Toy Story 5 review

TOY STORY 5: 

TOYS VS TECH IN FRANCHISE’S FIFTH INSTALLMENT! 

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: **** out of 4

DISNEY/PIXAR

Woody, Jessie, Buzz Lightyear, and the gang have met their match in Toy Story 5

 

            The toys have returned, and this time, they’re battling something truly diabolical: technology in Toy Story 5, the latest film from Pixar Animation Studios and the fifth installment of the Toy Story film series, dating back to 1995 with the first fully computer-animated feature film. I feel like I’ve gone through my thoughts on the Toy Story franchise in my review of Toy Story 4 back in 2019, but I’ll give a quick refresh…it’s a fantastic series with the original three films from 1995-2010 being some of the best animated movies I had ever seen and despite the fourth entry having almost no reason to exist, I thought that was great too and we don’t need to talk about Lightyear because nobody saw that except me. 

            Much like when Toy Story 4 was announced, I was a little skeptical about a fifth Toy Story movie because Toy Story 3 was such a perfect note to end on, and I didn’t really need to see it continue. Then again, this is Pixar we’re talking about, and they’re usually experts at creating high-quality animated features with a strong emotional core and clever storytelling. 

            Well, I’m happy to report that Toy Story 5 continues the franchise’s formula with flying colors while also evolving it to make it relevant to modern times. It’s nowhere near the quality of the first three Toy Story films, but I actually do like this one better than 4. 

            The film follows Jessie (voiced by Joan Cusack-Working Girl, Cradle Will Rock, School of Rock) who is now the new sheriff of Bonnie’s toys and has just married off Forky (voiced by Tony Hale-Arrested Development, The Angry Birds Movie 1 and 2, Inside Out 2) and Karen Beverly/Knifey (voiced by Melissa Villaseñor-Saturday Night Live, Ralph Breaks the Internet, Hoppers); playtime with Bonnie (voiced by Scarlett Spears-General Hospital, Wicked for Good) is absolutely perfect though she is having trouble making friends. But when a new tablet device known as Lilypad (voiced by Greta Lee-Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Past Lives, Tron: Ares) enters Bonnie’s life and hogs up her playtime with the toys, Jessie, Buzz Lightyear (voiced by Tim Allen-Home Improvement, The Santa Clause franchise, Redbelt), and the rest of the toys enlist the help of Woody (voiced by Tom Hanks-Forrest Gump, Saving Private Ryan, Cast Away) to hopefully end this technological nightmare while also learning the hard lesson that toys are for play and tech is for everything. 

            The film also features the voices of Annie Potts (Ghostbusters franchise, Designing Women, Pretty in Pink) as Bo Peep, Wallace Shawn (The Princess Bride, A Goofy Movie, The Incredibles) as Rex, Keanu Reeves (The Matrixfranchise, John Wick franchise, Sonic the Hedgehog 3) as Duke Caboom, Bonnie Hunt (Jumanji, Jerry Maguire, Carstrilogy) as Dolly, Kristen Schaal (Bob’s Burgers, Gravity Falls, BoJack Horseman) as Trixie, John Ratzenberger (Almost every Pixar film ever made) as Hamm, Blake Clark (Boy Meets World, Home Improvement, 50 First Dates) as Slinky Dog, Conan O’Brien (Late Night with Conan O’Brien, The Mitchells VS the Machines, Weird: The Al Yankovic Story) as Smarty Pants, Shelby Rabara (Steven Universe) as Snappy, Craig Robinson (Shrek Forever After, This is the End, The Bad Guys 1 and 2) as Atlas, Mykal-Michelle Harris (Mixed-ish, Raven’s Home, Ariel) as Blaze, Lori Alan (The Fantastic Four, Family Guy, SpongeBob Squarepants) as Mrs. Anderson, and Jay Hernandez (Friday Night Lights, Bad Moms, Suicide Squad) as *Agent Smith voice* Mr. Anderson; with John Hopkins (Midsomer Murders, Alice in Wonderland (2010), Poldark), Jeff Bergman (Looney Tunes, Hanna-Barbera, Family Guy), Anna Vocino (Shondaland, Batman: The Killing Joke, Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts), and Ernie Hudson (Ghostbustersfranchise, Desperate Housewives, Transformers: Prime) replacing Timothy Dalton, Don Rickles, Estelle Harris, and Carl Weathers as Mr. Pricklepants, Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head, and Combat Carl. 

            Overall, Toy Story 5, like the fourth entry, probably doesn’t need to exist and is one of the weaker installments in the series, but I won’t lie and say I didn’t find this movie incredibly funny, entertaining, and charming. Granted, a movie with social commentary on too much technology and people’s over-reliance on it is nothing new (The Mitchells VS the Machines, Ron’s Gone Wrong, etc.), Toy Story 5 adds on top of what other films have done and does it in a very unique, clever way. 

            What I mean by that is the film addresses that a child’s time with tech can be cut significantly shorter than their time playing with actual toys. Woody, Buzz, Jessie, etc. have been Andy’s toys for several years and have also spent quite a few years with Bonnie now, but this film introduces old tech toys that were forgotten about within months, with barely any time to connect with their child, which I thought was ingenious. 

The film does bring home the message that too much technology and screen time is bad, but also acknowledges that it’s a tool and can be very useful with both toys and tech, trying to find a perfect middle ground without completely demonizing the latter. It kind of leans into prejudice a bit with Jessie in particular not being fond of technology, and over the course of the film learns that tech isn’t going anywhere and both sides will need to co-exist. 

The movie also revisits plot points from Toy Story 2 and expands upon Jessie’s past more by having her return to her original owner’s old house, with the tree and the tire swing outside. Jessie really is the emotional anchor of the film, and Joan Cusack’s vocal performance brings the waterworks at times. 

Even with all the hard-hitting emotion and drama, I will say Toy Story 5 might be the most consistently funny, with tons of jokes and visual gags that got some big laughs out of me. One being this tech toy, Conan O’Brien voices that I won’t say what it is, but the jokes with this toy were absolutely hilarious, and there’s an entire B-plot involving a whole army of new high-tech Buzz Lightyears that were shipwrecked on an island, and every time it cut back to them, they had me laughing hard. 

I think my only major issue with it is that there are too many characters and not enough time to develop them all, with some characters either having a few lines or no dialogue whatsoever. I get it, a lot of characters were introduced after 1995, but aside from Jessie, Buzz, and the tech toys, hardly any of the other toy characters do anything in this film, not even Woody. 

Despite it being slightly crowded and kind of unnecessary, Toy Story 5 is a really solid installment that evolves the franchise while still retaining its integral core elements. It may not be on par with the original three, but it’s a heartfelt, nostalgic, and relevant toy VS tech adventure that both kids and adults will get something out of, and that’s the true magic of Pixar.