I can’t believe we’ve been making Toy Story movies for 31 years. I remember being in a theater as a kid in 1995, watching Toy Story for the first time. I was at that age where I was starting to segue away from playing with toys and into life, or video games, or whatever else you start doing when you get into your teens. But, admittedly, I had a robust childhood. I watched a lot of kids programming, loved my daily intake of cartoons, and yes, I had a bunch of toys and action figures. So, I remember going home after seeing Toy Story for the first time and having this sudden resurgence in wanting to pull out my old favorites, almost like I had denied them in the same way the toys in Toy Story were concerned about being discarded or no longer played with.

It’s amazing what Pixar is able to do when they really put their minds to it. Of course, those were the John Lasseter years. And because of reasons you can probably Google yourself, John Lasseter no longer works at Pixar. The post-Lasseter era has been a bit of a mixed bag. The ideas and concepts coming out of Pixar have been a little choppier, a little messier, and definitely more inconsistent. I didn’t really care for Toy Story 4. Not that I think it’s a bad movie. It still works for me on a nostalgic level because I get to see characters I really enjoy, and I was fond of the return of Bo Peep to the fray. But I also thought the plot sacrificed several of the supporting characters, including Jessie, who now gets a showcase in Toy Story 5.

Jessie is arguably the lead of this film, more than any other toy, which is an amazing opportunity for her and for Joan Cusack, who voices Jessie, to bring the cowgirl home and help anchor what has now been a four-film-long arc for the character. Jessie wasn’t in the first film and joined the franchise quite memorably in Toy Story 2, with the original song When She Loved Me, which really, even in 1999, brought me all of the feels. I remember sitting in a theater the first time I saw Toy Story 2. That experience was a little bit crazier. The theater was completely full, and I had to sit in the front row. But I remember looking up at the screen during that sequence and holding back tears. It’s a beautiful song and a beautiful sentiment. So, when you hear that theme playing in the first few moments of Toy Story 5, you know you’re in for something. And, in the interest of time, I will tell you that Toy Story 5 is better than four. It just is.

I know there’s this great debate about how Bonnie’s story should be different from Andy’s, and how it’s okay for these toys to exist in a new trilogy, almost like we’re in the later Star Wars films. There’s definitely some truth to that, but there still needs to be an emotional arc. Instead of Toy Story 4 starting a new one with Bonnie, it really felt like we were saying goodbye for a second time.

It’s sort of like what Vin Diesel is trying to chase now by wrapping up the Fast and Furious franchise with its 11th entry, when, really, the franchise already had its finale in the seventh film following the untimely death of Paul Walker. It’s the most resonant and emotional ending in the entire series, and yet they wanted more money, so they started making more films. Now they’re having a hard time figuring out how to actually end it.

So, the question here becomes: when it’s time for Bonnie to grow up, how do we end her story with her toys. Especially given the fact that Bonnie’s stories continue to revolve largely around the toys she inherited from Andy, while Bonnie’s original toys are almost always pushed into the back seat. When I get my Time Machine, I will travel back to Pixar before Toy Story 4, and remind them that logically, at least one of Bonnie’s original toys should have gained lead toy status, since they were there first, and if this is the new Bonnie trilogy, that makes a hell of a lot more sense than constantly pretending like they are still cameos. Bonnie’s toys are becoming so irrelevant, Mr Pricklepants is no longer voiced by Timothy Dalton, and unlike some of the other changes, Dalton is still alive. At 80, he just chose not to return for Toy Story 5, after voicing Mr Pricklepants in 3 and 4.

As a matter of fact, at this point, Jessie runs the show. At the beginning of the film, Woody is still off trying to save toys, Buzz is Jessie’s deputy, and the rest of the toys basically follow Jessie’s lead. That’s why, when it becomes clear to her that Bonnie is having trouble making friends, Jessie tries to connect Bonnie with the twins across the street. That doesn’t go over so well because the twins don’t really play with toys anymore. They’re fixated on their screens. That’s when Jessie realizes that technology has taken over. Kids aren’t playing with toys anymore because they all have tablets and phones and other devices. Bonnie’s parents figure this out too, and they purchase her a Lilypad, voiced here by Greta Lee.

When Lilypad arrives, it consumes Bonnie’s attention, much like screens have consumed the attention of basically every living kid on the planet. Your kids can’t stop looking at their screens, and neither can Bonnie. Jessie has to figure out a way to make sure Bonnie retains who she is without losing herself inside the device. That’s something Lilypad believes is completely unnecessary because, in her mind, she provides everything Bonnie needs, including friends. Why not? All the other kids are on the pad. That sounds unfortunate, but LilyPad tries to avoid that by calling it “the pond”, because having a bunch of girls on the pad means something totally different.

