Toy Story 4

Toy Story 4 is a 2019 American animated comedy-drama film directed by Josh Cooley. It was written by Andrew Stanton and Stephany Folsom. Pixar Animation Studios made the film for Walt Disney Pictures. It is the fourth movie in Pixar's Toy Story series. Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Annie Potts, and Joan Cusack came back to their roles. Tony Hale, Keegan-Michael Key, Jordan Peele, Christina Hendricks, Keanu Reeves, and Ally Maki also joined the cast.

The story follows Woody, Buzz Lightyear, and the other toys. They go on a road trip with their new owner, Bonnie. She brings along Forky, a spork she made from recycled materials at her school. On the trip, Woody meets Bo Peep again and has to decide where his loyalties lie. Don Rickles died in 2017. He still voiced his character, Mr. Potato Head, using audio that had not been used before.

Talks about a fourth Toy Story film began in 2010, shortly before Toy Story 3 came out. The film was officially announced in November 2014. It was reported that John Lasseter, a co-creator of Toy Story, would direct it. Lasseter later said it would be a love story, after he helped write a film treatment. Cooley was announced as co-director in March 2015. He later took over from Lasseter as director. The script went through many changes. Rashida Jones, Will McCormack, Valerie LaPointe, and Martin Hynes received story credit, along with Cooley, Stanton, Folsom, and Lasseter. Composer Randy Newman returned to write the music. It was his ninth time working with Pixar.

Toy Story 4 had its premiere in Hollywood, Los Angeles on June 11, 2019. It was released in the United States on June 21. The film earned $1.074 billion around the world. It was the eighth-highest-grossing film of 2019. It is the highest-grossing movie in the series, just ahead of Toy Story 3. Critics praised the film for its story, humor, feelings, music, animation, and voice acting, as they had with the earlier films. It received two nominations at the 92nd Academy Awards and won Best Animated Feature. It also earned numerous other awards. A sequel, Toy Story 5, was released on June 19, 2026.

Plot

Nine years ago, Woody and Bo Peep saved Andy's remote control car, RC, from a storm. Bo and her lamp then went to a new owner. Woody chose to stay with Andy. Now Andy has gone to college and given his toys to Bonnie. Bonnie does not seem very interested in Woody. At her kindergarten orientation, Bonnie makes a toy called Forky out of a spork. Forky feels confused about what he is and thinks he is just trash. Woody tries to keep him from throwing himself away. Soon, Forky becomes Bonnie's favorite toy.

During a family road trip, Forky jumps out of the RV, and Woody goes after him. Woody convinces Forky that he belongs with Bonnie. Then Forky sees Bo's lamp in an antique store and goes inside. There, he meets Gabby Gabby and her ventriloquist dummy friends, who want Woody's voice box. Woody gets away, but Forky is trapped. Later, Woody finds Bo, her sheep, and their friend Giggle McDimples. They have become "lost toys." Buzz Lightyear gets lost at a traveling carnival, and the group gets help from a stunt bike toy, Duke Caboom. Woody gives up his voice box to save Forky, but Gabby's plan fails. In the end, Woody chooses to stay with Bo. Jessie and Buzz lead Bonnie's toys back to the RV.

Main article: List of Toy Story characters

Cast

Tom Hanks voices Woody, and Tim Allen voices Buzz Lightyear. Annie Potts returns as Bo Peep. New toys include Forky, who is made from a plastic spork and is voiced by Tony Hale. Keegan-Michael Key voices Ducky, a duck plush whose hand is attached to Bunny. Ducky was first a carnival prize. Jordan Peele voices Bunny. Christina Hendricks voices Gabby Gabby, a doll who tries to take Woody's voice box so she can fix her own and find a child of her own. Keanu Reeves voices Duke Caboom, a motorcycle stunt toy who feels hurt by his old owner's disappointment in him. Ally Maki voices Giggle McDimples, a tiny policewoman toy who is friends with Bo. Madeleine McGraw voices Bonnie. She takes over the role from Emily Hahn, who voiced Bonnie in earlier Toy Story media. Jay Hernandez voices Bonnie's dad, Lori Alan voices her mom, and Joan Cusack voices Jessie.

