Thanks to the legends at Disney inviting me to the Toy Story 5 UK launch event, I’ve now seen the first 45 minutes of the most anticipated animated movie of the year.
But before we go any further, let’s make one thing clear: this piece will only be discussing the parts of Toy Story 5 that are shown in the trailer, so rest assured this is a spoiler-free zone. I’m not in the habit of upsetting children… unnecessarily, anyway.
Even without giving the game away, there’s a lot to discuss. As we know, Toy Story 5 is set to play off the toys against tech, as new “villain” Lilypad (Greta Lee) threatens to take Jessie (Joan Cusack), Buzz (Tim Allen) and the gang away from playtime with their child.
And Woody (Tom Hanks)? After the (atrocity, frankly) that was Toy Story 5, he’s living a rogue lifestyle on the fringes of toy-led society. But that doesn’t mean that he isn’t on hand to help out when he’s needed.
I was expecting to watch footage from Toy Story 5 and feel angry — angry that the world is so tech-reliant, angry that we’ve collectively abandoned whimsy and imagination when it comes to engaging young minds, and angry that millions will likely see the new movie and immediately abandon its messaging.
Instead, I was left feeling guilty and incredibly sad during those first 45 minutes… and worryingly, it reminded me of exactly how I felt while watching the ending of Toy Story 3.
If Toy Story 5 is anything like Toy Story 3, my tear ducts will not survive watching it
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Picture it: the year is 2010, and I’m a 15-year-old who has been growing up with Toy Story since I was born (quite literally, as the first movie arrived on Earth only a few months after I did).
My best friend from school and I have decided to see Toy Story 3 in 3D at our local cinema, and we’re howling with laughter when Buzz accidentally gets stuck in Spanish mode. But then the tone changes and Andy (John Morris) goes off to college, leaving all of his toys packed up in brown boxes at another house, ready to be donated.
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I was only a few years away from doing the same thing, but seeing Andy drive away and leave his toys all on their own brought me to tears in a way no other movie has done before or since. I was so desperate to dry my eyes that I forgot I had 3D glasses on, and couldn’t see the credits because of smeared popcorn grease on the lenses.
The sense of abandonment and the fearing in growing up and moving on has always been so expertly explored by the Toy Story movies. By this point, we’d have 15 years of rooting for Woody and Buzz, and each had our favorites among their gang of lovable toys (obviously, the best is Bullseye). Even so, being confronted with the fact that all good things must come to an end felt like I’d been punched in the gut.
As the lights came up at the Toy Story 5 launch, my head started to go to the same place. What if my Barbies were sad when I gave them to Goodwill 20-odd years ago?
What if my Bratz dolls’ feelings were hurt the first time I got a Tamagotchi, and felt like they were beginning to be replaced by a social shift they had no control over?
What if the Nintendo Switch I bought in 2020 lockdown just to play Animal Crossing: New Horizons a total of four times had issues with the fact I’ve never picked it up since?
These confused feelings are exactly what Toy Story 5 has so beautifully picked up on. With tech so enmeshed in our day-to-day lives, there are blurred lines when it comes to the balance between old and new. This also means that there are no clear answers or solutions, so we have to trust our gut and do what feels right in the moment.
Will Toy Story 5 have a clear-cut ending? I doubt it, but it will be an incredibly emotional one. I just hope it’s taken to heart even more than Andy growing up was.
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