Toy Story 5

The movie series that would've had a perfect ending with Toy Story 3 manages to, once more, not screw up with another sequel. So, yeah, I think Pixar once again managed to make a good movie and a good Toy Story with this one. Not the best or a totally awesome one. A safe one. But I'm still quite happy with it. Short summary (spoiler free): A good movie that, to me, feels more like an "Inside Out", where it heavily relies on the toys trying to steer Bonny's life and also has a much bigger focus on the human characters. Jessie is a strong protagonist, but most of the other toys are actually not really important, especially the original "Andy's Toys" group. Very nice and emotional depiction of the emotions of a child trying to make friends and the, sometimes hard, part the parents have in it, but less "toy adventure" than the previous movies. I still recommend it, but it feels a bit different to me. Full review (contains basic "act" spoilers but no ending, etc.): Jessie does a great job as a new protagonist, and while Buzz's role isn't exactly too important for the main plot, I do think Jessie and Buzz's dynamic can work quite well. The same as Woody and Buzz did before. The main plot is a quite nice idea: How do electronic devices influence how toys are seen and handled in the lives of kids? And I'm happy to see that it doesn't fully go the "electronic devices are bad" route. Every Toy Story started off quite slow and tame before the emotional stuff hit. And the "how will the new toy influence our lives?" idea is once again the same that Toy Story 1 already used. And that's actually a point where this movie feels a bit repetitive. And it's also what I mean with "it's a safe one". The worry is the same. The reaction of the other toys is the same. And Jessie's and Buzz's tries to calm everyone down are also very much the same as Woody did about Buzz in the first movie. In general, the big number of total toys means that the ones that are not Jessie, Bully, Buzz and the newcomers are really not important to the plot at all. Most of them sit around most of the movie and have no part in it, except for some lines at the beginning and the end. And I think this is why especially the beginning feels much weaker than, for example, Toy Story 1. The group of Andy's toys felt more like a tightly-knit group, while this is very much a Jessie-movie. Don't get me wrong! I like Jessie! It's a good Jessie movie! But I think this is why the first third of the movie feels slower and less impactful than Toy Story 1 despite using basically the same plot. The second third is quite different then. ALSO showing how a child's life changes through new things, but with very different problems. The toys figure out more about the situation. Jessie's past is brought up again in more detail and how it caused trauma and made her who she is. It also introduces most of the new characters who, along with Jessie, actually are the main characters of the movie. They're not as funny and interesting to me as "Andy's toys", but they work nicely for the plot once the heavy getting-to-know phase is over. The last third is then where the movie gets the most emotional, where all things fall together and all the newly introduced characters actually come together and show how their dynamic works. To me, this is also the strongest part of the movie in a pure sense of entertainment. It has most of the "action" part, obviously, as well. So, what does the movie do well? I think many parts of this movie are actually "for adults/parents", because they show nicely how "fitting in" and "finding good friends" can be hard for young children. Parents try to help their children with it, and how they see them struggle and fail at times. Of course this can also show children how this is a normal part of life, but I think the movie "hits harder" seen from the point of the parents trying their best. But maybe that's just my perspective. What's not so good? The movie, to me, is far less "funny". There are no really fun gags, much more emotion comes from sadness and worry. This is not bad in itself! But I just feel that part of Toy Story was always the kind of humor that was possible because the toys are toys. Mr Potato Head being taken apart, Woody waving with Buzz's ripped off arm, stuff like that. This one does make one smile, but it wasn't a "laughing loud" one. Especially not compared to movies like "Hoppers" which were completely hilarious. In fact, now that I think about it: The whole movie feels like "Inside Out", with the toys taking the part of the "emotions", and less than what made the other Toy Stories "Toy Story". Especially the much stronger focus on the humans, as well. So, all in all: The movie feels like "Inside Out". It's a good movie, Jessie is a strong protagonist, emotions are shown really heavy and realistic, and I did feel for the main characters. But I also feel that thus the movie heavily relied on betting on sadness and our compassion towards Bonny instead of the adventures of the toys and the humor that used to come with it. I think it's a good movie, but not among the best "Toy Stories". Visually, it's really impressive, of course. I think Pixar really tried to go all-out on plants and realistic animals this time. I originally rated it 10% better, but writing this I feel it gets most of its "positive memory" from the emotional last part, which doesn't really make up for the beginning. But yeah, hard to say. Still a good one!

Even though there is a pretty clear and potent message here, this isn't my favourite from the franchise - in fact, in many ways it reminded me of what I felt was the much more engaging "Ron's Gone Wrong" (2021). "Bonnie" is a lonely little girl who still plays with her toys. This earns her the ridicule of her more tech-savvy classmates at school and so, despondent, her parents buy her a "Lilypad". This promises to be her route to inclusion and popularity and soon she is even being invited to a sleepover. She takes "Jessie" and "Blaze" with her and next day returns crestfallen, realising that her love for them is the source of her misery. "Lilypad" decides that action must be taken so starts to manipulate her messages so that the toys are confined to a box in the garage. That's when they send for "Woody". He and his friends must now find a way to free their boxed up companions and help them recover their place in her heart before "Lilypad" has them consigned to a charity shop. Crucial to their success might be "Smarty Pants". This is an early digital gizmo that has also been consigned to the back of a drawer as it'd been superceded and so in a sorry state with no battery power, these unlikely allies realise that they must work together to find "Bonnie" a real and much less fickle friend. Perhaps it's just the slightly over sentimental characterisation of "Bonnie" but this film seemed to take an age to get going and then when it did it forgot to remember that growing up involves a shedding of skins - physically and metaphorically. We all have favourite toys, records, clothes that we are joined at the hip with until we ultimately discard - and the emotional heart-strings this tries to tug all ran just a bit counter-intuitively for me. Sure, it offers us an indictment of a prevailing trend amidst society at large to rely on technology to do more and more for us, and to insulate us from the fun and perils of actually growing up with real people, but the ending maybe just diluted that a little too conveniently and I found there to be quite a lot less humour for us here, too. It's still good fun with plenty of adventures but maybe it's not just "Woody" et al that need to be put to bed, now?