I am admittedly skeptical about Toy Story 5. Pixar has returned to this well more often than any other series they’ve started, and against all odds, they’ve continued to deliver great stories – but Toy Story 4 already wasn’t at the level of the previous trilogy. Eventually, this franchise will have run its course, and I would prefer to see Pixar quit while they’re ahead instead of keep going until they reach its breaking point.
The new Toy Story 5 trailer didn’t do much to dispel my fears. From the way it rushes to Woody’s return to the pretty shameless deployment of “You’ve Got a Friend in Me,” it’s dripping with nostalgia, leaning into the tendencies in today’s franchise filmmaking I’m most allergic to. Toy Story 5 is clearly aware it’s repeating storylines, and that could bode well for its handling of the story. But if all a fifth installment can do is recycle the past, even winkingly, it’s worth asking whether it should’ve been made at all.
And yet, there is one thing keeping me interested: Toy Story 5 has a truly great premise. And though the trailer doesn’t do much to show it, it could make this one of Pixar’s darkest movies in some time.
The Screen Time Problem in Toy Story 5 Is More Significant Than It Appears
As creative an idea as Forky is, Toy Story 4 lacked a truly compelling central hook for its toys, something that was a hallmark of the previous three movies. Pixar found one for Toy Story 5. The threat facing the toys this time around is Lilypad, a tablet that becomes Bonnie’s obsession. Screen time is arguably the defining issue parents face today, and for toys, it’s obviously an existential one. Imaginative play isn’t necessary to fill the time when devices can constantly fend off boredom.
The new movie’s trailer acknowledges this by making clear the problem extends far beyond Bonnie’s room. Woody reports that more and more toys are being abandoned by their kids as tech continues to invade homes, and Jessie complains that Lilypad is getting in the way of the toys’ efforts to help Bonnie make friends. The trailer frames these dilemmas with an optimistic tone, as if getting the band back together is all it’ll take to overcome them.
But it also hides a darker truth in plain sight. The other kids Bonnie’s trying to befriend have Lilypads, too, and her continued use of toys looks to be a reason she’s kept at arm’s length. If Jessie and the others are the obstacle to Bonnie’s social development, and not the tablet, then this becomes much bigger than defeating a single antagonist. The toys are struggling against not just Lilypad but also the changing tide.
And there are hints in Toy Story 5‘s trailer that it gets worse from there. When her dad tries to enforce a screen time limit, it’s only halfheartedly; he has a device of his own in his hand. In one brief shot, Bonnie is together with those other kids, but they’re all sat together in a dark room on their own tablets. It seems like Pixar’s filmmakers, who have drawn on their experiences as parents so thoughtfully in films like Finding Nemo and Inside Out, are wanting to take a look at where childhood play is heading and what we’re at risk of losing if things continue on this path.
Toy Story 3 is famously one of Pixar’s most emotional movies (to the extent that there are real theories out there claiming it’s a Holocaust metaphor), so out of curiosity, I looked back at its original trailer. I found no hint of the tone it would come to be known for. So, if you plan to go see Toy Story 5 when it releases on June 19, be prepared – it may not be the warm-and-fuzzy trip down memory lane this trailer promises.
