"Toy Story 5" Talkback (Spoilers)

[PinkieLopBun]

Release date: June 19, 2026
Directed by: McKenna Harris, Andrew Stanton
Starring: Tom Hanks, Tim Allen
Synopsis: Woody, Buzz Lightyear, Jessie and the rest of the gang’s jobs are challenged when they come face-to-face with Lilypad, a brand-new tablet device that arrives with her own disruptive ideas about what is best for their kid, Bonnie. Will playtime ever be the same?

 

[Breakfast Master]

My family got back from seeing it (I haven't seen one since 3) and were left pretty emotional over it, all good things I hear, which is very encouraging. There's something in the trailers that gets a great pay off in the end and it ties up further decades-long loose ends.

 

[Spacething7474]

I saw the film on Thursday, and I thought it was pretty good! I have some more (spoilered) thoughts down below:

Spoiler

-One of the kids in the tech montage was playing a Hillside Climb Racing-like, which is cool since it was among one of the mobile titles I played on my first tablet from 2013

-Some of the events felt a little convuluted, like Lilypad getting unplugged by Woody and Buzz followed by the electronic toys successfully sending the message to it, or that message's image looking for Jessie and Bullseye reaching Bonnie's groupchat, thus leading to Bonnie rejecting them at Blaze's house after they mock her

-Other tech forms are mentioned by the toys as replacements (like computers), but only Lilypad is depicted as sentient, which is a missed oppurtinity for other Lilypads and what they think, and also computers since Blaze's dad was seen zooming on it (plus the Roomba at the end since Lilypad wanted Jessie to hook her up with it)

-Buzz and Jessie becoming a couple is a little odd to think about since I'm used to it being Buzz's one-sided crush (a bit better than Woody and Bo Peep though, which I never really cared for)

-Forky and his wife from the credits of the 4th film were probably the best couple here (although I'm not too crazy about them), although they and a majority of Bonnie's toys got rather shafted here

-The plot with the multiple Buzzes was fun, but felt like it didn't get enough time in certain spots (like the one that was found and adopted by a camping family, which never gets returned to afterwards)

-Combat Carl and the rest of the discarded toys at Blaze's place never get returned to after Jessie and the electronic toys leave their area (we also never really returned to the toys who first warned Jessie and the others bout the electronics)

-Speaking of the barn, the hay that Jessie got stuck under before that honestly looked escapable in most angles

-Emily naming her daughter after Jessie would've made more of an impact if either one of them actually appeared physically (which apparently they and Emily's granddaughter were supposed to, but it got removed)

-The aliens/Little Green Men sadly didn't even get any lines, and neither did Ducky or Bunny from the previous film

-There was this blue hand toy that would sometimes act as Smarty Pants' hands and sometimes be on it's own, but it barely felt like it was treated as a seperate character

-The credits listed Pizza Steve the Pizza with Sunglasses' actor as Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, making no mention to him being Bad Bunny, which was kinda funny

-The original plot about Andy raising a family got changed, but I don't think Andy even got a cameo here

 

[SweetShop209]

I definitely enjoyed this movie.

 

[Pooky]

This was perfectly fine, but I do think it is the weakest of the series. At the moment the consensus seems to be that it’s better than the fourth, but I think these Pixar sequels (including TS4) tend to be received very enthusiastically at first but ultimately average out to a more mixed reputation. We’ll see how this one lands in a few years.

Before the film came out I said that I suspected it would have been better if Woody were left out of it, or perhaps at least restricted to a scene or two. The film did not change my mind. What you see in the trailers is pretty much what you get, and the way they fit him into the film is kind of clunky.

It could be said that the sequels are all kind of formulaic in a sneaky way that you don’t necessarily notice until it’s pointed out to you. I think this is the first one where I consciously thought “isn’t this a bit like the bit in 2/3 etc.?” on my first viewing.

I’m not entirely clear on how old Bonnie is, but Blaze is said to be 9, which is how old I was when the first film came out in the UK, so that’s an interesting connection for me. Though I can’t help thinking that, while 9 year old me still bought the occasional toy, if you’d made me choose between toys and video games back then video games would have been the easy choice, so there’s part of the central premise here that doesn’t quite ring true for me.

