User blog comment:Misry6/Pure Evil Discussion: Toy Story 4/@comment-39032584-20190707132321

No surprises here. Even if I hadn't gotten the chance to see the movie already, I honestly wasn't expecting there to be any characters that could possibly qualify in this movie, unless of course, Lotso really did return. If anything, I think the film-makers made the right call by not having a clear-cut antagonist in the movie; Lotso set the bar really high the last time around, and simultaneously, made Toy Story 3 dark enough that I'm still kind of befuddled how it managed to get a G-rating from the MPAA. Therefore, I figured this movie would go the "lighter and softer" route, which is also what the trailers were indicating, and surely enough, that's what happened.

In short, after the intensity of the last film, it was refreshing to see them take things back in the other direction, complete with the least villainous antagonist to date. If anything, it helped give this movie it's own unique identity and minimize unfavorable comparisons to its predecessor, because frankly, even if it did have a more clear-cut antagonist, I think they would have likely been a pale shadow, morality-wise, compared to Lotso's black. In other words, the last movie already pushed the G-rating as far as it could realistically go in terms of its tone and antagonist, so I'm glad this film didn't make what would have likely been a fruitless attempt to emulate that.