Right Now: Get to Know the ‘Toy Story 4’ Voice Cast

Reading Time: 6 minutes

It’s hard to believe that Disney’s CGI-animated, multi-million dollar media franchise began nearly a quarter of a century ago. Toy Story came out in 1995—the same year Windows 95 was released, O.J. Simpson was aquitted, and the Bosnian War ended. To put a pop culture spin on it: Buzz Lightyear and Sheriff Woody’s original owner Andy is definitely older than 1995 babies Timothée Chalamet, Gigi Hadid and Troye Sivan.

We’re all familiar with the concept: All toys are actually alive, and high jinks ensue when their humans aren’t around. We followed the adventures of Andy’s toys while he was away at camp in Toy Story 2, and before he went off to college in Toy Story 3—which was also when he passed on his set of toys to new owner Bonnie.

What can we look forward to in this latest installment? Toy Story 4 is set a few years after the previous movie, following the toys with Bonnie and her family on a road trip. The film is slated for a theatrical release in the United States on June 21, 2019, in Dolby Cinema, IMAX 3D and RealD 3D. It is Josh Cooley’s feature film directorial debut, though he is no stranger to the genre, having worked on Inside Out, as well as writing and directing its short sequel Riley’s First Date.

Toy Story 4 features returning voice actors—including a posthumous performance by Don Rickles—as well as exciting additions to the beloved core cast. Before we get to the rundown of main characters and their voice actors, let’s take a quick look at the stacked supporting ensemble.

Rickles would have loved a chance to work with the quartet of comedy greats—Mel Brooks, Carol Burnett, Carl Reiner and Betty White—playing Bonnie’s old and forgotten toddler toys.

Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele—brimming with long-standing improv chemistry first seen as castmates on MADtv, and then as a pair on Key and Peele—play Ducky and Bunny, a pair of toys that appear in the film as carnival prizes.

Finally, we have 2019 media darling and all-round good guy Keanu Reeves playing Duke Caboom, a 1970s action figure with a tragic past that the toys meet in an antique store.

Sheriff Woody: Tom Hanks

Tom Hanks’ first foray into voice acting was a great one: pullstring cowboy action figure Woody, leader of Andy’s toys. Hanks played Woody just a year after his back to back Best Actor Oscar wins for his work in Philadelphia and Forrest Gump. Woody cemented Hanks’ wholesome and all-ages appeal, who remains one of the most bankable stars in Hollywood today.

Buzz Lightyear: Tim Allen

Most of us know Tim Allen as Tool Time host Tim Taylor in Home Improvement, or conservative Mike Baxter in Last Man Standing. He’s also the relatable Santa in the Santa Clause films. Allen is great at playing initially unlikable characters that grow on you, and Buzz Lightyear is no different. Introduced as Woody’s rival, Buzz eventually becomes Woody’s second-in-command.

Bo Peep: Annie Potts

Porcelain figurine Bo Peep did not appear in the main storyline of Toy Story 3, but returns as a significant component of Toy Story 4. Bo Peep is typical of Annie Potts’ work: a minor role done well, building up to a major impact. Consider some of her other memorable roles: Iona in Pretty in Pink, Janine in the Ghostbusters films, and Meemaw in TV’s Young Sheldon.

Tony Hale: Forky

Tony Hale is one of two newcomers playing a main role in the new Toy Story installment. He voices a toy created by Bonnie, made with googly eyes, a pipe cleaner, and a spork. Neurotic Forky can’t accept that he is a toy that comes to life—which sounds like a perfect role for Hale, best known on TV as Buster Bluth in Arrested Development and Gary Walsh in Veep.

Christina Hendricks: Gabby Gabby

Good Girls star and Mad Men alum Christina Hendricks previously voiced Unity in Rick and Morty and Sam Harper in the video game Need for Speed: The Run. She returns to voice acting in Toy Story 4 as main antagonist Gabby Gabby, a vintage 1950s doll. Gabby Gabby is the first female antagonist of the Toy Story franchise, but how villainous she really is remains to be seen.

