When Disney/Pixar announced Toy Story 4 was moving into production, it felt like the world collectively rolled its eyes. After all, the general consensus was that the Toy Story series ended perfectly with the Oscar-winning Toy Story 3. Was there another story left to tell in the saga of Sheriff Woody and Buzz Lightyear?
Turns out, there was.
The key to returning to the Toy Story franchise resided within the character of Bo Beep (again voiced by Annie Potts). Bo was somewhat mysteriously excluded from Toy Story 3. Bringing her back into the fold with Toy Story 4 helped close Woody’s – and in turn the series’ – character arc. Plus, it gave the series a needed influx of a female-driven narrative. Bo Peep returned a changed toy, seemingly modeled as a road warrior in the wild akin to The Terminator‘s Linda Hamilton. Audiences and critics reacted in kind, giving the series the kind of acclaim that wouldn’t detract from the storied legacy of its predecessors.
But can Bo Peep’s juiced narrative and Toy Story 4 actually win Pixar their 10th Oscar this year?
The 2020 Animated Feature race has emerged as an unexpectedly competitive race. Disney holds a strong share in the presumed final five films thanks to Toy Story 4 and fall entry Frozen II, which didn’t exactly wow critics but still managed to capture the attention of a worldwide audience. Surprisingly, Frozen II fared very well at this year’s Annie nominations, leading the pack with 8 bids compared to 6 bids for Toy Story 4. On the surface, the animation race appears mostly competitive between these two films.
However, several other strong contenders have their camps as well, including Laika’s beloved Missing Link, Dreamworks’s How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (presumably trying to avoid that threequel air by dropping the number), and a heavily buzzed French independent animated feature called I Lost My Body which is currently streaming on Netflix. This year, critics groups failed to single out one animated feature to award as they typically do. Most of the major contenders have received a “Best Animated Feature” prize thus far, illustrating the vast divide in the category.
However, apart from the strengthened Bo Peep, Toy Story 4 has an ace up its sleeve that could propel it to the winner’s circle. Tony Hale (Veep) joined the cast with a bizarre, left-of-center character called Forky. The by-product of an anxious child’s imagination, Forky provides a sense of newness to the film. He’s a darkish character, one that spends a small chunk of the film fleeing others and jumping into trash cans. He also provided one of 2019’s best memes (“I’M TRASH”) in the process.
The character helped build the theme of Toy Story 4 as he paired with Woody for a road trip. His unintended advice of “Know who you are” and “Learn to let go” moved the film to an emotional conclusion as Woody said a final farewell to the characters audiences had grown to love over the series. The introduction of Forky helped avoid a stale narrative and gave audiences a reason to return to the property after what we’d all considered the to be the final end in Toy Story 3.
Forky also helps keep Toy Story 4 fresh in voter’s mind thanks to Disney’s new Disney+ streaming service. Forky Asks a Question drops on a weekly basis and provides Forky’s perspectives on commonplace things like love, friendship, time, money, and cheese, among others. It’s the kind of cross-platform branding at which Disney excels and keeps the character imagery fresh in voters’ minds.
Pixar has received 9 Oscars for Best Animated Feature since the inception of the category in 2001. Ironically, the studio was not the first to win the Animated Feature Oscar – that honor went to Dreamworks and Shrek. Since then, the following Disney/Pixar films have received Oscar wins:
- Finding Nemo
- The Incredibles
- Ratatouille
- WALL-E
- Up
- Toy Story 3 (The first and only sequel to win an Animated Feature Oscar)
- Brave
- Inside Out
- Coco
Will Toy Story 4 add to their haul and make it number 10? Or will that have to wait until next year’s Soul?
I’m sure it will. Academy members vote for anything Pixar by default. Good or not-so-good.
“Surprisingly, Frozen II fared very well at this year’s Annie nominations, leading the pack with 8 bids compared to 6 bids for Toy Story 4.”
