JONESING FOR FILMS

1995’s Toy Story is the movie that launched the modern age of animated movies. 31 years later, we’re getting the fifth entry in the Pixar franchise, continuing the stories of Woody, Buzz, and other toys that have been added to the collection over the years. While there have been hints at natural endings for the franchise in each of the last two sequels, Pixar still seems to have stories to tell through these beloved characters.

Jessie (Joan Cusack), Buzz (Tim Allen), and Woody (Tom Hanks) are all concerned about the growing prevalence of tech and smart devices getting into the hands of kids at younger and younger ages, sapping them of playtime with their toys and essentially turning them into social media automatons. When 8-year-old Bonnie (Scarlett Spears) gets a LilyPad (Greta Lee), Bonnie’s attention is turned elsewhere and all the toys go into panic mode about their future, Jessie most of all.

This time around, Woody and Buzz take more of a backseat to Jessie and her horse Bullseye. Jessie’s trauma of being abandoned by her first kid, Emily, was a big emotional element of Toy Story 2 and gets revisited in this movie. Jessie fear of being abandoned bubbles up to the surface once more, leading the fight to try to prevent Lily from becoming the predominant force in Bonnie’s life.

Jessie and company are distrusting of Lily from the start, especially given how invasively expansive Lily is in carving out her place in Bonnie’s life right off the bat. Tackling the subject of tech becoming an increasingly permanent fixture in everyday life is a smart direction to take. Of course, given that it is Pixar, it is not surprising that they attempt to carve out a nuanced take.

I think the reactions that the toys have to the threatening newcomer in their midst is illustrative of how territorial and combative we can be when we feel our security or position is disturbed by external factors. People have a tendency to circle the wagons when they feel threatened.

I appreciated the way that the movie handled Bonnie as a growing kid, a child that is socially awkward and a little shy. Kids grow and mature and eventually age out of some things, like playing with toys, but how much of that is influenced by external forces like the pressure to fit in with peer groups like Bonnie experiences with gaining social “friends” from her school on the LilyPad? What is at stake in the film for Bonnie is whether to sacrifice some of her personality to fit in or embrace who she is and what she likes.

Jessie is convinced that Bonnie just needs to find the right kids to fit in with and she’ll be fine while LilyPad has her own ideas on what is best for Bonnie, hence the tension. In her desperation to hang onto Bonnie and to resist the march of tech, it leads her back to her origins, and in the process, learning some valuable lessons, lessons that reshape her perspective on Emily, herself, and tech.

That reevaluation of tech is aided by her journey being aided by some other tech in the form of three toys: Smarty Pants (Conan O’Brien), Atlas (Craig Robinson), and Snappy (Shelby Rabara). These were early, now abandoned, tech devices for the girl that now lives in Emily’s old home, Blaze (Mykal-Michelle Harris). Smarty Pants is a potty training device, and Conan delivers A+ toilet humor in voicing him.

There is a side story that opens to movie involving a cargo ship container of Buzz Lightyear toys that are in search of “Star Command.” How they are folded into the larger story and their ultimate fate may feel slightly strained, but I think it pays off in the long run, and i must admit that I still laugh at the semi-lack of self-awareness with the Buzz Lightyear toys not realizing they are toys.

The plot does threaten to go over too much familiar territory by circling back to Toy Story 2, but it ends up in a place that is emotionally impactful. I appreciated the overall message of Jessie’s arc being that you can have an impact on someone’s life in ways you may never know and maybe even in ways they themselves never realize.

The resolution of the conflict with Lily carries heavy Anxiety from Inside Out 2 energy. Like Anxiety, Lilypad is at odds with our beloved characters, both sides think they want/know what is best for their kid, and end up having to work together to actually make that a reality.

I don’t know if there are future installments in the Toy Story world. It seems that they have bypassed two quality exit ramps that were naturally available to them with Toy Story 3 and Toy Story 4, but they have done a good job of maintaining the quality of the franchise and not coasting on nostalgia and audience love for the characters. Toy Story 5 shows that if Pixar still has quality stories to tell then these characters are still a worthy vehicle in which to deliver them.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars