Toy Story 4 Cert: U, 1hr 40mins
Five minutes into Toy Story 4 and I was already blinking back the tears. Now that was partly because, for the first time in the franchise’s 24-year history, I didn’t have a child even remotely the right age to take, but mainly because the new film has an absolute peach of an opening.
If the spectacular sight of Woody – voiced brilliantly, as ever, by Tom Hanks – organising the rescue of yet another toy in peril wasn’t emotional enough, discovering why Little Bo Peep wasn’t in Toy Story 3 definitely was.
Turns out, she and her sheep had been sold to a new home, separating her from her fondest cowboy admirer. As she and Woody part company, sighing sadly over the what-might-have-beens, I found myself dabbing gently at my eyes.
Toy Story 4 – a film full of hellos and goodbyes, new starts and sentimental endings – is good, and it’s lovely to be reunited with Woody, Buzz, Jessie and the gang again
Tellingly, however, it would be for the first and only time. Don’t get me wrong, Toy Story 4 – a film full of hellos and goodbyes, new starts and sentimental endings – is good, and it’s lovely to be reunited with Woody, Buzz and the gang again.
Nevertheless, it’s a step down from everything that has gone before, which has been, of course, near perfection.
The standard of Pixar animation is better than ever – astonishing, in fact. But the story is just a little too familiar, a key new character underwhelms and, to be blunt, there’s just not enough of the great Tim Allen as the voice of Buzz Lightyear.
The story is just a little too familiar, a key new character underwhelms and, to be blunt, there’s just not enough of the great Tim Allen as the voice of Buzz Lightyear (above)
‘To infinity and beyond!’ is his famous catchphrase. Well, let’s just say he – and the film – fall a little short this time around.
Let’s get the complicated stuff out of the way first. For the first two films the toys were owned by Andy, who went off to college in Toy Story 3, leaving the toys to find their way from his sister, Molly, via the Sunnyside Daycare centre, to their new owner, Bonnie.
Who, as the fourth film begins, is still a little girl, albeit one about to start kindergarten. Where no toys are allowed… apart from the ever-loyal Woody, who sneaks into her bag when she’s not looking.
Christina Hendricks has a tough time as the voice of the large, unhappy and possibly not very nice doll Gabby Gabby (above)
But she’s not allowed to keep her bag with her on her first day. So in her lonely sadness, she makes her own toy at the craft table. A combined plastic spoon and fork (or ‘spork’) for the body, pink pipe-cleaners for arms and broken lolly sticks for feet.
With a pair of stick-on eyes, Forky is born. Hmm…
The honest truth is that I’ve been worrying about Forky ever since the first trailer. And my misgivings are well placed – Tony Hale, a regular from TV’s Veep, struggles to find his place amid the star-studded voice cast, while Forky’s desire to self-identify as ‘trash’ rather than a toy seems neither as funny nor as poignant as the eight-strong writing team must have hoped.
Nevertheless, there is traditional Toy Story fun to be had, as Bonnie’s family embarks on a road trip, Forky inevitably goes missing and Woody realises that the only thing that will make Bonnie happy again is if he and the gang can find him.
After all, that’s pretty much the first rule of Toy Story – no toy gets left behind.
For once, I wasn’t entirely swept up in the emotion of the story, even after a newly feisty Bo Peep rejoins the action which, by now, is unfolding in a creepy antique shop and a funfair.
Annie Potts is great fun as the newly empowered Bo, but it’s Keanu Reeves’s standout turn as the Canadian stunt motorcyclist Duke Caboom that children (and possibly their mothers) will love.
Christina Hendricks, however, has a tougher time of it as the voice of the large, unhappy and possibly not very nice doll Gabby Gabby.
Of course, it all turns out happily and movingly in the end: this is a Toy Story film, after all. But for all that I enjoyed it, for all that it will play to happily packed cinemas over the summer… there is a bit of me that wishes they’d called it a day after Toy Story 3.
But maybe that’s just me.
ALSO OUT THIS WEEK
Brightburn (15)
Rating: 
A meteor crashes into a field near a small midwest town… a farming couple are desperate for a child… a son starts to display mysterious powers as he grows up, not to mention a fondness for wearing a cape.
Despite decent turns from Elizabeth Banks as Brandon’s mum and particularly from Jackson A Dunn (above) as Brandon himself, the film soon becomes just one increasingly nasty thing
Brightburn’s parallels with the Superman origins story are clearly deliberate, but are they enough for us to believe this film can fly? Not really. The problem is that writers Brian and Mark Gunn have come up with a big twist without working out what to do with it: what if young Brandon doesn’t turn out to be a force for good, but is in fact the evil opposite?
That would be bad news for his nearest and dearest. It is also bad news for the film, which, despite decent turns from Elizabeth Banks as Brandon’s mum and particularly from Jackson A Dunn as Brandon himself, soon becomes just one increasingly nasty thing after another.
The Captor (15)
Rating: 
We know the term Stockholm syndrome, used to describe when a hostage falls for their captor, but do we know where it comes from? This is the film – ‘based on an absurd but true story’ – that explains all.
Set in Sweden in 1973, it begins with a noisy American (Ethan Hawke), armed with a machine gun, porn-star moustache and bad wig, bursting into a Stockholm bank and taking two female workers hostage.
Set in Sweden in 1973, it begins with a noisy American (Ethan Hawke, above), armed with a machine gun, porn-star moustache and bad wig, bursting into a Stockholm bank
His demands are for convicted bank robber (Mark Strong) to be released from prison. He’d also like $1 million in cash and a getaway car. His chances of success are slim until hostage Bianca (Noomi Rapace) starts to do some negotiating of her own.
Director Robert Budreau doesn’t take it entirely seriously, leaving us with something that is always interesting but lacks jeopardy.
Child’s Play (15)
Rating:
The rise of household robotics breathes new life into the creepy-doll genre with this reboot of the 1988 film of the same title, featuring the murderously possessed Chucky.
Only this time he’s a walking, talking internet-connected companion for children, who happens to have his safety protocols removed by a disgruntled employee. Which is bad news for owner Andy and his single mum (Aubrey Plaza).
It’s clearly not to be taken too seriously, but the ever-growing levels of nastiness are, at times, no chuckling matter.