Hey everyone, my name is Anthony and welcome back to my Movie Review.
Before il get started, I just want to make my announcement when it comes to my Movie Review. After I did The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, im starting to having a burnout for reviewing movies in recent year, hence why I either wait longer or canceling my plans. While I promise I maybe will seeing either Markiplier’s Iron Lung or even Kane Pixel’s Backrooms movie (the cinema, not YouTube) that il save later, but some I scrap my review like Mortal Kombat 2 (while it suffered the same flaw as the first, but at least its fun to watch) and scrap my plan to see in theater like Mandalorian and Grogu (Yeah, this movie looks great… For Disney+, instead put it on the big screen… No wonder why it flopped so bad.). So this year, il probably going to be very little when it comes to this year’s Movie Review, which is probably why I wanted to focusing on reviewing movies from the past, from either my morbid curiosity or some request/polls. But don’t worry, I will see some movies I can’t wait to see for Summer Blockbuster, but again, due to burnout, im gonna be very limited on new movies in favor of past films.
Let me know in the comment bellow.
Anyway, back in 7 years ago, I reviewed Toy Story 4, which I called it pretty good film, but feels unnecessary after the third one was meant to be farewell? Well… They just can’t get enough to have a dollar signs in their minds, so here comes the 5th one.
“Toy Story 5” is a 2026 an animated adventure comedy-drama film that was written/directed by Andrew Stanton, produced by Lindsey Collins, and Jessica Choi, and co-written by Kenna Harris.
After Toy Story 4 were done, we just wanted to move on and thinking that the 4th will be the last one for good, at least what Tom Hank said, since it was meant to be a farewell between Woody and Buzz Lightyear (Oh yeah, SPOILER ALERT for those who haven’t seen the 4th one), not to mention, even one of TS4’s producers, Mark Nielsen, was told that Pixar needs to move on to make original films instead of cash-grabbing sequels. But alas, based on what we saw like Onward and Elemental (aside some with limited release like Turning Red, Luca and Soul), it didn’t go that well for the box-office, so sequels are pretty much the answer for Pixar when the Disney CEO (back then), Bob Iger, announced we have the 5th back in February 2023, and yes, they’ll bring Woody back for another journey with Buzz, Jessie and other remaining toys. Especially this is the first Toy Story installment without the disgraced John Lasseter being involved (despite Lasseter hasn’t been retired with working on Skydance Animation with more backstage drama as we believed, along with trying to hard be Pixar or Disney wannabe, but its a long story).
So, with all that said, can Jessie, Buzz and Woody bands together one last time to dealing with Lilypad, or is this film feels like a menacing technical domination, like Pixar’s desperate with sequel baiting?
Well, lets find out.
The Story
After we had about the unlikely relation between cowboy and space ranger from the first one, the rescue mission from collector in the second one, a very real and difficulty choice of being thrown out in the third one and rescue a lost makeshift toy, you think the fifth’s story could give us something original with new and possibly powerful message? Well… Yes and no.
The movie… Weirdly begins where we see a pile of Buzz Lightyears, but they’re not Buzz, but the new “Hi-Tech Edition” of Buzz Lightyear (damn, some company love Buzz Lightyear so much to just make a new and improved ones, but hate to say, “stay classy”). They were stowaway’d in the island, but not before they built their own raft to sail away to find the way out. Meanwhile, we’re returned to Bonnie’s home, where Bonnie plays with our familiar toys from Andy (who used to own them before donated to her back in TS3), unfortunately, she tried to meet and interact with young neighbors in same age, but felt uneasy to interact with, this mainly because we’ve seen kids are starting to get attached with new toy… The Tablet Games. Or Game Devices if you will. So her parents decided to jump on bandwagon to buy the tablet game called “Lilypad”, which she curiously impressed from the tablet at first, before she’s starting to get hooked and addicted from her tablet for both playing App games and chatting her friend and classmate named Chelsea in kids version of social media. This leaves concern for both Jessie, the original Buzz Lightyear, Forky and the remaining toys (and a new makeshift toy named Karen, or Knifey) if they’re gonna get replaced by the new tech like Lily. So its up to Jessie, Buzz to call Woody for help to get themselves back (well, minus Woody) to Bonnie without being potentially replaced and thrown out to donation.
