A Movie for the Kid in ALL of Us: Toy Story 4 Review

I’m SO excited to finally be able to share with you my Toy Story 4 review! While you’ll find NO spoilers here, I’m definitely going to get emotional because let’s face it, that’s what the Toy Story movie ride we’ve all been on has been about from the very beginning: the passage of time and the roller coaster of emotions that we go through on this journey called.

Very few movies can span the age gaps like the Toy Stories movies have. Going on over 25 years of these films, we are all in, aren’t we? Our hearts latched onto those early moments in Andy’s rooms and we haven’t been able to let go since. Toy Story 3 was a really rough journey for me. While I enjoyed the film, it didn’t give me the answers that I needed and aside from being super entertaining, it definitely didn’t have any huge aha moments for me.

Disclosure: I was hosted by Disney for this press event. All opinions and character crushes are 100% my own.

Toy Story 4 is different, I can promise you that. It hits ALL the feels and some of the moments and lessons resonated so deeply with me that I found myself literally coming to terms with things right there in the theater. These moments will most likely be different for everyone, depending on where you are at in your journey, but the one thing that I know for sure is that we can all relate to the strong messages of friendship, loyalty and the passage of time.

Who should see Toy Story 4?

Everyone. It’s truly fascinating to me that this movie can successfully deliver to an audience of people ages 0-115 but I’m telling you, it does. Aside from a few scary moments and characters (and honestly, it’s very minimal compared to most animation films) this movie has something for everyone. My cheeks (and heart) where aching the entire way through: I laughed, I cried, and when I wasn’t laughing and/or crying I was smiling. Big.

About half way through the movie, I looked over at my 14 year old son. He was leaning in. He was ALL in. Huge smile on his face. The flash back to his younger days watching the Toy Story movies, it hit me hard. Yet, here we were. He was still all in. LEANING in… on the edge of his seat because he knows this story, he knows these characters. He grew up with many of them and they are his childhood friends. He’s rooting for them. Right? We all are. Because we KNOW them.

We also spend some time together in Disney’s Hollywood Studios Toy Story Land that confirmed for me, that while my kids are growing up, I can still teach by example that we can all remain a kid at heart.

And that’s really the magic of these films. They take on this journey that is not only entertaining in the moment, but they teach us about life. They teach us about friendship, and love and maybe the hardest life lesson of all: loss. Toy Story 4 does this like a boss movie and I can’t think of another film that has so powerfully fit all of those things in, but it does and it does so in such a beautiful way.

New Characters in Toy Story 4

It’s about making new friends! You’ll meet some fantastic new characters in this movie and they’ll win their way into your heart just like all of the others. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again … there is always more room for new Disney characters in our hearts, isn’t there?

For those with young kiddos, a few of the new characters are a tad bit dark, but they provide valuable lessons too and I have to admit, I was pleasantly surprised at how the writers gave these characters a story lesson of their own with a twist that I didn’t quite expect. Without spoiling, I’ll just tell you that the lesson might be that we all have a story that’s worth hearing in order to understand each other.

Who is Duke Caboom?

And just in case you haven’t yet heard of him, you are going to LOVE Duke Caboom. Duke Caboom is voiced by Keanu Reeves and I seriously expect this dude to end up with his own movie. He’s fantastic, hilarious and a character that we can all relate to. He’s highly flawed but that’s what makes him the perfect fit for the Toy Story family, and one of the reasons you can bet he’ll come out of this as a true favorite.

Old Favorite Toy Story Characters

And of course, Toy Story 4 has all of your old favorites, including some new character traits that I think you are going to love! Be prepared for Bo Peep to blow you away, she’s one tough cookie and she definitely brings some new messaging to this movie. In fact, they all do. I found each character surprised me a bit with these unexpected story lines which was again, was great messaging about life and how the passage of time allows us all to change and grow.

I hope you enjoyed my Toy Story 4 review and I’ll be sharing my cast interviews soon, so stay tuned for those! They will include interview with Director Josh Cooley, Producer Jonas Rivera,
Producer Mark Nielsen, Tom Hanks – (voice of “Woody”), Tony Hale (voice of “Forky”), Annie Potts (voice of “Bo Peep”), Keanu Reeves (voice of “Duke Caboom”), Tim Allen (voice of “Buzz Lightyear”) and Christina Hendricks (voice of “Gabby Gabby”).