Toy Story 4 (2019)

  I'll be the first to admit that I didn't think this movie needed to be made.  Toy Story 3 was perfect and I really didn't see any other stories that needed to be told.  But I was wrong.  Toy Story 4 is a vital coda to Woody's narrative arc.

Woody (Tom Hanks) loves living at Bonnie's (Madeleine McGraw) but is struggling to accept no longer being a child's first choice.  He sneaks into her backpack for kindergarten orientation, believing that she needs a friendly face to adjust to a new environment, but is stunned when she creates a new toy, Forky (Tony Hale), out of craft supplies and a thrown-away spork.  Forky is not thrilled about achieving sentience so Woody appoints himself Forky's guardian until he stops trying to throw himself into every passing trash can.  Forky successfully escapes during a road trip, necessitating Woody's ill-advised rescue attempt and subsequent encounter with Gabby Gabby (Christina Hendricks), a vintage doll with a broken voice box and an army of ventriloquist dummies.

Kids will enjoy this movie, for sure.  My two godchildren did.  But this is the first Pixar sequel that truly feels more aimed at adults than kids.  Woody consistently put Andy's happiness over his own but struggles to connect with Bonnie.  He fears growing more and more irrelevant as she grows more independent from him.  He sublimates his own identity crisis in reinforcing Forky's position as Toy, not Trash, clinging to the familiar even as he reconnects with his former love interest, Bo Peep (Annie Potts), a "lost toy" completely comfortable with her new identity.  All I can say is thank Christ I didn't see these as a kid or I would have been distraught at the thought of my toys having Empty Nest Syndrome like Woody.  Or an existential crisis like Forky.  Or abandonment issues that lead to crippling insecurity like Duke Caboom (Keanu Reeves).  WHY DID I EVER THINK THESE WERE FOR CHILDREN??  WTF PIXAR?!