Toy Story 5 (2026)

Every time I have heard about a Toy Story sequel I have had the same reaction. No sequel is ever really needed, but Toy Story felt as if it was even more deserving than most to be left as a solo feature. Then things went very well with what became a fantastic trilogy. All good. Crisis avoided. Then Toy Story 4 was announced. Oh dear. Thankfully, it was fun and entertaining. It still felt unnecessary, but it didn't do anything to really drag down the series. Now we have Toy Story 5. Oh dear.

Toys are now facing some kind of extinction event. Tech is taking over. Children are starting to replace proper play time with time spent looking at screens. While toys don't want to be abandoned, few feel more pained by the thought of that fate than Jessie (Joan Cusack). She's been through that before, and takes it very personally when her owner, young Bonnie, is seduced by the glowing screen of a piece of tech named Lilypad (Greta Lee). So begins a quest to get Bonnie offline and connected with other children, although every other child also seems happier to be looking at a screen now.

Co-written and co-directed by Andrew Stanton and McKenna Harris, the best thing about Toy Story 5 is the fact that it's very much focused on Jessie. Fans of the series will remember how sad her backstory is, and you should prepare yourself to be manipulated some more throughout this adventure, but I would argue that it deserves better treatment when being used as the spine of a full narrative. Without spoiling anything, there's one scene here that is supposed to be quite uplifting and revelatory, but I think the whole film would have been all the better if that moment was played to move us into much darker and more complex territory. That would be a trickier sell for kids, of course, but if anyone can do it then Pixar can.

As you'd expect, this looks absolutely gorgeous throughout. While I have fond memories of the first film in this series, there's no doubt that each instalment has seen the talented people at Pixar improve and refine their craft. The textures here are so realistic that there are times when you feel as if you're watching some actual footage of toys that have been caught moving around of their own accord.

The voice cast are also very good in their roles. Many people return, including Cusack, Tom Hanks, and Tim Allen, and Lee is a great choice for the calm and savvy Lilypad. She would be the main highlight, in fact, if it wasn't for Conan O'Brien, who voices a potty-training device named Smarty Pants. Offering some inventiveness and sheer fun that is sadly lacking elsewhere throughout the film, O'Brien is the best thing about this sadly disappointing mess, although I should also namecheck Ernie Hudson, a cameoing Alan Cumming, Shelby Rabaram Craig Robinson, and Tony Hale returning to the role of Forky. Everyone else does very good work with what they're given, but these feel most deserving of being in a much better film.

Coming along so soon after Disclosure Day, this is a strangely appropriate film to sit alongside that one. It's another blockbuster from someone very talented who now feels stuck in place while so many others have raced ahead. And the fact that the film-makers can't even maintain a strong stance set up by the main premise feels either like a) they knew that would be an impossible position, but figured the rest of the film would work well enough anyway, or b) they didn't want to upset the companies that make so much money from selling us our tech and apps and social media bubbles.

The fact that Toy Story 5 isn't as funny as I hoped it would be isn't the biggest problem. It's not really being sold as a comedy, after all. The fact that it stumbles around the main ideas being explored isn't the biggest problem either. The intentions are clear, and one or two moments still manage to work, especially in the best moments that were featured in the trailer. The biggest problem this film has is not knowing what to do with a handful of beloved characters. Jessie feels as if she's being forced to pick at her scars, Woody wanders in to basically show that he's still around, and Buzz Lightyear . . . well, Buzz once embraced the fact that he could fall with style. Now he can fly. And that might best exemplify how the series has now moved too far away from the fun feeling of "let's pretend" that was locked into so many frames of the previous films. 

4/10

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Lightyear (2022)

I am quite behind on my Pixar viewings nowadays, sadly. With one or two notable exceptions (mainly the Cars movies), I was happy to see every one of them as soon as I could. But two things have now combined to take the shine off them. One is a more varying level of quality, and the other is the fact that having them release directly on to a streaming service allows me to think “oh well, it is there when I want to eventually get to it” for a few of their main titles.

Lightyear was not high on my list of priorities, but the fact that it landed so early on a streaming service meant that I actually decided I would check it out right away. I like the main voice cast, I like the franchise it is side-stepping from, and I like some fun sci-fi shenanigans. So I expected to enjoy an evening planned with this as my main event.

It was okay. It was odd, and a step below the quality of the main Toy Story movies, but okay, hampered by one major detail that I will get to soon enough.

This is not necessarily the tale of a character named Buzz Lightyear (voices here by Chris Evans). I mean . . . it IS, but it is also supposed to be, most importantly, the film that Andy saw in the mid-1990s that made him want a Buzz Lightyear action figure. Buzz is not real. He is a film character. Remember that.

