Toy Story 3 & 4 Thoughts

Ok, so I ended up moving which is why there hasn’t been a lot going on around here lately.  And after I got settled I wanted something comforting.  Like hanging out with an old friend.  A friend in me?  That doesn’t make sense.  Anyway, newly acquired access to Disney+ opened up a fresh array of movies to exploit.  Right away family movie juggernaut Toy Story was staring me in the face so it got the call.  Unexpectedly however, this put me on a path to rewatching the whole series and checking out number 4 for the first time.  Surprisingly the journey was an enlightening one.

You may have read the title to this piece so let’s quickly get some business out of the way from the top.  The first film is damn near perfect.  I absolutely love it and can’t imagine I have a helluva lot to contribute to the conversation at this point.  The second is still great with an insanely tight script but it doesn’t have quite the same magic as its predecessor.  There’s actually a lot to breakdown there but I’d rather touch on the later sequels for reasons that will soon become apparent.

Number 3 is basically a prison break movie where Woody (Tom Hanks (Turner and Hooch)) must bust out his pals from a daycare center run by a tyrannical strawberry scented bear named Lotso (Ned Beatty (The Big Easy)).  This asshole sacrifices newcomers and toys he simply doesn’t like to the rowdy group of toddlers who deface, beat and mangle anything they get their hands on.  Lotso sets himself up, along with his friends, to be played with the gentler kids.  Your choices are fall in with A No. 1 or take your own chances with the beast babies.

Even though the film isn’t that haha funny, it’s strange funny.  There’s edge to it.  Like they depict the bad guy toys gambling and talking shit about the other toys.  Not to mention the very idea of having your family movie take place in a prison (daycare) is a touch odd.  But perhaps the most shocking part is when Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen (Redbelt)) gets tortured.  They eventually push his reset button so he reverts back to thinking he’s a real space ranger and they recruit him as their bodyguard.  Think about that for a minute.  This goddamn film implies that Buzz gets fucked up so badly that either he has a break from reality and can’t remember who he really is or they brainwashed him and now he’s a villain.  That’s kinda dark man.

And then part 4 has a horror vibe to it at times as well as a philosophical one.  This fuckin’ movie examines the very definition of a toy and creation and consciousness.  It’s completely bizarre.  The little girl who now owns Woody and co (although they’re careful to not use the word “own” I’m sure because of the connotations to slavery) creates a figure using a spork for the body, a pipe cleaner for arms, a popsicle stick cut in half for feet and googly eyes for, well, eyes.  And it comes to life, like frickin’ Frankenstein’s monster!  And it’s the same deal where Forky (Tony Hale (Being the Ricardos)), as he’s named, is all fucked up and doesn’t know who he is, where he is or what the hey is going on.  He thinks he’s trash and constantly tries to jump back in the garbage can.  The first film delved into this territory a little with Sid mixing and matching different toy parts but part 4 takes it to another level.  How do you distinguish what is and what isn’t a toy?  If you slap eyes on anything does it miraculously bring a conscious toy into being?  Where’s the line?  This is some heavy shit to explore.

Later a large chunk of the picture takes place in an antique store where an old doll from the 50’s and her ventriloquist dummy goons fill in as the villains.  The dummies move like zombies with their arms sorta lifeless and their legs wobbly and their mouths always agape.  These things are legitimately creepy (which they fully acknowledge in the movie by the way).  And the doll’s evil plan is to rip Woody’s voice box out so she can replace her own broken one.  So part 4 is by far the weirdest of the bunch.

Stepping back for a moment though it’s fascinating to see the progression of the series.  One of the most noticeable aspects is the animation.  While the first installment still looks fantastic there are certain things that stick out like the backgrounds have little detail or are silhouettes.  The animators knew to focus their attention and the limited power of their computers towards the characters, what’s happening in the foreground, crafting a story that stayed within their means and carefully picking shots that would have the most impact without frying their equipment.  Talk about impressive.  And now the technology has come amazingly far since 1995.  Like parts of 4 look a hundred percent photorealistic, the camerawork is more confident and you can tell the filmmakers aren’t worried about what’s possible, freeing them up to concentrate on the story and the characters and if a used spork with a crooked clay mouth constitutes a toy and all that kinda shit.

