Was Toy Story 4 needed? I personally didn’t think so at first.
As a young kid that knew nothing about the real world’s humdrum and instead resigned myself to crafting my own worlds through the Star Wars and Power Rangers toys I owned, watching the adventures of Woody, Buzz and the whole gang of Andy’s toys coming to life in Toy Story were spellbinding to me.
Toy Story 1 enshrined my childhood in the notion that the toys that came to life in the movie personified how I viewed playing with my toys. The three-dimensional personalities of Toy Story’s characters like Woody added an extra layer of depth that allowed me to live and breathe as them, just like how I would feel when playing with my own toys in their grand imaginary escapades. The toys in Toy Story weren’t just Andy’s toys, they became mine too.
So when Toy Story 3 perfectly wrapped up the franchise in a stirring farewell to these lovable miniature heroes, I felt a part of me had finally moved on, even though I had long since stopped playing with my own figurines. Just like Andy, Toy Story 3 gave me the closure to my childhood I never thought I needed, allowing me to truly cherish the juvenile bliss I had.
The brilliance of Toy Story 4 lies in the fact that it isn’t concerned about how we feel about the toys.
Pixar stated that they would never come back to Toy Story again unless there’s a solid story in place. Thus, When Toy Story 4’s trailer dropped, I thought Pixar was aiming for a loftier narrative vision of deconstructing the entire Toy Story mythos of toys coming to life – a manufactured toy becoming cognisant is one thing, but what about cobbling together inanimate objects that then becomes a toy like the film’s Forky character? To my disappointment, the film didn’t address that, which initially led me to question its existence.
I believe the brilliance of Toy Story 4 lies in the fact that it isn’t concerned about how we feel about the toys, it wants to show us what these toys feel about themselves. Woody undergoes a sort of existential crisis in this film, of finding his place in the world, which allowed me to finally understand that Woody had become more than just a toy I loved. He was a real character – a friend – that wanted his purpose fulfilled, and I wanted to journey right alongside him to find that.
I may not have needed a Toy Story 4, but Woody did.
Image Credit: People.com
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