At The Movies with James Phelan: Toy Story 5

Film Review: Toy Story 5

Toys are central to every childhood. They are a source of play, learning, imagination, laughter and let’s face it – love. This tradition of play is universal but is it timeless??

That’s the anxious question at the heart of this fifth instalment in this beloved franchise. Is the ever more invasive encroachment of tech and screens shrinking the window in which young kids are willing to play with old fashioned toys?

I guess every parent knows the instant answer to that but the first thing to flag about the film is that the case study at the crux of this problem is not Woody or Buzz Lightyear. Instead, cowgirl Jessie rotates into the lead role of this outing and it’s her imminent obsolescence that dominates the film.

Jessie is the toy of choice for a young girl, Bonnie, until her owner feels peer pressure to get a new tablet called Lily Pad. Very quickly, Jessie loses Bonnie’s attention span, which is now reserved exclusively for the hypnotic glow of the new screen. So much so that when Jessie is brought to a play date, Bonnie rejects her toy as she tries to fit in with judgemental friends.

Lost out in the world, Jessie is returned to a former address rather than Bonnie’s house. At this farm, Jessie finds a horse obsessed girl, Blaze, who the toy believes would be a perfect pal for Bonnie. With the help of some other discarded toys, Jessie contrives to try and forge a friendship between the girls. Throughout, the tablet Lily Pad is viewed as the enemy by Jessie but in the end can their mutual love for Bonnie unite toys and tech?

If you’re wondering where Buzz and Woody are during all of this, never fear, they are present. If only just. In fact, this film seems determined to have fun with Buzz in particular as if to atone for the tonal misstep ‘Lightyear’, which was a bewilderingly bleak origin story for the normally bouncy spaceman that robbed him of his charming swagger and addictive effervescence. 

So, in this film, we get 50 Buzzes on an intrepid cross-country journey. I’m not sure if the interesting visuals of this story arc really delivers a payoff but it’s certainly more fun than his previous solo mission.

Meanwhile, Woody is similarly consigned to the margins of the film. In the previous instalment, he had decided to remain in the wilderness to save and offer a community to abandoned toys. He is summoned back to Bonnie’s house to battle the new tech threat but he really doesn’t do or effect much. 

The filmmakers are determined that this is Jessie’s story and that’s fair enough but the main feeling conjured by this plot is déjà vu.

Because, in a way, all five films have been dealing with the theme of kids growing up, moving on and leaving toys behind from the very start. So, this box fresh new film is a variation on a very familiar tune. And maybe it’s time to move on from this particular refrain. To use cowboy and cowgirl lingo, this might be one too many trips to the same well.

The film is at its most touching in the sequences where Bonnie is bullied and shamed for being a baby who is still into toys. Such poignant moments in the other four films were normally squashed between zinging dialogue and imaginatively staged action sequences. It gives me no joy to say that the pop and fizz of previous entries on these fronts feels flat here.

The ‘Toy Story’ films started out as being for kids of all ages. This one feels like it is just for kids. Which is fine if that’s the desired direction creatively. This is a simple and emotionally earnest tale but it also feels very safe. Personally, I think some of the shorter form efforts like ‘Toy Story of Terror’, about the gang’s Halloween stop at a creepy motel, showed the flexibility, fun and potential future of this universe. This fifth film will do for now but it’s surely time to play with the formula and serve us something unexpected next time.