Movie · 2019 · Family, Comedy, Animation, Adventure · 1h 40m · G · English
Curator score: 4.8/10 (1.6M ratings)
The adventure of a lifetime.
Overview
Woody has always been confident about his place in the world, devoted to taking care of his kid—whether that's Andy or Bonnie. But after Bonnie creates a reluctant new toy called "Forky", a road trip adventure alongside old and new friends challenges everything Woody believes about loyalty, purpose, and what it truly means to be a toy.
Ratings
Curator score: 4.8/10
IMDb: 7.6/10
Letterboxd: 3.31/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 96%
Metacritic: 84
TMDB: 7.5/10
Director
Josh Cooley
Production
Pixar
Cast
Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Annie Potts, Tony Hale, Keegan-Michael Key, Madeleine McGraw, Christina Hendricks, Jordan Peele, Keanu Reeves, Ally Maki, Jay Hernandez, Lori Alan, Joan Cusack, Bonnie Hunt, Kristen Schaal, Emily Davis, Wallace Shawn, John Ratzenberger, Blake Clark, June Squibb
Where to watch
Disney Plus, fuboTV
Curator Review
Verdict
A warm, surprisingly wistful sequel that turns a road-trip comedy into a story about purpose, change, and letting go. It’s funniest and most moving when it leans into its oddball new characters and the emotional farewell at the center of Woody’s arc.
Best for
families looking for a smart animated adventure
viewers who like heartfelt sequels that take risks
fans of character-driven comedy with real emotional payoff
audiences who enjoy stories about identity and change
Skip if
you want the original trilogy left untouched
you dislike sequels that function like epilogues
you prefer simple, high-energy kid comedy over melancholy
you’re not interested in sentimental coming-of-age themes
Overview
Toy Story 4 is less a victory lap than a reflective coda, and that’s what makes it work. It keeps the franchise’s elastic comic timing and visual invention, but its real focus is existential: what happens when a character built around loyalty has to redefine his purpose?
Worth noting
The movie’s biggest gamble is Forky, a ridiculous idea that becomes the key to the whole film’s emotional logic. Around him, the film finds a looser, stranger energy than the previous entry, with a road-movie structure that opens the world up while still landing on intimate feelings of attachment and loss.
Bottom line
It doesn’t erase the sense that the story had already found a natural ending before this chapter, but it does justify itself through craft, humor, and a genuinely moving final stretch. As a franchise extension, it’s unusually thoughtful; as a family film, it’s one of Pixar’s more bittersweet and resonant outings.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Patrick Willems (4★) · 3943 likes
I love these toys and I just want them to be happy
˗ˏˋ suspirliam ˊˎ˗ (3.5★) · 3096 likes
to infinity 🤚 😔/ _/|| _/¯ ¯\_
and beyond 😭 👊/||\_ _/¯ ¯\_
davidehrlich (4★) · 2840 likes
To talk about “Toy Story 4” is to talk about Forky. This is a movie that doesn’t initially appear to have any compelling reason to exist — the forced but satisfying third installment of Pixar’s signature franchise seemed to wrap things up when it came out almost a full decade ago — and yet Forky alone is enough to elevate this potential cash-grab into the beautiful and hilarious coda that its long-running series needed to be truly complete. Forky is… more To talk about “Toy Story 4” is to talk about Forky. This is a movie that doesn’t initially appear to have any compelling reason to exist — the forced but satisfying third installment of Pixar’s signature franchise seemed to wrap things up when it came out almost a full decade ago — and yet Forky alone is enough to elevate this potential cash-grab into the beautiful and hilarious coda that its long-running series needed to be truly complete. Forky is… more
Karsten (4.5★) · 2461 likes
I feel like Josh Gad was SO CLOSE to getting the role of Forky and he didn’t. But had he gotten that role this movie would be significantly worse.