Everyone knows that “helicopter parenting” is bad, right?  Apparently not, since the good folks at Pixar have revisited the topic again, seven years after Toy Story 4 made it clear that toys need to know their place.  Don’t they have a “prime directive” to guide them in situations like this?  Anyhow, in Toy Story 5 it’s Jessie instead of Woody who decides to take matters into her own hands with current owner Bonnie, and things turn out about as you’d expect.  There’s also a platoon of newly-awakened Buzz Lightyears that find their way into the story, and who doesn’t love more Buzz?

I’m not going to spoil how the movie introduces the wayward Buzzes (Tim Allen), because it’s one of the few surprises in a movie short on them.  All I will say is that if you’re familiar with the films of Tom Hanks, the setup should ring a bell.

In the previous movie, Woody (Hanks) tagged along with Bonnie on her first day of kindergarten to ensure things went smoothly.  He inadvertently wound up giving birth to the art project known as Forky (Tony Hale), who in turn gave Woody no end of grief because of his trash fixation.  But Forky eventually accepted his role as Bonnie’s go-to toy after a heart-to-heart with Woody.

Seven years later, Bonnie (Scarlett Spears) is still extremely shy.  When she asks her parents why she doesn’t have any friends, her parents are at a loss for words.  Every indication tells us that they’re good parents, but are completely clueless about how to help her in social settings.  They encourage Bonnie to play with her neighbors, but she’s afraid to introduce herself.

Jessie (Joan Cusack) is protective of Bonnie as well and inserts herself into the situation.  She forces Bonnie to say “hi” to the other kids, but they laugh at her.  Bonnie is crushed and her parents do what most parents do these days and look to technology for answers.  They buy Bonnie an electronic tablet named Lilypad (a.k.a. “Lily”, voiced by Gretta Lee), a device that promises to accelerate her social skills and whatnot.  She makes Bonnie three new friends in fifteen seconds, which stuns the other toys.

What Lily actually does is keep Bonnie’s eyes glued to the screen day and night.  Everyone in Bonnie’s neighborhood is addicted to their screens and completely oblivious to the world around them, just like Wall-e predicted eighteen years ago.  Since Bonnie has completely stopped playing with her toys, Jessie walkie-talkie’s Woody for help.

Wait, didn’t Woody leave for the open road when we last saw him?  Yes, but he’s now conveniently near Bonnie’s home.  (Every Toy Story movie must have Woody in it.)  Even though Jessie changes her mind, Woody heads over anyway.

When Bonnie is invited to a sleep-over by her new cyber-friends, Jessie and Bullseye hide in Bonnie’s suitcase.  Lily warns them not to, because Bonnie’s new friends are tablet gals, but Jessie insists.  When Bonnie’s new “friends” laugh at her toys, she leaves Jessie and Bullseye in the car.  Jessie, however, won’t let things go and winds up being taken back to the home of her original owner, Emily.

Woody’s return irritates Buzz, because Jessie deputized him before she left and Woody always assumes he’s the leader of the band.  There’s also the matter of Buzz fretting over his marriage proposal to Jessie, a subplot inspired by Frozen 2.  Woody and Buzz try to play hardball with Lilypad, but she outsmarts them and gets all the toys put into the garage.

At Emily’s old house, Jessie makes friends with a trio of old-tech toys, Smarty Pants (for potty-training, Conan O’Brien), GPS device Atlas (Craig Robinson) and Snappy the camera (Shelby Rabara), who help her find Bullseye.  However, he doesn’t want to leave because Blaze (Mykal-Michelle Harris), his new owner, loves horses and actually wants to play with him.  Does this mean that Jessie will need to start over again?

Back home, Woody and Buzz try to get Lily to tell them where Jessie is, but they only make Bonnie look even worse in the eyes of her mean tech girlfriends.  Meanwhile, Jessie realizes that Bonnie and Blaze are meant to be friends, but how to get them together?  Can toys old and new find a way to come together for the greater good?  And how do all of the Buzz Lightyears figure into all this?

Recommendation

The first three Toy Story movies used toys to explore a variety of traumatic situations us humans deal with, including inadequacy, frailty, abandonment and mortality.  Now that the metaphysical crisis shelf is empty, the franchise has moved onto giving the audience well-meaning advice. Toy Story 4 was basically about Woody’s meddling in Bonnie’s life, and Toy Story 5 offers more of the same, except now Jessie is the Western-themed toy who must learn the dangers of over-parenting.  It’s just one of the ways in which this sequel feels very familiar.

There’s a repeat of the “old toy v. new toy” face off from the first movie, this time with Jessie playing Woody and Lily (the tablet) as the usurper.  We get dozens of oblivious Buzz Lightyears, which was a bit in Toy Story 2.  The movie also revisits Jessie’s heart-breaking past from that movie as well.  And we even get a variation of the “falling with style” line again.  Toy Story 5 relies heavily on our nostalgia for the franchise itself, which had me experiencing deja vu on multiple occasions.

Of the new-ish material, it’s a mixed bag.  The lost Buzz Lightyears subplot is a fun but very obvious gimmick, shoehorned into the plot to provide the ending with an epic deus ex machina.  There are plenty of new toys, but they mainly exist to deliver exposition instead of jokes.  Lily, the movie’s villain, is incredibly mean, until she’s not.  Fortunately, two animals and a couple of vivid imagination sequences help give the movie a jolt.

Toy Story 5 is at its best when it’s focusing on Jessie, the lead toy this time around.  Her journey is the crux of the story, and it’s as emotional as anything the franchise has done before.  When Jessie finally understands that she made a difference in her child’s life, it’s a powerfully cathartic moment that should connect with parents in the audience.

