With “Toy Story 4,” “Child’s Play,” “Men in Black: International” and “Dark Phoenix,” June has been surprisingly full of new entries in old franchises — all of those movies are part of movie franchises that began in 2000 or earlier. Even by the sequel-heavy standards of summer, that’s pretty crazy!
And while “Dark Phoenix” and the new “Men in Black” have been major disappointments at the box office, “Toy Story 4” didn’t suffer quite so dramatic a fate. What’s craziest about that fact is that “Toy Story” is the oldest of those three franchises, having kicked off with the original film back in 1995 — two years before the first “Men in Black” and five years before the first “X-Men” movie.
And it also has had the longest hiatus of the trio, keeping fans waiting for this particular film for nine years since the release of “Toy Story 3.” So the big question is, does this long awaited, hugely anticipated new “Toy Story” film contain any scenes during or after the closing credits that you should stick around for?
The answer is yes! Don’t move a muscle. Of course it’s always worth sticking around if you can as a symbolic tribute to all the people who worked on the movie, but “Toy Story 4” has several mid-credits scenes and one quick post-credits moment for everyone who does. There’s a joke at the very, very end before the lights come up, but after a pair of In Memoriam tributes that, if you enjoyed the movie you just saw, you’ll want to see.
But if you have to get out of there and missed the fun stuff to come, here’s what you’re missing.
(In case it isn’t clear, this is where the spoilers begin. If you don’t want to know about the mid- or post-credits scenes on “Toy Story 4,” you should get out of here now.)
(You have been warned.)
The first scene starts up fairly quickly after the credits begin to roll. Ducky and Bunny (Jordan Peele and Keegan-Michael Key) along with Woody (Tom Hanks) and Bo Peep (Annie Potts) have rigged one of the carnival games so that every child who approaches can win one of the toys strapped to the wall of the game. Their rescue mission continues until all the toys have been claimed by the end of the night, leading the clueless teenage carnie who spent the whole film obliviously buried under his headphones to look up in surprise and horror to see the entire wall of prize toys gone.
Ducky and Bunny then get another last laugh as they play out another version of their “plush rush,” as seen earlier in the film. This time, they leap out and attack the carnival employees before transforming into giant, kaiju-like monsters shooting lasers out of their eyes and destroying everything in their wake. It’s all part of their imagination of course. But in a great Easter egg moment, Keanu Reeves’s character Duke Kaboom asks if they can really shoot lasers out of their eyes, and Reeves gets to utter his signature catch phrase, “Whoa.”
The next scene takes us back to Bonnie’s room, with her now entering into the 1st Grade. And on her first day of school, she’s “made” yet another friend, this time a girl utensil named Knifey that has also been brought to life as a toy. Forky is immediately in love, and he’s prepared to answer all of her questions.
“Why am I alive,” she asks, as one does when you’ve just become sentient. “I don’t know,” Forky shouts in a panic.
Then the credits roll quietly for a while, and they conclude with quick tributes to both Don Rickles, who previously voiced Mr. Potato Head and died at age 90 in April 2017, and Adam Burke, who died Oct. 8 last year and was an animator on “Toy Story 3,” “Cars 2” and “Incredibles 2” most recently.
But at the very end, as the Pixar logo comes on screen, Duke Kaboom has replaced Luxo Jr., the Pixar bouncing lamp, to crush the Pixar “I” beneath him. And as he does, who’s there but Combat Carl (Carl Weathers) waiting yet again for a high five. Combat Carl’s multiple snubs earlier in the film are some of “Toy Story 4’s” biggest laugh moments. And we’re happy to report that at the end of the day, Canada’s greatest daredevil didn’t leave this Combat Carl hanging.
There you have it. Now all you have to do is wipe those happy sad tears you still have on your cheek and wonder if we’ll get a fifth “Toy Story” film in another decade.