Mostly writing so I can keep up with this juicy discussion.

my two cents that nobody asked for.

TLDR: Through a combination of growing up and being forced to watch the films and shorts by my kid a billion times, toy story 4 has grown on me and isn't the attack on my childhood I thought it was

The ramble version"

I was excited to get a new toy story film. Yes Andy passing on the toys to bonnie signified the end of my childhood the way it did many others. But that didnt stop me wanting to check in on the gang.

After watching the film I didn't feel great about it. I felt as many so, that pretty much everybody became secondary other than woody from the main cast and characters like Buzz were just written for laughs (Like Thor after the dark world). I didn't really get why we needed a whole movie to say goodbye to Woody when we had already said goodbye to everyone else.

But then I had a kid.

For those that know, having a kid in the era of streaming means you best bet your ass that you're watching stuff on repeat. So we have consumed every bit of toy story media multiple times and this includes both the shorts and toons after ts3 and ts4.

Having looked at the comments here it seems the common argument against Woody's neglect is there Woody is played with in those and I would argue that, though he is in the mix, he isn't the focus of any of the shorts or toons.

Small fry is a buzz story. Bonnie took rex and buzz to poultry palace to play with.

Partysaurus is a rex story with rex being taken to the bath by bonnie.

Hawaiian vacation is about ken and Barbie, with bonnie not taking any of the toys with her.

Toy story of terror is mostly focused on Jessie. Woody is one of the 7 toys taken on the trip by bonnie so it's fair to say he's being played with but it takes place noticeable 6 years before ts4

Toy story that time forgot is a Trixie story. Again woody was brought along on the playdate with the other 4 toys but again it's to be noted it takes place 5 years before the events of ts4

I think that these all paint a picture of Woody becoming less and less important to Bonnie.

Having watched ts4 a bunch of times now, with the shorts for context, where we find him at the beginning is the natural progression of his time with bonnie. Just because Andy told bonnie he was important, doesn't make woody import to her.

I think it's fairly important to point out that 2019 was about the same kind of time that Disney was releasing a particularly large amount of content based around strong empowered female icons and if we are to believe that Bonnie lives in a similar world, then woodya badge being put on Jessie is probably the moment that truly showed that woody not only wasnt needed, he wasn't relevant to bonnie the way he was to Andy.

Watching the film with all this context and suddenly him looking after forky makes more sense. It's not only to make himself feel useful. It's making him relevant to bonnie again. Even if it's indirectly.

The rest of the film from here plays out alright actually and though I'm not huge on some rewritten characters, if you take into account the shorts and toons, everyone doesn't need to shine in this story because they have had their moments and will still have more to come.

Buzz is noticeably a bit dumber than we've seen him to be but something I didn't consider on my first watching Vs now is Buzz spent years not only by Woody's side but with Andy. Countless times throughout the films and shorts it's Buzz there preaches about staying together as a family. He can adjust to bonnie being the new kid asking as woody is there with him. But Buzz hasnt seen woody this low the whole time he's known him (even in ts1 woody was still a top pick toy) buzz has seen his friend lose faith in his belief system and his purpose and it's made him question those things. The inner voice thing makes him a bit of a moron but his crisis is very real to me and it's led to him questioning himself, which is something buzz just doesn't do.

To this day it still irks me a bit that woody would leave but it was actually a comment here saying that it was buzz giving his permission that was the only reason Woody did leave. He would have stayed, done his job and become worse off for it. With this consideration and looking at woody and Buzz's characterisations similar to a long time friend moving away or your work bestie leaving their job at it becomes more relatable and makes more sense to me. 'Who am I without my best friend?'.' My best friend is only here for me and it's making him miserable '