Toy Story 4 - June 21/2019

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by Deuce66, Nov 12, 2018.

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  1. GregM

    GregM The expanding man

    Location:
    Bay Area, CA
    The most obvious next arc is to (re)unite Woody with Andy's new family.
     
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  2. therockman

    therockman Senior Member In Memoriam

    I just got the 4k HDR Blu Ray.
     
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  3. twicks

    twicks Forum Resident

    Location:
    Detroit
    I told my kids I would bring home the Blu-Ray and they INSISTED I get the DVD "so it will match the others," LOL.
     
  4. questrider

    questrider Forum Resident

    Location:
    Middle, Nowhere
    That just means you have to buy the other three on blu-ray as well! :winkgrin:
     
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  5. I just caught this movie on a United flight yesterday. Not up to the same quality as the three earlier franchise outings -not even close. The lack of a strong, consistent, villain really weakened it for me. Sid, Stinky Pete and Lostsa Luv were far more effective antagonists for our friends IMO. Still, plenty of funny moments to enjoy, though I doubt I'll give it repeat viewings like I have done with the first 3.
     
  6. GregM

    GregM The expanding man

    Location:
    Bay Area, CA
    I got all four on 4k. Perhaps a marathon this weekend. So far we've only seen TS2 since I upgraded my screen to 4K in July, and that was the Blu-ray version.
     
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  7. Paul Saldana

    Paul Saldana jazz vinyl addict

    Location:
    SE USA (TN-GA-FL)
    I got to see this with my grandchildren yesterday. Certainly the best looking but the weakest plot of the four, but you can’t take your eyes off this while it’s playing.
     
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  8. GregM

    GregM The expanding man

    Location:
    Bay Area, CA
    Ok, we had our TS marathon Friday evening through Saturday morning with a night of sleep intermission, and I've now seen the series on 4k. As someone suggested previously, TS1 was the biggest revelation in terms of an improvement in video and audio. I was not prepared for all the textures and patterns as well as seemless gradations in color and black level that emerged in 4k, which were not visible before. These details improved slightly in each sequel but TS4 raised the bar significantly. The characters maintained their look-and-feel, but the backgrounds were photorealistic. Amazing what Pixar is doing these days. TS4 is really entertaining but I am still freaked out by the ending that was a 180 from everything that came before.
     
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  9. twicks

    twicks Forum Resident

    Location:
    Detroit
    Yeah, my youngest kinda flipped out at a certain sheriff's decision.
     
  10. The Hud

    The Hud Breath of the Kingdom, Tears of the Wild

    I think Toy Story 4 is my favorite of the series, but I need to watch 3 again to be sure.
     
  11. Chris DeVoe

    Chris DeVoe RIP Vickie Mapes Williams (aka Equipoise)

    They probably took the original animation and models and re-textured everything and re-rendered the whole film in 4K in the current version of RenderMan. The technology has improved so dramatically since it first came out that there was no way they couldn't without it looking terrible compared to the sequels.

    I did a quick search, and apparently they re-rendered Toy Story for the first BluRay release. Apparently, the very first theatrical release was only 720P.

    Most of the articles on re-rendering Toy Story have disappeared, but here is a pretty good one on remaking Finding Nemo in 3D.

    Why Converting Pixar Movies to 3D Is No Easy Feat - Tested.com
     
    Last edited: Oct 13, 2019
  12. GregM

    GregM The expanding man

    Location:
    Bay Area, CA
    I believe they may have done more than that. It was a totally different viewing experience. I had Toy Story on blu-ray but the textures/layering is far more advanced on the 4D version and there appear to be enhanced backgrounds.
     
  13. Chris DeVoe

    Chris DeVoe RIP Vickie Mapes Williams (aka Equipoise)

    They may well have substituted the Toy Story 4 version of the characters. There are so many people who work on a huge animated film that different departments work on more complex or more simple versions of the characters depending on their needs. Same thing with sets, props, foliage. The texture files needed for a 720P version are dramatically lower than the ones needed for a 4K one. And since the original Toy Story came out, they have moved from simple scanned texture files to algorithm "shaders" - small programs that create all the aspects of a surface. Like Woody's shirt was probably a texture map in the original, just wrapped over the polygons making up his chest and arms, but it a shader now that mathematically describes the color, weave, opacity, and every other element of the cloth making it up. Same thing for trees, which were probably just texture and opacity maps on simple polygons on the original, but are generated by an algorithm now.

    Sorry, I used to do this stuff for a living back in the 90s.
     
