The fourth, and as rumor has it, final installment in the Toy Story 4 brings back a lot of old characters with a lot of new storylines and gives us all a lot of new reasons to laugh and cry.
It also does a great job of reminding audiences how and why they fell in love with Woody, Buzz, and all of those toys in the first place. Toy Story 4 manages to pack a lot into one hundred minutes, and every single second is pretty much perfection.
Funny: Buzz Listens To His Inner Voice
Buzz has always been a character who is open to self-improvement, and he’s come a long way since the first Toy Story. This time around, Buzz has decided to start thinking clearly and to listen to his inner voice, which of course, means the talk buttons on his space ranger suit. As the movie plays on and the toys find themselves in all kinds of trouble, Buzz frequently relies on those three buttons to tell him what to do. Once Woody is gone and Buzz is left in charge, he seems to be relying on those inner voice buttons even more.
Sad: Bo Peep Is Taken
This is the only Toy Story movie that starts off on somewhat of a sad note. Everyone knows Woody and Bo Peep have always had a thing for one another, so when Andy’s sister, Molly decides she doesn’t want Bo Peep and Molly’s mom gives Bo Peep to a friend with a younger child, Woody is heartbroken.
Bo Peep asks Woody to go with her and he almost does, but then he hears Andy looking for him in the distance, Woody knows he can’t leave. Watching Bo Peep drive away is one of the saddest moments in the whole film.
Funny: “Trash”
One of the best things about Toy Story 4 is that it introduces, “Forky”. Forky is a friend Bonnie makes at school out of a plastic, school cafeteria spork, some pipe cleaners, popsicle sticks, and a couple of googly eyes. Forky’s favorite word is “trash” and it’s how he describes himself and almost everything else he comes across as he learns to operate as a toy in this big, new world. Whenever Woody introduces Forky to another toy, he quickly follows it by exclaiming, “I’m trash!”
Sad: Bonnie Can’t Find Forky
When Bonnie wakes up from her nap and discovers that spoon in her hand, instead of Forky, she panics. No child wants to lose a toy, especially on a family vacation where their surroundings are so unknown and that toy could literally be anywhere.
Bonnie frantically searches the RV with help from her parents, and her parents try to calm her down, assuring her that they will find her new friend. “He needs me,” Bonnie tells her parents, and the toys overhearing all of this know that Bonnie is right.
Funny: The Toys Give Bonnie A Spoon
Woody and Forky have left the family RV and the other toys know that if Bonnie finds out that they’re missing, she isn’t going to be very happy. Bonnie has been napping with Forky a lot lately, so while she naps in Forky’s absence, Buzz Lightyear and friends slip a large spoon into Bonnie’s hands, hoping she won’t notice the difference. The gang spends the next few moments debating on if the spoon was really the right choice, “Maybe we should have gone with a fork,” Jessie says. But as Buzz points out, “The spoon is safer.”
Sad: Gabby Gabby’s Voice Box
The villains in the latest installment of the Toy Story franchise are actually quite terrifying. They live in an antique store, which is very creepy, and the main villain, Gabby Gabby, is a 60’s style doll who keeps a bunch of old dummy dolls as minions, which is also eerie.
Of course, as it is with every Disney movie, Gabby wasn’t always evil. All of Gabby’s troubles stem from the fact that she wants a child to love her, but no child ever will because her voice box is broken, which means she’s broken, and that makes her story a pretty sad one.
Funny: Buzz Meets Ducky And Bunny
While searching for Woody and Forky, Buzz stumbles into a carnival and onto the prize wall of a carnival game. There, Buzz meets Ducky and Bunny, voiced by two comedic geniuses, Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele. Key and Peele are known for their sketch comedy and improv and they bring a lot of that to these new Toy Story characters. At first, Ducky and Bunny don’t really like Buzz and they aren’t trying to pretend like they do, but they do eventually warm up to the whole Toy Story gang.
Sad: Harmony Doesn't Want Gabby
Gabby won't stop until she gets Woody's voice box and after cornering him, Woody finally agrees because he feels sorry for Gabby. Gabby thinks that if she has a working voice box, Harmony, the child she desperately wants to love her, will finally want to take her home. Harmony finds Gabby in the antique store and considers playing with her, but when Harmony's grandmother tells Harmony she can take the doll home, Harmony replies, "Nah," and tosses Gabby into a box, shattering any hope Gabby had left of ever being loved by a child again.
Funny: Bo Peep’s Skunk
When Bo Peep and Woody reunite, she is as happy as she’s ever been now that she’s a lost toy, but Woody seems unsure of most of her choices, like for instance, the fact that she gets around in a toy car disguised as a giant skunk. “Why do you drive a skunk?” asks Woody as they speed through the crowded carnival. The camera pulls out to reveal all of the humans dodging the skunk as it runs into their path, and it quickly becomes very clear why Bo Peep prefers to take the skunk.
Sad: Woody Says Goodbye, For Real
Most of the Toy Story movies have at least one moment where Woody considers leaving his friends behind. In those moments, it’s always been so that Woody can reunite with Andy, but at the end of Toy Story 4, Woody decides to leave the rest of the group to reunite with himself. Woody makes the choice to stay with Bo Peep and live out the rest of his days as a lost toy, while the rest of the group returns to Bonnie. Watching Woody say goodbye to all of his friends is hard, but knowing he’s doing exactly what he wants, turns sad tears into happy ones.