Joan Cusack: Jessie

Jessie is not an original member of Andy’s toy gang led by Woody. The cowgirl doll joins them with great hesitation at the end of Toy Story 2, her feelings explained by arguably the best song to come out of the media franchise: Grammy award-winning “When She Loved Me.” Sarah McLachlan sings the ballad, but it is Joan Cusack that is tasked to portray emotionally damaged Jessie. Cusack is joined by A Series of Unfortunate Events co-star Hale in Toy Story 4.

Wallace Shawn: Rex

“Inconceivable!” is probably one of the most referenced movie lines from the 1980s, in part because of Wallace Shawn’s unforgettable Vizzini in classic fantasy rom-com Princess Bride. Talented as an actor on screen and off, Rex is not Shawn’s only animated role. He’s also in The Incredibles, A Goofy Movie, and more. Like Toy Story co-star Annie Potts, Shawn’s been with the franchise since the start, and is currently acting in TV’s Young Sheldon.

John Ratzenberger: Hamm

We all grew up watching John Ratzenberger on TV as Cliff in Cheers, but his career extends way beyond the sitcom. Even before his roles in animated films—Hamm in the Toy Story films, Mack in the Cars films, Yeti in the Monsters, Inc. films, the Underminer in The Incredibles films, and more—he played villain sidekick Rigger in iconic animated TV series Captain Planet and the Planeteers. Real world-savvy piggy bank Hamm is one of his most memorable characters.

Blake Clark: Slinky Dog

Blake Clark took over voicing Slink starting in Toy Story 3 after the original actor, Clark’s good friend Jim Varney—best known as fictional character Ernest P. Worrell—passed away in 2000. Before Clark ever uttered Slink’s catch phrase “Golly bob-howdy!” he was also incidentally Harry the Hardware Store Guy on Home Improvement with Toy Story series co-star Tim Allen.

Don Rickles: Mr. Potato Head

Hollywood legend Don Rickles was set to reprise sarcastic, fast-talking Mr. Potato Head in Toy Story 4, but passed away in 2017 before recording any lines. He appears posthumously in this fourth installment through the careful and meticulous use of his recordings for past Toy Story media—an idea brought to the filmmakers by Rickles’ family.

Estelle Harris: Mrs. Potato Head

It is impossible to mistake Estelle Harris for anyone else, on screen or not. Younger fans know her as Mrs. Potato Head from Toy Story 2 and 3—she doesn’t appear in the first one, only mentioned at the end as a Christmas present of Molly’s—and as Muriel on TV’s The Suite Life of Zack & Cody. Older fans will remember her best as her namesake character Estelle Costanza, George’s melodramatic Jewish mother, immortalized in reruns of Seinfeld.

June 12, 2019 0

Right Now: On Netflix & Spotify

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Photo by Charles 🇵🇭 on Unsplash

Natural discovery is dead; long live curated content. As a creator myself, I should be raging against the curation machines of our time—Netflix and Spotify, among others—but it’s hard to deny the creature comforts they provide.

My take? Connoisseurs may very well find choices on certain platforms to be limited, but I don’t really feel it. Call me a plebe, call my taste pedestrian—whatever. I’ve never been this relaxed about how and where to find a new album, playlist, film or series to put on.

So relaxed, in fact, that it’s turned into a crutch of sorts. I spend hours, sometimes whole days, just puttering about while a random playlist or TV show is on in the background. The silver lining: When I look up and recognize that what’s currently playing is something I like, nine times out of ten I really, really like it.

Netflix

Netflix, in particular, as all but swallowed me whole. I’m not happy about the cancellations they seem to be making left and right—they’re always shows that I like!—but there are still good options there. Maybe I’ll finally finish The OA or what’s left of Sense8 after this season of RuPaul’s Drag Race is over.

