‘Toy Story 5’ review: Pixar successfully updates its hit animated franchise for a new digital age

Dir: Andrew Stanton. US. 2026. 102mins

With Toy Story 5, Pixar reaffirms what has always made this franchise so beloved, resulting in another delightful adventure that mines fresh emotional terrain while producing plenty of hearty laughs. Woody and Buzz return, but it’s Joan Cusack’s spirited cowgirl Jessie who takes centre stage as she tries to hold onto her young human owner, who has become addicted to her smart tablet and has lost interest in playing with toys.

Mines fresh emotional terrain while producing plenty of hearty laughs

Disney releases the film in the UK and US on June 19, hoping that this chapter will be the third straight Toy Story picture to gross more than a billion dollars worldwide. It has been seven years since Toy Story 4 hit theatres, and in the interim another Pixar sequel, 2024’s Inside Out 2, brought in $1.7 billion, so there’s no reason Toy Story 5 should not do similarly impressive numbers.

With Woody (voiced by Tom Hanks) now off living with Bo Peep (Annie Potts), eight-year-old Bonnie (Scarlett Spears) is being watched over by Jessie (Cusack), Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen) and the rest of the toys. The shy, awkward Bonnie has trouble making friends, so her concerned parents allow her to get a tablet, named Lilypad (Greta Lee), which is the must-own device for all young people. Soon, though, Bonnie starts ignoring Jessie and the others, staring endlessly at Lilypad’s screen and meeting some cliquish local girls who are also online. Jessie fears that these snarky kids aren’t real friends — and that Bonnie is losing her gift of imagination — and Woody joins her in trying to curb Lilypad’s influence on the impressionable child.

This is the fourth Pixar film directed by Andrew Stanton, one of the company’s original creative architects, and like Finding Nemo and Wall-E, Toy Story 5 boasts inventive storytelling and a deep understanding of our need for connection. And as with his Finding Dory, Stanton crafts a vital sequel that doesn’t simply repeat jokes and narrative beats from previous instalments.

Stanton, who co-wrote the screenplay based on his original story, makes room for myriad supporting characters, including Tony Hale’s Forky and Keanu Reeves’ Duke Caboom, both of whom were introduced in Toy Story 4. In addition, this sequel adds even more toys, most amusingly Smarty Pants (Conan O’Brien), an outdated toilet-training device. Consequently, Toy Story 5 occassionally strains to ensure there’s enough for the entire ensemble to do. But Stanton focuses on the toys who have been central to the franchise – although Jessie for once gets to be the protagonist, moving Woody and Buzz into more peripheral roles.

A familiarity with Toy Story 2 will increase one’s appreciation of Toy Story 5, which revisits the heartache Jessie recalled in that 1999 film through Randy Newman’s tearjerking, Oscar-nominated ballad ‘When She Loved Me.’ Ever since she was abandoned by her human Emily, who grew up and moved on from toys, Jessie has had difficulty with goodbyes, and she’s terrified that Bonnie’s fixation on Lilypad will be another instance in which she will be unceremoniously dumped. Newman’s wistful Toy Story 5 score incorporates elements of ‘When She Loved Me’s’ melody to touching effect, sonically weaving Jessie’s anxiety into the film’s fabric. And Cusack’s vulnerable performance poignantly echoes parents’ worry that their children will become more distant as they get older.

Many parents also lament how hooked their kids are on screens, but it’s potentially hypocritical for a cutting-edge company like Pixar – whose popularising of computer animation profoundly changed an art form – to decry technological advancement’s endless encroachment into our lives. Perhaps wisely then, Stanton never demonises Lilypad, who insists she only wants to help the sheltered Bonnie, and recognises that smart devices are here to stay. Without spoiling how Toy Story 5 resolves its central conflict, let it be said that Stanton arrives at a sensible middle ground that honours Jessie’s lo-fi charms in a world increasingly less enamoured of old-fashioned toys.

Unsurprisingly, the animation looks astonishing, but what’s most welcome is the overflowing humour that Stanton and co-writer Kenna Harris bring to the proceedings. Just as Hale proved to be a comedic spark plug in Toy Story 4, O’Brien is a funny addition to Toy Story 5 as the wise-cracking Smarty Pants. Yet Stanton never allows the gags or his admittedly complicated narrative – which silos several of the characters into their own subplot – to overwhelm the script’s emotional thrust. The franchise’s soul remains solid; no need for upgrades or a newer model.