As many of you know, I am a huge fan of the Toy Story series. I've been likened to Sid Phillips, Andy's crazy neighbour who mutilates toys, on many occasions!
The characters have played a huge part in the inspiration for my Abandoned Toys artwork. In fact, I first began customising toys shortly after the release of Toy Story 3.
Over the course of the movie series, the living toys have dealt with bigger and more complex emotional traumas. From Woody's fear of being replaced in the original movie to Jessie's breakdown in the sequel over the loss of her previous owner Emily who simply outgrew her. But it was all lighthearted fun until this point wasn't it?
Then Toy Story 3 came along and punched us all right in the feels...
This is the first time we saw our favourite characters actually face their own mortality. We saw the whole gang sliding towards a flaming oblivion holding hands and accepting their fate. Luckily they were rescued in the nick of time by our favourite little claw obsessed Pizza Planet aliens. But it does pose the question:
Can the toys actually die?
Once you start picking at this thread, you open a whole Pandora's Box of dilemmas within the Toy Story universe. Once you start to spot the darker undertones it's hard to stop seeing them!
Toy Story 4 only added to this with the introduction of Forky, Bonnie's new friend that she (literally) made at pre-school. Overwhelmed by his new found sentience, he spends half the movie having an existential crisis desperate to return to the trash where he feels he belongs. Pretty deep for a kids' movie right?
In the final scene of the movie we meet a new toy that Bonnie has made. A girlfriend for Forky made with a plastic knife. Right before a cut to black she asks the question we've all been desperate to know the answer to: "Why am I alive?".
It seems that throughout the whole movie the creators were avoiding this issue as they wrapped up Woody's storyline. But by giving this as a final note, I think it could lead onto a very interesting Toy Story 5!