Toy Story 5 review: Another delightful addition to the franchise
The Toy Story franchise seemed to come to a beautiful, natural end in Toy Story 3, when Andy went off to college and gave his toys to Bonnie. However, the series continued with 2019’s Toy Story 4, its weakest entry so far, and now it’s back for more with Toy Story 5.
The Pixar animation centres upon Jessie (voiced by Joan Cusack), who is now in charge of Bonnie’s room following the departure of Woody (Tom Hanks) in the previous film. Bonnie (Scarlett Spears) is struggling to make friends because she still plays with toys while most other kids are using tech, so her parents buy a child-friendly tablet called Lilypad (Greta Lee) to help her make connections. Jessie and the toys go to war against Lilypad, believing that she doesn’t have Bonnie’s best interests at heart.
While Toy Story 5 isn’t 100% necessary, it is another charming, hilarious and vibrantly animated outing. It also justifies its existence with its topical subject matter, as it accurately captures our reliance on technology and how real-life friendships and connections can suffer as a result. Scenes of people hanging out in the same room but not engaging with each other – because they’re scrolling their screens – and scenes of Bonnie being shamed for playing with toys will hit hard.
But director/co-writer Andrew Stanton gives a much more nuanced take than “tech is bad”. There is more to Lilypad than first meets the eye – she’s not the adversary the toys think she is – and they learn that old tech can be discarded too, like new characters Smarty Pants (Conan O’Brien), Atlas (Craig Robinson) and Snappy (Shelby Rabara). The message is perhaps too optimistic, and the conflict resolves too easily, but I like that it’s basically saying that tech may help us make online friends, but they’re not a substitute for genuine ones in real life.
After being introduced in 1999’s Toy Story 2, Jessie has generally been a supporting character alongside Woody and Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen) so it’s a delight to see her promoted to the lead role. We get to learn more about her time with her first owner Emily, and Cusack, in her first film in seven years, makes her as spirited, sassy and determined as ever. She is primarily joined by her horse sidekick Bullseye, and the obsolete tech devices (Smarty Pants is hilarious), while there is a lesser storyline involving Woody and Buzz. Bonnie’s other toys get short shrift now that there are so many characters, but Rex (Wallace Shawn) and Mr. Pricklepants (John Hopkins) still make me laugh.
Toy Story 5 may not achieve the heights of the first three films, but it’s a fun and timely animated outing with emotional depth, an excellent sense of humour and great observations about human behaviour. It’ll be interesting to see where it goes from here, considering “the age of toys is over”.
In cinemas from Friday 19th June