Toy Story 4 is officially Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes and currently boasts a perfect 100% Fresh score. The original Toy Story was Pixar's first feature-length film and broke ground as the first ever fully computer-animated movie when it opened in 1995. Buoyed by Tom Hanks and Tim Allen's voice performances as Woody and Buzz Lightyear, the film went on to earn multiple Academy Award nominations and helped usher in the modern era of digital animation.
Pixar returned to the property for Toy Story 2 in 1999, then again in 2010 with Toy Story 3. The third movie saw Woody and his fellow toys part ways with their owner, Andy, and served as a finale to the franchise at large. It also grossed over $1 billion at the global box office, so it wasn't entirely surprising when Pixar announced plans for Toy Story 4 in 2014. The film was initially scheduled for 2017, but was later delayed and lost its original director, former Pixar CCO John Lasseter, when he stepped down over the sexual misconduct allegations made against him. Inside Out co-writer Josh Cooley took over as the sole director after that and ended up throwing out much of the film's earlier script.
Cooley and his team made the right call there, if the early reviews for Toy Story 4 are any indication. Rotten Tomatoes has confirmed the film is now Certified Fresh and is still sitting at 100% Fresh after 82 reviews. You can check out the related tweet in the space below.
Co-written by Andrew Stanton (Finding Dory) and Stephany Folsom (Star Wars Resistance), Toy Story 4 follows Woody as he tries to care for his owner Bonnie's new favorite toy Forky (Tony Hale), a spork-turned craft project that's convinced he shouldn't be a toy. However, when the pair get separated from Bonnie's other toys on a road trip, Woody ends up being reunited with his old flame Bo Peep (Annie Potts), who's been living without a owner for years. This sends Woody spiraling into an existential crisis, as he struggles to decide if he should return to his life with Bonnie and the others, or try something different. It's pretty heady stuff, even for a Toy Story movie, and a far cry from the original pitch for Toy Story 4 (a rom-com where Woody and Buzz go looking for Bo).
Fortunately, critics seem to really like the approach. Most have praised Toy Story 4 for being an unexpectedly necessary extension of the franchise after Toy Story 3, and say that it offers plenty of delightful comedy and colorful new characters to go along with its heavy themes. The film was already projected to set a new box office opening weekend record for animated movies before the reviews arrived, so its Certified Fresh rating should do little but propel Toy Story 4 to even greater commercial heights when it debuts in theaters next week.
Source: Rotten Tomatoes
