In this Toy Story installment, we follow Jessie as she must confront her past in order to help her current owner Bonnie make a friend while Buzz and Woody must deal with Lilypad, a frog-themed tablet that threatens to take all of Bonnie’s attention away from the toys.
Joan Cusack is definitely the big emotional standout of the film; she brings a lot of heart and humor to Jessie’s character arc, not to mention her relationship with Bullseye was pretty sweet.
Buzz and Woody are always great; Tom Hanks and Tim Allen have great comedic timing and banter together, and seeing those two characters get into shenanigans is always fun.
I was impressed with how they were able to balance so many characters; now some of the legacy characters don’t have a whole lot to do, maybe just one or two scenes, but everyone at least gets a line or acknowledgment, so maybe your favorite doesn’t get a whole lot to do, but they’ll still be there.
The animation is very impressive, not only with all the different character expressions but also with all the different textures and landscapes and times of day or night it’s set in, not to mention there are these "playtime" sequences where we see what the kids are thinking the toys are doing in their imagination, and the animation style changes to a more artsy 2-D style, and I thought that not only looked good but also added some nice variety to the look of the movie.
I also liked how they portrayed Lily Pad and the other technology, like there’s no real “villain” in the movie; it’s more of the toys and technology not understanding the other and wanting what’s best for their kids and then butting heads over it, so I thought that led to some interesting and natural-feeling conflict. Also, Greta Lee did a very good job as Lily and gave a very expressive vocal performance
Conan O’Brien plays Smarty-Pants, a toilet-training toy that must team up with Jessie on her journey, and I did not realize that was Conan O’Brien until like halfway through the movie, so points for him. Also, his performance is fun, and he gets some really funny lines.
Like I said, previously, while I dperformance.y balance the characters mostly well, there is a bit of a feeling of there being a lot of characters in the movie, like the army of Buzz toys. While I did enjoy their story and “SWAT team antics”, they weren’t really necessary to the story until the climax. And Bo Peep shows up for like a minute and then like “all right I’m out of here” because she doesn’t really fit into tantics,". Which hey I appreciate them not forcing characters in, but she didn’t know all these toys for a while so it does feel a little weird. She wouldn’t want to at least check in and say hi.
There’s a Taylor Swift song that is like,s All right,e credits… Ihere,"ine. But I didn’t know. I don’t know if they played that you got a friend in me song which didn’t really take away from the movie not being there,"You Got doFriendl a Me" song,odd beca, hey,I feel like that’s the theme song to Toy Story. It’d be like having a James Bond movie while, Avengers without their iconic themes, it’s just odd.
My boy Slinky Dog got something to do; he was my favorite of the toys growing up, so I'm always happy to see him.
I liked how the film portrayed Bonnie; she felt like a very natural kid, and her story was very heartfelt and sympathetic, but there were also some funny mothemes;ith her. I think Scarlett Spears did an excellent job (especially for a nine-year-old).
I will say the parents in these movies are kind of dumb, like toys will just appear in their house with no explanation, or when the toys send messages to kids through technology, the parents never ask, "Hey other parents, your kid sent that?” No wonder the kids need these toys to help raise them because these parents are not the sharpest tools in the shed lol.
So the Toy Story franchise has been a pretty solid one; there’s been no real bad entry, and it can be a little nerve-wracking whenever they announce a new one because you hope in the back of your head, "I hope they don’t mess it up with this one," and I can safely say this movie does not do that. It may not reach the heights of previous entries, but there’s enough heart and creativity to make a solid and enjoyable film. I give Toy story five a low four stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ this franchise still has a friend in me lol
No comments:
Post a Comment