Yeah, as you can tell, the plot feels just like the first Toy Story, where Woody meets Buzz due to potentially becoming Andy’s new favorite toy over cowboy doll, but here, its about the old toys dealing with a tablet as kids’ new favorite toy instead regular toys. I find the story is rather low compared to the previous four movies to know about the plots, BUT, it has one exception, its the story’s execution with its message. The movie gives us the message how kids are becoming addictive to today’s technology, mainly with either phone or, more commonly, tablets. Sure its understandable that without computer, kids will be stuck their eyes into tablets to play the game and hanging out via chatbox, its now becoming a major concern that, similar to playing video games, playing devices like tablets are now becoming additive toys, pushing away with real toys when we used to play from our childhood, its kinda like, back in my old days, I love playing with toys from action figures, Lego and Hot Wheels, however, I got myself stuck into the old PC that I loved to exploring and playing CD-ROM games, but the downside is my parents and I shared one computer, this was before we have portables like laptop, phones and tablets, we wish we could have two old desktop, but we were struggling money for long stories. Though I still like to playing with toys to this day, as a 30 year old man, but I digress. Its a very good and pretty relevant message for this movie how in nowadays, we wish we wanna telling kids to stay away with devices (for the most part) and go back to play with toys (or playing some educational games on PC like I do from my childhood), otherwise, it could’ve been worse… While it has a very nice touch of message, the movie also throwing subplots such as when Jessie and Bullseye were delivered to the house that belongs to Blaze, it turned out to be the same old home from Jessie previous owner, Emily (You know, the same girl who used to play with Jessie in the emotional flashback of Toy Story 2?), leaving her recognizes when she used to, which I find it rather nice to extra depth from her past before being collected by Al. However, the movie also switches to see the Hi-Tech version of Buzz Lightyear, which at first, I don’t understand why we have these guys in the movie, but I won’t give you SPOILER details for whatever happened to them.
But its also unexpected to bring it from the original concepts, so here’s a little fact;
Back in 2004, Pixar became a HUGE deal for their successful movies, but the problem was their distribution contract was about to expire, leaving the late Steve Jobs (yes, he was even involved with Pixar, while being the co-founder of Apple) negotiated with then Disney CEO Michael Eisner, alas, it didn’t got that well that it got rejected, leaving Eisner had the audacity to creating their own Pixar called “Circle 7 Animation” with their supposed Toy Story 3 about Buzz Lightyear going malfunction, so Woody and his gang fly to Taiwan to fix him, only they have to dealing with hundreds Buzz Lightyears due to the mass recalls. But that project was scrapped when Eisner resigned for his bad reputation, and Bob Iger became the CEO (in first term) for shake-up and acquiring Pixar. But now all the sudden, they’re kinda bring back the army of Buzz Lightyear, but upgrade in hi-tech than recall. So… nice touch.
Despite it has a drama moments, its no stranger it also has humors, I find the jokes in this are… Good, I did have a wheezing and chuckle moments that can work, even though there are some just tried either referencing the past or trying to be new, but again, that could be 50/50 result.
While the story isn’t that great due to recycling the same plot as the first one, but at least we can give credit to the writing for its execution with the drama, the humors and relevant message.
The Animation
The movie’s budget costed $250M, which it became Toy Story’s most expensive film ever made, and even the second expensive animated movie with… (sigh) The 2019’s The Lion King, but both this and the craptacular remake is $10M behind from Tangle’s budget. Anyway, this one is surprisingly looks bigger and impressive as before (sometimes).
For starter, the background and the world design are pretty nice and simple, especially they did the nice work for the ground view in perspective of toys, from houses, suburban to even outside of the small town. Even if some locations’ changing look… Off compared to the previous films, like for example, the flashback scenes with Jessie and Emily are completely different if you look at the difference between Toy Story 2 and this movie, they just didn’t match, mainly the road that its next to tree with tire swing has been removed, instead its next to the house where Emily used to live there. I know its nitpicky, but even old Toy Story fans notice the location issue in the 5th one. And not to mention the island from the opening is… Cheaply off before we’re going back Bonnie’s home.
