Sure, give us some further exploits of our toy friends playing with Bonnie such as the Toy Story Toons Hawaiian Vacation, Small Fry, and Partysaurus Rex or the longer shorts Toy Story That Time Forgot or Toy Story of Terror, but let Toy Story 3 remain the perfect end note to the main story. However, with its early release in 4K HDR at the Kaleidescape Store (a week prior to the UltraHD Blu-ray), I decided to take the plunge and complete my Toy Story film collection. 

I’ve watched Toy Story 4 twice now, once in theaters and once at home in 4K HDR, and my heart has definitely softened to this latest entry in the series. While much of the story feels more forced than the more organic events of 1—new toy, Buzz, comes in and shakes up things in the toys’ world; 2—Woody is stolen and discovers he is a celebrity; and 3—the toys come to terms with Andy growing up and leaving them behind, it gives our toys another great adventure while advancing Woody’s story and ultimately giving his character some nice closure (and a new beginning).

The movie opens nine years in the past, showing us what happened to Sheriff Woody’s true love, Bo Peep, when she is given away to another child. We then cut back to the present where, following the events of Toy Story 3, young Bonnie is growing, and Woody finds himself being played with less and less. On the first day of kindergarten, he sneaks into Bonnie’s backpack to make sure she has a good first day, and while at school, Bonnie crafts a new friend, Forky, from miscellaneous scraps of trash. When brought into Bonnie’s room, Forky magically comes to life and spends much of the movie trying to throw himself in the garbage. 

When Bonnie’s family takes a road trip, Woody tries convincing the other toys—and Forky himself—that Forky is important to Bonnie, but Forky throws himself out of the RV’s window and Woody goes after him, setting the stage for a variety of adventures, and the reunion of old friends and new acquaintances. 

All of your favorite characters from the previous films are here including Buzz, Jessie, Dolly, Trixie, Rex, Hamm, and Slinky Dog. Significant among the new characters are Gabby Gabby, Ducky and Bunny, and ultimate stuntman Duke Caboom. 

Toy Story 4 is Pixar doing what Pixar does best, which is putting a bunch of interesting characters together in humorous situations and milking each scene for maximum humor and heart. They nail the little moments like Rex being impressed with how long Forky’s pipe-cleaner arms are or Snow Combat Carl (Carl Weathers) missing out on a high five. This is definitely not the best of the Toy Story films, but it is still a lot of fun to watch.

We’ve been having a bit of a resurgence of Toy Story watching in our house, as my three year old has become obsessed with the first three films, wanting to watch them on our Kaleidescape system over and over. What you really notice is the generational leaps in animation improvement from film to film. Whereas the first movie now looks almost like a student project, this one has many moments that border on photorealistic. The opening scenes look stunningly real, with incredible depth and detail in every frame. Taken from a 4K digital intermediate, there is striking micro detail in every closeup, a testament to the fanatical level of attention paid by the Pixar team. From the ultra-fine texture in Bo’s bonnet to the detail in every one of Bonnie’s eye lashes to the scuffs and scrapes on Woody’s hat (visible only in certain lighting and angles, mind you), each frame is bursting with detail. Just sit and watch as each rain drop in the beginning hits, splashes, and ripples. It’s amazing work.

The outdoor scenes all look unbelievably real—from the exterior of Bonnie’s school to the road and landscape while Woody and Forky are walking to the interior of the Second Chance antiques store, it’s all 4K eye candy. One scene in the antiques store where Bo and Woody look at a variety of illuminated chandeliers is especially fantastic-looking. 

The colors throughout were a bit subdued and muted. Whether this was to give it a more grownup, filmlike, and realistic look or due to some other creative choice, colors aren’t as overly saturated and pumped up as they are in many animated titles, including the other Toy Story movies. There are still scenes where colors pop, such as the shimmer of Bo’s deep purple cloak, the flashing colored lights in the secret club inside an old pinball machine, the midway at the carnival, and especially the carnival lit up at night. This film is gorgeous to behold throughout and reference-quality video in every way.

The Dolby Atmos audio track was mostly restrained, with the vast majority of the audio action happening in the front of the room. There were some nice moments where the height speakers were called into creative use for some expansion of on-screen dialogue—for example Woody hearing things inside Bonnie’s backpack or Ducky and Bunny talking off screen—or where the audio soundstage is expanded with a variety of ticking clocks in the antique store, but Toy Story 4 is not really an audio showcase. Having said that, this is frequently a dialogue-driven film and the dialogue is always clear and easy to understand, and there is appropriate use of surrounds when called on, but just not aggressively.

If you have kids or grandkids, or just want a fantastic-looking movie with a bunch of heart, Toy Story 4 is sure to please.