Toy Story 4

Saw Toy Story 4, another installment in the adventures of Woody and the gang.  This film engages in more world-building, investigating the lives of toys left behind in playgrounds, eternally hanging up as prizes at a carnival, or carefully packed away behind glass in an antique store.  Many of the reviews I read of this talked about the Forky character and speculated about the children as gods, creating toy-life where before there was only trash, but I feel this is a theme read on to the film, not inherent in it.  Like, the film is not preoccupied with this, so why are you, dear professional critics?  Huh?

I think the pro critics were all talking about the theological implications of the toy universe because not a ton happens in this film that's original or surprising.  There's no gutsy the-toys-accept-death scene, and we're now in a world where sequels and franchises are often successful, so we don't even have the shock of a good sequel to a kid's film to fall back on.  We just sort of do it all one more time.  There's a chase scene, some friendly toys who turn sinister, some sinister toys who are "humanized" in the end.  There's funny sidekicks and earnest sentiments.  It's good, but we've seen it all before.

So, like, okay this didn't dazzle me, but it's not a bad film at all.  There's funny sidekicks and earnest sentiments and tears are jerked and all and whatnot.  It's a solid Pixar film that will entertain children and adults alike.  It's not groundbreaking enough to distract bored reviewers from bringing up irrelevancies, but it's a good movie that will be required viewing for probably a lot of families.  Thankfully, it will be a pleasant duty for most.