Some actors from earlier films return. Bonnie Hunt plays Dolly, Kristen Schaal plays Trixie, Wallace Shawn plays Rex, John Ratzenberger plays Hamm, Blake Clark plays Slinky Dog, Jeff Garlin plays Buttercup, and Estelle Harris plays Mrs. Potato Head. This was Harris's last film role before she died in 2022. Timothy Dalton plays Mr. Pricklepants, and Jeff Pidgeon plays the Aliens. Don Rickles died in 2017, but he returns as Mr. Potato Head using audio that was not used in earlier films. Carl Weathers returns as Combat Carl from Toy Story of Terror!. John Morris and Laurie Metcalf play Andy and his mom again in the opening scenes. Jack McGraw voices Andy as a child. Mel Brooks, Carol Burnett, Betty White, and Carl Reiner voice baby toy versions of themselves. Alan Oppenheimer voices Old Timer. Emily Davis voices Billy Goat and Gruff. Steve Purcell voices Benson and The Dummies, and Melissa Villaseñor voices Karen Beverly. Other voices include June Squibb, Patricia Arquette, Bill Hader, Flea, and Rickey Henderson. Henderson appears as an Oakland Athletics bobblehead figure.

Production

Work on Toy Story 3 (2010) was followed closely by work on Toy Story 4. Tom Hanks and Tim Allen had tentatively agreed to return as Woody and Buzz. John Lasseter was set to direct. He wrote a film treatment with Andrew Stanton, and ideas came from Pete Docter and Lee Unkrich. Rashida Jones and Will McCormack joined as writers, but they left during production, saying they had "philosophical differences." Lasseter said the project was kept so secret that even Edwin Catmull did not know about it until the treatment was finished. In March 2015, Jim Morris described the film as a romantic comedy. That same month, Josh Cooley was revealed as co-director. He had worked on Inside Out (2015) and its short Riley's First Date (2015). In 2016, Cooley replaced Lasseter as director. Stephany Folsom worked on the screenplay with Stanton. The story focused on the relationship between Woody and Bo Peep.

Most of the earlier voice actors came back, and recording took place from September 2018 to January 2019. Annie Potts returned as Bo Peep. Don Rickles had planned to reprise his role as Mr. Potato Head, but he died in April 2017, before any lines were recorded. Pixar used recordings from his earlier work instead. Tony Hale voiced Forky, a homemade toy who is confused about what he is. Hale had played similar panicked characters before, such as Buster Bluth on Arrested Development and Gary Walsh on Veep. Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele voiced the carnival prize toys Ducky and Bunny, and Keanu Reeves voiced Duke Caboom. Christina Hendricks also voiced a new character. Madeleine McGraw, who had previously voiced Maddy McGear in Cars 3, took over the role of Bonnie. Comedians Carol Burnett, Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner, and Betty White voiced four older toys that Bonnie had outgrown.

Music

Randy Newman, who wrote the music and songs for the previous three films, was confirmed to return at the 2015 D23 Expo. Director Josh Cooley said he hired Newman because he "can't imagine making a fourth [film] without Randy Newman." Newman wrote new themes for Bonnie, Gabby Gabby, and Duke Caboom. Duke's theme uses accordions and mandolins to show his memories of being rejected. Newman also wrote a "subordinate theme" for Forky. He also reused his earlier orchestral themes from the first three films.

Newman wrote two new songs for the film, "The Ballad of the Lonesome Cowboy" and "I Can't Let You Throw Yourself Away." He sang the second one himself. On June 5, 2019, Chris Stapleton's version of "Cowboy" was released as a single. The soundtrack came out on June 21, 2019. It includes Newman's music, both versions of the two new songs, and Newman's "You've Got a Friend in Me."

