Toy Story 5: Are devices the enemy?

After disappointment in Toy Story 4, I was skeptical when I saw Disney·Pixar was making Toy Story 5. Many others and I felt the fourth installment of the franchise, despite its notable charms like Duke Kaboom (Keanu Reeves), broke away from the core principle of self-sacrifice presented in first three Toy Story movies and had a mediocre plot.

However, I was happily surprised by the fifth installment.

Toy Story 5 shifts the protagonist cowboy hat to Jessie (Joan Cusack), and the overall theme addresses whether the use of devices or toys is the best way for a now-eight-year-old Bonnie (Scarlett Spears) to make a true friend. Bonnie is a shy child and has trouble talking to other kids, despite her wildly creative imagination. Jessie attempts to conspire with other neighborhood toys to devise a plan for Bonnie to ask the other kids to play, but sees the children spellbound by their electronic devices and not interacting. The neighborhood children’s toys warn Jessie that the age of toys is over. Bonnie’s parents gift her an interactive tablet called Lilypad (Greta Lee) as a last resort for Bonnie to connect with other kids. The arrival of Lilypad immediately sends Jessie and the other toys into a tailspin, with a miscommunication causing Woody (Tom Hanks) to return to the group. Lilypad is able to get Bonnie invited to a sleepover with girls from her dance class, but it does not go well.

The rest of the movie dives into a wild adventure that finds Jessie and Bullseye returning to Jessie’s original owner’s home (now occupied by a new family with a spunky 9-year-old girl), shows the addictive nature and effects of too much screen time for kids, and offers a vision of mixing tech with imaginative play in a way that is nuanced for the current landscape of raising children in a tech-induced world.

What themes are helpful for discussion?

The overarching theme of devices or toys being the best way to help Bonnie make a true friend is handled with care. Jessie has a bias that all tech is bad and that imaginative play with toys is the only way to connect Bonnie with other kids. Lilypad believes her way of connecting through having the right apps and never missing what others are up to on devices is best for Bonnie. Both are proven wrong. Jessie learns throughout the film that devices are not the enemy, but can be used as a tool for connection if rightly ordered. This reminds me of a sentence from the already often misquoted paragraph 110 from ‘Magnifica humanitas’ where Pope Leo XIV talks about disarming AI, “To disarm does not mean rejecting technology, but preventing it from dominating humanity.” The movie’s answer to the theme is that tech and toys working together can help Bonnie achieve her goals of asking another child to play and to cultivate an authentic friendship with the other kid. It is not explicitly said in Toy Story 5, but shown that temperance with devices is a better way to approach their use. The movie shows what happens when a child has too much screen time, and some moments can serve as talking points for parents to reinforce why limited screen time is a rule in their house.

In a silly D-plot, a group of tech-enhanced Buzz Lightyear toys awakens after being thrust out of a crashed shipping container on a deserted island. They have their own set of misadventures, but are woven nicely into the main story. When they first encounter Woody and the original Buzz (Tim Allen), Buzz informs them that they are toys and that their mission is to make a child happy. The speech from the original Buzz is a guiding light for all the toys. They joyfully band together for one purpose: to make Bonnie happy by guiding her to what will help her grow as a child. The shift in focus can be related to what happens when one discovers their vocation and says “yes” to it.

A fun tidbit for Catholics in particular, the child all the toys and devices connect Bonnie to is a 9-year-old girl named Blaze (Mykal-Michelle Harris). Bonnie overcomes her shyness and bravely finds her voice to ask Blaze to play. Whether intended or not, this name choice can be directly associated with St. Blaise, a Catholic bishop martyred in 316 AD and the patron saint of throats. As a parent, coach, and former child, the scene where Bonnie asks Blaze to play got me. I don’t cry often in movies, but that moment produced a tear. It was earned.

BIG SPOILER! Click arrow to read.

