Here's hoping Toy Story 5 makes up for Toy Story 4, the bastard son of the Pixar franchise |
Quentin Tarantino was right. Not about Paul Dano, who is a fine actor, but when he told Bill Mahr in an interview a couple of years ago that Toy Story 3 was the perfect way to end the series and he has no interest in seeing any more. “I don’t care if it’s good,” Tarantino said of Toy Story 4. “I’m done!”
When I heard this clip making the rounds a couple of years back, I remember thinking that, after Toy Story 3, I should have been done myself. Much like I’ve made a conscious choice to ignore every Terminator film after T2, I should have wired my brain to say that there are no Toy Stories after the third one.
But I’ve grown up with these characters. I saw Toy Story in theaters when I was nine and I’ve been there for every film and short and TV special since. I remember holding my breath when the toys were nearly incinerated in Toy Story 3 and openly crying when Andy gave Buzz and Woody to Bonnie at the end. I’ve also passed on my love for these characters to my own kid. And while this franchise has touched millions of people, as a now-adult toy collector, the connection feels extra personal to me. So when the gang returned to theaters with Toy Story 4, the siren call of Woody’s pull string was too great. I bought myself a ticket.
Despite the fact that Toy Story 4 is well written, beautifully animated and even manages to introduce some interesting new ideas to the franchise, the movie left me with a profound feeling of sadness and discomfort.
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