Toy Story 5: When the Toys Meet Their Newest Enemy
Few animated franchises have grown alongside their audience as much as Toy Story. Now, with Toy Story 5, Pixar returns to a world where childhood is changing, technology is everywhere, and the old toys face an enemy they could never have imagined: the screen.
The children have grown up and, in turn, have children of their own. Many of the old toys have been relegated to garages, cupboards and forgotten corners of the house. Others have disappeared altogether, given away or abandoned as tablets and video games become the new objects of fascination. Woody, Buzz Lightyear, Jessie, and Duke Caboom return, joined by Lilypad, a new, initially formidable toy whose apparent menace gradually gives way to something far more sympathetic.
What is remarkable about Toy Story 5 is that, by all conventional logic, this is precisely the kind of sequel that should have lost its magic. Yet it doesn't. The franchise has survived not simply because its characters are familiar, but because Pixar still understands what made these stories resonate in the first place: beneath the jokes, the adventure, and the spectacular animation lies a remarkably human question—what happens when the things we love are no longer needed?
This time, that question has acquired a distinctly contemporary dimension.
The film's central conflict is not really between toys and children, but between imagination and technology. Tablets, video games, and online chat groups have transformed how children play, communicate, and even form friendships. Technology can connect us instantly, but the film asks whether connection is necessarily the same thing as friendship.
One of the most effective sequences captures this idea with admirable simplicity. Woody desperately tries to attract the attention of his owner's child, only to discover that she is completely absorbed by her tablet, chatting with friends online while the toys sit almost invisibly at her feet. It is a small moment, but a telling one: the toys have not become less interesting; the child's attention has simply been redirected elsewhere.
Lilypad provides an intriguing counterpoint. Initially presented as a new kind of adversary, she gradually becomes part of the group's emotional fabric. The toys form a bond through shared memories and experiences, reminding us that friendship isn’t merely about communication. It is about presence, memory and the accumulation of moments experienced together.
This is where Toy Story 5 becomes more interesting than a conventional children's adventure. The film is effectively staging an argument between two forms of childhood. On one side is the world of screens: immediate, interactive and endlessly stimulating. On the other is the older tradition of imaginative play, where a simple toy can become a spaceship, a cowboy, a superhero—or an entire universe.
Pixar wisely avoids turning technology into a simplistic villain. The question isn't whether children should use technology, but how much they need, what they lose when screens dominate their attention, and how parents can help them navigate a world where digital life is impossible to escape. In that sense, the film occasionally reaches beyond children's entertainment and into parental anxiety.
This debate feels almost philosophical. Cinema has long used technology to question our relationship with the unknown, progress, and belief. Films such as Robert Zemeckis's Contact, for instance, explored the tension between scientific discovery, technology and faith. Toy Story 5 approaches the subject from a much more intimate angle: not humanity's future, but childhood's.
And perhaps that is why the film works.
At its heart, Toy Story 5 remains unmistakably Toy Story. It is funny, tender, beautifully constructed and, above all, deeply affectionate toward its characters. But beneath its colourful surface lies a surprisingly relevant meditation on what children need in an increasingly digital world.
For younger viewers, it is an entertaining adventure. For older children, it may provoke questions about friendship and screen time. For parents, it offers something even more valuable: a chance to think about the balance between technology and the simple, increasingly precious experience of playing together.
The toys may belong to another era. But their message feels remarkably contemporary.
Rating: ★★★★★ 5/5
Toy Story 5, out in cinemas and on Disney Plus, directed by Andrew Stanton, co-directed by Kenna Harris, Screenplay by Andrew Stanton, starring Tom Hanks ( Voice of Woody), Tim Allen (voice of Buzz Lightyear ), Joan Cusack ( voice of Jessie), Greta Lee ( Voice of Lilypad), Bad Bunny ( voice of Pizza Sunglasses ), Keanu Reeves (Voice of Duke Caboom ).
