Anyone who grew up watching Woody (Tom Hanks) and Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen) won’t find them at the centre of the action. In Toy Story 5, the focus shifts to Jessie (Joan Cusack) as the new “Justice of the Peace,” and as for the others, they’ve been busy. While the cowboy is spending his best days with Little Bo-Peep (Annie Potts) to rescue abandoned toys, Buzz has an eye on the cowgirl, an idea first introduced in the second film. The allusions are there, and choosing not to rush that relationship is a smart move.
But do we really need more tales? I’d say yes. After 31 long years, most fans have either moved on or are waiting to see what PIXAR does next.
By watching some characters age like fine wine, the cracks begin to show. Character arcs matter, and even the toys recognize that their time can eventually come to an end. Thankfully, that’s not the case here, but the emotional scars remain. That includes Jessie whose fear of being abandoned again is at the heart of this work. Writer/director Andrew Stanton and co-writer Kenna Harris do solid work building out why Bonnie and Jessie are BFFs in the imaginary sense that only a child and a favourite toy can share.
With two storylines running side by side, which one resonates more will depend on the viewer. Personally, I found the human story more engaging and relatable. Bonnie (Scarlett Spears) is eight, shy, and struggles to connect with other kids. New children have moved into the neighbourhood, and the toys quietly conspire to nudge an introduction. It kind of backfires. Jessie isn’t sure how to help her owner make those connections, and even at school, there are problems.
Fortunately, Blaze (Mykal-Michelle Harris), a girl a few years older than Bonnie, is there. Although their friendship doesn’t click right away, it’s obvious that someone has to “grow up.” That tension between trying to be more mature and fearing rejection plays out well. The idea is deliberately rooted in the assumption that people eventually grow up and leave what they once loved behind.
Running alongside that is a subplot about technology. When Bonnie receives a tablet named Lily (Greta Lee), its pull is immediate and believable. Although this device functions more as an obstacle than a villain, I was left scratching my head. She’s a tool trying to do a job, but the film spends too little time defining what that job actually is.
Handing a child a device isn’t a cure for loneliness or shyness, regardless of the intent. The heart of the story is about people connecting with people, and that thread doesn’t get enough room to breathe once Lily starts developing her own ideas about how to bring everyone together. Whether she’s limited by her programming or evolving into something more is a question the film deliberately leaves unanswered.
Although the screenplay predates the recent explosion of generative AI, had the filmmakers leaned further into those ideas, the film could have landed with an even sharper edge.
Overall, Toy Story 5 is a worthy continuation. The vocal performances are strong, and with some talents returning for the third or fifth time, they wear those boots well. Also, the animation continues to improve in ways that are easy to take for granted. The most notable bit is when we find a cargo container of deprogrammed Buzz Lightyear toys. Without a mission, they are simply soldiers. I won’t say too much about this subplot other than the visual moments from this subplot showcases how advanced CGI has become.
The big question, should there be even more films, is whether PIXAR will explore what virtual reality, augmented reality, and digital spaces mean for childhood.
Although tablets are yesterday’s news, smartphones are the obvious continuation and what they represent is territory the franchise hasn’t explored yet. Nintendo experimented with AR through the 3DS. Disney had its Infinity line before it fizzled out. Lucasfilm tried with Jedi Challenges. These were all toys whose lifespans were short, and that’s a theme that fits naturally within the Toy Story universe. If another film gets made, it’ll have to grapple with where the lines between reality and the imagined world begin to blur, along with a gang of toys risking exposure to a world that isn’t ready to discover they’re alive.
That last part is the question many adults are already sitting with: how would we actually react if we discovered toys were alive? That’s less a family film and more a horror story, an idea quietly teased in Toy Story 2. What’s learned there is that this secret is probably best left tucked away in the closet.
4 Stars out of 5
Toy Story 5 Trailer