This is good news for All That I Love, because that translates to more stuff to write about. I’ll get to it all… eventually. Allow me some time to go easy on myself. I haven’t written for just myself in a very long time.

Spotify

As an aside: I know I’ve been avoiding doing music reviews. Have actually just recently gone back to listening to music recreationally (and enjoying it). AmplifyPH left me with low key PTSD for years, but I think I’m finally all better now.

My artist page on Spotify—don’t know if anyone remembers this, but I also happen to make music, lol—is, at last, updated. I’ve got a great system of automated playlist updating going on, too. And there’s music blasting from some corner of my apartment practically every day. Right now I’m obsessed with Kehlani and Flume.

Does that mean that music reviews are incoming? Maybe. But don’t hold your breath. I’m taking baby steps here! Let me work my way up to music critiques by talking about other forms of media first.

Requests?

If you are, for any reason, interested in my take on a specific song, mixtape, album, etc.—just let me know. I may make an effort and possibly take a big step for you.

March 28, 2019 0

Review: Bitten (TV Series 2014-2016)

Reading Time: 6 minutes

Spoilers ahead. If you care about that, don’t read until you’ve watched the series. You’ve been warned!

I’ll come right out and say it: This is my kind of trash TV. Second only to time travel with a touch of historical fiction, supernatural mishmash is my favorite flavor of drivel. With access to Netflix, it was only a matter of time before I finally bit (heh heh) the bullet.

See, that’s the thing about trash TV you love. You know that you could be watching, reading or doing something else more substantial and/or relevant, but instead you’re feeding your brain the equivalent of junk food. Not great in the long run, but in the moment? Bliss.

A note: I’m aware that Bitten is adapted from Kelley Armstrong’s Women of the OtherWorld fantasy book series. Typically, I don’t like reviewing adaptations without also checking out the source material… but honestly, the TV series didn’t inspire me enough to check the books out. So here we are.

What Do I Like About the TV Series Bitten?

Let’s get a few no brainers out of the way: Female protagonist and other “strong female characters”—check. Not cancelled without a resolution of the main arc—check. Great fight scenes with blood and gore—check.

I especially like the fact that fight scenes with Elena Michaels are just as dynamic, if not more so, than those without her in it. Actor Laura Vandervoort has a second degree black belt in shotokan karate, so that’s likely what drew me to the fight scenes. (My dad was third degree black belt in shotokan karate in his prime, so maybe I’m…. imprinting? I don’t know.)

Now for specifics that need a little bit of explaining—sadly, not much, but here we go.

Noah Danby as Zachary Cain

This actor’s agent must have the same taste in TV trash as I do, because he pops up in a surprising number of series that I’ve watched.

Danby’s had bit roles in Eureka, Warehouse 13, Hemlock Grove (another train wreck of a supernatural mishmash, but that’s a mess for another time) and Orphan Black. Most recently, he had a semi-important role as short-lived pack leader Russell in Shadowhunters; which I’m currently hate-watching.

The gag? Danby plays a tough werewolf in both Bitten and Shadowhunters. This is probably why he’s outstanding and memorable in both roles. Neither Zachary Cain nor Russell are integral to the respective plots of Bitten and Shadowhunters, but they’re characters I ended up really caring about.

Zachary Cain just wanted a family, Barbra. What a classic brawler with a heart of gold.

Steve Lund as Nick Sorrentino

In stories like this, there are usually two main male characters: Stefan and Damon in Vampire Diaries, Bill and Eric in True Blood, Roman and Peter in Hemlock Grove, Jace and Alec in Shadowhunters, etc. The point is provide a contrast, I suppose.

I don’t watch a trash TV series if none of the characters are eye candy. It’s already junk food, so why would I bother staying… for the plot? Anyway. With Bitten, I kept watching because of Nick Sorrentino—mostly because his red pants and ridiculously tight v-necks were less annoying than Clay Danvers’ perpetually flaring nostrils.

