Toy Story 4 – The end, or maybe not… I already have a plot for how the 5th movie could go.

By Tanya Fedorenko

I love Toy story movies! The first instalment came out when I was an innocent little 4-year-old in 1995. I mean, I still believe there is a possibility toys come to life when I’m not in the room or sleeping, they have to do something when I’m not around (I have a lot of teddies).

The first movie was perfection, the second movie was also a lot of fun where we got to meet new characters, I admittedly wasn’t a fan of the third one, I truly thought it has lost its touch at this point – but when announcement came of number 4 coming to life, ha! And all the interviews where Tom Hanks said he cried at the final scenes; I knew what was coming. Woody dies! (I am not confirming nor denying this right now) but I thought it was truly going to be the end for Toy story, having seen the movie. I’m not so sure, I see potential for another instalment for sure!

This film was deep! In romances and philosophical life lessons of how we perceive ownership and being controlled by another being and there’s the continuing theme of purpose and family.. It’s not totally appropriate for children; which brings me to say, do not go and see this movie during the day time, when kids are around. It’s not a film which apparently captivates 4 year olds.They’re very disruptive if sharing the cinema room with yourself. However, as I said, with the non-child friendly nature of this film, it wasn’t necessarily a problem that they weren’t paying attention. Where we had Sid the psychopath kid in the first movie, and Lotso the nihilistic teddy bear in the third, there are a few toys within this movie that we meet that are completely creepy, almost to a horror movie level of threatening.

There are stereotypes of the cute and cuddly toys just serving pure flavour, but they’re actually hilarious.we get the new character Duke Kaboom! Played by the phenomenal Keanu Reeves, I mean, it really is his year isn’t it, he’s everywhere, we love him more now than ever and he just needs to be the president, like right now: Just give him a throne and a crown and let the world be a better place. His role in this movie is small but extremely noteworthy.

The animation for this movie is incredible. This can be said with every toy Story movie since the first one (Thanks Steve jobs!) and the music cues within toy story 4 are deeply reminiscent of the earlier instalments. However, new themes in the movie such as more modern and complex looking toys, one note characters, and a more fast paced methodology of joke telling can disrupt the nostalgia trip. Is a spork a toy?

I got off track a little, I loved this film, it tugged at my heart strings and made me laugh and we get to see a character evolvement in the true love that woody and Bo Peep share and always have since the first film. I must note I’m loving Bo Peep now being a bad ass. However, the other original characters really didn’t get to play a big enough part, so the laughs were different and shared through new characters we’ve just met, which is somewhat a shame. The writer of this movie robbed me a little in the group being whole; in the romance of Buzz and Jessie, in the sarcasm of Hamm and Mr Potato Head, in the nervousness of Rex and even in my expectation of how we must say good bye. Which can only make me hope it truly isn’t the end, and that Toy Story shall go ‘To infinity and Beyond.’