Toy Story 4 4K Blu-ray Review

Toy Story 4 Summary

In “Toy Story 4,” Woody (voice of Tom Hanks) has always been confident about his place in the world, and that his priority is taking care of his kid, whether that’s Andy or Bonnie. So, when Bonnie’s beloved new craft-project-turned-toy Forky (voice of Tony Hale) calls himself “trash,” Woody decides to teach Forky how to embrace being a toy. But a road-trip adventure, including an unexpected reunion with his long-lost friend Bo Peep (voice of Annie Potts), shows Woody how big the world can be for a toy. In addition, carnival prizes Ducky (voice of Keegan-Michael Key) and Bunny (voice of Jordan Peele) bring a new level of fun to the film.

Toy Story 4 Movie Review

The Toy Story movies have been fantastic from the very start. I watched Toy Story 3 on an airplane for the first time and tried very hard to not let everyone around me see that I was tearing up near the end. I felt like they had no need to bring the group back to do another one, but in the end Toy Story 4 delivers another great story. Woody struggling to know what to do when he’s no longer wanted as he once was is easy to relate to, and my kids and I both enjoyed it the entire time. It isn’t quite as good as Toy Story 2 or 3, but it’s still one of the better films I’ve seen this year and completely worth owning.

Toy Story 4 Technical Review

Toy Story 4 is computer-animated and appears to be rendered at full 4K resolution, as that is what the digital cinema file indicates. As usual for Disney, there is no MaxCLL or MaxFALL data on the disc, and it appears to have been mastered using a Sony OLED BVM for HDR. The image here is flat out spectacular. This is the only movie I’ve seen in Dolby Cinema and it looked wonderful there, but it looks even better at home where the HDR highlights can truly pop. The opening thunderstorm scene shows that all that shadow detail is being preserved, but there are highlights that just pop against the background. In the antique store later, a clock with a golden face looks phenomenal when the sun hits it, and the ceiling with all the chandeliers glitters. I don’t have a single negative thing to say about how Toy Story 4 looks on disc and I’d highly recommend picking it up for the image quality alone. Despite showing in Dolby Cinema theaters, there is no Dolby Vision layer here.

The soundtrack here is Dolby Atmos and it doesn’t live up to the high standards set by the image. During that same opening thunderstorm I mentioned earlier, you hear the thunder but it doesn’t rattle the room as thunder should. Even with the volume turned up the movie just lacks the full dynamics that it could in certain scenes. The Atmos channels are used well during the film and provide good atmospheric effects, and the vocals are clear and easy to understand from the center channel. The soundtrack is fine but could have been so much more and matched reference-class audio with the video.

Toy Story 4 Special Features

• ‘Toy Stories – The Toy Story 4 cast and crew share their love of toys!
• Woody & Buzz – Take a look at the relationship between these two legendary characters.
• Bo Rebooted – Discover how Team Bo reimagined all aspects of Bo Peep’s identity to arrive at the fully realized character seen in the film.
• Toy Box – Enjoy a collection of mini-docs on the film’s memorable new characters, featuring the voice actors, director Josh Cooley and Pixar artists talking about the many elements that make these characters fun and lovable
• Let’s Ride With Ally Maki – Ally Maki, voice of Giggle McDimples, learns all about Pixar’s dialogue recording process from director Josh Cooley and his team.
• Deleted Scenes introduced by director Josh Cooley including:
• Scamming Playtime
• Bo Knows Hippos
• Desperate Toys
• Knock-Offs
• Recruit Duke
• She’s The One
• Audio Commentary
• Trailers

Toy Story 4 Review System

Sony A1E OLED, Panasonic UB820 UltraHD Blu-ray Player, KEF Ci5160RL-THX Fronts, Ci3160RL-THX Center, 2x Ci200RR-THX Surrounds, 4x CI200RR-THX Atmos Speakers, Anthem MRX 1120 Receiver, Power Sound Audio Subwoofer.