Review Roundup: What Do Critics Think of TOY STORY 4?

Woody (voice of Tom Hanks) has always been confident about his place in the world, and that his priority is taking care of his kid, whether that's Andy or Bonnie. So, when Bonnie's beloved new craft-project-turned-toy, Forky (voice of Tony Hale), declares himself as "trash" and not a toy, Woody takes it upon himself to show Forky why he should embrace being a toy. But when Bonnie takes the whole gang on her family's road trip excursion, Woody ends up on an unexpected detour that includes a reunion with his long-lost friend Bo Peep (voice of Annie Potts). After years of being on her own, Bo's adventurous spirit and life on the road belie her delicate porcelain exterior. As Woody and Bo realize they're worlds apart when it comes to life as a toy, they soon come to find that's the least of their worries.

Directed by Josh Cooley ("Riley's First Date?"), and produced by Mark Nielsen (associate producer "Inside Out") and Jonas Rivera ("Inside Out," "Up"), Disney and Pixar's "Toy Story 4" ventures to U.S. theaters on June 21, 2019.

Find out what critics thought of the film ahead of its release below!

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Todd McCarthy, The Hollywood Reporter:

Ultimately, what gives Toy Story 4 genuine heft is that it's a tale of second chances and characters who take advantage of them. Like its predecessors, the film is rambunctious, noisy, genial, unpretentious, action-packed and old-fashioned in a very good way. After a nine-year wait, it's gratifying to see original Pixar hands like Stanton, executive producers Lee Unkrich and Pete Docter, and composer-singer Randy Newman collaborating at their usual high level with relative newcomers, most notably director Josh Cooley, who worked his way up through the ranks at Pixar for 15 years, toiling in the art department there on five films, directing two shorts and co-writing Inside Out.

Peter Debruge, Variety:

Whereas Pinocchio wished to be a real boy, and the Velveteen Rabbit was transformed into an actual bunny at the end of its tale, Buzz and Woody and the gang are destined to be toys forever. But the difference here is that they now have a choice as to their fates. For much of the film, we see Woody behaving as a kind of parental figure to Bonnie, looking out for her well-being, even though she's left him in the closet to collect dust bunnies. Compare that to the selfish cowboy who overreacted when Buzz Lightyear landed in Andy's room, and you realize how much he's matured in that time.

Darren Franich, Entertainment Weekly:

Is this a cash grab? Toy Story 4 doesn't hit the emotional highs of the previous films. There are good jokes that work and heist setpieces that don't. The ending is moving, though now you distrust any finality with this saga. It does feel a bit cheap, somehow: Another movie drifting melancholy off forgotten toys, from a 25-year-old multimedia franchise starring global icons preparing to gross yet more multigenerational billions.

David Sims, The Atlantic:

Cooley and his writers have clearly decided that, if the Toy Story narrative is just going to drag on and on, they might as well try and answer every question one might propose about these everlasting creatures. Can toys live on their own? What separates a toy from an inanimate object? Can a toy choose its own kid to play with? Is Woody's existence, in a happy home with a comfortable family, an unusually privileged one? And can toys themselves start to grow up, even become parents, as Woody does to Forky (in a manner of speaking)? Toy Story 4 fits these ideas into a rip-roaring, 100-minute running time, polished with the usual Pixar sheen. I'm all for the studio exploring new concepts and original characters going forward, and setting aside the endless anthologizing of its biggest hits for a good long while. But if I had to get another Toy Story, this is about as strange and beguiling an entry as I could have hoped for.

Alex Abad-Santos, Vox:

But leave it to Toy Story to teach us one final lesson, if this is in fact the end (boy, does it sure feel like it). Toy Story 4's message to us is that we don't have to stop loving someone just because they're not in our lives anymore. There's going to be a time when we won't be there for someone we love, and there will be a time when they won't be there for us. What matters is the time we did share, and the feelings we did, and do, have for each other.

Angie Han, Mashable:

It's [strange], heady stuff for a G-rated movie about dolls, and indeed, Toy Story 4 feels less like a family film than a film for adults their that children might also like. The colorful cartoon characters and their wacky hijinks will surely go appreciated by the younger set - but the messaging is aimed squarely at those who were old enough to watch the first or second Toy Story in theaters, and it hits that mark with grace and confidence.

Alonso Duralde, The Wrap:

There's adventure and growth and the subtlest brands of messaging and metaphors that current family films can offer, and even for "Toy Story 3" die-hards like myself who treated this film's very existence with suspicion, you have to give it to Disney/Pixar for making a sequel that does indeed disrupt the status quo. So many follow-ups work overtime to return its characters and its storytelling to square one, but "Toy Story 4" is, in its way, as much of a game-changer as "Avengers: Endgame."

Laura Prudom, IGN:

And yet, despite the odds, Toy Story 4 is every bit as magical as its predecessors - telling a tale that's even more engaging and emotional than the first two films in the franchise, even if it narrowly falls short of the dizzying heights of Toy Story 3. It feels miraculous that Pixar could've successfully navigated such a narrative minefield again after the cathartic closure of the last film, but Toy Story 4 is full of the same joy, wonder, and whimsy that we've come to expect from every Toy Story installment.

Brian Truitt, USA Today:

While it might go over kids' heads, adults will appreciate how pretty much everybody's navigating their own existential crises - often to hilarious extremes. Obviously, Forky's got issues, but Woody's figuring out his new place in a Bonnie world and his buddy Buzz relies on his "inner voice" (aka catchphrases that spout when he hits his chest buttons) to get through life's obstacles.

Germain Lussier, io9:

The first three Toy Story films are about as perfect as a trilogy gets. They're legendary, landmark films that changed the animation art form as we know it. So, the mere notion of a Toy Story 4 felt superfluous. A foolhardy, insurmountable task to continue and build upon that wonderful story. Could it be done? Should it be done? Turns out, the answer is abso-freakin-lutely.

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune:

But by the end, my heart was warmed, my laughter was frequent and "Toy Story 4" has the tact and good sense not to try anything along the lines of the tasteless near-mass incineration climax of the last one. I'll never be a fan of the photorealistic animation aesthetic of these Pixar films, creating a different look entirely than, say, a masterwork such as "Ratatouille." But the clinical edge has softened a bit in this picture, gratifyingly.

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