‘Toy Story 4’ lowers the stakes and ramps up the whimsy

Toy Story 4 is a 2019 American computer-animated comedy-drama film produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures. It is the fourth installment in Pixar’s Toy Story series, and the sequel to 2010’s Toy Story 3. It is directed by Josh Cooley (in his feature directorial debut) from a screenplay by Andrew Stanton (who had co-written the first three films) and Stephany Folsom; the three also conceived the story alongside John Lasseter (director of the first two installments in the franchise), Rashida Jones, Will McCormack, Valerie LaPointe, and Martin Hynes.

The film stars the voices of Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Annie Potts, Tony Hale, Keegan-Michael Key, Jordan Peele, Madeleine McGraw, Christina Hendricks, Keanu Reeves, Ally Maki, Jay Hernandez, Lori Alan, and Joan Cusack. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 98% based on 288 reviews, with an average rating of 8.36/10.

The website’s critics consensus reads, “Heartwarming, funny, and beautifully animated, Toy Story 4 manages the unlikely feat of extending – and perhaps concluding – a practically perfect animated saga.” Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 84 out of 100 based on 53 critics, indicating “universal acclaim”. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of “A” on an A+ to F scale, while those at PostTrak gave it an overall positive score of 89% and a 75% “definite recommend”.

Peter DeBruge of Variety wrote that “Toy Story ushered in the era of computer-animated cartoon features, and the fourth movie wraps up the saga beautifully. At least, for now.” Writing for IndieWire, David Ehrlich gave the film a grade of B+ and wrote, “Clever, breathless, and never manic just for the sake of keeping your kids’ eyes busy, the action in Toy Story 4 is character-driven and paced to perfection.”