Pixar has built up a name for developing high-quality animation as well as layered stories that can work well for both children and adult audiences. In presenting the next chapter of the Toy Story universe, the animators have elevated the imagery to another level. This is understandable given the technological advances that have been made over the last two decades since the film series first began. The story itself is one that addresses existentialism in an entirely new way.

Woody is experiencing a mid-life crisis, having lost much of his purpose in having a child that loves him and needs his help. Andy is long gone, having gifted him to a new child since he himself is an adult who no longer requires the comforts of childhood toys. Whether it's Woody exploring what he should do next in his life, a newly sentient spork naked Forky becoming panicked over his being a toy instead of trash after a single use, many of the main characters explore their larger purpose in life.

Anyone with a high anxiety related to existentialism may be stressed by the viewing experience but for the most part, Toy Story is a largely life-affirming story. The greatest strength lies in the writing for the layers and depths it reaches, particularly considering that the film is mostly advertised as a child-friendly product.

If anyone that grew up on the film series is hoping for more of the usual banter from the variety of characters that the original trilogy made famous, they may be disappointed. The core group of characters involved in the story are mostly new apart from Woody, Buzz, and Bo Peep, who admittedly has better character material than she has in the past films. The other familiar faces amount to little more than window dressing.

"Toy Story 4" is playing in cinemas worldwide.

Watch our special behind-the-scenes "Toy Story 4" featurette here:

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If you were unaware that Hotel Transylvania was getting a sequel, then be pleasantly surprised. It not only is, but the trailer looks just as fun as the first film. The Drac Pack (Dracula, The Wolfman , The Mummy, The Invisible Man, and Frankenstein) are back, and they've got a new member, Dracula's adorable grandson, Dennis, the offspring of Dracula's vampire Daughter Mavis and her human husband, Jonathan.

Not only is Dracula embracing his new grandfather status, he's taking the tyke way up high for a little flying lesson. While Dracula is sure about his grandson picking up the skill, his friends aren't so sure. The lesson may crash and burn, but the grandson does not.



The Original Hotel Transylvania found Dracula (Adam Sandler) establishing a hotel getaway for his fellow monsters to vacation in peace after the death of his wife at the hands of townsfolk with torches and pitchforks. His daughter Mavis (Selena Gomez) wants to to experience life outside of the safe walls, to see the work and Ha-we-we. Dracula nearly has his daughter convinced of the human threat when an unsuspecting backpacking human stumbles upon the hotel and changes not only Mavis's mind, but Dracula's too. The first one was full of fun, and plenty of jokes for adults and kids alike.

Most of the cast is back for Hotel Transylvania 2. Adam Sandler, Selena Gomez, Andy Samberg, Steve Buscemi, David Spade, and Kevin James all return as their respective characters. Also returning for the sequel is director Genndy Tartakovsky whose vision helped make the first one such a success.

Keegan-Michael Key replaces CeeLo Green as the Mummy. Also joining the cast is Mel Brooks as Vlad, an "old-old-fashioned vampire. "

Hotel Transylvania 2 opens in theaters on September 25.

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Strangers arrive at Hess & Sons to meet with Max Gold, the man who is overseeing the shady business following Hess' death. The men want to determine whether or not Hess' death was connected to "the business" and are pointed in the direction of a man with a cut on his head who wanted to take a look at Sam. The men make it clear that they intend to kill the man who killed Sam once they determine who it is.

Lester is at the wake for his wife and still worrying about his hand injury from the shot that killed Chief Thurman. Lester is approached by his brother Chaz who enquires as to whether he will be selling his home and offers that he stay with him and his wife instead. Lester returns to his home, which is still in a state of disarray and flashes back to the crime.

Deputy officer Molly Solverson visits Chief Thurman's grave, and appears intent on finding his killer. She tells the new chief, Bill, that they should talk to Lester about Thurman's death. Bill went to high school with Lester and recounts tales of his propensity for fainting and doesn't believe he is capable of murdering anyone. His theory is that it was a home invasion, possibly drug-related.