Despite the flaws of the location, the animation and its visual is surprisingly looks pretty nice with more and more upgraded details, not just the world building and some designs, but the texture and lighting. This is due to Pixar introduced their brand new rendering software called “Renderman XPU”, which is made as an improvement with both CPU and GPU and helped to work with artists with “nine times faster speeds for interactive, full-frame rendering”. Not to mention, they also introduced “The Luna, which is the extension for their proprietary software 3D animation core called “Presto”. The first time they’re using it was Hoppers, the one I’ve covered months ago. But with this one, they’ve expending it to this movie to allowing lighting artists to work across multiple shots once. Nice touch for their upgrade.
While the animation is standard for realistic with humans and even limitation moves based on toy designs, they still did a nice with creative and well-done animation, along with the details of the toys how some of our familiar toys has gone a bit age with a few marks around their appearances, the designs are pretty good with the toys for the aforementioned update designs and even some new ones that are actually pretty nice in either reference from actual toys or trying something new. For example, we can see Woody start getting old from various parts, like he has no pulling string since the 4th one and he weirdly has bald spot due to fading plastic paint, but the weird part is he has a daddy bod appearance, like… I have no idea how he has that, as a freakin’ cowboy doll. Though its also unusual to see a kid friendly device like Lilypad comes to life, which is pretty unlikely to see either Desktop, laptop or phones come to like like Lily does. But the best part for the animation is when kids playing with toys, it brought us into imagination world with something cute and funny result in switching subject, it goes into a mix of 2D and 3D animation in the imagination world, its colorful, funny and entertaining what they gave us.
While it has flaws from the locations and some questionable designs like Woody, but the animation, the quality and the designs are pretty good in various degrees. But don’t they don’t using AI Slops when making this movie, even though they’ve learned it, but they’re gonna using it. Thanks, Visual effects supervisor Thomas Jordan.
The Characters
Despite the recyclable story, you think we’re gonna have update development and even some new characters to be promising and a good change? Well, for the most part, yes.
Lets start off with Jessie (reprised by Joan Cusack), unlike the previous films, Jessie is now the main protagonist in this movie since Woody passed the sheriff role to her, now she’s in command with Andy’s and Bonnie’s toys for hanging out and adventures, along with imagination play. But once Lilypad was introduced that Bonnie is hooked up by it, this left a major concern for her that, based on what she sees secretly, she doesn’t want Bonnie to be addicted by tablets like every kids what we’ve seen from first act, which is why she’s gotta stop Lily before she, along with other toys will be thrown out. I find her to be nicely written upgrade that she’s gotta take footsteps from Woody after he left, even if its gonna be a tough task when a new “toy” like Lily shows up from delivery gift, especially we can see she doesn’t want to lose Bonnie in a same way when she used to be with Emily before being donated. Even though she’s well written, but the only problem I have about her is the voice from Joan Cusack herself, since I listened from trailers, her voice is… Has gone down, no linger as highly energized that we all know, I know she’s reaching 60s (as im writing this), but still, it feels like she’s gotten aged when this movie was developed. I know she did a good job of her role, but its just her voice is no longer the same.
Next we have Buzz Lightyear (reprised by Tim Allen), one of the Space Ranger of Star Command and old friend of Woody. This time, Buzz, while being the second-in-command of the toys, but he’s also love interest to Jessie, so much so that there’s running gag of his attempt to propose her to get married, which is fine for his buildup of his development, but again, it feels like starting off with running gags, but again, won’t give you SPOILER details about the chemistry between him and Jessie. Despite that, he’s more like a veteran hero and concerns for Jessie if she’s going to be a lost toys with Bullseye. But in fairness, its nice to see him and Woody reuniting, though temporary since they’re separated, especially with returning frenemy since TS1, well kinda. Sure, like Cusack, Allen has gotten aged for his voice role of Buzz, but he’s still kicking in as everyone’s favorite Space Ranger.
I should also point out Tim also did the voice of Hi-Tech Edition version of Buzz, as for their roles? Well, they starts off as a lost toys for being stranded in the island, before they’re on the journey to find home for Star Command (albeit advanced edition), but the downside is that they’re in Demo Mode, hence why they act like armies without emotional feelings. Pretty much means they’re act like being a Space Rangers are a real deal.