While exploring some strange new worlds, Buzz ends up crashing the spaceship while attempting a desperate escape from hostile life-forms. He really thought he could do it alone, and he also thinks he can be the person responsible for testing the necessary fuel crystals that can take his vehicle to the right speeds needed to get everyone home again. Unfortunately, every time Buzz makes a space trip, minutes for him, years pass by on the planet below. People age, have full lives, and pass away while Buzz keeps trying his best to complete his mission, his only constant being a robo-cat, SOX, that was gifted to him for companionship. As the years pass, disaster strikes, the planet is besieged by the dastardly Zurg (James Brolin) and his many robot warriors. Buzz finds a ragtag group of non-professionals who think they can help him put things right, but can they overcome the biggest obstacle, which is Buzz trying to do everything on his own?

Other characters worth noting here are Alisha Hawthorne (Uzo Aduba), a good friend to Buzz who we see at various stages in her life, and the group of amateurs who end up helping our hero: Izzy Hawthorne (the daughter of Alisha, voiced by Keke Palmer), Darby Steel (an elderly woman on parole, and very handy with explosives, voiced by Dale Soules), and Mo Morrison (someone who seems to be constantly out of his depth in any situation requiring some combat skill, voiced by Taika Waititi).

The first feature to be solely directed by Andrew MacLane, there’s nothing technical here that deserves too much criticism. Although aiming for a slightly different style to a number of other Pixar movies, this looks and sounds about as good as you would expect. MacLane does a perfectly decent job, but he is stifled by the script, which he helped to co-write with about four other people (Andrew Stanton, Matthew Aldrich, Jason Headley, and Lauren Gunderson), which generally lacks the charm and heart that viewers have, rightly, come to expect from Pixar. It also comes perilously close to replicating Lost In Space (1998) at times, and I don’t think anyone was asking for an animated reworking of the Lost In Space movie.

Evans is a good choice for the lead, and he has the confident tone in his voice that Buzz needs, as well as investing his character with some sadness and regret in time for the “insurmountable” obstacles to be overcome in the finale, hopefully. Palmer is delightful, Soules and Waititi are both good fun, and Brolin is a suitably weighty villain (in terms of his vocal delivery). Aduba does well with her relatively small amount of screentime, and Peter Sohn is a real highlight while voicing SOX.

Taken as an animated sci-if film without any other context, this is perfectly fine, if disappointingly unmemorable, entertainment. The biggest thing that works against this is the way it is framed. Thinking of the age Andy should have been when he saw it, and of how impactful it is supposed to have been, it just never feels authentic or more than a cynical attempt to wring more money from a franchise that should now probably be left alone. I know it may seem really silly, but I couldn’t watch this without constantly thinking that it was sub-par. And not just sub-par for me, I just couldn’t imagine a kid being so impressed by it that they had to get the action figure (an action figure that, as we see, was missing a number of potentially exciting accessories).

Maybe I have just forgotten how strongly we can react to the widest range of entertainment when we are kids. Or maybe this just isn’t quite good enough. Not good enough for viewers today, nor good enough for fictional viewers who would have seen this back in the first half of the 1990s.

5/10

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Ani-MAY-tion Month: Toy Story (1995)

It's strange now to think of the many, many years before Pixar were such a huge success in the realm of animated movies, but Toy Story certainly announced their arrival in the best way possible. Smart, packed with great gags and characters, a visual delight (although Pixar would develop and improve with each subsequent movie), and benefiting from a premise that will appeal to any child, and anyone who can remember their childhood.

Woody (Tom Hanks) is a cowboy, and he's also young Andy's favourite toy. He loves his life. When nobody else is around, the toys are all able to live the lives that they keep secret from all of us humans. But things change when Andy receives a shiny new toy for his birthday. A Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen) action figure. Buzz has a laser, wings, better audio speakers, the lot. He's a super duper, shiny spaceman, and his presence threatens Woody's position as the number one toy in the room. And to add to the frustration, Buzz doesn't realise that he is a toy. He thinks that he is THE Buzz Lightyear.

Directed by John Lasseter, who also developed the story idea with Andrew Stanton, Pete Docter and Joe Ranft, Toy Story remains not just one of Pixar's best movies, but also a statement of intent. It showed just how in tune they were with audiences, mixing fresh ideas and animation with enough jokes and nostalgia to keep adults happy. The script is packed full of great lines, written by Stanton, Alec Sokolow, Joel Cohen, and one Joss Whedon, and the world of the toys is rendered in a creative, colourful, and brilliantly believable, way by the team of talented animators.

The voice cast is the icing on the cake. Hanks and Allen are both superb as Woody and Buzz, but the film is given even more plus points thanks to the involvement of Don Rickles, Jim Varney, John Ratzenberger, Wallace Shawn, R. Lee Ermey, Annie Potts, and, well, basically everyone who lends their voice to any character (including Erik von Detten, who does great work as Sid, the nasty kid who lives next door, and spends a lot of his time damaging toys).

The original, and still the best, Toy Story is an object lesson in how to make a modern movie for the whole family. The tools are used to realise the story, as opposed to being overused just because they're available, the film talks directly to children without ever talking down to them, and both the script and visuals provide enough gags and details to keep boredom at bay, no matter how many times you've already seen it.

10/10

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