Lester becomes emotional when going through his wife's clothes. The doorbell rings and it's Bill and Molly who have come to question him. Bill greets him with friendliness and asks after him while Molly grows increasingly persistent in getting Lester's statement and pointing out that Thurman had come to visit him to enquire after Sam Hess. She also points out his meeting a man in the hospital emergency room. Molly becomes even more suspicious when Bill talks about the fact that Hess loved to bully Lester in high school. Bill shares his drifter theory and Lester tells them that he has a concussion and things are still rather fuzzy.

Malvo intimidates a mailroom clerk to get a package without showing ID. He has received a new identity from whomever it is that he has been working for. He will now be known as Frank Peterson, a minister, and his new client is Stavros Milos, the so-called Supermarket King of Minnestota. Malvo visits Milos, who shows him a blackmail letter that reads, "I know about the money pay me 43,613 or I tell the world." He tells Malvo that he believes his soon to be ex-wife, who is suing him, is the one who is blackmailing him. Malvo heads out and steals the car of some random person who left it running.

Gus Grimly, the police officer who pulled over Malvo and let him go, learns at work about the murders in Bemidji (Grimly works in Duluth). Grimly looks over the ticket that he never finished filling out, but does have the license plate number from the car. He returns home and has dinner with his daughter, who speaks to him about bullies. They have a discussion where he says that his job as her father comes before his job as a police officer.

The mystery men from the episode's beginning take a man named Lenny captive after he insults them at the strip club at which Hess was killed. They toss him in the boot of their car and bring him to Gold, who says he is not the man who had visited Hess. Meanwhile, Malvo is visiting Milos' ex and her trainer Don. Malvo pretends to be a colleague of her lawyer and learns that Milos is worth more money than he had admitted to.

Malvo is back in his motel room and listens to an interview recording of a man admitting he threatened a woman. He then notes that the blackmail letter has the same bronzer that Milos' ex's trainer had on his hand. A man comes to visit Malvo and attempt to intimidate him but Malvo responds by dropping his trousers, sitting on the toilet, and taking a sh*t with the door wide open for the man to see.

Lester is shown to have stashed the murder weapon behind a back panel behind the washing machine before moving in with his brother and sister-in-law. He tells them he intends to sell his home and get a fresh start. His sister-in-law bumps his hand so he heads to the pharmacy in search of something to prevent infection. Unfortunately for him, he runs into Molly who wants to continue her questioning. He finally tells her he is feeling harassed and leaves the pharmacy without taking the ointment he had requested. Molly tells him in the parking lot that he might not be getting in the right car but he says it is his wife's car as his is in the shop. She continues to say she doesn't believe this is all a coincidence but Lester tells her to talk to Bill, her boss, and stop harassing him.

Molly tells her father at his restaurant about the case, as he used to be a cop. He expresses concern for her, talking about the evils cops see, saying that what she's currently dealing with is especially bad. Bill comes in and reprimands Molly after receiving a call from Lester to report her harassment. She disobeyed his orders and he is the new chief, so as punishment, she gets pulled off the case. As a consolation, she is put in charge of the investigation of the dead naked man instead.

Fargon's goons pull Lenny out of their trunk while out on the middle of a frozen lake. While one drags Lenny, the other drills a hole in the ice. Lenny's hands are bound and he is dropped into the hole in the ice.

Fargo airs on Tuesdays on FX at 10PM.

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In the opening of FX's new series, Fargo, we see Lorne Malvo (Billy Bob Thronton) crash his car to try to avoid hitting a deer. It's then that a nearly-nude man escapes from the trunk of his car. We then see Lester Nygaard (Martin Freeman) having breakfast with his wife Pearl (Kelly Holden Bashar). She is nagging him about how his career is not progressing as nicely as his brother. She tells him he should try more, smile, and wear a nicer tie, even though she bought him that tie.

Later, Lester is bullied on the street by a local jerk and bully from their school days named Sam Ness, who is grooming his sons to be as much of a goon as him. After insulting him and his wife, and threatening him, he frightens Lester into walking into a window. Lester breaks his nose and ends up in the hospital lobby, sitting near Lorne.

Lorne is curious about Lester and asks him how he broke his nose. As the conversation continues, Lorne is able to coax more and more details out of Lester. Lorne tells him that if he had been in that position, he would have killed that man. Lester seems taken aback by Lorne's deadpan delivery. Lester offhandedly jokes that Lorne should kill him but Lorne questions whether he is serious. The conversation is punctuated with background strings screeching, which may be likened to that heard in the climactic scene of Psycho.