Release

Toy Story 4 was first set for release on June 16, 2017. It was later moved to June 15, 2018, and then to June 21, 2019. Pixar gave the 2018 date to Incredibles 2. The film had its first showing on June 11, 2019, at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles. It was also shown in IMAX. One scene briefly shows a couple of lesbian mothers with a child at a kindergarten orientation. This led One Million Moms, a conservative group in the United States, to call for people to boycott the film.

Unlike many earlier Pixar films, Toy Story 4 did not have a theatrical short shown before it. Pixar's earlier feature films, from A Bug's Life (1998) to Cars 3 (2017) and Incredibles 2 (2018), each had a new Pixar short film. Toy Story (1995) and Coco (2017) had a short shown before them in a limited way. The producers, Mark Nielsen and Jonas Rivera, said that the studio's workers were needed for its feature films at that time. The studio was also focusing on short films called SparkShorts. Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment released the film for digital download on October 1, 2019. It came out on Ultra HD Blu-ray, Blu-ray, and DVD on October 8. The film earned $56.3 million from home video sales, with 2.8 million copies sold. This made it the fifth best-selling film of 2019.

Reception

Toy Story 4 earned $1.074 billion around the world. That made it the eighth-highest-grossing film of 2019. Its opening weekend brought in $244.5 million, the biggest opening for an animated film at that time. The film passed one billion dollars on August 13, 2019. Deadline Hollywood estimated its net profit at $368 million. On Fandango, it set a record for the most tickets sold by an animated film in its first 24 hours of pre-sales. This beat Incredibles 2. It opened on June 21, 2019, at the same time as Child's Play and Anna. It played in 4,575 theaters, the second-most ever, behind Avengers: Endgame. In July, Spider-Man: Far From Home took over the top spot at the box office. In August 2019, Toy Story 4 passed The Lion King to become the highest-grossing G-rated film in the United States and Canada. It is also the highest-grossing G-rated film in the world. In that region, it was the fifth highest-grossing film of 2019. In China, it opened alongside a re-release of Spirited Away.

Critics liked the film a lot. On Rotten Tomatoes, it received a 96% approval rating. Metacritic gave it a score of 84 out of 100. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave it an "A." At PostTrak, 89% of viewers gave it a positive score. Reviewers including Matt Zoller Seitz of RogerEbert.com, Ann Hornaday of The Washington Post, and Peter DeBruge of Variety praised its humor, heart, and animation. Robbie Collin of The Daily Telegraph wrote that Pixar is "like no other animation studio around." David Ehrlich of IndieWire also wrote a positive review. Peter Travers of Rolling Stone praised the voice work of Tony Hale as Forky. Joe Morgenstern of The Wall Street Journal said the film was very enjoyable. Peter Rainer of The Christian Science Monitor said it was more than good enough to be made. Not every review was positive. Kyle Smith of National Review called it "the weakest effort in the series."

Main article: List of accolades received by Toy Story 4

At the 92nd Academy Awards, the film was nominated for Best Original Song. It won Best Animated Feature. It also received six Annie Awards nominations, a British Academy Film Award nomination, and a Golden Globe Award nomination. It won a Critics' Choice Movie Award.

Post-release

Main article: Toy Story 5

A sequel, Toy Story 5, was released on June 19, 2026. A short film called Lamp Life shows where Bo Peep was between leaving and reuniting with Woody. It came out on Disney+ on January 31, 2020.

Main article: Forky Asks a Question

A 10-episode educational series, Forky Asks a Question, was only available on Disney+ when it started on November 12, 2019. It mainly focuses on Forky. Other Toy Story characters, such as Rex, Hamm, Trixie, Buttercup, and Mr. Pricklepants, also appear.

Lawsuit

In September 2020, Kelly Knievel and K&K Promotions sued Disney and Pixar. They said that the character Duke Caboom was based on Evel Knievel without permission.

On September 23, 2021, the judge threw out the case. The judge said that Duke Caboom is not just a copy of Evel Knievel with a few changes. The judge also said that the Duke Caboom toy was part of Disney's own creative work in the film, and was not an attempt to copy Evel Knievel.