Toy Story Gives Itself License To Go On Forever
Toy Story 5 takes on technology, and kind of wins?
When Andy handed off his beloved toys to a new child, Bonnie, before heading off to college, it seemed like the perfect ending to the Toy Story movies. When Woody found a new purpose as a leader of “lost toys,” that seemed like the perfect coda. But now, a new adventure for Jessie, Woody, Buzz, and the gang seems to open up infinite possibilities for more Toy Story movies, endings be damned. And maybe, in a franchise that frequently gestures at, but smoothly sidesteps, the bittersweet pains of growing up, that may be the only direction these movies could go.
That’s a very cynical way to open a review for Toy Story 5, a movie that I genuinely, surprisingly, had a good time with. But that may be because I’m the target demographic for this film: a millennial who has grown up with the Toy Story movies (I remember seeing Toy Story 3 the summer after I graduated high school) and who would readily laugh at all the movie’s surprisingly sharp jokes and bathroom-related puns. The innuendo-filled humor, the surprising PG-rating, and the centering of a story about old-fashioned playtime and imagination being superseded by shiny new technology — it all feels very geared toward millennial adults. And while Toy Story 5 doesn’t quite justify its existence, it is nice to see Pixar continue to rep the family movie that doesn’t talk down to its audience.
Toy Story 5 picks up a few years after the events of Toy Story 4, with Jessie (Joan Cusack) thriving as the leader of Bonnie’s toys. But Bonnie (Scarlett Spears), now 8 years old, is having problems making friends — though it may not entirely be her fault. All the kids in her school and neighborhood are addicted to their new Lilypads, learning tablets that have become so ubiquitous that old-fashioned toys are being abandoned at frightening new speeds. Bonnie may be the only one still playing with toys, though that changes when her parents get her a Lilypad (Greta Lee), hoping it will help her make friends. Immediately, Bonnie is glued to her Lilypad, playing games and chatting with the members of her dance troupe, to the consternation of Jessie, who starts to worry that she’ll be abandoned once again. In a last-ditch effort to get Bonnie friends her own way, Jessie stows away on a sleepover, only to accidentally get transported to the old home of her first owner, Emily. As she tries to figure a way back to Bonnie, Buzz and Woody launch a rescue mission for Jessie, though they have to get through Lilypad first.
Pixar legend Andrew Stanton graduates from writer of the Toy Story movies to director, though he co-writes the script with Kenna Harris. As a result, Toy Story 5 comfortably steps back into the world of Woody, Buzz, and Jessie, though with one marked shift: the movie is very much Jessie’s, with Woody and Buzz relegated to supporting players (which in turn, causes Stanton to crank their buddy-comedy routine up to 11). But Cusack’s Jessie capably carries the movie, with the film drawing a strong thematic line back to her abandonment issues that were introduced in the heartbreaking flashback of being abandoned by her owner Emily set to the mournful Sarah McLachlan song. But this is also where Pixar’s emotional wiring shows its hand, with an orchestral version of “When She Loved Me” blaring whenever Jessie gets a little sad, and expanded flashbacks retreading that abandonment. A Pixar movie getting accused of emotional manipulation is old-hat by now, but Toy Story 5’s feels especially blatant, because of how much of Emily we see this time around. Gone are the days when human faces are barely seen (a byproduct of the CG technology of the time not being advanced enough), and as a result, Toy Story 5’s world feels smaller and less unique. With the combination of Jessie’s story taking center stage, the backgrounding of most of the familiar ensemble, and one particularly silly subplot involving an army of lost Buzz Lightyears, it sometimes felt like the movie would’ve been better served as a series of short films released on Disney+ or ahead of a new Pixar original release.
Buzz and Woody attempt to work Lilypad.
But though Toy Story 5’s story is held together a little more shoddily than the past movies, it makes up for it with a sharp new sense of humor and delightful performances by franchise newcomers Conan O’Brien, Craig Robinson, and Shelby Rabara, who play a trio of quirky old gadgets that become Jessie’s unlikely new allies. The movie really does feel like more of an outright comedy than past installments did, with a handful of jokes that wouldn’t feel out of place in a Rick and Morty episode. Throw in a few charming 2D-inspired animated interludes, in which the characters are transformed into hand-drawn-style versions of themselves within Bonnie’s wildly imaginative playtime scenarios, and Toy Story 5 manages to mostly overcome its flaws.
Thematically, Toy Story 5 also manages to touch on a few interesting topics: the creeping ubiquity of technology, how the digital age can make kids grow up too fast, even the loneliness epidemic. And as the embodiment of all these things, Greta Lee plays a good villain as Lilypad — snarky and a little cheeky — though the movie kind of walks back a true “technology is evil” message in favor of something a little nicer and less provocative (in the end, they’re all there to help kids!).
Toy Story 5 is less a movie for the children of the children that Toy Story raised, than it is for the ones who felt they haven’t quite grown up yet. But as the movie suggests, maybe embracing our inner child isn’t such a bad thing. And as long as there are audiences who are willing to play a little longer, the Toy Story movies can continue forever.
