, almost shining with a level of artistry and quiet grace that you hardly see in films these days. I defy anyone to remain dry-eyed when Jessie leans into her owner, a look of sheer bliss on her face, as McLachlan’s dreamy, sad melody wraps itself around the moment.

Throw this scene in with a cracking script, fantastic action (Buzz tumbling through scenes reminiscent of any Indiana Jones movie, or facing off against his nemesis in a moment that consciously recalls Star Wars), and humour that plays beautifully whether you’re 7 or 70. Pixar really takes the idea of its main characters being toys and runs with it, coming up with inventive gag after gag as Buzz’s crew struggles across what, to them, are gargantuan canyons (really streets) or try to navigate Al’s toy store while looking for Woody, meeting Barbie doll tour guides and Buzz’s alter ego along the way. The voice talent, as always, is memorable: Hanks and Allen, of course, relishing their roles with Hanks in particular managing to lend shades of emotion to the words he puts in a toy cowboy’s mouth. Cusack makes a welcome addition to the fold, as do Grammer’s buttery-smooth vocals and delivery – at once charming and slightly sinister as Stinky Pete.

Pretty much the only problem with this film is its rather rushed ending. Presumably having finally run out of gags and steam, the final rescue sequence is a bit far-fetched, and the writers don’t even seem to have bothered to devise a way to explain how most of the main characters wind up back at Andy’s place. But, honestly, this is a tiny quibble in an otherwise pitch-perfect film. Perhaps what’s so great about Pixar is how they’ve so clearly recognised what made Disney films such a success: it’s not about the visuals, or being particularly hip and avant garde. What it comes down to is that particular magical glow you get from a good story well-told, with believable characters and big ideas that aren’t afraid to be just that. And all this you get in spades in TS2 – which, without a doubt, ranks not just as one of the best of Pixar’s films, but is definitely in the running to be one of the best, most heartfelt and surprisingly lovely films of all time.