by Emma Smith, Assistant Editor

Were you waiting for Toy Story 4 with bated breath? Scared that the Toy Story team’s hubris had finally caught up with them? That perhaps in making a fourth installment to the beloved series they had flown too close to the sun? Have no fear my friends, for once again the creators of Toy Story have done what many believed impossible, created a sequel that is as good or better than the movies that came before it. 

At the end of Toy Story 3, Andy had passed his beloved toys onto Bonnie. Now Bonnie is about to enter preschool, and she is nervous. She takes comfort in her new, self-created toy Forky (voiced by Tony Hale), but Forky isn’t quite as excited about being a toy as Bonnie is to have him. During a family road trip, our friends from previous movies must work to save Forky from first himself and then the wide world. 

Toy Story 4 features the return of favorites Woody (Tom Hanks), Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen), Jessie (Joan Cusack), Rex (Wallace Shawn), Trixie (Kristen Schaal), and Dolly (Bonnie Hunt). We also get the return of a toy missing from the previous movie – Bo Peep (Annie Potts) in a more interesting role than the love interest she was previously relegated too. It also adds some amazing new talent, including Christina Hendricks (Firefly, Mad Men) as the 50s era doll Gabby Gabby, Ally Maki as tiny titan Giggle McDimples, Keanu Reeves as stunt toy Duke Kaboom, and Key and Peele as the carnival prize plushies Duck and Bunny. And while you would be forgiven for expecting Keanu Reeves to steal the show given the year he is having, the truth is it is Key and Peele’s Plush Rush sequence that made me laugh harder than I have in a very long time. 

In between the laughs, of which there are many, the filmmakers have woven a story about finding your purpose, about embracing the unexpected, about forging ahead in the face of fear, and about knowing when to take a leap of faith (sometimes literally). It is astounding that the Toy Story creators have given us four movies that meet or exceed the quality of their predecessors, and I believe their secret lies in the patience to wait for a story worth telling, even if it takes nine years.

This is truly a film crafted with loving hands. The one liners are worth repeat the next day. The emotional sequences might make you cry (hopeful tears!). And the animation is truly fantastic. In the 24 years since Toy Story was released, the magic has not dissipated. Go see this movie.