Toy Story 5: The toys are back in town with a tale we can all relate to
Buzz Lightyear and Woody in Toy Story 5.
More than 30 years ago, a fledgling animation studio named Pixar released - and became a milestone in modern cinema. In the decades since, Pixar has released dozens of movies that enchant audiences of all ages - but there is something about the adventures of Buzz, Woody and their pals that felt mould-breaking and universal.
Cowgirl doll Jessie takes the reins in a tale of toys vs tech that’s destined to be one of the biggest movies of 2026. The movie is co-written and co-directed by Pixar stalwart Andrew Stanton, the double Oscar winner and creative brain behind such classics as and the other Toy Story films. Does he feel the pressure to continue making such an iconic series resonate with audiences?
“The answer is yes, but the other side of that answer is it's always been that way,” says the filmmaker. “I've never worked on a movie here that hasn't had that pressure. That's all I know. I'm not saying it's easy, but it's normal.”
He is reminded of the words of the late Steve Jobs, co-founder of Pixar, to his creatives from the early days. (The company was acquired by Disney in a landmark deal in 2006).
“Steve Jobs hammered his philosophy that he had at Apple with us early on, which was just make a great movie, everything else will follow.
"It's really hard to just make a movie that, even if you never were to show it to anybody else, you think is great. You've got to please your own crew. You’ve got to watch it every day for four years. You just focus on that, and everything else you just ignore.”
Many will resonate with a core theme in the movie at a time when we are re-evaluating our phone use and stepping back from scrolling on our gadgets. Bonnie, the shy little girl who became the caretaker of Andy’s beloved toys when he went to college, is now experiencing some growing pains of her own.
She’s struggling to make friends and is the last child in her peer group not to have a tablet. That all changes when the play and networking gadget Lilypad comes into her life - to the dismay of Jessie and the gang, who fear playtime will never be the same.
“I never go in trying to have something to say - I don't go to movies hoping something's going to be giving me a message,” says Stanton. “I just hope to be involved in a character's story and follow it.
"I searched around, knowing where the fertile soil was to start digging in and writing in, and I knew Jessie had so much history that had been unaddressed. Woody needed a break. He had been on the couch long enough.”
Stanton had also noticed a growing prevalence of gadgets in kids’ lives, and wondered how that might impact playtime. “I had been watching for six to eight years, devices in kids' hands, they get younger and younger, and that's clearly here to stay, like television in the 50s came into the household. So that has to affect the toys' lives.”
Working with co-writer and director Kenna Harris - who was a baby when the first was released - the film’s creative team also leaned into the theme of friendship. Bonnie is now eight, and making friends feels like the scariest and most daring thing in her life.
“None of us can forget that first time we stuck our neck out and tried to ask to be a friend with somebody that we weren't sure if we were going to get rejected or not, and we certainly have never forgotten when we were rejected, and the stakes of that are huge,” says Stanton.
The character who feels that pressure the most as a close companion of Bonnie’s is Jessie, who was passed the sheriff’s badge in by Woody, and who feels a huge responsibility towards her young charge. As has always been his approach, Stanton embraced collaboration.
“To me movies are a team sport, so I feel very comfortable being in this world and writing for characters. Some come easier than others, but I also feel very comfortable asking for help.
"I very early on brought on Kenna Harris, who had a different perspective and love and reverence for these characters, and had a very different perspective in life about being raised in a household and with toys and in a girl's room. I love passing the ball back and forth with another writer, and that's how I've always written with any of the other Toy Story movies.”
The process of bringing an animated movie from story to screen is a labour-intensive one that takes many years, and at its peak of production, several hundred people are working on the project. “We were about 275 people at the peak of our production, and we go for about three and a half years, so that's for a very short period of time, where we're at that super high peak,” says long-time Pixar and producer Lindsey Collins.
“Over the course of the film, 1000s and 1000s of person weeks are being spent on the film. In the course of any given week, an animator is doing on average a shot a week.
“The beauty of though, is that we get there pretty quickly, because everybody knows these characters so well that there's not a ton of discovery around: How do they move? Who are they? What's their behaviour like? Once we get them going and we get the footage to them, they start moving so fast because they know and love these characters so well. These are old shoes that they get to jump into.”
Stanton and Collins laugh that the irony is not lost on creative team that they work for a technology company, making movies with computer graphics. Still, one of the film’s most powerful themes is about the joy of playtime, and the process of creation.
“We'd like to think we're an example of the right combination of artistry and technology as a tool and as a means to further the arts, and for people to connect,” he says. “I think our only interest in AI is if it can improve a tool or methods of working, so that artists can work easier and closer together, because I don't talk to a computer, I talk to another artist.
“People say: ‘Well, you could make AI, and you can just say something and the movie’s made,” he says, adding that the process of telling a story is what he loves most about his work.
“I’m like: ‘Well, I'm only in it to play the game — I'm not about winning the game, I just want to play the game. And if you're saying what I do suddenly just skips playing the game, well, then I'm not interested’.”
- Toy Story 5 previews on Thursday, June 18, and opens in cinemas everywhere on Friday, June 19
