History WesternAnimation / ToyStory4

** Also Gabby Gabby manipulating Woody into giving her his voice box so that Harmony will adopt her. [[spoiler: It turns out, even with the new voice box, Harmony ''still'' rejects her, although she still gets adopted by another kid in the end.]]

* ForWantOfANail:
** In the prologue, Woody is halfway into Bo's box [[ForegoneConclusion when he hears Andy freaking out over him being gone, which convinces him to stay.]]
** During the RV montage, one of the things Woody does to try and curb Forky's attempts at throwing himself into the trash is to toss the RV's trash can out the back window. [[NiceJobBreakingItHero Woody never closed it,]] giving Forky the opportunity to jump out while the RV is driving down the road.
** Similarly, Woody noticing Bo's lamp in the window of Second Chance Antiques is what allows the rest of the movie to proceed.

* AnAesop:
** You can't wait for life to happen, sometimes you've got to go out and do it.
** You're never too old to redefine yourself. As important as it is to help others, sometimes you've just got to let yourself be happy.
** Every child is different, and what they want or need differs from case to case.
** There's always someone out there worth your [[UndyingLoyalty time and attention]].
** Similarly downplayed, but then subverted outright: [[spoiler:Gabby's desire to get her voice box fixed in order to attract the attention of Harmony ultimately doesn't pan out simply due to Harmony not being interested in her. However, as Woody makes it clear to her, Harmony ''wasn't'' her only option.]]

** "Hi, I'm Gabby Gabby, and [[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS5E126LivingDoll I love you]]".

** No toys use a Pizza Planet truck as transportation. In fact, the Pizza Planet truck does not make a physical appearance in the movie and only appears as a tattoo on Axel the Carnie’s leg.

** During the credits, the carnival sets up shop at New Stanton, a reference to Pixar’s Andrew Stanton.

* SeriesFauxnale: despite serving as an epilogue to the trilogy and a conclusion to Woody’s story, a fifth film is in development.

* ChekhovsGun: One of Ducky and Bunny's plans to get the key off of the antique owner is called "Winner Winner Chicken Dinner", wherein they get her attention by rolling a baseball her way ([[RunningGag only to jump on her]]). Minus the last part, Ducky and Bunny wind up putting this in motion [[spoiler:in order to help Gabby attract the attention of the lost child near the end]].

** During the credits, the carnival sets up shop at New Stanton, a reference to Pixar’s Andrew Stanton.

** Out of all places in the entire world (or at least country), Bonnie's family happened to end up vacationing in a small resort town RV park [[spoiler: where Bo and other "lost toys" are played with by an endless stream of vacationing children and where she and Woody reunite]], which just happens to have the Second Chance Antique Store [[spoiler: from which Bo escaped and where Gabby still waits]], during the brief stay of a traveling carnival [[spoiler: where Bo wants to go and where Gabby will meet her "Bonnie".]]

* EasilyForgiven: Without any context, Gabby Gabby's goal of [[spoiler: wanting to remove Woody's pull-string voice box and "transplant" it into herself]] comes across as downright creepy. However, once she explains that she wants to devote herself to a child as much as Woody, he is quick to forgive her, and [[spoiler: ''gives'' her the box]].

** Harmony, the granddaughter of the antique shop's owner, takes Woody with her to the carnival. [[spoiler: She later shows up at the shop again and apparently forgets all about Woody. This shows that she doesn't seem to be invested in toys (or at least, toys like Woody) or care for them very much, which foreshadows that she will reject Gabby Gabby, another toy similar to Woody.]]

* HighFiveLeftHanging: One of the Combat Carls gets left hanging twice in the same scene, first by the other Combat Carls when they report to Bo about a kid's birthday party for the lost toys to attend, and then later by Woody. [[spoiler: He finally gets his high five with Duke Caboom in an after-credits gag.]]

** Woody tells the gang Bonnie made a new friend -- "No, literally she ''made'' a new friend!" -- and unzips the backpack to reveal Forky. [[spoiler: Jessie repeats this gag almost word for word when she comes back home from first grade to reveal Bonnie has made Karen Beverly]].

