‘Toy Story 5’ Review: Jessie’s Girl [B+]

When Toy Story debuted just over thirty years ago, audiences were introduced to an inventive concept that nearly any moviegoer could relate to, no matter their age. What do a child’s toys do when no one is paying attention? How do they feel during moments of play? That innovative storytelling, paired with the sparkling technology of a brand-new animation studio, made Toy Story a signal of the future of animated filmmaking. Since then, the beloved original characters Woody (Tom Hanks) and Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen) have gone on many adventures, watching their original owner Andy grow up and their surroundings change. Yet what’s truly remarkable about the Toy Story films is just how nimble they’ve proven to be in adapting to the current moment, introducing memorable new characters that make nearly every entry feel essential to the Pixar canon. Toy Story 5 sometimes bites off more than it can chew in its exploration of the old and the new, but its nuanced approach to technology and connection makes it the most urgent entry yet. 

Toy Story 5 begins with a signature of the franchise, a stylish cold open that plays with genre convention and introduces us to one of the film’s core themes. In this case, that’s advancing technology, and a play on science fiction filmmaking sets the stage. Buzz Lightyear (but not specifically our Buzz Lightyear) wakes up on a beach where he and dozens of other “Hi-Tech” Buzz Lightyear models have been stranded in a shipping container and stuck in demo mode. These are at least thirty years younger than the original toy, and they’ve been equipped with a unique technology that allows them to communicate and move in unison, with the goal of advancing toward their star command. The film then flashes back to “a long time ago” when lovable cowgirl Jessie (Joan Cusack) lived on a farm with her original owner, Emily. With just a tire swing tied to a lone tree on the horizon, it’s a far cry from the bright lights and robotic voices of the new editions of the classics, yet it still feels like more than enough. As we discovered in one of the saga’s most heartbreaking moments in Toy Story 2, Emily abandoned Jessie, and it’s something she’s still carrying with her. 

After the chaotic RV excursion in Toy Story 4, our core characters are back at home with Bonnie (Scarlett Spears), a girl whose imagination lights up when she’s deep in play but who is having some trouble adjusting socially and overcoming her shyness. When her parents notice that she’s struggling to invite the twins who live across the street over to play, they get her a trendy new tablet called Lilypad (Greta Lee). “Lily” evokes a more child-friendly version of an iPad, featuring interactive games and even a group chat feature to connect with and make new friends. Jessie is dubious of Lily, though, seeing her new presence as a threat to Bonnie’s creativity and something that could render her and the other toys completely obsolete. Fiercely protective as ever, Jessie is incensed that the twins won’t play with Bonnie and decides to investigate for herself. Soon, she meets a slew of old, abandoned outdoor toys who warn her that “the age of toys is over,” highlighting that all of the kids in the neighborhood are fixated on their screens, as if they’re possessed by the bright lights of their devices. Bonnie has the same reaction to the new piece of technology and becomes instantly attached to Lily, mesmerized by the brightness of her screen and the dopamine rush when she’s added to a group chat with a few girls from her dance class. Everything seems to be getting better for Bonnie when she’s invited to a sleepover, but it’s quickly clear that she’s still a bit different from the girls in her class who mock her for bringing Jessie and Bullseye along. “You still play with toys?” they gibe, sending Bonnie into a spiral of insecurity that pushes her further away from her toys and closer to Lily. 

With her chirpy voice and ability to enchant Bonnie with her bells and whistles, Lily is established as a threat and a clear antagonist to our favorite group of toys. She is omniscient and has new ways of pulling the toys away from Bonnie and vice versa, instigating Jessie and Bullseye’s accidental kidnapping from the sleepover and tricking Bonnie’s dad into moving the remaining toys to the garage. Yet the film wisely pivots away from making her the movie’s lone villain, as in past entries, and instead makes her representative of a ubiquitous issue. Much like his brilliant, thought-provoking film WALL-E, director Andrew Stanton smartly illuminates that at its core, the pull of technology isn’t simply an all-consuming distraction but also an intensely emotional experience that kids just aren’t ready for. As Jessie and Lily both meddle in Bonnie’s life, insisting that they know what’s best for her development, Bonnie has a challenging time adjusting. Stanton successfully shows that technology can become an addiction without supervision, as Bonnie can’t look up from Lily when her parents speak to her and has a meltdown when Lily doesn’t charge overnight. When her new “friends” make fun of her in the group chat, her face instantly falls, and she becomes despondent. In one of the movie’s earliest sequences, Bonnie plays with her toys, and the imagined scenario is vivid and in a completely different animation style, transporting her to a new place. When she’s with Lily, she’s only consumed by the glow of the screen. It’s a world that she can’t snap out of as easily. The nuanced depiction of the emotional pull devices can have is one of the strongest aspects of Stanton and co-writer Kenna Harris’ script, and one that both kids and adults can relate to. 