Ahh, the Annies. Remember when Kung Fu Panda swept, leaving Wall-E with the scraps?
Sure It could win, but they may go with the fantastic “I Lost My Body.” No kidding.
Toy Story 4 is in another level of storytelling compared to any of the mainstream contenders. Reviews don’t even compare. Missing Link is very good storytelling and visually great, although clearly inferior to most, if not all, Laika’s previous efforts. Plus: Disney, DreamWorks and any other major studio would NEVER get away with the Susan joke.
Klaus is a better film than any of the other mainstream contenders and the only movie I saw with terrific storytelling that could build a case versus Toy Story is I Lost My Body.
It’s serious wishful thinking on anyone’s part to foresee any “honoring the trilogy” sentiment towards HTTYD 3.
HTTYD 3’s has a 91% Tomatometer rating while TS4 has a 97% rating. On Metacritic, it’s HTTYD 3’s rating of 71 versus TS4’s rating of 84.
Also (and these are unadjusted figures), HTTYD 3 made just short of $519 million worldwide, nearly $100 million less than its predecessor. TS4? $1.071 billion, barely surpassing its predecessor’s $1.067 billion. (Compare that to 5 yrs. ago, when HTTYD 2 earned $615 million worldwide and eventual Oscar winner Big Hero 6 earned $656 million worldwide—a much closer competition.)
Finally, while TS4’s early summer release could slightly dampen its awards chances, how is that not utterly guaranteed for HTTYD 3 with its February release?
MONSTER’S INC should’ve definitely won over SHREK.
Half of those is arguably undeserved wins. This year, I’m fine if Toy Story 4 wins, it is sooo much better than Frozen 2 but it ain’t saying much. If I have a choice, I would give it to Buñuel in the Labyrinth of the Turtles.
In a perfect world, Toy Story 4 would be getting nominated for Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay.
It would be definitely deserving and a very solid choice but I am rooting for How To Train Your Dragon. Such a wonderful trilogy with barely any Oscar love so far so it would be a fitting end if it could win Best Animated Feature at last.
I still can’t get myself to predict it b/c so far the only sequel to win was also a Best Picture nominee (TS3) and that movie had a hell of a year with overwhelming praise and multiple nominations. And yet, the next viable contender is also a sequel, Frozen 2, and there’s plenty of parents fatigued with that franchise. Had Laika released Missing Link in Nov/Dec, I think they would finally give Laika a win. But it feels too out of sight out of mind at this point. Weird year for this race.
Don’t count out Missing Link. Yes, it was released earlier in 2019, but I live in LA and Laika has billboards everywhere promoting Missing Link….I can’t recall a animated feature campaign blitz like this in recent years. Academy voters are very aware of the film
Oh I know they have quite the campaign going. And that’s a good point. I just think other films in the race experienced more of a “moment” than Missing Link, which is something a campaign or money cant create. So that hampers it. Here in New York, Netflix has been on a FYC blitz for I Lost My Body and Klaus. You see many more ads for those than Toy Story 4. Yet despite the money thrown at it, I still don’t think voters will put in a Christmas film like Klaus.
Missing Link would still get the same reviews regardless of the release date. Inferior reviews than TS4 and to all Laika films but The Boxtrolls. Plus: it’s sitting in a very comfortable position not being a frontrunner. If it became one, the Susan joke would come back to hunt it. No major studio would get away with that.
I think so, because it’s a better film than Frozen 2 trying to give itself a mythology for the sake of an ongoing franchise without the benefit of more than a single memorable song.
If I’m being honest, I liked Frozen 2 more than the first one, granted I wasn’t a huge fan of the first one. At least the sequel tried, mostly successfully, to do something different with the Disney princess concept. I thought it was a thoroughly entertaining and utterly pleasant viewing experience even though you do have a point about the surprisingly forgettable soundtrack.
My vote would still go to How To Train Your Dragon though.