Last summer, Pixar did the unthinkable and revisited the Toy Story franchise. They already stuck the landing once, delivering a pitch-perfect ending to a story we’d been following for 15 years with the emotionally resonant Toy Story 3. Nine years on, Toy Story 4 could’ve ruined everything.
Undoing a perfect ending and attempting to stick the landing again, the fourth movie took a huge gamble. And for the most part, it succeeded. Still, Toy Story 3 feels like a better ending to the “child’s plaything” saga. So, here are 5 reasons why Toy Story 4 was a great ending (and 5 why Toy Story 3 is still better).
Toy Story 4 was a great ending: It doesn’t undo Toy Story 3’s perfect ending
Toy Story 4 manages to have a satisfying ending without undoing Toy Story 3’s perfect ending. After watching Toy Story 4, fans can still go back and enjoy the emotional resonance of Toy Story 3’s ending. Andy giving his toys to Bonnie, and Woody and Buzz accepting their future and letting go of their kid, still tugs at the ol’ heartstrings.
And it still feels just as definitive and provides just as much closure. It’s the end of one chapter in these characters’ lives; the beauty of Toy Story 4 is that it manages to open a new chapter and conclude it organically all in the same movie.
Toy Story 3 is still better: Toy Story 4 felt more like a new beginning than an ending
With a new cast of characters taking center stage and a new chapter of the Toy Story saga being opened up, Toy Story 4 felt more like a spin-off, or the start of a brand-new Toy Story trilogy. Characters like Rex, Jessie, and Bullseye basically only make cameo appearances.
Toy Story 4 works much better as the first part of a new story – the story of a bunch of runaway toys who hang out at a carnival and enjoy their freedom by liberating fellow toys – than the final part of an existing story. It could’ve worked as a passing of the torch. But since the Pixar team insisted that this is the end of Toy Story, that isn’t the case.
Toy Story 4 was a great ending: It gave Woody’s journey a more fitting ending
Although Toy Story 3 provided a satisfying ending by giving these toys a new beginning with Bonnie, Woody’s journey still didn’t feel complete. Woody’s purpose in life was to make Andy’s childhood fun and give him some stability despite his parents’ implied divorce, and he fulfilled that purpose.
He wasn’t going to do the same for Bonnie; she wasn’t going to love him as much as Andy did. Bonnie’s Woody is really Forky. In Toy Story 4, Woody reunites Bonnie with Forky, and after doing this and catching up with Bo Peep, he feels ready to live his life without a kid.
Toy Story 3 is still better: Buzz had a lot more to do
Toy Story 4 is really Woody’s movie, so it felt appropriate for the story to focus on him, but at the same time, it was a shame to see Buzz get sidelined. The running joke of Buzz personifying his conscience in an attempt to become a more spiritual toy was funny, but outside of that, he didn’t really have much to do.
In Toy Story 3, he had a clearer arc. After Woody left Sunnyside, it was Buzz’s job to galvanize the toys. He investigated Lotso’s crew and had his settings changed to take their side, eventually being saved in time for the prison break.
Toy Story 4 was a great ending: The story was more character-focused
Toy Story 3 had a grand scope encompassing various different locations across town, and at times, it felt like it was being driven by the set pieces and not by the characters. On the other hand, Toy Story 4 has a much more intimate scale.
As an adventure, it’s not particularly thrilling. There’s only a couple of locations, and the action-packed moments are few and far between. But that’s not really a negative thing, because the writers concentrated the story on the characters and their journeys. Toy Story 4 didn’t need as many big set pieces, because it focused on what’s really important.
Toy Story 3 is still better: It focused on old characters over new ones
Each Toy Story sequel has introduced new characters into the mix, but Toy Story 4 seemed much more interested in its new characters (e.g. Forky, Duke Caboom, Ducky and Bunny, and Gabby Gabby) than the existing cast. Buzz, Jessie, and all the other toys from the previous movies are confined to the R.V. for most of the film.
Toy Story 3 introduced plenty of new characters – Lotso, Ken, Bonnie, all of Bonnie’s toys, etc. – but the focus was always on the major players that we’ve come to know and love over the course of this series. The movie was told from the main characters’ perspectives.
Toy Story 4 was a great ending: It had a stronger thematic sense of finality
Although its ending was practically perfect, Toy Story 3 didn’t feel set up to be a definitive ending. Woody, Buzz, and the gang getting trapped at a daycare center ruled by a tyrannical teddy bear could’ve been the plot of any Toy Story movie – not necessarily the last one. It was a terrific premise, and the movie did a great job of bringing it to life, but it didn’t have any thematic resonance with being the end of an era.
However, with its new protagonist grappling with sentient existence and an antique store filled with forgotten toys serving as a major setting, Toy Story 4 had a stronger thematic sense of finality. It really felt set up to conclude this tale from the beginning.
Toy Story 3 is still better: It didn’t feel like an afterthought
Every Toy Story movie has ended in a satisfying way, resolving all the story’s conflicts and leaving the characters in a good place, but Toy Story 3 felt like a definitive ending to the series. Toy Story 4 is a sort of postscript; a “Where are they now?” kind of story.
Toy Story 3 felt like a series finale episode – bigger and bolder than its predecessors, pushing its characters further out of their comfort zone than ever before. It was the Avengers: Endgame or The Dark Knight Rises of the Toy Story franchise. Toy Story 4 felt more like the series’ T2 Trainspotting.
Toy Story 4 was a great ending: It tied up all the loose ends
As satisfying as Toy Story 3 was, it didn’t quite tie up every loose end in the franchise. Toy Story 4 tied up all those loose ends, wrapping things up for good.
The most obvious example of this is explaining what happened to Bo Peep, who was mysteriously absent from the threequel, and providing closure on Woody’s relationship with her, which has been an essential component of the story since the very beginning. But the fourth movie also explored how Andy’s toys have been fitting in with Bonnie’s toys, and wrapped up Woody’s journey in a stronger, more conclusive way.
Toy Story 3 is still better: It had a much more emotional climax
At the end of Toy Story 4, Buzz tells Woody, “She’ll be okay.” At first, it seems like he’s referring to Bo Peep, but then Woody realizes he’s talking about Bonnie. Woody decides to leave the group, finding a new purpose with Bo Peep and the other carnival toys, so he says a tearful farewell to his friends.
This was an emotional scene, but it was nothing compared to the double whammy of the incinerator sequence in Toy Story 3, as the toys accept a grim fate and take each other’s hands, and the shot of Woody and Buzz watching Andy drive away.