Toy Story 5
Review: When I put together my list of my most anticipated films of 2026, this one was just an honorable mention. But by the time it rolled around, that was a misstep on my part. I’d attribute this to my son’s new found interest in the franchise that led to us being incredibly excited to take him. I say all that to say that this is the first Toy Story film I’m watching for the first time as the parent, not the kid, which definitely leads to viewing all of these films differently. And it made me cry in this one a couple times. This whole review will be spoiler free, so I won’t tell you where I cried, but just know it happened twice. The film was a great love letter to the character of Jessie, and also did a great job to advancing Bonnie’s story, which will apparently continue in the next film. An extremely well done film that I’m sure you will all watch, I do think the world is a slightly better place when we can watch Toy Story together.
A couple other random thoughts I had:
Bonnie’s parents are really good, especially on the spectrum of animated movie parents, who usually suck.
I’m impressed at how the voice actors for these films, namely Joan Cusack, Tom Hanks, & Tim Allen manage to slide back into their iconic roles after several decades from the original film.
I also did really enjoy the new characters, but my favorite of them was surely Smarty Pants (Conan O’Brien).
High: I could point to a lot of things here. But it’s still got to be the animation. I don’t understand how the animation can improve so drastically between each installment. It consistently improves and while the original film does still hold up pretty well, it’s insane if you watch all the films in succession how much different they look. I’m a big believer that for animation to be considered ‘good’ it doesn’t need to look realistic, which is true with parts of Toy Story, like the characters themselves. But man how much they nail all the background features of nature and whatnot is jaw dropping.
Low: While I left the movie feeling really good, there was one nitpick I do have about this film, which is the same I have about the 4th. I don’t live the (literal) shelfing of the ensemble we know from the first films. I’m all for focusing on the Big 3 characters and also all for introducing new characters, but I hate the disregard the original side characters have been given. I think the remedy for this would be to make some new shorts or something that focus primarily on these characters, but whenever Toy Story 6 eventually comes, I would love to see that adjustment. And just in case you were thinking that maybe I only noticed because I love these characters from my childhood, my son also noticed the absence, specifically of Rex and the Aliens.
Rating: 9/10