Now that Bonnie is there too, she can be part of the group chats. She can be in on the inside jokes. She can finally feel included. And it does eventually get her invited to a sleepover, which Jessie and Bullseye tag along for, believing that Lilypad couldn’t possibly have Bonnie’s best interests in mind. After all, Lilypad does seem to be against the toys, as the film utilizes her abilities to box away most of the side characters so that we don’t have to worry about advancing them in the story. That’s kind of sad because it means a lot of original characters like Rex, Slinky, Mr. Potato Head, and Hamm are all relegated to storage for nearly the entire film, along with Bonnie’s original toys and additions like Forky, who is, for reasons unknown, still part of the film.

This leaves Jessie and Bullseye out with Bonnie, while Buzz and Woody are left trying to rescue the other toys and stop Lilypad. Jessie and Bullseye get separated from Bonnie and are found by an elderly couple. Jessie’s story comes full circle when she’s dropped off at a house she recognizes because her first owner, Emily, wrote her address on Jessie. So, Jessie is miles away from Bonnie, but she’s also right at home.

Jessie retreads her original steps along with Bullseye and meets the young girl who now lives in the house, Blaze. Much like Bonnie, Blaze has struggled to make friends. But Blaze still has the same kind of imagination as Bonnie, leading Jessie to believe that if she can just get Bonnie and Blaze to meet, these two are evenly matched friends. Instead of trying to pretend to like someone on a Lilypad, these two could actually interact outside of their screens.

Interestingly, Jessie ends up having to use tech toys to make all of this happen, most notably Conan O’Brien’s Smarty Pants, a toilet-training toy that has been put out to pasture for a while and is really hoping to get some new batteries in him. If Jessie will just take him inside, he promises to help her on her journey.Every Toy Story sequel seems to introduce at least one memorable new character. Toy Story 2 brought us Jessie and Bullseye. Toy Story 3 gave us Lotso and expanded roles for Ken and Barbie. Toy Story 4, for better or worse, brought us Forky, but also Duke Kaboom.Now we get Smarty Pants.He’s the highlight of the film, aside from Jessie.

Meanwhile, Woody and Buzz are fighting for control of Bonnie’s room, trying to figure out how to rescue the other toys and manipulate Lilypad into doing what they need her to do.And all of this is still not the only story being told.

At the very beginning of the film, we see a crate full of Buzz Lightyear toys that don’t realize they are toys, trying to find their way across the world. Eventually, that story intersects with the main storyline, but it feels very utilitarian. Once the film is done with the army of Buzz Lightyears, they quite literally vanish from the film.

I think the emotional weight being back in Toy Story matters because I was genuinely moved during a sequence with Jessie when she’s questioning whether she’s ever really made an impact and is sitting underneath a tree, a tree that she is quite familiar with.I admittedly got choked up.But I do think the film could have gone a step further. The thing that makes the sequence emotional could have been pushed into another character, especially since we never learn the name of Blaze’s mom.That’s about as much as I can say without fully spoiling it for anybody.

However, the film still has the problem of shoving its supporting characters into a box, which sucks for anybody who is a fan of the other toys. Some of them don’t even really get to speak. In the toy rescue crew with Woody, you hear Woody, you hear Bo Peep, and even Keanu Reeves has returned as Duke Caboom. But they didn’t bring Key and Peele back for Ducky and Bunny, so their characters don’t speak. I’m not sure I heard Mr. Potato Head speak by himself, probably because they didn’t find a replacement for the original voice. The same goes for Mrs. Potato Head, who was at least mentioned in the audio description track, whereas Mr. Potato Head was not. Slinky is heard, and his replacement voice is perfect. But Hamm and John Ratzenberger are notably absent, and these are characters who have been there since day one. It’s bad enough that we can look back at Andy’s original bedroom and wonder whatever happened to RC and the Army Men. The Little Green Men and their fascination with the claw are also nowhere to be found. But you would think that, at least with the toys who are still around, they could have found a way to feature the main supporting cast.

I’m sure we’ll get a Toy Story 6. I hope they figure out a way to balance the toys because some of them have become icons. There’s a Slinky Dog ride at Disney World. It’s pretty hard to ignore that and then give him absolutely nothing substantial to do in Toy Story 5. But I can’t argue that I didn’t love the fact that the film devoted itself to Jessie.Because, man, she deserved it.

She’s been a fan favorite since she was introduced and has always been sort of the third wheel to Woody and Buzz. So, for her to finally get her own film, and for the movie to continue developing Bonnie through Jessie’s story, emotionally resonated with me more.Sure, it means that Woody and Buzz inevitably do less. But just because they were Andy’s top two toys doesn’t necessarily mean they’re Bonnie’s.And that’s okay.

