It’s always difficult when one finds themself in lockstep with Quentin Tarantino. Don’t worry too much, this is not about gore, or feet, or the right to existence of certain nation states, but about our age old friends Woody and Buzz and the misguided decision to churn out more movies. Toy Story as a trilogy worked remarkably and accidentally well. Toy Story 2 was doomed to the standard “straight to VHS release” of most of the other Disney fare when (another incredibly normal human being) John Lasseter did a creative overhaul of the picture and made it to a shining star of cinematic animation.

It then made sense then to round out the trilogy with Pixar’s strongest known franchise and give our characters a proper send off. A film that worked perhaps too well as nine years later Disney returned to the well to dredge Woody (Tom Hanks) and Buzz (Tim Allen) to tell a new story of them and their new friend Forky. It’s not a bad film, it’s very charming and has plenty of good jokes. But it does besmirch the franchise ever so slightly to have a hanging chad of an ending on a series that was so complete. Things should end! And the fact that we keep hastily stapling more lore onto all the franchises in our lives is embarrassing at best.

And so now we have Toy Story 5, a further continuation of the toys that we have come to know and love and their new kid Bonnie. It should be noted that while the well has certainly gotten shallower, the Pixar team did make a smart move by pivoting to Jessie the Cowgirl (Joan Cusack) as the focal point for this movie, as opposed to hitting us over the head with even more of the sheriff or the space ranger. The film also attempted to tackle a very real problem in the modern world, the role of tech in our children’s lives. Although a story like this lacks the teeth to really highlight the severity of the issues that tech has brought into our lives. It’s important to remember that Pixar was heavily funded by Steve Jobs at its outset, so it’s tough to take any potential take down they have of the dangers of tech from any company in the modern era, let alone one built by a tech insider itself.

Toy Story 5 introduces Lilypad (Great Lee) a frog themed tablet that Bonnie gets as a gift. It’s difficult to critique new technology and not seem like the “old man yells at cloud” sequence from The Simpsons but its also important that if this is going to be a central tenet of your film to stick to your guns. Lilypad’s addictive nature, and connection to the internet are more harmful than helpful, but we are also in an era of Disney films where there are seldom villains. The movie seems to want to have its cake and eat it too and it winds up feeling a little lackluster when trying to tackle such a big subject. It finds a middle ground of making Lilypad less like a traditional villain, although it’s hard to say that the movie makes a good case for the ways in which tech is helpful in the life of an 8 year old.

It has also gotten to the point where juggling all the characters from the Toy Story franchise is simply not doable. Woody and Buzz play second fiddle for Jessie’s story, and our friends Hamm, Rex, Slinky, and others and actually physically shoved into a box and put in the garage for a bulk of the runtime. The other main new character besides Lilypad is Smarty Pants (Conan O’Brien). He’s a digital potty trainer and he feels a little gauche for the whimsy of a Pixar movie. I love scatological humor as much as they next guy, but it feels out of place in a Pixar. But balancing all of these characters makes it so no one ever feels pivotal. There is perhaps something here had they attempted to make a new franchise, or completely drop some of the old characters, but after making $170 million dollars at it’s opening weekend, I expect my notes will be largely ignored by the Disney company.

It’s not that nothing in Toy Story 5 works, every step just feels so safe. So afraid to upset the sensibilities of tech companies and parents alike, so afraid to take a big gamble. These movies used to have proper villains! The villains in the prior entries, Stinky Pete and Lotso, were objectively bad! I was hoping for more of a takedown of tech when I heard that was the premise, but I suppose expecting a multi billion dollar company to attack a platform they actively profit off is asking too much. At least we got a brief second of Duke Kaboom.

2.5/5