Toy Story 5 (2026)
Directed by: McKenna Harris and Andrew Stanton
Premise: The toys struggle to remain relevant when their child owner gets a tablet device. They devise a plan to help her make friends through play.
What Works: The Toy Story films are rooted in the joy of childhood play and as the series went on it became increasingly clear that the toys were really a proxy for the experience of parents who watch their children grow up and become independent. The earlier stories were rooted in an analog childhood but Toy Story 5 takes on contemporary concerns about electronics and screens and childhood isolation. Eight-year-old Bonnie (voice of Scarlett Spears) gets a tablet named Lily (voice of Greta Lee) and the new device displaces the toys in Bonnie’s life. The film has a nuanced regard for technology. The toys, and in particular Jessie (voice of Joan Cusack), view Lily as an enemy to be defeated but over the course of the story Jessie and Lily gradually work together to connect Bonnie with genuine friends. The film isn’t a Luddite screed about how screens are bad but rather advocates using technology in a way that fosters human connection and creativity. Pixar, and especially their Toy Story films, have had a way of being emotionally effective without becoming maudlin and Toy Story 5’s portrait of childhood isolation is smart and affecting. For longtime fans, the sequel brings back most of the popular characters, including Woody and Buzz (voices of Tom Hanks and Tim Allen) but the fifth installment pivots the focus to Jessie, building on her backstory as Jessie searches for meaning in her life. Toy Story 5 is beautifully crafted and includes some stylistic flourishes that are new to this series.
What Doesn’t: Ongoing movie franchises sometime get stuck between the need to innovate and the obligation to remain true to its original premise. A movie series that doesn’t grow will atrophy but creativity also risks losing touch with what gave the property its identity. This is the problem of the latter Toy Story movies. The first three films were about the toys in Andy’s bedroom, in particular Woody and Buzz Lightyear. Their story reached its organic conclusion with Toy Story 3. Toy Story 4 was mostly a narrative addendum but it did take the bold step of separating Woody from his friends. The fifth movie returns Woody to the action which undermines the ending of the previous story. Toy Story 5 is primarily about Jessie but she learns the same lessons Woody did in the original trilogy; the trajectory of Jesse’s relationship with Lily mirrors the first film’s conflict between Woody and Buzz. The fifth film doesn’t do anything as bold or as interesting as some of the other sequels and it borrows story elements from Inside Out 2.
Bottom Line: Toy Story 5 is a good film and one of the better installments in this series. It’s a safe sequel that doesn’t do much that is original but the craftsmanship, intelligence, and good-heartedness of Toy Story 5 makes it worthwhile.
Episode: #1104 (June 21, 2026)