I think Disney has vastly overestimated the drawing power of Taylor Swift because her song that plays over the credits did not get anyone in my theater to stay.As a blind film critic, I usually wait until everybody else has left the theater so that I don’t collide with anybody unnecessarily. This is especially true in a kids movie because parents don’t always teach their little ones about blind people. The sighted friend I was with let me know that everyone was gone pretty quickly.If there was an end-credit scene, no one was willing to stay for it.And I definitely didn’t care enough to stay for Taylor Swift.Probably a miscalculation if they’re trying to give her an Oscar nomination because the song doesn’t have the same emotional impact as When She Loved Me or You’ve Got a Friend in Me, songs that actually played during the films and became part of the emotional experience.Even if the Taylor Swift song had bled a little bit into the end of the film before continuing into the credits, a little like Lady Gaga’s song does at the end of Top Gun: Maverick, that probably would have helped.But the movie’s over.

And then Taylor sings.

I enjoyed the audio description track from Deluxe, narrated by Darren Rivets, as much as I possibly could. There’s some really great description here just in general, but as far as describing a Toy Story movie, I’m not really sure it worked.

The track has a hard time managing the sheer number of toys, much like the film itself does. Several toys are never mentioned in the audio description track, including some of the originals. So, there’s this ambiguity as to whether or not they’re even in the film.I don’t like when audio description tracks make me have to do work to find out things that a sighted person would have found out just by watching the movie. Most of Deluxe’s tracks don’t do that, but this one does.But Darren Rivets has a lovely voice. She’s great as the narrator for this, and I did enjoy her voice work for the audio description. I just wish there had been a little bit more.

Even with some of the newer toys, there are gaps. When Jessie and Smarty Pants reunite with two other tech-related toys after they get inside Blaze’s house, I’m still not entirely sure what the other one was. I know one was a camera, but I don’t know what the other one did.Still, I’m really happy that Jessie finally got her due.

If we’re doing Bonnie’s world, Woody and Buzz wouldn’t necessarily be her number one and number two toys just because they were Andy’s. Bonnie would have different favorites. And since the franchise chooses to continue to platform Andy’s top toys while relegating the rest of the ensemble to a box, it might as well be Jessie because she feels more like Bonnie’s vibe.

And for fans who feel like Buzz Lightyear is somehow emasculated in this film, I don’t think so. He essentially has two completely different storylines. There’s the one involving the army of Buzz Lightyears, and there’s the one where he’s trying to figure out a way to tell Jessie how he feels. Most of the trolls online point to a sequence where Buzz is the bride to Jessie’s groom, but that sequence is a play sequence. It’s not the toys doing it on their own. Buzz didn’t just choose to wear a dress of his own volition. He didn’t choose to walk down the aisle to Jessie. It’s all part of Bonnie’s imagination. And when you think about it, she’s a girl, so why wouldn’t she flip things around? It’s her imagination. This is a girl who has two toys that she created, one made from a fork and one made from a knife, and they’re still part of her toy collection. They feel very much like temporary toys that would have hit the garbage by now, but she keeps a toy fork and a toy knife around. So, she absolutely has the vibe of doing things radically differently.

Toy Story 5 is better than I thought it was going to be. I definitely had a lot of trepidation coming after Toy Story 4 and definitely after Lightyear, which I don’t like, even with the nostalgia factored in. So, this is an improvement over the last two films in the franchise, and it’s easily the best thing Andrew Stanton has directed this year. Hopefully, Toy Story 6 will find the right script, the right director, and the right balance for its cast and characters because it’s getting a little annoying watching them not know what to do with the rest of the toys while continuing to add more and more new ones. The fact that Ducky and Bunny are included here without Key and Peele returning to voice them highlights the problem. There are too many damn toys in this. And while I don’t advocate for losing toys like we did with RC, the Army Men, or those Little Green Men who are so fascinated with the claw, perhaps there’s something to streamlining the franchise. That way, the original characters can have their day, but some of Bonnie’s original toys can actually participate in the storyline as well. Because she liked them before she was ever given toys from Andy.

Toy Story 5 is a well-told story about the cautionary way we need to be approaching tech with kids and a reminder to parents that it’s okay to continue to buy your kids toys. A screen is not necessarily a toy. It’s a tool. It might be good for certain things, but it shouldn’t be everything. Manage your kids’ screen time. Which is an ironic take for a film that needs to appear on a screen in order for you to watch it. But still, it’s a message worth listening to.

I like Toy Story 5, and while I’m sure it won’t win Animated Feature, being the fifth film in a franchise, there’s always a chance. And there’s a decent chance it might be my favorite animated feature of 2026. Something I could not say about Toy Story 4 or Lightyear.

Saddle up, partner.

There’s a snake in my boots.

To infinity…and beyond?

Fresh: 8.5/10