Still, it’s a jolly enough film and it ends quite well. One thing I will give it over the fourth is

Spoiler

the ending works at least as well as a comma as it does a full stop. There really wasn’t much point in pretending Toy Story 4 was the end, and there isn’t much point in pretending there won’t, in all likelihood, be a Toy Story 6.

While I’m hear a couple of weird thoughts/over-analysation moments I had.

The big tear jerker moment in this one is the reveal that Jessei’s owner named her daughter after her. To be honest even within the quasi-religious fervor that these later films treat the relationship between kids and toys that seems a little much, especially for someone that gave away said toy (and never tried to buy one back?). But also isn’t Jessi a representation of a famous TV character in their world? Couldn’t the kid have been named after the character? It’s weird how little this element comes up for any characters other than Buzz (where it even, infamously, bled over into the promotion for the Lightyear film)

As mentioned elsewhere if Lillypad is alive is all technology? All objects? Maybe the final film should end with the reveal that the theater chairs and projector are also alive

 

[Surreal Kangaroo]

I just got back from seeing it. I liked it better than 4, but it’s not as good as the original trilogy. The army of Buzz Lightyear was hysterical. I have a few nitpicks and I guess I’ll put them in spoilers:

Spoiler

1. I didn’t really like the idea of Bonnie (who is like 8) chatting online.
Yeah it was just some girls from her dance club but still it made me a bit uncomfortable. Playing games and streaming movies is one thing, but communicating with people, especially since she didn’t know Blaze before, just gives me the ick.
2. Why does Smarty Pants have the ability to send messages? Are we seriously supposed to believe that a potty training toy has WiFi?
.

 

[Classic Speedy]

Definitely an improvement over the fourth film. They got back to the overall theme of the series, which is toys' purpose in life being to make kids happy. The "tech coming into kids' lives earlier and earlier" themes were incredibly relevant, and I liked how the movie didn't go all luddite on the audience by saying "tech is bad", since Lilypad helped to resolve things positively in the climax.

Other stuff I liked:
-The running gag of Woody's bald spot.
-At first Lilypad looked like nothing but a malevolent manipulator/saboteur, but really she was just misguided and overconfident that she was the definitive way to get Bonnie to make friends. Very good turn in the third act when she realizes her folly.
-I felt for Bonnie in her various moments of trying to fit in. You know the movie's working when that's the case. Particularly good was the scene when Bonnie reluctantly shows her mom the group chat making fun of her and mom consoles her- there was solid emotional character acting there.
-Conan as Smarty Pants. Truly an original character.

I guess my main criticism is that the movie is overstuffed with characters, since the TS universe has accumulated so many in five movies. A lot of Andy's/Bonnie's old toys are basically now just window scenery/spectators in the midst of the plot, the mainstays like Woody, Buzz and Jessie, and the new characters. The first two movies (and to a lesser extent the third) felt a lot tighter in terms of everyone having a role to play. (but at the same time, no aliens? Or did I miss/forget them?)

B+/A-. Good job bringing the train back on the tracks, Pixar.

Oh, no Pixar short again. I'm expecting this now but it was still a disappointment, since they make up for it with just more trailers (my screening had SEVEN, not counting a Marcus-produced preview for Super Troopers 3... which felt very out of place before a family movie!)

2. Why does Smarty Pants have the ability to send messages? Are we seriously supposed to believe that a potty training toy has WiFi?

My dad was confused about that too, especially with his ability to plug into other toys. He asked me, "Was there a toy like that in real life?" And I was like, "Not to my knowledge." lol.

 

[Spacething7474]

The aliens did appear, but disappointingly they said nothing.

Funnily I also got that Marcus-produced preview for Super Troopers 3 when I saw Minions & Monsters.

 

[nostalgiakid98]

I can't wait for the movie to release on DVD in a few months. I loved the first three Toy Story movies, and the fourth one grew on me. So more content from Toy Story is a major win for me. I heard nothing but good stuff about the fifth movie. Even though I haven't seen it yet, I'd probably give it the same rating I give most movies I watch. An A rank (10 out of 10).