Movie Review

Pixar conjures magic yet again with bittersweet Toy Story 4

The mere existence of Toy Story 4 is a little bittersweet. As fans of the series know, the final moments of Toy Story 3 (which, BTW, came out NINE years ago) seemed a pitch-perfect ending to the series, with all the toys we know and love moving on from their original owner, Andy, so that a new child, Bonnie, could grow up with them.

But no matter why Pixar decided to go ahead with a fourth film, it remains an utter pleasure to spend time with the characters that made the studio the powerhouse it is today. This time, Woody (Tom Hanks), Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen), Jessie (Joan Cusack), Hamm (John Ratzenberger), and more are on a road trip with Bonnie (Madeleine McGraw) and her family. Bonnie, who recently started kindergarten, has created her new favorite toy, Forky (Tony Hale), and thanks to Forky’s strong desire to throw himself in the trash, Woody takes it upon himself to protect Forky at all costs.

This proves an exhausting job, and one of Woody’s many attempts at rescue leads them both into a small-town antique store, where Woody thinks he has found the long-lost Bo Peep (Annie Potts). There, they also encounter Gabby Gabby (Christina Hendricks), an old doll who has long lingered on the shelf thanks to a broken voice box. When she discovers Woody is a pull-string toy, she covets his voice box to make her whole again.

Those are the basics, but there is so much going on in the film that it would be impossible to cover it all in a synopsis. Written by Andrew Stanton and Stephany Folsom and directed by Josh Cooley, the characters have an adventure more-than-worthy of previous entries in the series, buoyed by the outstanding humor and emotion that Pixar has brought to nearly every film in its history.

As they’ve done in the other films in the series, the filmmakers seamlessly integrate a variety of new characters. Forky is hilarious from the start, as are carnival toys Bunny (Jordan Peele) and Ducky (Keegan-Michael Key), motorcycle daredevil Duke Kaboom (Keanu Reeves), and Giggle McDimples (Ally Maki). Gabby Gabby is ostensibly the villain of the film, especially when she calls in a troupe of ventriloquist dummies to protect her, but she comes with a heartbreaking backstory that makes her feel less than evil.

Unsurprisingly, the film’s animation is absolutely gorgeous. While the core characters are still recognizable from their debut in 1995, the advance in the amount of detail the animators can now show on them and the world in general is staggering. There are many times where, with a little suspension of disbelief, the film could plausibly be passed off as live action, especially when it comes to things like water and hair.

Now, the bittersweet feeling comes with knowing — absolutely this time — that it will be the final experience watching and listening to these iconic characters. For the past 25 years, they have set a standard that most other films can’t match. They will live on in the hearts of children and the young at heart, but the tears that come at the end aren’t merely because of the stellar storytelling.

It may not have truly needed to be made, but Toy Story 4 is just as good as any of the other films in the series and proves once again that Pixar is the undisputed master in the animation field.

Buzz Lightyear, Bunny, Ducky, Woody, Giggle McDimples, and Bo Peep in Toy Story 4.

Buzz Lightyear, Bunny, Ducky, Woody, and Bo Peep in Toy Story 4

Photo courtesy of Walt Disney Studios

Buzz Lightyear, Bunny, Ducky, Woody, Giggle McDimples, and Bo Peep in Toy Story 4.

Movie Review

Meta-comedy remake Anaconda coils itself into an unfunny mess

Jack Black and Paul Rudd in Anaconda

Photo by Matt Grace

Jack Black and Paul Rudd in Anaconda.

In Hollywood’s never-ending quest to take advantage of existing intellectual property, seemingly no older movie is off limits, even if the original was not well-regarded. That’s certainly the case with 1997’s Anaconda, which is best known for being a lesser entry on the filmography of Ice Cube and Jennifer Lopez, as well as some horrendous accent work by Jon Voight.

The idea behind the new meta-sequel Anaconda is arguably a good one. Four friends — Doug (Jack Black), Griff (Paul Rudd), Claire (Thandiwe Newton), and Kenny (Steve Zahn) — who made homemade movies when they were teenagers decide to remake Anaconda on a shoestring budget. Egged on by Griff, an actor who can’t catch a break, the four of them pull together enough money to fly down to Brazil, hire a boat, and film a script written by Doug.

Naturally, almost nothing goes as planned in the Amazon, including losing their trained snake and running headlong into a criminal enterprise. Soon enough, everything else takes second place to the presence of a giant anaconda that is stalking them and anyone else who crosses its path.

Written and directed by Tom Gormican, with help from co-writer Kevin Etten, the film is designed to be an outrageous comedy peppered with laugh-out-loud moments that cover up the fact that there’s really no story. That would be all well and good … if anything the film had to offer was truly funny. Only a few scenes elicit any honest laughter, and so instead the audience is fed half-baked jokes, a story with no focus, and actors who ham it up to get any kind of reaction.

The biggest problem is that the meta-ness of the film goes too far. None of the core four characters possess any interesting traits, and their blandness is transferred over to the actors playing them. And so even as they face some harrowing situations or ones that could be funny, it’s difficult to care about anything they do since the filmmakers never make the basic effort of making the audience care about them.

It’s weird to say in a movie called Anaconda, but it becomes much too focused on the snake in the second half of the film. If the goal is to be a straight-up comedy, then everything up to and including the snake attacks should be serving that objective. But most of the time the attacks are either random or moments when the characters are already scared, and so any humor that could be mined all but disappears.

Black and Rudd are comedy all-stars who can typically be counted on to elevate even subpar material. That’s not the case here, as each only scores on a few occasions, with Black’s physicality being the funniest thing in the movie. Newton is not a good fit with this type of movie, and she isn’t done any favors by some seriously bad wigs. Zahn used to be the go-to guy for funny sidekicks, but he brings little to the table in this role.

Any attempt at rebooting/remaking an old piece of IP should make a concerted effort to differentiate itself from the original, and in that way, the new Anaconda succeeds. Unfortunately, that’s its only success, as the filmmakers can never find the right balance to turn it into the bawdy comedy they seemed to want.

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Anaconda is now playing in theaters.

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