Toy Story 5 – REVIEW

The toys are back in town…

Starting back in 1995 Toy Story revolutionalized the animated feature film. Children, and let’s be honest adults too, were rightly beguiled by Woody and Buzz and those same children back in 1995 are now likely parents themselves and will rightly be only too keen to take their own children to this fifth film in the franchise arriving 31 years later. But the third film, which was the perfect end to one of cinema’s few great trilogies, was such a huge success a fourth film was inevitable but whose end saw Woody and Buzz go their separate ways. So how do they get the gang back together for Toy Story 5

This latest film sees Jessie and Buzz now the playthings of Bonnie the lone child who heart breakingly asks her parents, ‘Why won’t anyone be my friend?’ It’s a line that cuts to the heart for any parent thanks to the brilliance of screen writer and now director Andrew Stanton that highlights one of many childhood traumas. But things soon seem to perk up when she gets invited to a sleepover via a new hi-tech toy, the Lily pad that sees Bonnie almost immediately obsessed with it to the detriment of her former beloved toys now ignored. But it’s when Jessie and her horse Bullseye tag along for the car ride to keep an eye on Bonnie that finds the toys separated and back at the farmstead home of Jessie’s original owner.

Running in parallel to this storyline is that of a storage tank of Buzz Lightyear’s that sank near a remote island and sees the startroopers endeavour to make their way back to Star command. And alongside that is Woody now living in the woods salvaging abandoned toys being roped into help Buzz and Jessie reunite with Bonnie who is finding that the dark side of tech toys has her as the victim of cyberbullying by the new ’friends’.

Toy Story 5 and its new toys ……

For the first time this Toy Story film is all about Jessie with Buzz and especially Woody playing second fiddle and whilst the other toy favourites are back they are in very much reduced roles because that cast of toys has expanded greatly over the years and Toy Story 5 adds several new ones led by Smarty Pants (voiced by Conan O’Brien) a potty training electronic device with the script covertly adding in several clever subversive jokes for the grown ups about No 1’s and No 2’s. At the same time cleverly plays on that fact that even those state of the art tech toys have a built in obsolescence when overtaken by the latest tech gimmick.

Once again Stanton’s script has captured the truisms of childhood and those moments of uncertainty but has also moved with the times as toys are now far more than just a lump of plastic or fabric as played out in one of several insightful scenes that sets the case for the difference between a game and ‘play’. The tech toys here are about the games and the faceless interaction with friends whereas ‘play’ sees a child use their imagination to create stories for their toys. So it’s the drive for children to grow up that sees the other kids cyber bully Bonnie for her love of just playing with her toys.

Kudos to….

This fifth film is perhaps a little too long and the story threads a little too disparate for younger audiences to keep track but the Toy Story films remain the gold standard for feature animation. Credit for that has to be given to Andrew Stanton who has been the writer behind so many of Pixar’s greatest films which has taken in not only the entire Toy Story franchise but also Monsters Inc/ University, Wall-E, Finding Nemo / Dory and has uniquely captured so many aspects of childhood and human emotion often to tear jerking effect. Whilst Toy Story 5 is perhaps not quite on a par with the first three films, it is still head and shoulders above others in the field. Expect a Toy Story 6.

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Tom Hanks, Tim Allen & Andrew Stanton launch the Toy Story 5 UK Premiere in London….