This will be a full spoilers write up. I'd suggest just watching the movie instead of reading my thoughts.
Toy Story 4 is a 2019 computer animated movie by Disney/Pixar. Unless you just got out of a long prison sentence or just entered the modern world somehow you really don't need an introduction to the Toy Story franchise. Toy Story 3 came out in 2010 and seemed to mark the end of the franchise with the separation of the Toys from Andy and the general tone of finality that suffused the ending. So when the fourth entry to the series was announced I almost balked. All that overly sentimental closure they packed into the last twenty minutes of three meant nothing. Childhood ruined and all that. Of course, that didn't stop me from watching it. Can't be properly outraged at the existence of a thing that you didn't watch.
Synopsis
Toy Story 4 begins with a flash back that reveals Bo Peep's departure from Andy's house hold. It's a sad affair that Woody tries to prevent but is talked down from by Bo Peep herself. As she points out, "kids lose their toys everyday" and she's not Andy's toy anyway. Woody accepts that Bo Peep's time has come and she leaves in a box going to some new home.
The movie jumps forward to the present where Woody, Buzz, and the rest are all the toys of Bonnie. Woody, a recovering control freak, is often passed over for playtime by Bonnie who seems to prefer Jessie the yodeling cow girl for the roll of sheriff. After three movies worth of personal growth he's managing to take this in stride but it still hurts to be not number one or even number two but somewhere in the teens. Despite this (or perhaps because of it) Woody is very invested in keeping Bonnie as happy as possible. On the first day of kindergarten this manifests with him stowing away in her backpack to make sure that she's not lonely on the first day at school. This is in direct contradiction to the rules of the kindergarten, her parents express wishes, and the will of the other toys but ... hey, at least he's being proactive. At kindergarten, Bonnie experiences social anxiety which prompts Woody to grab some arts and craft supplies out of the trash and toss them in front of her. She crafts a new toy out of a spork, pipe cleaner, googly eyes, chewed gum, and a tongue depressor. She takes her creation back home, stuffing it in the back pack with Woody, without ever realizing he was there. Woody is congratulating himself on a job well done when the spork toy comes to life.
Bonnie tosses her backpack in the room leaving Woody to explain his actions to the rest of the toys. Woody deflects the conversation away from his stowaway status to explain that Bonnie made a new friend. Forky's introduction goes poorly. Turns out that toys created from trash consider themselves trash and Forky's one overriding impulse is to get into a waste receptacle. Woody spends the next several days repeatedly removing Forky from the waste paper basket. This pattern continues as Bonnie's family goes on a road trip in an RV; culminating in Forky jumping out of the rear window while they're in motion. Woody follows him out, catches him, and the two begin the all night hike to the RV park. They have a heart to heart on the way back and Woody asks why Forky wants to be trash to which he responds that it's warm and comforting. Woody explains that this is how Bonnie feels about her toys and Forky realizes that he wants to be a toy.
They make it to the small town where Bonnie is located but right before getting to the RV park Woody spots a familiar lamp in a window display. Gasp! It's Bo Peep's Lamp sans Bo and her sheep. Woody detours to find Bo with Forky in tow but alas she's not there. Unfortunately, a doll named Gabby Gabby and her collection of mute ventriloquist dummy goons are. Gabby was manufactured with a defective pull string voice box; the exact same kind as Woody has in fact. Gabby sicks her dummies on them in a attempt to get the voice box but Woody escapes in the arms of the store owners grand daughter. Forky does not. She takes Woody to the park across the street where he discovers a community of free range toys living there; Bo Peep and her sheep among them. After the reunion, Woody explains the situation and they begin to formulate a plan to get Forky back.
Meanwhile in the RV, Buzz and the rest are freaking out that Woody is still not back. Toy of action that he is, Buzz dramatically leaves to find Woody. This fails spectacularly and he ends up zip tied to a prize wall at a carnival game where he's accosted by a Bunny and Ducky doll joined at the hand. He's trapped on the prize wall while Woody and Bo begin operation retrieve Forky. After some time Buzz manages to free himself and incidentally Bunny-Ducky and they pursue him as he gets back to searching for Woody and Forky. He eventually spots Woody and they reunite on the roof of the antique shop. Woody, Buzz, Bo Peep, and the rest all begin planning Forky's rescue. This won't be easy since Gabby typically resides on a high shelf in a glass cabinet which requires a key. Complicating things is a toy hostile cat that stalks the store during the day.
