By Joe Ribton

Toy Story 4 Spoiler Free Review

Buzz dies.

Just kidding, or am I? You’ll have to find out by going down to your local Odeon or – god forbid – Cineworld to enjoy the newest installment of the Toy Story cinematic universe. At the end of the last one Thanos cast a spell and sent all the toys back in time, leaving the audience begging for more as Woody and the gang woke up in feudal Japan. This mega “finale” wastes no time throwing us face-first into the cruel and unforgiving town of Osaka. Keanu Reeves has a star turn, potentially the best work of his career, as a retired shogun, who’s lust for blood as turned him into a sadistic demagog. Buzz is beheaded almost instantly, so that’s not even a spoiler really – it’s definitely not as shocking as THAT death at the end. Anyway, none of this is as bong-rippingly radical as where the director took Toy Story 4 next. The directorial decision to make Woody step into the matrix and confront the audience was 5D cinema at its peak. I’ve never questioned my sanity as much as when everyone in the cinema was told they’d dreamt all the former Toy Story films, we had dreamt that the toys could do all that stuff just as their fictional owners in the films had.

Wow, now I’ve got all that silliness out of my system, I would like to say that the new Toy Story is really rather good. I was obsessed as a kid, so much so that my mum made me a set of Buzz Lightyear wings out of cardboard and string and I would jump off of the sofa trying to fly. Needless to say, I was excited to a very biased degree for this film. It really didn’t let me down. I really love and admire good animation, and some of the things they can do now with light diffraction, computer generated bokeh and colour grading is just overwhelming beautiful. With each Toy Story film you witness the standard of the animation industry take another leap forward. I won’t spoil anything, but Keanu Reeves is really funny, the dialogue is very clever with a lot of depth, and the film doesn’t overstay its welcome. For a small fix of pop-culture nostalgia, please do take your family to see this film.