* MessianicArchetype: By the end of the film, Woody has fully evolved into this. [[spoiler: Despite being abandoned to the closet by Bonnie, he -- alone of the toys -- risks loss or confiscation to help her through day one of kindergarten. His actions result in Forky's creation. He then spends much of the film trying to keep Forky from destroying himself. When he realizes that Gabby Gabby wants exactly the same relationship with a child that he had with Andy, he willingly sacrifices his voice box despite the fact that Gabby did her best to take it by force. When he realizes that Jessie, subtly, is to Bonnie what he was to Andy, he sacrifices his sheriff's badge.]] Even his BittersweetEnding with Bo has him focused on uniting other toys with other "Andys" and "Bonnies."

** All of Bonnie's toys that appear in the closet along with Woody are played by veteran actors with [[JustForPun punny names]]: [[Creator/MelBrooks Melephant Brooks]], [[Creator/CarolBurnett Chairol Burnett]], [[Creator/BettyWhite Bitey White]], and [[Creator/CarlReiner Carl Reineroceros]].

* StockMusic: A lot of Randy Newman's score is made up of musical themes originally recorded for the first three films.

** As the movie is the conclusion of Woody's character arc in the Toy Story franchise, Buzz and Woody are not deuteragonists in this movie. They end up separated with Woody and Bo comprising the "A" story while Buzz teams with Bunny, Ducky and Giggles for the "B" story. While their narratives overlap and Buzz is clearly trying to help Woody's quest, Woody is the main protagonist of this film.

* BackForTheFinale: Assuming this is indeed the last theatrical entry in the ''Toy Story'' series:
** It's appropriate that Andy and his family get to make a reappearance via a flashback opening that takes place between ''Toy Story 2'' and ''Toy Story 3''.
** Bo Peep and her sheep, putting an end to a ''decade'' of speculation about her fate.

* BigDamnHeroes: The Barrel of Monkeys who come in to extend Slinky's range in the opening rescue mission.

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: See the [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome/ToyStory page]].

* AntiClimaxCut: Buzz, Ducky and Bunny try to come up with plans to get the cabinet key from the store owner (the ones they come up with are all unnecessarily violent). Later, when they appear with the key and Woody asks them they how they got it, we cut to how they pulled it off: [[spoiler:The owner simply set it down in front of them and walked off.]] What's more, we had cut away from the group right as Buzz asks himself how they are going to get it, [[spoiler:and it turns out that we had cut away literally right before she put the keys down.]]

* BadGuyBar: Parodied with the Lost-Toy-Bar at the antiques shop where Bo takes Woody; it's inside of a pinball machine.

** There's also a meta-cameo: the toy that greets Bo Peep inside the toy nightclub within the antiques store is none other than Tinny, the main character of the Pixar short ''WesternAnimation/TinToy'' that served as the basis for the first ''Toy Story''.

** Once again, a toy's own TV advertisement causes them trouble. Buzz's one in the first movie [[TomatoInTheMirror caused him to realise he's just a toy]], while Duke Caboom was aware of his and [[VeryFalseAdvertising how it overplayed how far he could fly]], which caused his previous owner to abandon him in disgust.
** In the first movie, Woody briefly (before outright throwing it out later) breaks the toy populace's golden rule that you can't move or speak to humans by calling to Sid's little sister by pretending to be her mother to move her out of the way. Here, [[spoiler:Buzz quickly imitates his own voice box by outright saying that Bonnie left her backpack at the antiques store, which at least causes her to remember that.]]

** Continuing the themes from previous movies, a toy's relationship with their kid is played up even more as a parental relationship, with kids outgrowing their parents need for them and Woody and Bo Peep's meeting in particular coming across as someone meeting their ex who has a new kid.

** Bo Peep being unbothered when Woody accidentally pops off her already broken off arm feels reminiscent of those who wear prosthetic limbs and are accustomed to them.

** While RC was never shown to be quite as important to Andy as his other toys, the fact that Andy forgets about him in a post-''Toy Story 2'' setting is an ominous sign of things to come for Andy’s toys since his childhood will indeed not last forever. Sure enough, RC is never seen again after this point in the series’s timeline.

