Toy Story 4 arrived nine years after a trilogy that already had one of the most emotionally definitive endings in modern animation. Rather than building on Andy’s goodbye, the film pivots hard toward Woody’s identity crisis, reframing him from loyal caretaker to wandering existential hero. It’s beautifully animated, occasionally funny, and conceptually interesting — but it also feels like a movie arguing with its own reason for existing. The question isn’t whether it’s well made, but whether undoing Toy Story 3 was worth the cost. So… why wasn’t it better?

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