Speaking of which, I appreciated that the movie advised parents to let their socially awkward children find their own way instead of abandoning them to technology.  The movie’s message ultimately is one of being patient until your child finds someone on their wavelength.  And kudos to Disney for releasing a movie that shows how harmful extensive screen time and social media can be for childhood development, even if it’s long overdue.

All of the primary voice actors are fine.  Tom Hanks, Tim Allen and Joan Cusack can do their characters in their sleep.  The rest of the gang get a couple of lines only.  Gretta Lee is suitably chirpy and bossy as Lily.  Conan O’Brien gets the best jokes, all of which relate to #2.  Craig Robinson had so much fun lending his voice to a GPS device that I wished he had a bigger role.  Scarlett Spears and Mykal-Michelle Harris were touching as the two young girls who bond over their mutual appreciation of playtime and horses.

The animation is average for a Toy Story movie, with a few exceptions.  First is the rendering of a horse and a pig, both of which show how far CGI animation has evolved from Scud in Toy Story.  Second, enhancing the imaginary wedding scenes with vivid colors was a nice touch.  Third, getting the toys out of the ‘burbs gave the animators a reason to indulge in beautiful country locations.

Toy Story 5 isn’t as visually inventive or as funny as its predecessors, and often feels more like a nostalgia trip than a new story.  However, it has enough emotional beats that will get you misty-eyed, and its advice on parenting is thoughtful and timely.  Recommended.

Analysis

As I thought about Toy Story 5, I wondered where this franchise could go from here.  They’ve seemingly run out of existential crises to put the toys through, and the last two films are basically cautionary tales about overparenting.  While the message is conveyed respectfully and is well-intentioned, there’s only so many times we can see the toys getting into trouble for helping Bonnie.

Having this movie be about Jessie makes perfect sense for several reasons.  We’ve already had a movie about Buzz’s origin story (the original) and learned about Woody’s history as a toy (Toy Story 2).  Barbie was the focus of a nice subplot in Toy Story 3.  The only other recurring character who had enough of a backstory to build a movie around was Jessie, and Toy Story 5 effectively provides closure for both her and the audience.

Since all of the other toys involved in these movies are basically comic relief (Mr. Potatohead, Mrs. Potatohead, Slink, Rex, Hamm), I’m curious as to how Pixar will come up with another story for the next movie.  Director-writer Andrew Stanton mentioned in an interview that the sixth entry will wrap up Bonnie’s cycle in the franchise, but how that will be accomplished in a compelling way is a mystery.

The franchise could bring back a villain, like Stinky Pete or even Zurg.  But Pete would be the second time we’ve revisited Toy Story 2.  Ditto goes for Big Al, who was last seen departing for Japan with no toys in steerage.  Pixar nearly killed off Zurg as a character in the ill-conceived Lightyear, and Buzz has been a featured character in all of these films so far.  I’m not sure if I’ll ever have Buzz-fatigue, but as evinced by Toy Story 5, Pixar is having a tough time coming up with ways to make the character interesting.  Having him fret about proposing and then adding a bunch of oblivious Buzzes seemed desperate.

Another idea would be to revisit Sid, the malicious kid who lived next door to Andy that Woody left scared witless in the first movie.  For a franchise that is unapologetically nostalgic for childhood as well as its own mythology, they could do a lot worse.

Spare parts

At some point, a Toy Story movie must acknowledge that every home in suburbia has a doorbell cam.  Then, everyone will know that toys are actually “alive” and the world will descend into chaos.  Who wouldn’t want to see Woody and the gang in a violent battle for supremacy against their feckless human overlords?

The filmmakers must be referencing Tom Hanks’ Cast Away in the opening sequence with the shipwrecked Buzz Lightyears.

Ducky (Keegan-Michael Key) and Bunny (Jordan Peele) were hilarious in Toy Story 4.  It’s a shame that they were reduced to voiceless cameos in this movie.

By the way, someone needs to explain to me why Peele has directed three films and Key is doing commercials for Choice Hotels.

Rex’s extinction line was the funniest one in the movie for me.  And naming the pig Jimmy Dean was funny.  I’ll shamefully admit that “# 1.5” made me laugh.  Buzz riding a pink-maned horse?  Why, I never!

“Yeah, we’ll wipe your-”  Pixar getting down and dirty.

The emotional gut-punch arrives when Jessie realises she was a good parent–er, toy–after all.

Did we really need two “Woody is balding” jokes?  Woody has always been vain, but c’mon.

Allen (73) and Hanks (69) aren’t too old to keep voicing Buzz and Woody, but what happens when they pass on?  Will they be replaced by mimics as was the case for for Don Rickles’ Mr. Potatohead and Jim Varney’s Slink?  John Ratzenberger (79, Hamm) and Wallace Shawn (82, Rex) aren’t getting any younger, either.

Will a future Toy Story movie deal with a toy “dying”?  Yes, it’s a morbid thought, but Sid blew up a toy in the first movie and Toy Story 3 had the toys face their deaths and miraculously survive.  I’m curious about what besides being melted would cause a toy to “cease to be”.  Getting run over by a car, perhaps?  Being chewed to pieces by the family pet?

Can Taylor Swift’s “I Knew It, I Knew You” break the curse of a Toy Story song not winning Best Original Song?  That “You’ve got a friend in me” lost to “Colors of the Wind” still boggles my mind thirty-one years later.

I still don’t understand why the toys in these movies breathe and smell, other than for laughs.

Why does Woody have a paunch in this movie?  He doesn’t eat.