Movie Review: Pixar's Playthings Grapple with High-Tech Devices in 'Toy Story 5'
Jessie leads the toys against a tablet that quickly captivates Bonnie, as Pixar argues for imagination and compromise over addictive screen time.
- On Friday, June 19, 2026, Disney and Pixar released Toy Story 5, directed by Andrew Stanton and Kenna Harris, with cowgirl Jessie leading the toys in a narrative warning about the dangers of excessive screen time.
- After Bonnie receives a 'Lilypad' tablet from her parents, she becomes transfixed by the device and isolated from peers, prompting Jessie to intervene as toys struggle to maintain relevance in a digital age.
- While Woody and Buzz Lightyear assist from the sidelines, Jessie teams up with discarded 'old tech' characters including Smarty Pants, voiced by Conan O Brien, to navigate the household and encourage imaginative play.
- Rather than rejecting technology, the film argues for a balanced approach where screens and traditional toys coexist if managed thoughtfully, ensuring play remains the central priority in a child's life.
- This fifth installment maintains Toy Story's legacy of exploring identity and existence, offering a poignant reminder that while 'the age of toys is over' for many, imaginative play and human connection remain vital.
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The world changes, but the feelings remain the same, is the reassuring message in the otherwise tech-concerned 'Toy Story 5'.
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Movie review: Pixar's playthings grapple with high-tech devices in 'Toy Story 5'
After the emotional climax (or terrorism?) of “Toy Story 3,” every subsequent “Toy Story” installment has had to earn its relevance. “Toy Story 4,” in 2019, saw Woody (Tom Hanks) grappling with poignant questions about time passing and the utility…
Returns the famous franchise of Pixar with a defense of the imagination against the screens that, far from demonizing the technology, proposes the coexistence between the two worlds. More information: From 'Meetings in the Third Phase' to 'The Day of Revelation': Steven Spielberg's ufological conspiracy
The fifth time is still pretty charming in a tech-forward Toy Story
The last time we saw space ranger Buzz Lightyear on the big screen, he was caught in a vortex of origin-story failure, both in-universe and metatexual, in the unusual (and hard-to-clarify) form of the human Buzz that the toy is based on. The opening of Toy Story 5 brings Buzz—the toy one—back with a multitude of vengeances, as a wayward shipment’s worth of upgraded Lightyear toys emerges on a deserted island and attempts to get their bearing on …
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