Ahead of Inside Out 2‘s release in 2024, Disney CEO Bob Iger announced, “We had gone through a period where our original films in animation, both Disney and Pixar, were dominating. We’re now swinging back a bit to lean on sequels.” Given the surprisingly high quality of the 3 direct-to-Disney+ Pixar releases, it was dispiriting news. But here we are 2 years later and it turns out, follow-ups in the Inside Out and Toy Story series represent the studio’s strongest work since their return to theaters in 2022 with Lightyear. While Toy Story 4 at the time felt like an unnecessary way to prolong what most considered a perfect trilogy, Toy Story 5 feels like an argument that this franchise could conceivably continue forever. With an ever-expanding voice cast and continually state-of-the-art animation, this latest installment finds the saga that started with the 1996 ground-breaking original in tip-top shape.
The movie reintroduces us to the now-eight-year-old Bonnie (voiced by Scarlett Spears) and her stable of toys led by Buzz Lightyear (voiced by Tim Allen) and Jessie (voiced by Joan Cusack). She still loves using her imagination and creating magical worlds with her playthings, which sets her apart from her increasingly tech-reliant peers. Not wanting to feel left out, Bonnie asks her parents for a device of her own and soon, a frog-themed Lilypad tablet named “Lily” (voiced by Greta Lee) enters the picture. It doesn’t take long for the glowy allure of Lily’s display to draw Bonnie’s attention away from her most cherished toys. In order to save Bonnie from the flattening effect that Lily’s had on her imagination, Jessie calls in the calvary in the form of Woody (voiced by Tom Hanks) and Bo Peep (Annie Potts) to curb Bonnie’s screen time and help her make friends in the real world.
Andrew Stanton, who’s directed Pixar all-timers from Finding Nemo to WALL·E, wastes no time in Toy Story 5 catching us up from events of previous chapters, instead diving right in with an exciting cold open featuring a island-marooned bevy of Buzz Lightyears. From there, the story weaves breathlessly between their mission to find Star Command, the primary plot involving Lily’s influence on Bonnie and Jessie’s adventure endeavoring to win her back. Jessie’s journey takes her to the home of Blaze (voiced by Mykal-Michelle Harris), a girl Bonnie’s age who values face time with farm animals over the hypnotic spell of electronics. Her parents have a drawer of abandoned tech toys, like potty-trainer Smarty Pants (voiced by Conan O’Brien) and GPS Atlas (voiced by Craig Robinson), that are now relics of a pre-technological convergence era.
It would be easy for Stanton and his co-writer Kenna Harris to adopt a “technology bad” posture for their tale of the prevalence of touchscreens in children’s day-to-day but their script is more nuanced and less preachy than that. When a different futuristic green toy first entered Andy’s room over 30 years ago, it was also met with initial resistance from the “analog” toys who were worried about its impact on their playtime. But Buzz is, of course, fully integrated into the cadre of dolls and stuffies by now and Toy Story 5 gives indications how Lily could similarly find a spot in the lineup. Greta Lee does a terrific job balancing the intelligence, menace and resourcefulness that could be expected from a sentient smart device who’s determined to make its owner’s life better.
Being the franchise’s two main protagonists, Woody and Buzz have typically been featured more than any of the other characters but this time, Jessie is given the spotlight more than any Toy Story since the 2nd, in which she was first introduced. Joan Cusack rises to the occasion, imbuing Jessie with a determination and ebullience that makes her impossible not to root for. Aside from Lee, the best new addition to the incredible voice cast is Conan O’Brien, who steals scene after scene with an endless stream of potty-pertinent puns. From an animation perspective, the biggest up-level in this entry comes from the immaculately-rendered sequences where we see the stories Bonnie and Blaze conjure from their imaginations. From lavish weddings to defusing bombs in ballrooms, these toys are capable of anything in the minds of kids who never stop dreaming.
Score – 4/5
New movies coming this weekend:
Playing in theaters is Supergirl, a superhero movie starring Milly Alcock and Jason Momoa, expanding from last year’s Superman as Kara Zor-El joins forces with an unlikely companion on an interstellar journey of vengeance and justice when an unexpected adversary strikes too close to home.
Also coming to theaters is Jackass: Best And Last, a slapstick sequel starring Johnny Knoxville and Steve-O, featuring a final compilation of stunts, skits, and pranks, intercut with on-set talking heads with its aging daredevil cast.
Streaming on Netflix is Little Brother, a buddy comedy starring John Cena and Eric André, in which the orderly life of a famous real estate agent is disrupted by an eccentric man who participated in the same “Big Brother-Little Brother” program.