Toy Story 5 ★★1/2

Availability: In theaters worldwide. Online rental and purchase at premium prices ($20-$30) expected in mid- to late August, per Disney’s reliable past practices, and on Disney+ end of September. See JustWatch here for current availability.

iPhoning It In

A hundred or so of Buzz Lightyear not-so-bright astronauts “wake up” from a shipwreck to march together in search of Star Command. Their march, the first of many action scenes, ends with a joke, which we won’t spoil. It’s an auspicious beginning.

The adventures of the cadre of Buzz Lightyears, fresh from being shipwrecked,

are one of the more entertaining aspects of "Toy Story 5," though irrelevant to the plot.

Attempting to connect the franchise to prior episodes, Cowgirl Jessie (Joan Cusack), a star of “Toy Story 4,” and the main Buzz (Tim Allen) —he’s Jessie’s deputy and wears the star to prove it—take the lead in “Toy Story 5,” continuing the feminist take from the now 7-year-old TS 4. All the toy owners are girls, whose backstories, lineage, and whereabouts we had trouble keeping straight; the screenwriters lost us now and then. Emily (from TS 2) used to live in the farmhouse and had Jessie as her toy. Bonnie (TS 3, 4 and 5, voiced in 5 by Scarlett Spears), Jessie’s 8-year-old owner after Emily, lives in the city. New girl Blaze (14-year-old Mykal-Michelle Harris) lives in the farmhouse where Emily (and Jessie) once lived. You might think 3 girls is not too many to track, the disorientation of the toys as they get carted from owner to owner, house to house, city to country and back, will disorient some in the audience as well.

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Cowgirl Jessie (Joan Cusack), a star of “Toy Story 4,” and the main Buzz (Tim Allen) —he’s Jessie’s deputy and wears the star to prove it—take the lead in “Toy Story 5.”

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The villain of the piece—here comes the morality play—is a “device,” laptop Lilypad (Greta Lee). By encouraging zombie-like touching of screens, devices divert children from “real” play, which comes from…playing with toys. Add mean girls and noxious social media, and you get the point. Except the script wants it both ways. In early scenes, the camera pans over the neighborhood on prone, lifeless children fixated on the glow of screens. Jessie and Woody, the beloved Tom Hanks cowboy in a large cameo rather than a meaningful role, express shock and dismay. But the devices save the day in the last, extended pursuit sequence: Lilypad, who has dropped herself into a donation box and is on a truck headed for oblivion (a recurring theme in the franchise); Smarty Pants, a rough early communication device; and Smarty’s 2 sidekicks with useful attributes, Atlas (Craig Robinson), a cheerful GPS-equipped hippo, and Snappy (Shelby Rabara), a peppy toy camera. The best of the new creations is Smarty Pants, a toilet training device (ramp up the potty humor) mimicking a tp roll. Cutely voiced by Conan O’Brien, he comes with a floppy yellow handle that evokes O'Brien's signature pompadour.

Bonnie (Scarlett Spears) gets a screen!

And hardly knows her Dad is present,

as she relinquishes "real" play

for her device.

This Toy Story episode sticks to a formula: link to prior episodes, cast a few new stars (O’Brien and also Bad Bunny and Alan Cummings in miniscule roles that hardly matter except in promotion), introduce some new toys (here, not interesting enough, maybe because they are devices), and show off the old ones everyone loves (the cameos so small they are unsatisfying—wait wait….Was that Rex? Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head? Duke Caboom? Gone in a sec). And while the moral of the story is apt and contemporary, the narrative flip-flops on whether devices are all bad, sometimes bad, or bad for children of certain ages.

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The villain of the piece—here comes the morality play—is a “device,” laptop Lilypad (Greta Lee).

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Significant stretches of this latest from co-director and co-writer Andrew Stanton (a Pixar insider and Oscar winner for “Finding Nemo,” 2003 and “WALL·E,” 2008) are given over to action scenes. Some of these seem forced into the plot to satisfy a perceived need for adventure for its own sake, a clumsy ploy used in the recent “Disclosure Day.” The family that goes camping? Where did they come from? The Buzz Lightyears going up a crane? Visually effective, but meaningful? Running directly through buildings during a chase? Used before, in last year’s “Weapons” and “Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die.” The donation box chase? Seen it—in this franchise.

Cowgirl Jessie (Joan Cusack) and her trusted steed Bullseye enlist the new toys in an effort to protect Bonnie. They team up with Atlas, a GPS-equipped hippo (Craig Robinson), Smarty Pants (Conan O'Brien), a toilet training communication device, and Snappy (Shelby Rabara), a toy camera.

TS 5’s saving grace, if it reaches that level, is the imaginative play of Bonnie and Blaze with their toys, mixing the “real” world with the imagined one. Pixar doing what it does best: gorgeous animation, color, action, design, several compelling, emotional moments. At the same time, the film appears to ask: What is play? What is the role of toys? What is a toy? What is imagination? All worthy questions, left unexplored.

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The narrative flip-flops on whether devices are all bad, sometimes bad, or bad for children of certain ages.

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While the cadre of Buzz Lightyears with which the film opens is a nice touch in the difficult task of keeping a well-worn franchise fresh, it’s irrelevant to the plot, and as such a sign of the ultimately unsatisfying script of this 5^th turn in the blockbuster animated franchise. Missing is the wonder, the awe, of the original episodes and toys that made the first 3 worthy of comparison to iconic trilogies, including Coppola’s “The Godfather” (1972, 1974, 1990) and Kieslowski’s “Three Colors” (1993-94).

The toys from prior episodes, now relegated to the closet, make cameo appearances, including Woody (Tom Hanks) and back right Rex (Wallace Shawn)

and front, second from right, Mr. Potato Head (Don Rickles).

“Toy Story 5” is for fans of the franchise (one of us raises a hand here) and a certain age demographic. As a family member said when we asked him to go with us: “I’m not 5.”

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She says: A somewhat entertaining failure.

He says: TS 6: couples therapy, divorce.

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Date: 2026

Directors: Andrew Stanton and McKenna Harris

Starring: (all voice actors) Joan Cusack, Tim Allen, Scarlett Spears, Mykal-Michelle Harris, Greta Lee, Conan O’Brien, Tom Hanks, Bad Bunny, Alan Cummings, Craig Robinson, Shelby Rabara, Wallace Shawn, Don Rickles

Country: United States

Language: English

Runtime: 102 minutes

Other Awards: 4 nominations to date (for trailers, most anticipated, and mid-season awards)