To accomplish all of this they enlist the help of a Canadian motorcycle stunt man toy named Duke Caboom to pull off a huge jump to the cabinet. To make a long story short the plan almost goes off but Gabby is wise to the plot and thwarts it while still failing to capture Woody. The team makes a frenetic exit from the store with nothing gained and Woody insists that they go back and make another attempt. Nobody is with him and he blows up at Bo Peep's decision to give up. The whole team except Buzz leave in a huff while Woody heads back in. Woody confronts Gabby who makes an appeal to his fundamental belief in the nobility of toyhood and being played with. Swayed by her heartfelt plea and with no other option Woody consents to trading his voice box for Forky.
While all of this is going on, Bonnie's remaining toys have been doing everything in their power to postpone the RV's departure. They are about to leave when Buzz returns and asks for help in rescuing Woody and Forky from the shop. He not so subtly for a toy reminds Bonnie that she left her back pack at the shop and off the family goes to retrieve it. Woody recovers from having his voice box transplanted and Gabby revels in her now functioning pull string. Gabby is convinced that the store owner's grand daughter will now shower her with the affection so long denied her. True to her word she returns Forky to Woody and leaves to contrive the meeting of herself and her new child. Gabby gets the little girl's attention and at first it looks like her dreams are coming true. Alas it's not to be. When her grandmother offers her the doll she dismisses it and happily skips off alone. Woody and Forky witness this turn of events and Woody decides that he just can't let Gabby lose out on the pure joy of being a child's plaything. Woody instructs Forky to tell Buzz to get the RV to the carousel. Woody returns and promises an emotionally broken Gabby that there's a kid out there for her and also that kids name is probably Bonnie and would she like to join the Bonnie toy family. Gabby says yes. Bo Peep returns having decided that as much as she might not approve of Woody's obsessive behavior they're still friends and the three of them head off to the carnival.
Woody, Bo, Gabby, Duke Caboom, and Bunny/Ducky all make it to the carousel but while there waiting for the RV they spot a lost girl crying in the shadow of an attraction. Prompted by the others Gabby decides this girl needs a friend and gets the kids attention. Heartened by the appearance of a random doll she immediately sees and flags down a security guard who quickly returns her to her worried parents. While all of that's playing out, Buzz and the crew manage to get the RV to the carousel through a mixture of GPS impersonation and accelerator pedal jamming. This breaks several traffic laws and the resulting police attention on Bonnie's father who was in the driver seat gives Woody ample time to say goodbye to Bo Peep. As he's going back to the RV Buzz informs him that Bonnie will be okay without him. Woody, who obviously wants to stay with Bo, agrees and the whole crew comes up onto the roof to say goodbye to the pair. Woody gives Jessy his sheriff's badge and stays at the carnival as the toys and family drive away. Roll credits.
Themes
The first two Toy Story movies were very much about Woody and his values and neuroses. Toy Story 3 had some of that but it was more about escaping from an evil daycare. Toy Story 4 was a return to form in regard to being Woody centered. Forky's creation, preservation, and eventual reformation from self-identifying as trash to a toy is all because of Woody's fixation on keeping Bonnie happy despite her not really caring about him. Woody and Gabby's character arcs both have them obsessing over a kid who doesn't reciprocate their affection and the pain of rejection. In neither case do they receive the object of their desires but rather come to accept that it's a big world with a lot of kids to play with.
While Woody is the driving force in the plot he's not the only character undergoing change. Bo Peep has transformed from a secondary character love interest to a toy of action living in the wild without a specific kid. Her evolution mirrors and informs Woody's change over the course of the movie, just like Gabby's. Actually, Bo Peep and Gabby arguably represent two ends of a continuum. Bo Peep has become self reliant and lives in the outdoors with no particular kid to speak of while Gabby dwells in a dusty shop with a collection of mute servants while she pines away for one child in particular. A sort of rootlessness of the nomad contrasted with the wealthy recluse. The movie comes down on the side of dynamic freedom over comfortable yearning which comports with the whole franchises message that things change and so should we.
This movie is overstuffed. That's both a compliment and a criticism. Much of the movie has around three plot threads occurring concurrently which means that there's never a dull moment. It's also slightly overwhelming. There's no part of the movie where it lost me structurally or thematically but it's not as tight a product as the first or second Toy Story. It's also rather contrived in places but I'll forgive that in a children's movie. Lastly, while I wouldn't consider it side splitting, it will keep you laughing; especially the scenes with Bunny and Ducky.
Toy Story 4 is the end to the franchise that I want. The first movie united Buzz and Woody through the shared experience of being Andy's favorite toys. Four ends with them separating as Woody comes to realize that his place is with Bo Peep rather than forever trying to matter to Bonnie. The theme of embracing change rather than stewing in loss and resentment is perfectly encapsulated in this ending. I don't know if this is the end for the franchise but for me it's a good note to go out on.