Usually, my eye candy is actually a female character (e.g. Elena Gilbert in Vampire Diaries, or Izzy Lightwood in Shadowhunters) but Nick was it for Bitten. What a sweetheart! Guess it also helped that he lost his dad in the first season, and I watched the series right after my dad died. Again: Maybe some strange imprinting happened.

What Don’t I Like About the TV Series Bitten?

Where to start? Again, let’s state the obvious: Paint-by-numbers character development, both for main and side roles—check. A painful lack of casting diversity, with the only main POC character killed off mid-series—check. Annoying decisions by characters that don’t make sense given their personalities and knowledge—check.

Now for the specifics, and Universe have mercy, but there’s a lot to unpack.

Excessive Sex Scenes

Look, I’m not a prude. And I understand that this is a werewolf-centric story, and that entails showing a significant amount of nudity. I’m all about that. Werewolf transformations were in the nude and that scores high for me.

But the sex scenes just got tiring after a while. And again, I understand that I’m not the target audience. Not only am I not a horny fanfic-writing teenager, but I’m also asexual.

This isn’t uncommon at all; True Blood is probably the most mainstream example of this phenomenon. Sex sells, and it: Humanizes the inhuman? Makes for a great interlude? Fills in a few minutes when there’s not enough plot to work with? Take your pick.

If it’s not to further the plot, what’s the point of a sex scene? Elena and Clay are in love—we get it. I do appreciate that they showed one scene where Nick sleeps with a random girl to gain access to her workplace, but that was just one time out of many. Even Outlander isn’t this obvious about it, and that series is just time travel smut, let’s admit it.

Elena Michaels as the Only Female Werewolf

This is a huge spoiler, but if you’ve read this far, it probably doesn’t matter to you: In the show’s lore, it’s explained that Elena Michaels is able to survive the First Change after being bitten only because her birth father is a werewolf—and her mother is the daughter of one, too.

To recap: Werewolves have been a boys club for centuries because this particular situation has never happened before in the history of this fictional universe. There is no law or rule barring werewolves from having daughters. There is no law or rule barring werewolves from mating with daughters of werewolves. But somehow, Elena Michaels is the first and only one of her kind. What?

I hate plot devices like this. If you’re going to have a character with a certain je ne sais quoi that makes them special enough to be the protagonist, the back story better be amazing. This just feels like a cop out.

The Russian Albino, & Then Some

What a wasted opportunity. This character was everything. Again, huge spoiler: The Albino is actually a set of twins, heartless mercenaries with the same scent.

We didn’t get a proper back story, hardly any on-screen interaction between the twins, and for such a horrific Big Bad, their respective downfalls were both quite disappointing.

Instead of the stupid side plot with Katia kidnapping Rocco and Rachel coming into her powers, why couldn’t we have had a flashback episode set in Russia with the origin story of the Albino? How did he come to be? Why go full on The Prestige and live as one person?

Actually: Never mind Elena Michaels and the North American pack. Why not just focus on the Russian pack? Wolves hunted for sport by the Russian government for 5,000 rubles each, saved from extinction by a traditional, mafia-like, district-driven national pack structure? Come on.

Elena’s Final Solution

I was legit yelling at the screen as I watched the series finale. What the hell did I just watch?

Don’t get me wrong. Sure, let’s get on board the whole werewolf reveal. But to assume that the Russian pack will instantly leave the North American pack alone the moment the news gets out is ridiculous. That’s short-sighted and honestly unbelievable.

Also: Canada granting sanctuary to werewolves mere months after the reveal? Sure, buddy. 100% if this happened in real life the process would be a whole lot different. Elena and Clay able to live their lives peacefully still in Bear Valley after StoneHaven burned down? How could they have managed that?

Not to mention the actual scene of the reveal. What happens to Paige, who so conspicuously accompanied Sasha to the press conference? Does she get detained? Are witches revealed to the world, as well? What happens to Sasha’s body? Does he get a decent burial or is his body turned over to a lab to be poked and prodded? We may never find out.