Then we have Woody (reprised by Tom Hanks), the main toy who used to be Andy’s favorite. But this time, he’s no longer to be home with toy owners, instead he lives elsewhere with his lover Bo Peep (reprised by Annie Potts) and other toy partners, to helping abandoned toys from the risky obstacles. But thinks to Lilypad, he was called by Jessie to come back in for helping hand, despite she and Bullseye were lost. But like Buzz, its nice to see him and Buzz reuniting together, but like I said before about the character design, its understandable he starts having a bald spot from paint fading, but I don’t get why he has like a daddy bod, like come on, its just a toy, not real life. Aside of being mocked by Lily based on his age. Even he’s getting close to his age of 70, Tom still did a nice work of his role since my childhood.
Next, we have Lilypad, aka Lily (voiced by Greta Lee), the tablet who comes to life as Bonnie’s potential new favorite “toy”, due to many kids are hooked up with tablets since the first act. Based on what we’ve seen trailers, we seeing her as the main antagonist, mainly due to tablets are dangerously becoming kids favorite things to pushing away from kids, especially she can dangerously access the internet connection on her way, especially she even make a threat to use her loud wake-up noise to distract either Bonnie or her parents for putting Jessie, Buzz and other toys out of picture. It sounds like a promising villain role what we’ve hoping for to see toys vs devices like Lily, however, there’s also the justification for the climax which, I find it to be rather disappointing, but again, no SPOILING details. Despite the flaws, I find her to be fairly decent, while Greta did a nice work of her role.
Finally, we have Smarty Pants (voiced by surprisingly Conan O'Brien), Snappy (voiced by Shelby Rabara, aka Freakin’ Peridot from Steven Universe) and Atlas (voiced by Craig Robinson, aka Mr. Shark from The Bad Guys). They’re Blaze’s old electric toys that they used to be abandoned, but when Jessie meets them, they’ve become the new sidekick that, compared to Lily, they’re working together for texting with Smarty, tracking in GPS style with Atlas and taking photos for evidence with Snappy. Its pretty unexpected, but I think they’re enjoyable trio from Blaze’s toy collection. Especially how they have the most familiar faces behind the voices from the Shark with master of disguise, a technician gem to the most famous comedic then talk show host.
As for the rest of the casts, they’re not much else to give, while our familiar Andy’s toys are there, but they’re pretty much into the backseat, along with new voice actors from previous ones’ passing like Jeff Bergman as Mr. Potato Head, and Anna Vocino as Mrs. Potato Head. The same can be said with Bonnie’s toys, especially I was expecting Forky and Karen (reprised by Tony Hale and Melissa Villaseñor) to be a new major role since TS4, but nope, they’re left in the backseat. Heck, even Mr. Pricklepants has also changed the voice from Timothy Dalton (aka the 4th James Bond who only has two films. Ouch…) to now John Hopkins.
Despite almost everyone are in backseat (like I just wish they could’ve give us another chance to shine), along with some voice actors have gone aged (for doing fine or for dated), the characters are pretty nice for their development, even with some not-so perfect execution, while some that I like.
And now for my final opinion of this film
Overall, Toy Story 5 is good, but its just that it’s starting to becoming a franchise burnout.
The visuals is pretty good with new technology, the designs are good, some characters are fascinating (despite the new ones are minimal), it has fairly fun jokes and it has a very good and relevant message.
However, the reason why I considered to becoming a burnout, its because it became a sign of its downfall for various reasons like some designs, recyclable story and some actors have gone aged that left me question if its worth of coming back or is they could’ve (and controversially) recasting the main roles if one of them is going to retire.
I know there are some Toy Story fans would like this movie, but for some (like me) are starting to getting tired of it for when is it EVER going to end after TS3 and TS4. I know I’ve been bragging about, but im sure im not the only one, hence why I calling this one as the beginning of burnout for Toy Story. The first and second are classic, the third one is very good and emotional that it was supposed to be the ending, but the 4th is great, albeit unnecessary, but this one… Even though its not the worst movie I’ve ever seen, like it has some redeeming quality to give to appreciate, but again, its just its starting to becoming tiring that we’re starting to question over the obsession of sequels for both Disney and Pixar since the late DisneyToon studio (you know, when they released a butt load of theatrical or direct-to-video movie sequels or midquels). If you’re a fan of Toy Story, I’d say check this one, its recommended, but for others, I’d say watch it ONCE, and you’ll make your conclusion.
Im very sorry to say for my rating, compared to TS4 with 9/10, im going down to 7/10.
