USA TODAY International Edition

‘Toy Story 4’ provides life lessons, Hanks says

- Brian Truitt

Spoiler alert! The following details the ending of “Toy Story 4.”

Woody, Buzz and their plastic pals add Forky to their gang in “Toy Story 4” (in theaters now), but by the end of the animated movie, they’re saying adios to an all-timer.

Much of the new film focuses on Woody’s (voiced by Tom Hanks) adventure to rescue Forky (Tony Hale) from the creepy-doll clutches of Gabby Gabby (Christina Hendricks) in a small-town antiques shop, and along the way, Woody re-teams with more-than-just-a-friend Bo Peep (Annie Potts), who now enjoys the freedom of living as a lost toy after she and the pull-string sheriff had their emotional goodbye nine years before.

An action-packed climax at a nearby carnival ends in a happy finale for everyone, even Gabby Gabby. Yet it doesn’t include Woody driving off with Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen) and all his friends who grew up with Andy (see: the previous three “Toy Story” films) and now are there for Bonnie in her formative years.

Instead, Woody decides to seek the path not yet taken – at least for him – and hit the road with a new bunch that includes Bo, mini-cop Giggle McDimples (Ally Maki) and carnival prizes Ducky (Keegan-Michael Key) and Bunny (Jordan Peele). Woody chooses his own happiness and being with Bo rather than going back to Bonnie’s toy box, and the end-credits scene – with Ducky and Bunny going crazy with giving out gifts to kids – hints that this group has a fun future ahead.

It’s “a huge change of perception” for Woody that’s “not about closing a door on some other way of living. He doesn’t become a monk or something like that,” Hanks tells USA TODAY. “He goes off and forms this other bond with the outside world based on him being a toy and it’s pretty profound.”

Buzz’s emotional line to his departing buddy – “Bonnie will be fine” – doesn’t just mean that she’ll be OK without the heroic cowboy, Hanks says. “He’s saying she’ll be fine because she has us, and the truth is Woody does not have the bond with Bonnie that he had with Andy. So Bonnie is not going to be broken as Andy would have been if this had happened long before.

“To be alive is to be in a constant state of change,” the Oscar-winning actor adds. “How can it be that these movies about toys actually do teach us about what it is to be human beings? It’s extraordin­ary and my hat is off to the Pixar Imagineers that make it happen.”

See TOY STORY 4, Page 5B

The “Toy Story 4” ending throws the franchise’s future up in the air, so Hanks gets wistful when talking about recording his last lines for the movie. The only experience he’s had remotely like it is the curtain call of a Broadway show’s final performanc­e.

“The thing is about plays, they disappear in the wink of an eye,” Hanks says. “They’re never seen again. They no longer exist at all except in the collective memory of the people who came and saw it.

“I have great-grandkids that have yet to be invented who will be saying, ‘Hey, that’s my great-grandfathe­r’s voice (in ‘Toy Story’).’ And it will last because they’re still watching ‘Snow White’ and they’re still listening to Jiminy Cricket sing the same songs, and the same will be for me. And that’s a big concept to try to grasp.”

 ??  ?? Buzz (Tim Allen), Bunny (Jordan Peele), Ducky (Keegan-Michael Key), Woody (Tom Hanks) and Bo Peep (Annie Potts) in “Toy Story 4.” PIXAR
Buzz (Tim Allen), Bunny (Jordan Peele), Ducky (Keegan-Michael Key), Woody (Tom Hanks) and Bo Peep (Annie Potts) in “Toy Story 4.” PIXAR
 ??  ?? Woody (voiced by Tom Hanks) rekindles his relationsh­ip with Bo Peep (Annie Potts) in “Toy Story 4.” PIXAR
Woody (voiced by Tom Hanks) rekindles his relationsh­ip with Bo Peep (Annie Potts) in “Toy Story 4.” PIXAR

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