Unless we read the books, I guess. And eh, I’ll pass.

Bottom Line: Would I Recommend the TV Series Bitten?

In a word: No.

This is a series I binged while still grieving my dad’s recent death, and that’s probably the only reason I didn’t drop it. The predictability was mind numbing, and as with most trash TV, it’s not the best. It’s not even the best compared to others in the same genre—although, to be fair, it’s not the worst. Let’s place this somewhere above Hemlock Grove and somewhere below Shadowhunters—for now.

The one bright spot that manages to shine past the drab denouement of Bitten is the fact that we got a TV series with werewolves and without vampires. Don’t know how common that is because werewolves aren’t my favorite cryptid, so I don’t specifically seek out werewolf fiction. But wow, am I tired of vampires. Whew. At least Bitten gave me a short respite in the middle of finishing the last season of Shadowhunters.

March 23, 2019 0

Recollection: “Sleep Walk” by Santo & Johnny (1959)

cover art of Santo & Johnny's Sleep Walk LP

Reading Time: 6 minutes

Has a song ever aggressively reminded you of itself?

Sometimes I’ll be working on something and a melody I’ve not heard in years will suddenly be the only thing I can think of—the only thing I can hum or whistle or outright sing. There’s a term for this: Last Song Syndrome (LSS). I believe LSS is rarely random. There is a pattern.

My mind palace is a rail network, and the stations are all the different things I love. When a stray song happens to occupy space in me, I believe it’s brought there via my oddball and often subconscious trains of thought.

How does that work? Let me take you on a guided tour.

“Sleep Walk” by Santo & Johnny (1959)

The final stop the last time I took a ride was “Sleep Walk” by Santo & Johnny—but where was the first stop? When did my subconscious decide to step into the rail car and just go with it? I need to know how it happened. The song is stuck here now and it isn’t going anywhere until I find out why it straight up just walked back into my life.

Don’t mind me, just here with two and a half minutes of Santo & Johnny on loop while I try to retrace the path of this crazy train I call my brain. ~~Insert~~ This is so sad Alexa play “Sleep Walk” ~~here to appear to understand the Tumblr meme.~~

Where do we go from the finish line? Simple: We’ll work our way back to the beginning, step by step.

La Bamba (1987)

There’s no way I didn’t remember “Sleep Walk” directly from thinking about the final scene of La Bamba.

This was always destined to be a household classic: One of those movies any family member would leave on if they flipped to HBO or Cinemax and it was playing, even if was over 30 minutes in. As audiovisual consumers we all loved camp and drama, and the historical slant and music only made it better.

You know what made that final scene so memorable? When the mother screams in anguish: “Not my Ritchie! NOT MY RITCHIE, BOB!”

Watching this as a young child was confusing yet comforting. Perhaps it had to do with my brother being named Richie and my dad being named Bob! Here was a mother figure, feeling her feelings to this gorgeous instrumental, calling out to the men in her life using the names of the men in my life.

To this day, the imprint remains. I don’t know how to handle grief and I’m very loud and messy when I cry. And when “Sleep Walk” comes on, I feel my heart ache a familiar ache.

Sleepwalkers (1992)

What is it about “Sleep Walk” that makes it great background music for the way mothers feel about their sons?

Like La Bamba, Sleepwalkers made the song part of its soundtrack. It’s even used in the Sleepwalkers trailer. This movie reminded me of La Bamba—and putting the two films together in one thought birthed the LSS.

The title of this film alone should be enough to make it the penultimate stop of my crazy train leading to “Sleep Walk”, but there’s just too much going on here.

All three main Sleepwalkers characters are played by actors I encountered again in other things I love:

Brian Krause plays Charles. He’s also Leo in Charmed.
Mädchen Amick plays Tanya. She’s also Shelly in Twin Peaks.
Alice Krige plays Mary. She’s also the Borg Queen in Star Trek: First Contact.