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  14. Chris DeVoe

    Chris DeVoe RIP Vickie Mapes Williams (aka Equipoise)

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  15. Kyle B

    Kyle B Forum Resident

    Location:
    Chicago
    The first three movies are a trilogy. The fourth is more like a coda. I heard people complaining that Bonnie didn’t keep her promise to Andy, but she’s a little kid - it was realistic that she didn’t.

    As for Woody deciding to put himself first for a change - again, realistic and sometimes necessary. I didn’t like that the villain didn’t get her comeuppance, though. She kidnapped people and operated on Woody against his will. I think she deserved something other than happiness. I also wish the other toys had bigger parts, and the goodbye scene at the end hadn’t been so rushed.

    Oh well, fun movie, but not up to the standards of the other three.
     
  16. GregM

    GregM The expanding man

    Location:
    Bay Area, CA
    I would agree the first three are like a trilogy where Andy reaches adulthood. But rather than think of the 4th as like a coda, I may characterize it more like the first of a new trilogy that may have to satisfy a new generation of kids as well as a bunch of "grown up" kids who enjoyed the first trilogy. I think what will happen is Woody will go off on adventures that test the thesis hammered in the initial three movies that you can never abandon your kid. I'm predicting by the end of this new trilogy, Woody and the other toys will end up with Andy's child/children and we will have the thesis reestablished with much tugging on the heartstrings. This is the only way the ending of TS4 makes any sense to me. But I have a horrible track record at predicting these things.

    My understanding of the first three films, and the reason I thought they worked so well for children and adults too, is that the toys were given the voice of parents (in general). They broadly expressed the same concerns as parents, i.e., worrying about the child's welfare, being there for the child, and no longer being needed by the child as he grew up. So it does not seem realistic or necessary for Woody, who had previously been the voice of a parent, to then put himself first. Even if the child didn't need him, he was still her toy and by the thesis laid out in all the prequels he should not abandon her even if he was not being played with. For example, he wasn't being played with throughout TS4 and yet found an extremely important way to be there for Bonnie by correctly identifying Forky as the key to Bonnie's happiness entering kindergarten and making sure Forky was there for Bonnie.[/quote]

    Agreed, but I liked that rather than some kind of revenge against the villain, Woody was able to act selfless toward her and give her the voicebox. An inner voice was a consistent theme in TS4 and I thought a nice evolution from the previous three. I often talk to my kid about listening to that inner voice/conscience. So there is a lot going on with that act of selflessness. In TS3, if you remember, Woody acted selfless toward Lotso the bear by rescuing him from being diced up in the garbage conveyor. Lotso then didn't return the favor and ended up fastened to the grille of a truck to spend the rest of his existence going on garbage routes. It's a much more positive message if the villain can be rehabilitated into a more productive arc.
     
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  17. Chris DeVoe

    Chris DeVoe RIP Vickie Mapes Williams (aka Equipoise)

    One other thing mentioned in a couple of the articles is that computer speed has increased so dramatically since the original Toy Story was released that they could render the original in real time now.
     
  18. Chris C

    Chris C Music was my first love and it will be my last!

    Location:
    Ohio
    I finally got to see "4" yesterday at home and alone. This movie was visually amazing and I can't thank the folks at Pixar enough for always making me end up in a river of tears. It's a damned animated picture, but I can still feel Tom Hanks and Tim Allen saying their lines, as if they are on the screen. After I watched it, I immediately jumped to the commentary with the director and producer of the film, where I just knew that they were going to comment on just how emotional (watching them in real life), read their final lines of this picture. I know that it had me in tears!

    I loved my childhood and I often played alone with my toys, especially my old matchbox car collection, which I still have most of today. It's funny just how emotional this movie can make me, but I can't get my wife or my best friend to watch it and I know that they had nice childhoods as well. I so want to share this movie with them, but I know that they just won't waste their time with it. To me, it's almost like the folks at Pixar are paid to go to work and just make magic and they do it so well. They care about the details to a level of crazy, but I'm so glad that they do it and so well. Add in Randy Newman's score, which is far from his best, but still inspired. It's not like while Pixar was making this one, did it seem that they cut corners, because to me, if anything, they went above and beyond for the fans. I hope the kids enjoy it, but these 4 movies are really for us older adults, just as Bugs Bunny, The Flintstones and The Jetsons were.

    And one last thing, make sure to stay throughout the closing credits, as it will pay off in spades!
     
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  19. budwhite

    budwhite Climb the mountains and get their good tidings.

    Location:
    Götaland, Sverige
    It was ok, not great, not horrible. It had a weird vibe that I didn't much care for.
    And I didn’t like that all the backgrounds looked photo realistic. Took away the movie animation magic for me.
     
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