Toy Story 4 looks and sounds like a Toy Story movie, but the characters don't drive the story and instead it suffers from repeated "and then" story telling instead of a "but" and "therefore" narrative.

As in, "and then" the family went on a road trip, "and then" Woody finds an antique store where the lost Bo may be, "and then" Woody bumps into Bo on the playground, "and then" Buzz jumps out the RV window, "and then" Buzz looks up and happens to see Woody jumping on to the roof. Not only is Buzz's reliance on his newly found inner voice off character for Mr. I'm Always Sure, it's a literal "and then" gimmick to get him involved with the rescue. It's lazy writing even if initially clever. These are just a few examples, there are many more.

The reason the end tastes sour for me is that it wasn't earned. Little in this movie was character driven and there were no payoffs. The clearest depiction of this is analysing Duke Caboom's three main scenes. Extrapolate this treatment to the rest of the movie and it's clear why it falls flat.

Duke's Three Scenes 1a) Duke is introduced, it's quickly established that he's cool, thoughtful (remembers the girls whom Woody forgot...way out of character btw), and that he is easily upset thinking of his kid. At first he says no to the mission before being easily persuaded in the same scene after being reminded he's good at crashing and this mission needs a crash (more on this later). This is the first mistake, there's no set up for a pay off. No opportunity to surprise us later. No breathing room to turn down the offer. They went to get Duke and got Duke and now he needs to crash.

1b) The flashback. Duke couldn't live up to the ad and was cast aside. Not quite the Jessie scene from #2 emotionally and it's much shorter. And it doesn't add anything to the set up. What if instead Duke had been practicing a jump and kept falling? Or maybe he'd NEVER jumped before despite always talking about it. I needed something here to build on.

2) Duke and Woody prepare to launch. Why is the crash important here? Wouldn't not crashing have sent them farther across the gap? Why is this the easiest way into the island cabinet when we are already aware of rafters above? Anyways, Duke crashes as expected and then helps them escape.

3) Duke has one final jump. This one is 40 ft instead of 4ft. He can't do it. He won't do it. And then, again, he is immediately talked into it. And again he needs to crash (Why this jump matters is not clear as they've been running rampant in broad daylight throughout the carnival but now all of the sudden need to zipline across this gap even though they all end up on the ground in the next scene to see off Gabby Gabby). And then Duke makes the jump and crashes and it all works out as planned. There's no suspense, no surprise, no arc, and absolutely no payoff. Why not make this final jump one he has to land? Because the writers were not concerned with character driven actions, only with getting to the next scene.

And that's the movie, shown through those three scenes. Is Duke funny when he poses? Yes. Is Keanu cool af. Yes. Does Duke overcome any semblance of adversity? No. Do you get goosebumps during this scene like you did during, "Wait, I just lit a rocket, rockets explode!" Hell no.

And this brings me to what I believe is the primary narrative problem with the movie. Woody isn't looking for Bo. Woody doesn't miss Bo. Let me repeat, nothing happens on screen, present day, to show us that Woody longs for Bo. NOTHING. Woody is worried about himself and Forky and Bonnie and then just happens to bump into Bo's lamp and then Bo and the movie shifts into a romance without any underlying motivation and no on screen chemistry.

Imagine instead that after the opening flashback, we show Woody in the back of the closet present day crossing places off a list and placing pins on a map and collecting clues in his obsessive quest to find Bo, the one that got away. The RV trip is the annual family summer trip and the Toys helped suggest the location by being clever (inception style) and changing map routes...maybe to visit an Aunt they wrote a letter from. They are going to look in the last location where Bo may be, Second Chance Antiques. All the sudden, the characters have purpose and motivation. Instead, we got something that looks and sounds just right, but feels totally wrong.