10 Movies That Tried To Exploit Nostalgia (And Won)

3. Toy Story 4

In its more recent sequels, the Toy Story franchise has done an uncommonly fantastic job of folding audience nostalgia into the narrative itself.

Toy Story 3, for instance, was about growing up and heading off on exciting (and terrifying) new adventures, and by the time of the film's 2010 release, many kids who grew up with the series were themselves heading off to university or leaving home for the first time.

Toy Story 4, meanwhile, engages with nostalgia in a similar albeit darker way.

With the series' core fans now in full adulthood, much of the film is centered around the anxieties of growing up, such as being unsure of your place in the world, wrestling with conformity, and perhaps even struggling with mental health issues.

This is most overtly realised through Toy Story 4's wonderfully neurotic new creation, Forky (Tony Hale), a tremendously relatable character to those who have grown alongside the series, and who now find themselves trying to make sense of an oft-uncaring world.

And yet, the film is also a tender and frequently hilarious entertainment that pays off fans' love for these characters in emotionally satisfying, uplifting ways.

Given how justifiably frustrated many fans were by Toy Story 4's sheer existence, it's a rarest example of a third sequel that's not only great, but doesn't remotely feel like it's milking the fanbase dry. But please, end it here.