Movie Reviews

"Toy Story 5" is a step up from its predecessor, telling a nuanced and inventive story about our screen-dominated society — and whether analog toys still have a place in it.

By Kevin Slane

June 19, 2026 | 12:06 PM

4 minutes to read

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Heading into “Toy Story 5,” the latest movie from Disney’s Pixar Animation Studios, I had some doubts. “Toy Story 3” was the perfect capstone to a trilogy of Pixar’s original stars, and “Toy Story 4,” while perfectly pleasant, didn’t break any new ground.

Thankfully, “Toy Story 5” director Andrew Stanton provides a cure for Pixar’s recent outbreak of sequel-itis, helming an original story that offers a fresh take on the scourge of screens mesmerizing children and adults alike. More importantly, it’s a movie that doesn’t lose sight of what made “Toy Story” great in the first place.

If there’s a star of “Toy Story 5,” it’s not Woody (Tom Hanks) or Buzz (Tim Allen): It’s Jessie (Joan Cusack), the cowgirl whose story of losing touch with her first owner as she aged into adolescence in “Toy Story 2” was the first of many tear-jerking vignettes in the Pixar canon. 

Jessie is happy with Bonnie (the child introduced at the end of “Toy Story 3”) who, at 8 years old, still has a powerful sense of play. Early in the film, we see the fruits of Bonnie’s imagination, as Jessie and Buzz participate in a fake wedding with all of her other toys in attendance. Stanton renders these created scenes with a storybook style of animation, a lovely visual flourish that stands out from the typical “Toy Story” palette.

Wonderfully creative while alone in her bedroom, Bonnie isn’t quite as outgoing when it comes to playing with other kids. Seeking to give their child a connection point with her classmates, Bonnie’s parents buy her a Lilypad, an kid-friendly (but still unsettlingly powerful) tablet akin to the real-life LeapFrog devices.

Voiced by Greta Lee, Lily has terabytes of data about what children like Bonnie’s classmates enjoy, and what Bonnie should be doing to ingratiate herself. Unsurprisingly, that mostly involves using Lily at all hours of the day, lest Bonnie lose her daily streaks or miss out even a moment of online connection with her “friends” – who have real Regina George from “Mean Girls” energy despite being in elementary school.

Lily’s takeover of Bonnie’s life stings Jessie the most. Even if she was prepared to eventually lose Bonnie to other age-appropriate interests, eight years old is too young to give up playing with toys, in her eyes. And so begins a harrowing adventure, in which Jessie and Lily battle for their child’s soul en route to a sleepover, leaving Jessie and Bullseye on the outside (literally) looking in.

By wading into new territory with its treatise on screens, “Toy Story 5” is already miles ahead of “Toy Story 4,” which was content to mostly repeat the story beats of the original while introducing enough new characters to sell more Disney merch. But “Toy Story 5” treats our digital reality with nuance. 

Jessie, initially a full-blown Luddite, eventually comes around when, on one of many detours, she teams up with a coterie of abandoned early 2000s tech led by a toilet training game voiced by Conan O’Brien, who provides many of the film’s funniest moments. Even these single-use gadgets, including an ancient GPS (Craig Robinson) and a childproof digital camera (Shelby Rabara) have use. And despite being machines, they miss their version of “play” with their fast-growing kids.

If “Toy Story 5” has one major flaw, it’s that there are simply too many toys in the room. While playthings have been abandoned by their owners in the series, they’re almost never left behind by Pixar. Duke Caboom, introduced in “Toy Story 4” and voiced by Keanu Reeves, has maybe three lines in total. Ditto Tony Hale as Forky, the protagonist of the most recent film. Even Woody, one half of Pixar’s original double act, is a free-range toy who only comes to Bonnie’s when called. Apparently Bad Bunny, one of the biggest pop stars on the planet, voiced a toy called Pizza with Sunglasses, but I could not tell you a single thing about this character. 

The film also spends considerable time on a B story involving an army of upgraded Buzz Lightyear toys, whose tabula rasa quality recalls the out-of-the-box quality of the space ranger in “Toy Story 1.” Their mission will surely amuse the younger set, but is highly superfluous, even when Stanton and co. eventually integrate them into the main plot.

Ultimately, “Toy Story 5” accomplishes what Pixar does best, finding a way to tell an engaging story that will delight children and emotionally resonate with adults. It’s even-handed in its examination of our digital society, refusing to fully turn back the clock on technological progress. But where it draws a line is the use of screens as a time-killer. Children must be allowed to experience whimsy, be given the freedom to explore, and the ability to form social bonds, whether aided by technology or not. Because if you ain’t got a friend, you ain’t got a whole lot.

Rating: *** (out of 4)

“Toy Story 5” is in theaters now.