Toy Story 5 (2026) Review
THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
Moving on is good, but it’s also good to remind us of our roots that help us adapt.
PLOT
2026’s Toy Story 5 roughly three years after the events of the fourth film. With Woody choosing to be a lost toy alongside Bo Peep (Annie Potts) and the Lost Toys gang that includes: Duke Caboom (Keanu Reeves) Giggle McDimples, Duck & Bunny and Bo’s three headed sheep BIlly/Goat/Gruff, to help other toys reunite with their children, the sheriff duties has been passed to Jessie. The remaining toys of Bonnie Anderson (Scarlett Spears) include: Bullseye, Buzz Lightyear, Forky (Tony Hale), Karen Beverly (Melissa Villaseñor), Slinky Dog (Blake Clark), Hamm (John Ratzenberger), Dolly (Bonnie Hunt), Trixie (Kristen Schaal), Rex (Wallace Shawn), The Potatoheads (Jeff Bergman & Anna Vocino), Mr. Pricklepants (John Hopkins), Buttercup, and the Pizza Planet aliens. Although Bonnie still enjoys playing with all her toys, she has been struggling to make friends with other kids in her neighborhood. Her parents consider the best way for her to do so would be through a frog themed tablet computer meant for children, Lilypad. Lily would instead do more harm than good as she’s designed to be because while Bonnie still talks to other kids in the tablet’s social media platform, she’s not actually verbally communicating and becomes addicted to the tablet like the rest of her kids. Jessie points out to Lily how important it is for Bonnie to make friends traditionally, but she doesn’t budge. Worried of losing Bonnie’s affection, she radioes Woody for advice who has also seen firsthand how technology affected toys everywhere he goes and he considers returning when assuming she needs help. She and Bullseye try to win their kid over by sneaking into Bonnie’s backpack for a sleepover. At first, Bonnie would be excited about having her toys with her but the second the other kids judge her for still having toys, she leaves them behind in the car of her father (Jay Hernandez) so she can bond with them via Lilypad tablets. The cowgirl & horse duo try to escape the car to get back to the sleepover, but they get picked up by an elderly couple to avoid blowing their cover and the couple takes them to an old farmhouse that once was the home of Jessie’s first owner Emily; The two toys are taken there due to the address still visible on Jessie’s chaps. When still trying to get back, they try riding an actual horse named Daffodi that crashes them into the barn and Bullseye gets spotted by the child resident, Blaze Manouikan (Mykal-Michelle Harris), who takes him in the house. Jessie lays low in an abandoned playhouse full of abandoned toys, but she does get in the house with the help of a potty training device toy named Smarty Pants, who is created from the same company that created Lilypads, Eggman Technology. In the house, she gives him new batteries, as well as some for fellow device toys, one eyed camera Snappy and hippo head-shaped GPS receiver Atlas. When reuniting with Bullseye, they do get to enjoy playing with Blaze, and they decide sending a picture to Bonnie in Blaze’s name to pick her & Bullseye up. When Woody reaches Bonnie’s home, he sees how difficult Lily is to the point of her tricking Bonnie’s dad to put the toys in the garage. Luckily, Buzz deduces her weakness to be speech recognition function which he uses to the advantage of seeing Jessie’s picture and forcing the tablet to show Bonnie. When the girl sees it, Woody & Buzz would hitch a ride to the Manoukians. By the time Bonnie and her mom (Lori Alan) reach the farmhouse, she would ultimately allow Blaze to keep her two toys after she gets made fun of by the other kids on the group chat, ‘The Pond’, for still playing with toys. As this makes Jessie feel demoralized, she would sulk off at the same tree where Emily used to play with her. The feeling of sadness disappears when she uncovers a time capsule lunchbox full of Emily’s memories including proof that Emily named her daughter her. With proof that she still had an impact on her life over the years, Jessie continues to have faith in Bonnie. Around the same time does an entire unit of Hi-Tech Buzz Lightyears, that have been stuck on demo mode for some time after their shipping container fell off a cargo ship washing them out to sea, have reached the farmhouse as well after her photo on The Pond goes viral and mistake Jessie to be a Star Command leader over noticing the badge. When meeting Woody and Buzz, Lightyear explains their purpose as toys. With their help and the device toys, Jessie is able to track down Lily who regrets what happened to Bonnie that she throws herself in a donation bin of a moving truck. They reach her when riding Blaze’s toy horses to Lily’s location and use the drone ability of the Hi Tech Buzzes to fly back to both Bonnie and Blaze’s houses. Before splitting up, Buzz reveals his feelings toward Jessie for the first time and she reciprocates with a kiss. By the time all toys return to their owners, they orchestrate with Lily’s help a meeting between the girls. After hesitation between both kids, they end up getting along very well that their bond gets the attention of Bonnie’s neighbors that join in on the fun. As Woody departs to return with Bo, the film ends with a mid credit scene showing the Hi Tech Buzzes and a Hi Tech Zurg land near a playground where they each get taken in by various kids.
