Crew
Director/ Story – Andrew Stanton, Co-Director – Kenna Harris, Screenplay – Kenna Harris & Andrew Stanton, Producers – Jessica Choi & Lindsey Collins, Photography – Matt Aspbury & Jean-Claude Kalache, Music – Randy Newman, Visual Effects Supervisor – Thomas Jordan, Animation Supervisor – Bret Parker, Production Design – Bob Pauley. Production Company – Pixar Animation Studios.
Voices
Joan Cusack (Jessie), Tim Allen (Buzz Lightyear), Tom Hanks (Woody), Conan O’Brien (Smarty Pants), Greta Lee (Lilypad), Scarlett Spears (Bonnie), Mykal-Michelle Harris (Blaze), Shelby Rabara (Snappy), Craig Robinson (Atlas), Lori Alan (Bonnie’s Mom), Jay Hernandez (Bonnie’s Dad), Bonnie Hunt (Dolly), Kristen Schaal (Trixie), Tony Hale (Forky), Krys Marshall (Bonnie’s Mom), Annie Potts (Bo Peep), Wallace Shawn (Rex), Blake Clark (Slinky Dog), John Hopkins (Mr Pricklepants), Jeff Bergman (Mr Potato Head)
Plot
A cargo container of Buzz Lightyear dolls is washed up on a desert island. These activate and set out to find Star Command. Meanwhile, Jessie is concerned that her human Bonnie is not playing with other children. After venturing next door, she finds the other children reject Bonnie because they play with their electronic devices and regard the idea of physical toys as passe. Jessie is horrified when Bonnie’s parents get her a Lilypad tablet. Jessie calls up Woody for help. Lilypad meanwhile instantly connects and gets Bonnie an invite to a sleepover. With Lilypad conspiring to get rid of the other toys, Jessie and Bullseye sneak into Bonnie’s suitcase – only for Bonnie to be rejected by her sleepover friends for still playing with toys. Tossed out, Jessie and Bullseye are found and taken to the farmhouse address that was written on Jessie by her original owner. A different family has moved in there and they are thought to be the young girl Blaze’s toys. Jessie feels dispirited and obsolete until Blaze plays with them. Jessie comes up with the idea of bringing Bonnie and Blaze together as friends.
Toy Story (1995) was the film that launched Pixar who have since become the leading animation studio in the world. Many successes followed and Pixar have spun the original off in several sequels with Toy Story 2 (1999), Toy Story 3 (2010), Toy Story 4 (2019) and now Toy Story 5. The character of Buzz Lightyear was spun out as a standalone film with Lightyear (2022).
It is worth noting that with the release of Toy Story 5, the Toy Story franchise is celebrating its 31st anniversary. This makes it the longest running of all modern animation franchises. Both of its stars, Tom Hanks and Tim Allen, who were in their forties when they started, are now in their seventies. (To perhaps mark the passing of age, Woody gets a bald spot that is in danger of blinding everybody when he takes off his hat). The series has held up consistently well – with maybe only the odd blip such as the Lightyear spinoff.
Each of the Toy Story films has made a point of coming up with a strong and original story that continues the characters. This contrasts to most other modern Animation releases where sequels are no more than the same characters in more adventures with minimal difference. To this extent, Toy Story 5 comes up with a story that tackles a big modern issue – children’s addiction to e-devices. Whether this is such a polarized issue as the film makes it, I am in doubt – the various children I know around me don’t seem to be in danger of giving up their toys anytime soon – so you can perhaps regard this as dramatic licence that has been amplified by the film.
The one thing that got me is that it does seem a rather precious Luddite divide that Pixar is creating here. This is the company that has been the leading developer of computer animation in its field who is now suddenly turning around to decry people’s reliance on computers. (Admittedly the e-devices are evil stance does get softened by the end of the film). It seems outrightly hypocritical Pixar condemning children’s attachment to their games and devices when there are more than fifty videogames that have been based on Pixar properties – there are seventeen different games that feature characters from the Toy Story films alone.
As with most modern animation, the ensemble of characters has grown to become quite sizeable over the course of the previous films and Toy Story 5 feels like it is straining to fit all of these in. That it does and even finds room to add an endearing bunch of new characters including a frog-shaped tablet that takes on the overtones of a villain and a trio consisting of a toilet-training device, a mapping program and a child’s camera, as well as an unspeaking sticky hand toy. The surprise is that this is more of a Jessie film than it is a Buzz and Woody film. Those two are effectively sidelined to supporting roles – Woody more so than Buzz who gets a B plot concerning a small army of Buzz Lightyear dolls. This may well be part of Hollywood (and Pixar)’s renewed focus on Girl Power and women-led films.
Aside from the anti-e-attachment plot, Toy Story 5 settles in with a familiarity. It was okay for the most part. Where the film gains its feet is from about the point that Jessie realises her purpose of bringing the two girls together. Here the film becomes appealingly madcap, knitting all its plot strands together in a scene where the army of Buzzs ride in on a herd of toy horses, including fluffy horses and a unicorn with a wonderfully luxuriant purple mane; highly creative use of assorted messaging, phone and mapping devices; and the army of Buzzs all taking to the air on backpack drone propellers (even a surprise reappearance of Emperor Zurg during the end credits), not to mention everything climaxing in a wedding. It all does come together for the strong and welcome kind of emotional uplift at the end that classic Pixar did well but has been lacking in their films of the last few years.
Trailer here