Let's flashback to Thanksgiving 1995. My 7-year-old self just walked out of the movie theater seeing this 3D animated feature called Toy Story. It had such an impact on my childhood that I still own a Buzz Lightyear toy to this day. What was not to like about that first movie? Pixar transcended the filmmaking game combining an all new technology with emotional and immersive storytelling. They successfully adapted the film critic cliché of "fun for the whole family" because the film was made for kids and for people who used to be a kid. There is a difference, believe me (looking at you DreamWorks' Minions).
This set up another Thanksgiving in 1999. My 11-year-old self just walked out of seeing Toy Story 2. Not only did it expand on the gorgeous animation that came in the first installment, it developed new interesting characters that challenged childhood and adulthood fears to combine into an urgent story: Would you rather (talking about Woody here) be loved by someone you care about the most that plays with you for a finite amount of time? Or would you rather be loved by strangers on a shelf for an infinite amount of time? It's a question that everyone could think about regardless of age. Which is why in 2009, I saw what could be considered as one of the greatest films ever.
Toy Story 3. Ten years later. My 20-year-old self is in college. I'm watching a movie franchise we all literally grew up with and in the movie, the human character Andy is heading off to college. He has to choose what toys to keep and what toys to give away. Those toys we all loved for so long now fear of going into storage forever, until the opportunity of getting played with forever comes up. It's a weirdly spiritual movie, where death feels near and the toys are falsely promised an afterlife. The movie ends with a wonderful message: it's okay for things to end and move on to the next era of your life, but enjoy it while it last because it doesn't last forever.
This is where Toy Story 4 comes in. What story is left to tell? Toy Story 3 was such a perfect ending, why mess with it? Do we really need Toy Story 4 or do we just want it because we can't get over the idea of something so iconic actually ending? I felt the same way when The Hobbit movies came out as I'm sure many do with another Fantastic Beasts installment. Maybe it's like a TV show we all love. We'd rather watch a bad episode than no episode at all. I'm trying to wrap my head around what Toy Story 4 could actually be about besides the fact it simply exists because it is a sequel to a billion-dollar hit and feels like a marketing effort to help with the opening of Toy Story Land in Disney World. It's a question 24 years in the making, to next summer and beyond.
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