THOUGHTS
40 years after being founded in 1986, Pixar is still an elite animation studio with an array of ideas that will hold up for generations to come. The proof is in the pudding with this sequel that could’ve went abysmal real quick, but has a quality that goes on par with the past. Directors Andrew Stanton & Kenna Harris keep the ball rolling here with constant entertainment and something that continue warming our hearts when we need it most. I can definitely say I’m a sucker for the photo realistic aesthetic that’s shown throughout like for examples being the forest and the island, but I felt awestruck with Bonnie’s playtime sequences being portrayed like a storybook rather than an epic blockbuster the way Andy did it. If we’re talking about Easter eggs, I was totally laughing about Bad Bunny being a pizza with sunglasses, which only became possible after he posted playing with Toy Story figures during the COVID-19 pandemic. It was even a whole other ballgame for Alan Cumming to play a villainous version of Bullseye during one of the playtimes when we all know Frank Welker provided the original horse vocals in the second and third movie. The biggest surprise for me in terms of Easter eggs has to be the fact Eggman company that makes device toys is the same brand related to helping Andy & his family move in the very first movie. It’s the little things like that that make franchises special. I also respect that the continuity from the Lightyear spinoff is separated and the original lore of Zurg being Buzz’s dad is maintained for comedic purposes. Speaking of which, it was definitely a big laugh seeing a whole army of Buzzes learning their purpose the way the original Lightyear does, but thanks to them, we get the best callback to the first movie when they actually get fly everyone home reminding me of how Woody & Buzz fell with style. For a while, it was hard to imagine what else can Pixar do to make Toy Story relevant when the 4th gave as good of an ending as the 3rd. The answer was right in front of me the whole time that they needed to explore online addiction. What is done here is the need to balance screentime of course because if we can moderate technology, kids don’t get addicted and true imagination can live on for future generations of kids long after Bonnie. So from the start, it was easy to identify Lily as an enemy because she was stealing the attention remorselessly to the point of trying to push the toys out. That was definitely bad on her end, but Greta Lee is able to assure audiences she just wanted to help Bonnie like the other toys have, but her digital attachments made it hard for her to understand there are multiple solutions to reach such goals. Once she saw she was at fault for Bonnie’s sadness since she is the source of the Pond, she felt she didn’t deserve to belong to anyone. Joan Cusack may show Jessie to be fairly irritated on how difficult the tablet started out, but she still progressed without hate and prefers empathy to progress through the situation. Apart from discovering the impact Emily felt from her overtime, it was bonding with the other device toys that helped her see the benefit of modernization. Of all the new characters here, Conan O’Brien was the biggest delight as Smarty Pants. I laughed significantly over the fact a sticky hand toy became his actual hand but apart from that, he stands out because he’s most proud of his purpose even though he hasn’t been played with for so long. If you got as much as confidence as him, it makes sense why Jessie came around in playing his game and got briefly addicted before moving forward. Speaking of which, Shelby Rabara & Craig Robinson were both welcome additions as Snappy & Atlas due to sharing the upbeat attitude Smarty is all about and putting their abilities to good use. Without them, Jessie & Bullseye would’ve not made it back home. While this is still Jessie’s story, it really wouldn’t be Toy Story without Woody himself and even though he had an appropriate sendoff in the fourth movie, Tom Hanks’ return as the infamous cowboy doll made enough sense. He was the butt of the joke to make fun of his age as his stuffing is making him bloat and the painting in his head coming off makes it look like he’s balding. Apart from that, Woody was memorable for actually finding content that technology would overshadow content but never giving up, hence helping Jessie even when she didn’t straight up ask for it. It was even right for him to still be with Bo because he saw Jessie can still hold her own as a leader. I did already the Hi Tech Buzzes were hilarious of a side quest, but Tim Allen was in his element as the original space ranger we’ve seen from the beginning. He remains the right hand man because he’s still dependable when it comes to still being steadfast under pressure. The big reward for him? He finally got to express his feelings for Jessie and she reciprocated with an overdue kiss. The chemistry has always been there with both characters when they first met and they officially hit it off because they’re equals when it comes to courage displayed. With the cat finally out of the bag, the awkwardness is out the window and they can enjoy the rest of the time they have going forward. This movie was a blast, but even the fun stuff like this have some moments that confused me upon rewatching. Like for starters, where is Mason from holiday special Toy Story That Time Forgot? That was the first friend Bonnie had before Woody and if she’s struggling so much to befriend her other neighbors, there should be an update where he is to explain why he isn’t available. And if toys like Buzz or the Hi Tech Buzzes in this case don’t know they’re toys until explained later, why do they still freeze after unboxed? If they don’t know what they are yet, I’m surprised there hasn’t been a moment where they blow their cover on accident. The same can be said with the pizza planet truck passing by all the toys. Heck, I really doubt the guy at the docks ignore the whole squad of Buzzes all piled up and doesn’t collect them to either turn them over or sell them. I don’t blame the grandma for taking Jessie & Bullseye to Emily’s old address but if Jessie was in the area, the lady should’ve checked the closest house first before doing so. It then feels stranger when she doesn’t bother going to the door rather than leave them at the mailbox. Riding an actual horse may not sound like a bad idea at first, but I’m kinda surprised Jessie doesn’t just ride Bullseye back home since he could catch up to a plane if you remember the second movie. The dumbest thing to come from Blaze’s Combat Carl (Ernie Hudson) is the decision to not only assume Jessie was his owner, but also try speaking to her. Even Woody backed out on this decision in the third movie because it was too risky. And Snappy deleted the picture of Jessie standing right? I mean all it takes for Blaze is one chance to browse through past pictures and the cover is blown. On top of that, I’m surprised Blaze’s mom being chill with her daughter giving a stranger her address, let alone ignoring the hoof prints of the toy horses. Since we know Jessie and the device toys we’re doing this to reunite with Bonnie, it’s a miracle no one investigated the group chat hard enough especially after Bonnie gets cyber-bullied. And did Lily turn off the cameras when she ditched Bonnie? I gotta ask because it’s impressive nobody noticed a tablet jump onto another vehicle. Ignore these things however, then you can still go on to say Toy Story 5 gets the right marks of being another heartwarming adventure for generations of families to watch together. If you still love Pixar post COVID, then I hope you love this movie as well.
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