2019 TOY STORY 4
hree stooges, four Gospels. Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, preferably with four horses attached. Nine lives per cat. Some statistics are set in stone, and admirers of the “Toy Story” franchise have spent years under the distinct impression that “Toy Story 3” (2010) marked the end of the affair. Nobody watching “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” (2003) envisaged a quiet coda, in which Frodo Baggins retrains as a chiropodist, and few of us, similarly, were banking on the revival of Woody, Buzz, and the gang. Yet here they are, in “Toy Story 4,” and here we go again. Cynics, hunting for a motive behind this fourth installment, will note that the first three films raked in nearly two billion dollars. (And that’s not counting the merchandisers who got to work, selling toys based on toys to toy collectors. Tough gig.) The promise of further raking must have been hard to resist. Narratologists will try a different tack, asking how conclusive the trilogy really was. Toys that