Toy Story 4: Pixar’s Paradoxical Outlier?!

[@PhulaTrox]

I felt Toy Story 4 was necessary because it shows that you don't have to be so blindly obsessed with making your kid happy no matter what. It shows that it's okay to live an autonomous life. Woody's purpose was over; he wasn't making Bonnie happy and was completely neglected, so he decided to live on his own to help other toys.

[@ZoomingInOn]

True, this makes it an excellent film on its own, but when compared with the rest of the series, it makes no sense that it would do a complete about-face on a theme they had further developed in each prior movie...

[@PhulaTrox]

I don't think it was a complete face-turn since it doesn't really contradict any of the previous messages. It touched on an area which wasn't explored, which is, the toys being sentient creatures who want lives of their own, while also expanding on Toy Story 3's theme of letting go and growing up, this time applied to Woody.

[@Lucky10279]

He didn't abandon Bonnie or his friends. Bonnie had already gotten bored with him and he was less needed as a leader for the other toys since Bonnie's other toys already had a leader (whose name escapes me). And it was only when Buzz told him that Bonnie would be ok that he was willing to go.