Review of 'Toy Story 5'

5th film in the 'Toy Story' series

Years after the events of Toy Story 4, Bonnie (voiced by Scarlett Spears) is now 8 years old and still playing with Jessie (voiced by Joan Cusack), Buzz (voiced by Tim Allen) and other toys. She attempts to make friends with the neighbours but they are too engrossed with their electronic gadgets. Soon enough, Bonnie has her own tablet, Lily (voiced by Greta Lee) which soon causes her to neglect her toy friends. Jessie contacts Woody (voiced by Tom Hanks) to express her concern about the situation. He now lives away finding homes for lost toys. Mistaking the call from Jessie as a call for help, Woody rallies his group of toys to come to their aid. Meanwhile, Bonnie starts to talk online with several other girls from her dance class who invite her over for a sleep-over, however, bringing the toys with her she finds the others make fun of her and only want to play with their gadgets. As Bonnie's father takes the toys home Jessie and Bullseye escape but are found by an elderly couple that take them to Jessie's previous owner Emily lives way out in the country. Meanwhile, a group of shipwrecked Buzz Lightyear toys travel across the ocean following a star in the sky (“star command”) that soon leads them into the middle of the action…Yeah, lots going on…

The fifth instalment in the series sees it taking on the growing concern in modern society about the use of electronic devices by young children, taking the line that children need to play with toys…and each other…as part of a healthy upbringing. This message is quite heavy handed and is drummed into our heads time and time again here but, nicely, in the end there is a surprising message of reconciliation between the devices and toys that I think is probably a lot more realistic.

It is great to see the familiar toys back on the big screen with loads of action, of course, and a good lot of humour though perhaps not quite so much as in previous films as this one takes itself a lot more seriously. There is a lot going on here: The child struggling to find friendship; the toy trying to come to terms with an earlier, mysterious, rejection; parents with reservations about electronic devices trying to do what is best for their child; a troupe of spacemen trying to find purpose; old electronic toys stashed away in an old chest of drawers struggling to find new purpose; Buzz trying to figure out a way to propose to Bo Peep (voiced by Annie Potts); Buzz coming to terms with being the new “sheriff” now that Woody is not around…it is a lot to keep track of and I am sure most younger viewers will find a lot of this quite boring but, thankfully, there are some hugely fun action sequences that help to make up for it. I have to think though at more than an hour and a half long it may be too long for many.

Of course, is it great to see the familiar characters back on the screen. There is even a knowing acknowledgement of how long the toys have been around including the repeated gag of Woody having a worn “bald” patch on the back of his head. Of course, there are a few new characters that have their own quirks which make things a bit more interesting.

Good fun with lots of action but with a rather heavy-handed message that gets a bit tiresome along with an excess of story that younger viewers might find confusing.

Rating: “Really good but I have some issues”

Review Date: 2026-06-27

Directed by: McKenna Harris and Andrew Stanton

Studio: Pixar Animation Studios

Year: 2026

Length: 102 minutes

Genre: Animation

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt29355505/

• Toy Story (1995)
• Toy Story 2 (1999)
• Toy Story 3 (2010)
• Toy Story 4 (2019)

• Wall-E (2008)

• Finding Dory (2016)

• Finding Nemo (2001)