Lorne asks him to just give him a "yes" or "no" answer and Lester is too shocked to answer before heading off to get his nose tended to. Some local officers find Lorne's car off the road, with blood on the steering wheel. They find a dead deer in the trunk and blood footprints leading away from the vehicle. They follow the footprints and find the dead man frozen in the woods that had previously escaped from Lorne's trunk.

Later, Lorne visits Sam's sons and finds them rough housing. He tells them they're doing it wrong and instructs them on how to fight before they ask what he wants. He smirks when they begin bickering like children. Sam comes down with some associates and Lorne makes a snide remark about Sam's younger son. His sons tell their dad to hit him but he says he will restrain himself since he has a head injury. Lorne says he just wanted to get a look at him, scopes him out, and walks out. It's a continuation of Lorne's eerie mannerisms that leave viewers wandering what is brewing beneath the surface.

Lester and Pearl head to his brother's place for a family dinner and it's little more than another tedious suburban occasion. That is until Lester's brother shows him his collection of illegal weapons. His brother is angry when Lester drops a weapon and they argue about his life of being a screw-up. He says that Pearl has grown fed-up with him and that sometimes he tells his co-workers he has dead because it's less embarrassing that way. Lester ends up hitting his brother when he makes one too many insults to him. I have to wonder if that collection of weapons will make another appearance down the line.

Lorne has a phone call with a man for whom he had apparently committed the murder. He then pays a visit to the local strip club where Sam is having sex with a stripper, that she's pretending to enjoy, and stabs him in the head. The same officers from before are called to the scene and they discuss rumours of Sam being involved with organised crime and gun trafficking. The female officer who poses the theory, Molly Thorne, almost seems intrigued at the possibility of having such a serious crime take place in their small town.

Lorne is shown to be an agent of chaos that gets off on manipulating the people around him. He gets the woman who runs the motel at which he is staying to attack a boy she had been mistreating after first getting the boy to urinate in her gasoline tank. Then he calls Sam Hess' elder son posing as the one in charge of his father's estate to tell him that all of his assets have been left to Sam's younger son, prompting the boy to call his brother outside and beat him with a shovel, before Molly, who is at the house runs out and tackles him to stop the violence.

Lester is shocked to learn of Sam's death and asks upon finding Lorne, asks if he killed him. Lorne tells him that he never said no and begins monologuing yet again. No doubt he is planting more seeds in Lester's mind that will cause him to act out just as he has done to these other people in the town.

Following this encounter, Lester attempts to fix the washing machine at home and when he fails to do so, his wife goes off on a tangent about how he's not a man and how she doesn't know why she married him. She calls him a loser and he demands that she take that back. He threatens her with a hammer and she laughs at him, prompting him to beat her to death with it.

After putting his clothes into a bag, he calls Lorne to tell him what has happened and implores him to come over and help. While waiting for Lorne to arrive, officer Vern Thurman arrives to ask him about his meeting Lorne at the hospital, which Molly had made the connection of. He spots the trail of blood and orders Lester to get on the ground before looking down into the basement and seeing Pearl's bloody body. Right as Vern is calling in for backup, Lorne sneaks up from behind and blows him away with a shotgun Lester had pulled out.

As Lorne goes to look at the scene in the basement, Lester spots the squad car pulling up. He goes down to the basement and finds that Lorne has disappeared. Molly radios in for backup upon seeing Vern's dead body and Lester resorts to running into the wall to knock himself out, echoing the way he had broken his nose at the episode's beginning. This is of course an attempt to deflect (rightful) blame that would have otherwise been placed on him. Following this horrific discovery, Molly is left to inform Vern's pregnant wife with news of his death.

Deputy Gus Grimly pulls Lorne over, due to some questionable driving manoeuvres. But when he tries to get Lorne out of the car, he's simply able to calmly, but frighteningly talk him into letting him go. It's a fitting end to this introduction episode, as Lorne's ability to use rhetoric to manipulate people into acting according to his wishes will no doubt be one of the central parts of Fargo. Lester wakes in the hospital, stressed about the manner in which his life has turned, and because he has an injury on his hand from the shotgun. Could it be what leads to his capture? Stay tuned to find out.

Fargo airs on Tuesdays on FX at 10PM.

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