Throw in the Stephen King writing credit plus the fact that the same neighborhood set was used for The ‘Burbs (1989) and it’s easy to see how Sleepwalkers became one of my Essentials.

Connections like these are important considerations in the grand design of my mind palace. Watch this film with the knowledge that it is important to me and you will get a better understanding of why I love the things I love.

The best part? This film is so bad it’s good—a.k.a. the perfect kind of bad. I love horror in all its forms, but so bad it’s good is a particular favorite.

Twin Peaks (1990-1991)

This one’s a gimme. I already pointed out the connection: Mädchen Amick.

A little section within a piece about a song I love is definitely not enough space to cover how much Twin Peaks has influenced my creative output—so I’ll focus on Amick instead. She’s the real waypoint here.

Even with a career that’s rarely gone the way my tastes lie, Amick has popped up in media that I love—or try to love—from time to time. Also: She’s gorg. No escaping this simple fact! She was with Sherilyn Fenn and Lara Flynn Boyle in this series and I still couldn’t take my eyes off her.

When people reference the diner waitress as a character archetype, Amick’s Shelly Johnson is what I think of. ~~Move over, Baby Driver.~~

In addition to being in Sleepwalkers and Twin Peaks, a bit role on Star Trek: the Next Generation was her first TV appearance. She’s also appeared in one episode of White Collar—exactly the kind of trash I love, by the way.

Jughead’s Time Police (July 1990–May 1991)

How did Jughead’s Time Police remind me of Twin Peaks?

It’s a bit of a long walk, but bear with me. This is the first stop, after all. Jughead’s Time Police—or the fictional universe that birthed it—is the how and the why behind my “Sleep Walk”-powered LSS.

The key to this connection is still Mädchen Amick. She plays Alice Cooper in Riverdale, which I tried to love but could not even hate-watch.

The actual trigger that started the crazy train to “Sleep Walk” was actually an article about how Riverdale is ignoring the Chip Zdarsky-set canonical fact that Jughead is asexual. It got reinforced when I logged on to Netflix and saw Riverdale’s title card.

The TV series was a disappointment and definitely not something that fits into All That I Love. That’s why I shared my favorite thing ever to come out of the Archie Comics franchise, instead: Jughead’s Time Police.

Maybe it’s because I read it when I was very young, or maybe I just really like time travel stories that much. Six issues and not terribly original—some Bill & Ted and Somewhere in Time plot device borrowing here and there, and an Arthurian villain added to the mix, too—this alternate universe story is still worthy of being called a cult classic.

The Bottom Line: Why Do I Love “Sleep Walk”?

We went a little off the rails—wink wink, nudge nudge, etc. etc.—towards the end there but hopefully the course taken by my train of thought was helpful or at the very least interesting. This is, of course, not why I love “Sleep Walk”. Retracing the course shows how I love this song, and how much that love spills over onto other cherished works of art.

Why do I love “Sleep Walk”? Growing up, my dad—like most of my family—was in a band with his friends. There was a rehearsal studio right underneath my bedroom. When my dad’s band would use it, they would warm up and/or wind down with instrumentals.

My favorite was “Sleep Walk” because it was familiar to me and my dad knew. He would play it around my bedtime to send me dreaming. When I got older, he’d play it while practicing alone, knowing the song would draw me out of my bedroom. It was his way of calling me to make him a cup of coffee.

Truthfully, I wrote about this song because it reminds me of my dad—and I’m carrying around a lot of dad-related emotional baggage right now that I’m not ready to talk about. There’s the why that we’ve been looking for.

No crazy train needed—just a straight shot from Point A to Point B. “Sleep Walk” really is my LSS right now, though, and typing this all out hasn’t gotten it to budge one bit.

Maybe it will disappear if I hear some good news. Maybe not.

October 26, 2018 0