Bonnie is so fixated on Lily that she barely even realizes that Jessie and Bullseye are gone when they’re scooped up outside by two unwitting passersby who drop them off at the address written in marker on Jessie. When she realizes she’s now at Emily’s old house, emotions flood back in for Jessie (and the audience). She soon learns that a girl named Blaze (Mykal-Michelle Harris) now lives there, and after watching her play with her horse and have a seemingly healthy relationship with technology, Jessie realizes that she could be a potential pal for Bonnie, and she needs to try to bring them together. What’s wonderful about Jessie as a character is that even though she wasn’t introduced until Toy Story 2, it’s impossible to imagine a Toy Story movie without her. Cusack’s voice work for Jessie is excellent, bringing so much warmth and determination to the character. It’s a smart pivot to make such a beloved character the central protagonist for Toy Story 5, and this shift in the story imbues it with even more humor and heart. Stanton and Harris also introduce a plethora of new characters, namely three low-tech toy gadgets that were relegated to a drawer when their batteries died. Even though Jessie is resistant to technology, she enlists the help of potty-training toy Smarty Pants (a terrific Conan O’Brien), toy camera Snappy (Shelby Rabara), and GPS toy Atlas (Craig Robinson) to connect Blaze and Bonnie. While these scenes are humorous (Smarty Pants’ bathroom humor had the children in my screening in stitches) and the writing for the characters is smart, they still don’t compare to Slinky Dog, Rex, Hamm, Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head, and the rest of the ensemble from the first film. 

With Jessie and Bullseye away from Bonnie, Woody returns to help Buzz and the gang fight against Lily’s newfound control. Buzz and Woody have seen better days physically, but their great rapport and humor make their scenes together some of the film’s best. The script successfully balances the storylines at Blaze’s house with Jessie and at Bonnie’s with the original crew, but the film’s third subplot of the new hi-tech Buzz Lightyear models feels a bit convoluted. These moments smartly avoid portraying technology as a solely evil, all-consuming entity, but they ultimately do little more than reiterate the power of the low-tech option. Perhaps that’s all part of the point, but it halts a bit of the momentum in the story. The clever writing and strong voice work from Lee and O’Brien, in particular, make Lily and Smarty Pants an improvement on Toy Story 4’s introduction of Forky, but the script pulls focus away from them with too many new characters and subplots that make the entry feel a bit unwieldy. 

Still, with dozens of new characters and subplots, the movie is, at its core, a story about connection. The film’s dazzling animation is proof that technology can be a wonderful gift when it inspires and brings people together. Yet it can also feel like an uncontrollable curse when it isolates us from each other, reducing the effort we feel we need to put into our relationships. Toy Story 5 successfully strikes that balance. Visiting these characters from decades ago feels like opening a time capsule, playing on the same kind of twinge-in-your-heart nostalgia and sentimentality found in the best Pixar films. Early in the film, I was distracted by the glowing light coming from a child’s phone in the theater. How ironic, I thought, that during this movie about the all-consuming addiction to technology, a kid couldn’t resist the pull of the device that should’ve stayed in his pocket. And yet, as Jessie and her unlikely new friends went on their colorful adventures, the once bright, tiny screen went dark, replaced by the magical glow of the cinema’s big screen.

Grade: B+

Walt Disney and Pixar will release Toy Story 5 only in theaters on June 19.

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Sophia Ciminello

Sophia is a lifelong film enthusiast who considers herself a scholar of Best Actress winners, the films of Paul Thomas Anderson, and 1970s cinema. She hosts and produces the podcast "Oscar Wild," where she celebrates her love of cinema with retrospectives, deep dives on all 23 Oscar categories, and interviews with directors and creatives. She thanks her mother for her love of Old Hollywood and her father for letting her stay up late to watch the Oscars when she was in preschool. Her favorite Best Picture winners are All About Eve and Ordinary People. You can follow her on Twitter @sophia_cim.

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