![]() ![]() As a more low-key coda and send-off for Sheriff Woody, Toy Story 4 excels.Disney's latest trailer looks back at the past of the series, with quick shots of Andy giving the toys to new owner Bonnie in Toy Story 3, while Bo Peep makes a triumphant return. But going back to the well once more - no doubt this film’s success may make Disney want to greenlight a fifth story, but that would be tempting fate one too many times - ended up paying off. The prior three entries in the franchise had been hilarious, entertaining, suspenseful, intelligent adventures, with each one seeming like an impossible magic trick. Toy Story 4 had to fight the early presumption among skeptics (including this writer) that it existed solely to make money for Disney. Honestly, while it’s impressive that the studio keeps coming up with ways to make audiences collapse into tears, it’s equally pleasing that they didn’t push themselves as far as Toy Story 3‘s filmmakers did. The fond farewell he gives to all of the other toys, culminating in an embrace with Buzz, is this film’s emotional gut punch, without being quite as devastating as prior scenes in Pixar history. So when Buzz essentially acknowledges the obvious, it frees Woody to be happy once more. (Though we briefly see a younger Andy during the prologue, there’s no return for the older Andy. He realizes that his place may once have been with a kid, but that kid was Andy, and he’s in college now. Woody, though, is stuck in the past until he meets Bo Peep again and his love for her is rekindled. Woody sees his friends, appreciating that they too serve a role with Bonnie in her room, and they’re happy to do so. Toy Story 4 manages to sidestep its predecessor’s finale without denigrating it. Wheezy was saved simply to collect dust, and Woody doesn’t want to find himself suffering the same fate. In many ways, Woody finds himself at the outset of the film in a place similar to that of the squeak-toy penguin Wheezy, whom he tried to help rescue in Toy Story 2, and who was stuck on a high shelf where no kid could possibly find him. But it’s equally clear in Toy Story 4 that Woody’s own needs can become more important than that of the group’s without the group itself being ruined by his absence. The word “together” is uttered often, Woody and the other toys face down the fiery landfill by holding each other, and the closing song is called “We Belong Together.” It’s not subtle. The ending seems, at first blush, to go against the guiding principles of the series, but it’s emotionally apt for its protagonist.Įspecially in Toy Story 3, the concept of togetherness was hammered home as being most important. And so, in place of the extremes of the heartbreaking finale of Toy Story 3, this fourth entry gives us a more tender and bittersweet farewell. “ Bonnie will be OK,” Buzz then emphasizes, making it clear that the longtime friends both understand where Woody is wanted most, and where Woody wants to be most. “She’ll be OK,” Buzz Lightyear tells Woody, who initially says goodbye to his old girlfriend to head back with the larger group. So after the big adventure at the core of the film concludes, and Forky is brought back to Bonnie’s arms so she can love the strange little faux-toy, Woody has one of two options: stay with Bo or go back with the others. Even if he’s not physically lost, Woody is adrift emotionally. There’s a debate throughout on whether or not Bo Peep is a “lost toy” (a phrase that Woody once shouted in anguish to the heavens in the 1995 original), when the truth is clearer. Once Woody encounters his long-lost love Bo Peep (Annie Potts) during a road trip, he’s given an obvious option that seems existentially terrifying: be a toy without an owner. As a reaction to this, Woody throws himself into helping out Bonnie’s new toy, the spork Forky (Tony Hale), but it’s evident that he’s only doing so to distract himself from accepting that his presence is no longer truly necessary in her bedroom. Can you blame her?) Her world of play is plenty imaginative, but there’s apparently no room for Woody anymore. ![]() (As gutting as it may be for us to watch Bonnie ignore Woody, she’s a little kid in the 21st century, and he’s a pull-string doll from the 1950s. Marvelously voiced once again by Tom Hanks, Woody struggles to accept his place in a new world where Bonnie, the little girl who was given Woody at the end of Toy Story 3, is interested in other toys. The answer is made clear early in Toy Story 4. Instead of being quite the same kind of ensemble piece, the film focuses on letting go and moving on in the form of Sheriff Woody himself. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |