Directors – Kenna Harris, Andrew Stanton – 2026 – US – Cert. PG – 102m
***1/2
The toys become sidelined when their child is given a screen-based tech device and she abandons them to spend all her time interacting with it – out in UK cinemas on Friday, June 19th
After a damaged package of High-Tech edition Buzz Lightyear action figures causes a veritable battalion of them to fall from the sky, regular group of toys belonging to young girl Bonnie (voice: Scarlett Spears from Wicked for Good, John M.Chu, 2025) are the subject of her make believe games, switching satisfyingly from romantic wedding to murder mystery.
Leading toy character Cowgirl Jessie (voice: Joan Cusack from Toy Story 2–4; High Fidelity, Stephen Frears, 2000; Grosse Pointe Blank, George Armitage, 1997) takes it upon herself to turn up, ring pull voice self-activated, outside Bonnie’s garden fence, in an attempt to get Bonnie to make friends with the kids next door. Something Bonnie has been avoiding for months.
Jessie has, however, reckoned without tech. Bonnie is the exceptional child who still plays with toys; most of the kids are glued to electronic devices, and have no need for traditional, physical toys or the type of play they inspire. As a discarded toy living in the derelict outdoors world later explains it, the Age of Toys is over.
Bonnie’s dad (voice: Jay Hernandez from Toy Story 4, Josh Cooley, 2019; Suicide Squad, David Ayer, 2016; Hostel, Eli Roth, 2005) orders her a Lilypad (voice: Greta Lee from Tron: Ares, Joachim Rønning, 2025; Past Lives, Celine Song, 2022; Spider-man across the Spider-verse, Joachim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, Justin K. Thompson, 2023). Once it has arrived, tech has entered the home. For her first 24 hrs, before any parental screen time limits are imposed, Bonnie is on the device constantly.
The old toys are horrified at her completely held attention and their resultant abandonment. But it gets worse. Lilypad is sneaky, adding Bonnie to juvenile social network The Pool and sending out friend invites. Before long, she has new girlfriends, other girls her age in the same area. But, as Jessie observes, how can you make friends with people when they’re not even here?
Sure enough, when Bonnie goes for a sleepover with some of her new friends, it’s a disaster. Jessie smuggles herself and Bullseye into Bonnie’s suitcase, but on arrival the child’s enthusiasm for her old style toys is swiftly dispelled by peer pressure biased against them in favour of the screen-oriented tech. Dumping Jessie and her faithful horse Bullseye, Bonnie has a sleepover where everyone sits around looking at and interacting with their screens, and returns home looking distinctly bleary-eyed.
Jessie and Bullseye, meanwhile, are returned home – specifically to their home three owners ago, not that of current owner Bonnie. This is not all bad, since they wind up with Blaze (voice: Mykal-Michelle Harris), a girl Bonnie’s age, who has a huge collection of toy horses and, on acquiring the two toys, is delighted with them. Perhaps there’s a friend for Bonnie here?
In the hands of newbie Kenna Harris (story artist on Luca, 2021; Raya and the Last Dragon, 2021; Ralph Breaks the Internet, 2018), Andrew Stanton (co-screenwriter of the previous Toy Story films, directing one for the first time), this fifth film maintains the element that made the franchise stand out as something special – that of sentient toys who must pretend to be inanimate when humans can see them. And in the case of the army of Buzz Lightyears, toys which believe themselves to be the real thing, and remain unaware that they are, in fact, merely toys. That’s as effective here as in any of the previous franchise entries.
Particularly compelling are the playtime sequences, which switch from matter of fact, real world, children playing with their toys as seen in all the earlier films and innovative playtime footage from the inside of the child’s mind, with background environments rendered in pastel colours.
The movie further benefits from a wide cast of toys, which seems to have been growing since the first film (although some, such as the toy soldiers, have long since been dropped, while others, such as the three green aliens, get little more than a cameo). Cowboy Woody (voice: Tom Hanks from Captain Phillips, Paul Greengrass, 2013; Forrest Gump, Robert Zemeckis, 1994; Sleepless in Seattle, Nora Ephron, 1993) is away elsewhere helping Bo Peep (voice: Annie Potts from Ghostbusters: Afterlife, Jason Reitman, 2021; Pretty in Pink, Howard Deutch, 1986; Corvette Summer, Matthew Robbins, 1978) rescue abandoned toys, a situation which has got much worse as kids have gravitated away from toys towards tech.
The regular group of Bonnie’s toys include such stalwarts as Buzz Lightyear (voice: Tim Allen from Galaxy Quest, Dean Parisot, 1999; The Santa Clause, John Pasquin, 1994), promoted to deputy sheriff in her absence, and Rex the plastic dinosaur (voice: Wallace Shawn from Toy Story 1-4; The Princess Bride, Rob Reiner, 1987; Radio Days, Woody Allen, 1987).
However, this is very much Cowboy Jessie’s story, with Lilypad as the (debatable) villain and a trio of sidekicks picked up en route in the form of discarded tech toys including toilet trainer SmartyPants (voice: Conan O’Brien), preppy toy camera Snappy (voice: Shelby Rabara) and less memorable talking, GPS-equipped hippo Atlas (voice: Craig Robinson from The Bad Guys, Pierre Perifel, 2022; Sausage Party, Greg Tiernan, Conrad Vernon, 2016; Pineapple Express, David Gordon Green, 2008).
To anyone familiar with the franchise, all this washes over you as more of the same. It’s an enjoyable enough viewing experience which will probably do the business Disney want it to, but it doesn’t feel outstanding or groundbreaking like the early Toy Story films. Perhaps that’s inevitable.
Indeed, there is one area in which the current film largely fails to deliver. It promises a story coming to terms with children and tech screen addiction, but somehow never gets there, Bonnie’s tech device Lilypad ultimately joining the army of friendly toys from whom those in future franchise outings will be drawn. There’s something deeply dissatisfying about this.
Toy Story 5 is out in cinemas in the UK on Friday, June 19th.
Trailer: