“Toy Story 4” is coming to theaters on June 21 and I can’t help but wonder: do we really need another one?
The first film, simply called “Toy Story” was released in November of 1995, before a large amount of the University of Rhode Island’s student body was even born, but like so many of my peers, this film and its sequel were such a big part of my childhood.
“Toy Story 2” followed four years after. In 2010 came what I believed to be the final full-length feature film in the series, “Toy Story 3.” Being that I was born in the year 2000, this was also the only one I’d seen in the actual theaters.
Now, almost 10 years later, Pixar has decided that we need another film to round out the series, but do we?
The “Toy Story” franchise is huge for Pixar with each of the three films breaking box office records with video games, toys, amusement park rides, shorts, T.V. movies, comic books and more accompanying them. I can understand why Pixar wants to keep milking their cash cow, but that still doesn’t answer my question of whether or not it’s an unnecessary project.
I’m not saying the film will be bad and I don’t believe that it will be. In fact, while on BBC’s “The Chris Evan Breakfast Show,” Tom Hanks, who voices everyone’s favorite sheriff, Woody, said that the final scene is very emotional and that while recording it, he “realized what they were going for.”
So you can find me at the theaters around opening weekend seeing what I sincerely hope to be the franchise’s last installment, but I’m only feeling compelled to go out of nostalgia for my favorite childhood movies and I feel as though Pixar knows this.
Just last year Pixar released “Incredibles 2,” a whole 14 years after the original film, and had great success at the box office. This film was greatly anticipated by fans like myself who had grown up with the Parr family. Once again, Pixar is playing on our nostalgia, but does Pixar know when to stop?
In 2017, “Cars 3” was released by Pixar six years after “Cars 2.” I personally cannot say anything about the quality of the third movie as I only saw the first two but then I had the same question that I’m asking now. Was it really necessary?
It had a fine performance in the box office, which seems to be Pixar’s main goal these days, but I couldn’t help but feel like it was one too many.
With classics like “Toy Story” and “Cars” and “The Incredibles,” new fans are made everyday. These are the films that I loved when I was growing up and that my little brother loves now at 8-years-old. Pixar counts on having generations of fans but are they losing the generations as time goes on by insisting on sequels upon sequels?
I loved “Toy Story 3” and thought it was the perfect ending to the series. It allowed me to perfectly wrap up that chapter in my life and feel all the nostalgia I needed to feel. However, nearly years later, Pixar is asking me to do it all over again; and I will.
I will because there’s always a part of me that longs for that happy, nostalgic feeling I get when I sit down to watch the Pixar films that have become part of my childhood–and Pixar knows that I’m not the only one.
Pixar has found what works for them but by doing that, are they ruining the classics? Are they making unnecessary films? Are they out of ideas for new original movies? I don’t have the answers, but “Toy Story 4” might.