Toy Story 5

Grade: B

After 5 Toy Story movies over the course of 31 years, I continue to be impressed by the resourcefulness of the toys. They find a way to travel anywhere and accomplish anything, without ever being detected. Toy Story 5 has plenty of action sequences that show these little guys and gals can use their noggins and get things done.

There are two plots. I wondered what one had to do with the other, but the subplot (which we see first) has a reason for existing. It opens with 20 or so Buzz Lightyears. Not “our” Buzz – others, still in their packaging, unaware that they are toys. They are castaways on an island, something the voice talent behind Woody knows a thing or two about. After being set free from their packaging, they leave the island in search of Star Command, which they remember as their home.

Meanwhile, the toys we know and love have had a new “kid” since the end of Toy Story 3. Bonnie is now at the age where her peers have outgrown toys. They consider playing with them a social faux pas. Bonnie, however, still gets enjoyment out of her little friends, but that begins to wane when her parents buy her a tablet named Lilypad (Greta Lee). Lilypad can do everything, including allowing Bonnie to communicate with classmates and prospective new friends, which was a large reason why her parents bought her Lilypad. The other kids, however, ridicule Bonnie when they find out she still plays make-believe with toys.

Jessie (Joan Cusack) is accidentally dropped off at her original home. An elderly couple finds her, sees the address written on her leg, and assumes that’s where she belongs. Her former residence is now occupied by Blaze – a girl Bonnie’s age, who still proudly has an affection for toys. This is where the main plot begins doing two things at once. It’s navigating the competition between the old toys and new technology – and it’s giving Jessie a mission to introduce Bonnie and Blaze, who share this big common interest.

Conan O’Brien is a highlight of the voice talent as Smarty Pants, an electronic potty training assistant. Blaze, obviously, no longer uses him, but now he can find usefulness for the first time in a while, to help Jessie with her objective. When the kids play with the toys, we see their scenarios play out in fantasy sequences where the animation is a bit different. There’s one where Smarty Pants is given red hair on top of his head. It looks exactly like O’Brien’s.

Audiences will likely want to see plenty of Buzz and Woody, and we get that. They are leading characters here, directly under Jessie. I admired how the movie doesn’t forcefully shoehorn in the other legacy characters just for the sake of having them. There isn’t much of Bo Peep, Slinky, Forky, the Potato Heads, and the like – but that’s just as well. They’re not a significant part of this story. The ending is achieved by the toys’ usual clever co-conspiring, which ends up incorporating all the Buzz knockoffs we met at the beginning. By the end, everyone – from the old-school toys to the electronic devices that initially threatened them – has learned to work together.

Toy Story 4 set such a high bar. It expanded my perception of what a Toy Story movie could be. I likened it to the works of Quentin Tarantino and Robert Altman – comparisons I will not make with the current film. After blowing my mind with the fourth installment in 2019, Toy Story 5 has settled back into a more conventional, ordinary movie of its kind. Nothing wrong with that. It’s perfectly fine for what it is.

Grade: B