Toy Story 1, essentially a blank background

Toy Story 4, now they have the ability to fill in all the detail

Here are some other noteworthy items.  An amusing recurring theme throughout is the films acknowledge there are definitely a lot of nasty ass kids out there like Sid, the girl at the airport at the end of 2, the toddlers from 3, the kindergarteners from 4, etc.  Yea, a handful are depicted as precious and wonderful but there are also a ton that are straight up dicks.

Buzz seemed to be a bit of a problem for the filmmakers in the sequels because they kept wanting to turn him back into the old Buzz from part 1 where he doesn’t realize he’s a toy.  They did this in 2 and 3 and the twist in part 4 is they simply make him extra dumb.  Bo Peep (Annie Potts (Designing Women)) is the one who ends up kicking all the ass while Buzz is just sorta there to meekly help out.  He’s supposed to be equal to Woody in terms of stature but in reality he’s a total side character who plays a much smaller role in all the sequels.

Woody is a good guy ‘n all but his antics of trying to save every troubled toy he comes across gets extremely tiring.  I know his heart is in the right place (well, if he had a heart) but he seriously needs to learn to let some shit go.  Probably a majority of the sticky situations these characters get in is due to Woody having an uncontrollable impulse to rescue and find a home for all toys.

During this Toy Story deluge I opted to watch the two TV specials that came out in 2013 and 2014 (which were clearly abandoned ideas for a fourth film) and one of them, Toy Story That Time Forgot, highlights the fact that all toys in this universe don’t realize they’re toys at first.  They think they’re the real thing they’re supposed to represent, a space ranger, a battle dinosaur, a stuntman, etc.  So I guess all toys need to be educated on what they truly are at some point.

The toys don’t need any sustenance.  Food and water isn’t necessary for their survival so presumably as long as they’re taken care of they’ll live forever.

They can feel pain sometimes, maybe.  During fights the toys act like they’re experiencing pain but if an arm gets ripped off sometimes they don’t react at all.

This hurts

This doesn't

This leads me to the issue I had the hardest time wrapping my head around (and the question most folks have been asking since the mid 90’s).  Why are some toys alive and others aren’t?  This question popped into my head over and over.  Why aren’t board games sentient?  Wood blocks?  Hell, the remote control car from part 1 is alive but the one in part 4 isn’t?  A chair with eyes is living but a toy truck that Woody randomly comes across isn’t?  Bouncing balls aren’t alive but friggin’ hockey pucks are?!  Of course the answer is: whatever the fuck the filmmakers felt like doing or needed for a particular scene.  That doesn’t make this conundrum any less frustrating though.

Plus batteries may or may not be vital for certain toys to function, individual pieces of a toy can detach and work independently of the main body, Woody’s voice box is removed but he can still talk normally and AHHHH MY BRAIN IS GOING TO EXPLODE!

Ironically that’s the elephant in the room with these movies.  They’re delightful to watch as long as you don’t think about the concept for more than half a second.  In most other instances this would almost certainly be an automatic disqualifier.  Yet the people behind the franchise found the fine line that made sense to everyone and, friends, they walk the shit out of it.  Again, ridiculously impressive with how they knew what would work and what wouldn’t.

Do I recommend these pictures?  Fuck yea.  I mean part 4 pushes it too far in my opinion though.  They wrapped up the saga very nicely with number 3 where everything fit neatly into a touching send off.  Without going into spoilers all I’ll say is I cannot overstate how much I disagree with the ending of the fourth one.  It feels entirely wrong.  They got greedy and fucked up.  Aside from that this is a worthwhile set to revisit or visit for the first time.  There are technical reasons and there are storytelling/bonkers plot reasons.  There’s something for everyone.  I can’t say for sure they’ll take you to infinity and wherever but as long as you loosen your mind they’re real fun.

Alright everyone, it was a messy year and I don’t doubt the next one will be any less head scratching.  But keep on truckin’.  See you on the other side.