Toy Story 4: When Loyalty in Friendship is no Longer for Infinity and Beyond A film analysis of Toy Story 4 (2019) Written by Kenneth Ting1,2 1 Doctoral candidate, Department of Immunology, University of Toronto 2 Alumunus, Victoria College, University of Toronto
The Downfall of the Toy Story Franchise Despite the worldwide cries from fans to halt the production of a sequel post Toy Story 3, Disney betrayed their audience and insisted on its production for obvious commercial reasons. As expected, Toy Story 4 is a cinematic disaster, primarily due to its failure to retain the essence of its franchise, its inability to emotionally redirect audience’s nostalgia for Andy, and forcing Bo Beep, an intrinsically flawed character, as one of the main protagonists. While the failure of Toy Story 4 was anticipated, its negative consequences to the entire franchise are unexpectedly disastrous. Woody, who was the leading exemplar of unconditional loyalty in friendship, no longer exists. His transformation at the end of Toy Story 4 eradicated all the efforts that were invested in building this character for the past two decades, making Toy Story 4 the most underserved winners of the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Film.
The Loss of Everlasting Loyalty in Friendship The fundamental essence that seeds the Toy Story franchise is the eternal loyalty in platonic friendships, whether this is between Andy and Woody, or between Woody and Buzz. This is a virtue that we all inherently acquire as innocent children, then seemingly impossible to retain as we grow up, and eventually longing to search for as we become adults. Similar to many Pixar movies such as Monsters, Inc., the Toy Story franchise uses a “buddy system”, in this case between Woody and Buzz, to form the basic structure of the story. However, if we compare the friendship portrayed in Monsters, Inc versus the one in the Toy Story franchise, one can easily identify that the latter is more effective in conveying the importance of eternal loyalty in friendship. This not only suggests that the “buddy system” here only plays a minor role in building this theme, but more importantly, it implicates that there is something very unique about the Toy Story franchise that allows it to achieve this accomplishment. This exclusive storytelling technique is known as the personification of toys, which serves as the design principle of the entire franchise. In general, personification refers to the process of attributing human nature to non-living objects. However, simply by personifying non-living objects, such as Mrs. Potts in Beauty and the Beast, does not demonstrate this unending nature of loyalty in friendship. Therefore, this personification must be done to toys because toys are made to be played with humans by default, and therefore by personifying them, they instantly become our “friends”. In fact, these “friends” are our exclusive followers because toys can also be owned. Therefore, the nature of toys’ restricted ownership underlies the loyalty that our “friends” must have in their relationship with their owners. Screenwriters’ Perspectives Vol. 2 No. 1 2021
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