** In both the Antique shop and the official poster, one can observe a painting of ''Art/DogsPlayingPoker'' in the background, with the dogs in question being [[WesternAnimation/{{Up}} Dug, Alpha, and Charles Muntz’s dogs]]. Muntz himself is also playing with them in the painting.

** The ''WesternAnimation/ABugsLife'' themed calendar in Andy’s room last seen in ''Toy Story 2'' makes a reappearance in the prologue, this time the image of the month being the big group shot of the circus bugs landing on Ant Island.

** The Barracuda that ate Nemo's mother and would-be siblings from ''WesternAnimation/FindingNemo'' is seen as a stuffed fishing trophy mounted on the wall in The Second Chance Antiques shop.

** When hiding in the antiques shop, at one point, Woody holds up a phone just like the Mickey Mouse phones made in TheNineties.

* AllAnimalsAreDogs: Bo's sheep greet Woody by jumping on him and licking his face.
* AllForNothing: A downplayed example. Woody's struggle in the previous movie over deciding if he should go with Andy to college or not effectively becomes this due to Bonnie losing interest in him in favor of the other toys [[spoiler:and his ultimate decision to stay with Bo at the end]].

* AsHimself: Sort of. Toys in Bonnie's room are named Melephant Brooks (voiced by Mel Brooks), Chairol (Carol) Burnett, Carl Reineroceros (Reiner) and Bitey (Betty) White.

* DarkestHour: Forky is captured by Gabby again, Woody leaves Bo's team after being scolded by Bo and finally gives his voice box to Gabby, Buzz returns to Bonnie's RV with no Woody and Forky, and Gabby decides to make Harmony proud.

* ADogNamedCat:
** Of a sort; Forky is a spork, not a fork. Possibly justified, as Bonnie (a kindergartner) may not have known the difference between the two utensils.
** One of Bo's [[ConjoinedTwins conjoined sheep]] is named Goat.
** The cat from the antique shop is named Dragon.

* FreezeFrameBonus:
** The barracuda that ate [[WesternAnimation/FindingNemo Nemo's]] mother and all his would-be siblings is seen [[DeathByCameo as a stuffed trophy mounted on a wall]] in The Second Hand Antiques Gift Shop.[[invoked]] WordOfGod confirms that this is the same barracuda.
** And that's only the beginning. Virtually every scene in the antique shop contains some sort of blink-and-you'll-miss-it reference to another Pixar film (including the other ''Toy Story'' films).

* IveHeardOfThatWhatIsIt: When Woody asks Forky if he understands the concept of a merry-go-round, the latter affirms but then asks what a merry-go-round is. Played with in that it turns out he ''does'' know what it is, but by a different name ("carousel").

-->-- '''Woody''', line from a trailer

** In keeping with the series' tradition, Woody is [[AesopAmnesia once again]] a victim of this trope when he tries to explain to the rest of the toys how important Forky is to Bonnie. [[OnceAnEpisode As per usual]], they don't believe him, mostly because he hasn't been played with in weeks, and they think he's just trying to make himself feel useful (not to mention Forky is a literal piece of trash). Naturally, they quickly regret this when Forky goes missing, and they see Bonnie get utterly devastated.

* CassandraTruth: In keeping with the series' tradition, Woody is [[AesopAmnesia once again]] a victim of this trope when he tries to explain to the rest of the toys how important Forky is to Bonnie. [[OnceAnEpisode As per usual]], they don't believe him, mostly because he hasn't been played with in weeks, and they think he's just trying to make himself feel useful (not to mention Forky is a literal piece of trash). Naturally, they quickly regret this when Forky goes missing, and they see Bonnie get utterly devastated.

** In both the Antique shop and the official poster, one can observe a painting of ''Dogs Playing Poker'' in the background, with the dogs in question being [[WesternAnimation/{{Up}} Dug, Alpha, and Charles Muntz’s dogs]]. Muntz himself is also playing with them in the painting.

** The Barracuda that ate Nemo's mother from ''WesternAnimation/FindingNemo'' is seen as a stuffed fishing trophy mounted on the wall in The Second Chance Antiques shop.