Toy Story 4

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

The story follows Woody, Buzz Lightyear, and the other toys as 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. During the trip, Woody is reunited with Bo Peep and must decide where his loyalties lie. Don Rickles, who died in 2017, reprised his role as Mr. Potato Head through unused archive audio.

Talks about a fourth Toy Story film began in 2010, shortly before the release of Toy Story 3. The film was officially announced in November 2014, and 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 co-wrote a film treatment. Cooley was announced as co-director in March 2015 and eventually replaced Lasseter as director. The script went through many revisions, and Rashida Jones, Will McCormack, Valerie LaPointe, and Martin Hynes all received story credit along with Cooley, Stanton, Folsom, and Lasseter. Composer Randy Newman returned to score the film, marking his ninth collaboration with Pixar.

Toy Story 4 premiered in Hollywood, Los Angeles on June 11, 2019, and was released in the United States on June 21. It earned $1.074 billion worldwide, making it the eighth-highest-grossing film of 2019. It is the highest-grossing film in the franchise, just ahead of Toy Story 3. Like the films before it, it was praised by critics for its story, humor, emotional depth, music, animation, and voice performances. It received two nominations at the 92nd Academy Awards, winning Best Animated Feature, and it earned numerous other accolades. A sequel, Toy Story 5, was released on June 19, 2026.

Plot

Nine years ago, Woody and Bo Peep rescued Andy's remote control car, RC, from a storm. Bo and her lamp were then given to a new owner, and Woody chose to stay with Andy. Today, Andy has gone to college and given his toys to Bonnie, who shows little interest in Woody. When Bonnie makes a toy named Forky from a spork at her kindergarten orientation, Forky has an existential crisis and sees himself as trash. Woody tries to stop him from throwing himself away, and Forky becomes Bonnie's favorite toy.

During a family road trip, Forky jumps out of the RV, and Woody follows him. Woody convinces Forky that his place is with Bonnie. Forky then spots Bo's lamp in an antique store and goes inside. There, they meet Gabby Gabby and her ventriloquist dummy friends, who want Woody's voice box. Woody escapes, but Forky is taken prisoner. Woody later reunites with Bo, her sheep, and their friend Giggle McDimples, who have become "lost toys." Buzz Lightyear gets lost at a traveling carnival, and the group finds help from 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, while Jessie and Buzz lead Bonnie's toys back to the RV.

Main article: List of Toy Story characters

Tom Hanks voices Woody, and Tim Allen voices Buzz Lightyear. Annie Potts returns as Bo Peep. New toys include Forky, a toy that Bonnie makes out of a plastic spork and that Tony Hale voices. Keegan-Michael Key voices Ducky, a duck plush whose hand is attached to Bunny and who was originally a carnival prize. Jordan Peele voices Bunny. Christina Hendricks voices Gabby Gabby, a doll who tries to steal Woody's voice box to repair her own and find a kid for herself. Keanu Reeves voices Duke Caboom, a motorcyclist toy who is devastated by his previous owner's disappointment in him. Ally Maki voices Giggle McDimples, a tiny policewoman toy who is friends with Bo. Madeleine McGraw voices Bonnie, replacing Emily Hahn, who voiced her in earlier Toy Story media. Jay Hernandez voices Bonnie's dad, Lori Alan voices her mom, and Joan Cusack voices Jessie.

Returning from earlier films are Bonnie Hunt as Dolly, Kristen Schaal as Trixie, Wallace Shawn as Rex, John Ratzenberger as Hamm, Blake Clark as Slinky Dog, Jeff Garlin as Buttercup, Estelle Harris as Mrs. Potato Head (in her final film role before her death in 2022), Timothy Dalton as Mr. Pricklepants, and Jeff Pidgeon as the Aliens. Don Rickles, who died in 2017, reprises his role as Mr. Potato Head using unused audio from earlier films. Carl Weathers returns as Combat Carl from Toy Story of Terror!. John Morris and Laurie Metcalf reprise their roles as Andy and his mom in the opening, and Jack McGraw voices Andy as a child. Mel Brooks, Carol Burnett, Betty White, and Carl Reiner voice baby toy versions of themselves, and 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, who appears as an Oakland Athletics bobblehead figure.

Production

Development 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 after writing a film treatment with Andrew Stanton, with ideas from Pete Docter and Lee Unkrich. Rashida Jones and Will McCormack joined as writers, but they later withdrew during production, citing "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 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, and Stephany Folsom worked on the screenplay with Stanton. The story was centered on the relationship between Woody and Bo Peep.

Most of the previous voice actors returned, and recording took place from September 2018 to January 2019. Annie Potts came back 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 archived material from his earlier work instead. Tony Hale voiced Forky, a homemade toy facing an existential crisis. 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 and 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," and he performed the second one. On June 5, 2019, Chris Stapleton's version of "Cowboy" was released as a single. The soundtrack was released on June 21, 2019. It includes Newman's score, both versions of the two new songs, and Newman's "You've Got a Friend in Me."

Release

Toy Story 4 was first scheduled for release on June 16, 2017, then delayed to June 15, 2018, and finally to June 21, 2019. Pixar gave the 2018 date to Incredibles 2. The film premiered on June 11, 2019, at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles and was also released 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 a boycott of the film.

Unlike Pixar's earlier films, Toy Story 4 did not have a theatrical short shown before it. Pixar's first 20 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) were only preceded by a short in a limited way. The producers, Mark Nielsen and Jonas Rivera, explained that the studio's workers were needed for its feature films at the time, and the studio was focusing on short films called SparkShorts. Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment released the film for digital download on October 1, 2019, and 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 units sold, making it the fifth best-selling film of 2019.

Reception

Toy Story 4 earned $1.074 billion worldwide, making it the eighth-highest-grossing film of 2019. It opened with $244.5 million, the biggest opening for an animated film at the time. The film crossed 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, beating Incredibles 2. It opened on June 21, 2019, alongside Child's Play and Anna, and played in 4,575 theaters, the second-most ever behind Avengers: Endgame. The film was later overtaken at the top of the box office by Spider-Man: Far From Home in July. In August 2019, it 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 worldwide, and it was the fifth highest-grossing film of 2019 in this region. In China, it opened alongside a re-release of Spirited Away.

Critics praised the film widely. On Rotten Tomatoes, it received a 96% approval rating, and Metacritic gave it a score of 84 out of 100. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave it an "A," and 89% of those at PostTrak gave it a positive score. Reviewers such as 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 gave it a positive review. Peter Travers of Rolling Stone praised the voice work of Tony Hale as Forky. Joe Morgenstern of The Wall Street Journal called it hugely enjoyable. Peter Rainer of The Christian Science Monitor said it was more than good enough to justify its existence. 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 received a nomination for Best Original Song and won Best Animated Feature. Its other nominations included six Annie Awards, a British Academy Film Award, a Critics' Choice Movie Award (which it won), and a Golden Globe 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 reveals where Bo Peep was between leaving and reuniting with Woody. It was released on Disney+ on January 31, 2020.

Main article: Forky Asks a Question

A 10-episode educational series, Forky Asks a Question, debuted only on the Disney+ streaming service when it launched on November 12, 2019. It mainly focuses on Forky, though 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 claimed that the character Duke Caboom made creative use of the likeness of Evel Knievel without permission.

On September 23, 2021, the judge dismissed the case. The judge said that Duke Caboom is not a carbon copy of Evel Knievel minus a few details. The judge also said that the Duke Caboom action figure showed Disney's own creative expression in the film and was not an attempt to imitate Evel Knievel.