Toy Story 5 movie review: Inconsequential franchise entry that fails to hit previous highs

The first Toy Story movie revolutionised animated film and birthed a culturally significant studio. The third instalment was so emotionally poignant it made grown men cry in cinemas.

After more than three decades, is there much more for the storied franchise to explore? Yes. But is it as effective as its high points? No.

It has the requisite hijinks and emotional beats, but feels a little flat and uninspiring, much like the end-credits Taylor Swift ditty that better not win the Oscar for best original song just because it’s TS.

There will be no need to have the tissues on hand, unless you’re already feeling particularly vulnerable elsewhere in your life.

How well you’ll respond to Toy Story 5, out this week, will largely depend on your resonance with the Jessie character, introduced in the second movie. If you love Jessie, then, huzzah, this film was made for you. If you still find Jessie kind of annoying, brace yourself.

This chapter is resoundingly Jessie’s movie, to the point that the original duo of Woody and Buzz barely get a look-in.

Nor do most of the classic ensemble characters such as Mr Potato Head, Hamm, Rex, the Aliens or Slinky Dog. Perhaps this film should have been classified as a spin-off given the shift in focus.

Toy Story 5 picks up about three years after the events of the previous film, in which most of the gang have found a new home with a girl named Bonnie, who loves nothing more than to play.

Bonnie is now eight years old and while she delights in the imaginative stories she makes up with her toys, she doesn’t have any human companions. After a teary moment in which she asks her parents why she doesn’t have any friends, they reluctantly order her a tablet called Lilypad.

Lilypad is tech, and it’s what Jessie and the toys have been warned against. Across the neighbourhood, screens have turned kids (and adults) into zombies, sat separately from each other in dark rooms, their expressionless faces illuminated only by the cool, hypnotic light of their devices.

As soon as Lilypad is in Bonnie’s hands, she is enamoured by it, and largely forgets about her toys. Lilypad also connects Bonnie with girls from her dance class, and they become online friends in a chat, which then leads to a sleepover.

A couple of things to note here. These girls only play with their devices and when Bonnie turns up with Jessie and Bullseye, they mock her for still playing with toys. That teasing continues online, which is Toy Story 5’s depiction of online bullying and how that affects Bonnie.

Its portrayals of a tech takeover is semi-dystopian, but Jessie is determined to connect Bonnie with friends who are right for her.

The other thing is Lilypad and other tech toys (a toilet-training device named Smarty Pants, a GPS-enable hippo named Atlas and a camera toy called Snappy) are also, like Woody and co, sentient.

While that follows the internal logic of the films, it also essentially says that all these internet-connected toy devices are AI. And if they are, then so must be the adults’ screens.

There are some scenes which are played for harmless fun that are actually deeply disturbing, such as Lilypad and Snappy taking and transmitting photos of Bonnie without the consent of any humans, or how the tech toys are able to impersonate their kids to lure other children. Um, OK.

There’s also an army of high-tech Buzz Lightyears, and in a mid-credits scene, which, again, is played for comedy, they’re used in a way that is alarming in an “and this is how the Russians could take over America” way.

Ultimately, it feels as if Toy Story 5, despite the promise of a premise of old school play versus tech, hedged its bets. Wouldn’t want to upset the corporate overlords and its commercial interests, rights?

Toy Story 5 has its moments of joy – and some great animation in the play sequences - but it’s an inconsequential entry that couldn’t possibly compare to the first and third films.

Rating: 3/5

Toy Story 5 is in cinemas on June 18