Jessie’s deep abandonment issues established in Toy Story 2 are resolved in her Toy Story 5 character arc. Towards the end of Toy Story 5, Jessie, experiencing her dark night of the soul, returns to the tree where she and Emily (her first owner) spent so much time together long ago. Jessie comes across a time capsule buried at the foot of the tree that belonged to Emily and (big big spoiler) her daughter Jessie. It is in this moment that Jessie realizes that although her time with Emily was over, it had lasting impacts that rippled through Emily’s life for the good. Jessie is reunited with Woody, Buzz, and many other toys and devices in this moment, and rallies them all to find Lilypad so Bonnie can connect with Blaze (the two girls do encounter each other once earlier in the movie). Jessie sacrifices her own desires of being Bonnie’s number one toy so Bonnie can grow in the way she needs. Jessie, knowing the cost of this choice could mean Bonnie outgrowing her, chooses it anyway. This self-sacrifice embodies John 15:13, “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (NAB).

What parents and guardians should consider

The themes of abandonment and rejection are explored throughout the movie, and can be difficult for children who are sensitive to those subjects. Bonnie’s rejection of Jessie and Bullseye to impress her dance classmates at a sleepover can be upsetting. An added layer to Jessie’s arc that is different from Woody’s in the original Toy Story is her deep trauma from how she was donated by her first owner, Emily. The film does handle the subject delicately and offers a way forward for Jessie.

Lilypad tries to donate herself because she feels she is failing Bonnie after events result in Bonnie’s dance-class friends bullying her through Lilypad’s chat app. This scene mirrors the anxiety a tech user at any age can feel from societal pressures of having the right apps, saying the right things, being cyberbullied, or developing an enhanced sense of FOMO (fear of missing out) that can come from tech-dependence.

There is a toy called Smarty Pants (Conan O’Brien), a toddler’s potty-assistance device, that lends to a lot of tame, elementary-level potty humor. In an imaginative play sequence, Smarty Pants is referred to as “Agent Shet” in an obvious reference to the s-word. There is one instance of a GPS hippo toy named Atlas (Craig Robinson) getting cut off while saying, “He’ll wipe your a..” Both moments go over most young children’s heads, but older children will catch on, and pre-teens with an insufferable sense of sophomoric humor might repeat these phrases to get under their parents’ skin.

Where the movie shone

The sequences of imaginative play are a step up from previous installments and a visual feast for the eyes. The end play scene where Bonnie and Blaze play-act a marriage between Buzz and Jessie is touching. Mr. Pricklepants (John Hopkins) is even depicted as a bishop officiating the wedding.

What can seem like random plot points all meet up in the third act in a satisfying way.

The movie balances humor and seriousness well. The survival of toys theme is played for laughs during the moments featuring the wandering Buzz Lightyears, countering the desperation felt in Jessie and the other toys’ arcs.

Where the plot fell short

Woody and Buzz jockey for who should be Jessie’s deputy throughout Toy Story 5. It feels like unearned conflict because the type of banter they have was resolved in the first Toy Story movie and has not been seen since.

Woody’s general involvement in the movie’s plot seems unrealized. The former hero has an epic introduction of rescuing a lost toy at the beginning of the movie. He even returns wearing a poncho a la Clint Eastwood’s classic gun-slinger character, the Man with No Name. However, he gets reduced to a punching bag for most of the movie, and the poncho gets made fun of/ruined. He does have his moments, but it seems like the writers did not know what to do with Woody due to the events of Toy Story 4.

Final Thoughts

Overall, Toy Story 5 is a return to form in what made the original Toy Story trilogy and early Pixar movies resonate with audiences. It also brings back the tradition of Pixar making adults weep like babies from many heartfelt moments presented throughout the movie.

Toy Story 5 is appropriately rated PG, recommended for ages 6 and up. Some themes have a deeper psychological impact than earlier entries, but are handled delicately. Catholic families and individuals can also find some direct ways to use the movie as a tool to engage children and adults in conversations about faith.