10 Movie Franchises That Wasted Their Perfect Ending

Pixar pulled off a basically unthinkable coup with the first three Toy Story movies. Despite the original proving to be such an instantly iconic and groundbreaking piece of work, both sequels matched it in quality enough that many have dubbed it the "perfect" movie trilogy.

Toy Story 3 brought the series to a deeply satisfying and emotional conclusion, by having Woody (Tom Hanks) and the other toys say a reluctant farewell to Andy (John Morris) as he heads off to college, while they start a new chapter of their lives with Andy's young neighbour Bonnie (Emily Hahn).

It was exactly how the series needed to end - bittersweet but beautiful. And for almost an entire decade, that was that, but Disney being Disney, they knew there was more blood to be drained from the stone.

And so, Toy Story 4 was released in 2019, which while certainly a very good film by any conventional metric, was forced to undo Toy Story 3's ending by revealing that, in fact, Bonnie quickly lost interest in Andy's toys.

All in all the fourth film didn't match its three predecessors' brilliance, yet succeeded as a victory lap for the toys, even if it ultimately felt like an unnecessary epilogue we really didn't need.

Restraint is hard when movies make a billion dollars, but we can only hope that Disney lets the franchise rest here - which, honestly, you'd be naive to genuinely believe.