Once again, Disney and Pixar's Toy Story franchise is on the right track with director Andrew Stanton's Toy Story 5, a beautiful return to characters we've come to know and love. Joan Cusack brings heart and nuance to Jessie, while a new setting creates an entry that feels unique in unexpected ways. It doesn't quite hit the highs of previous iterations, but it's a fine, moving, and often funny comeback on its own merits.
Pixar's Toy Story franchise is one of the most iconic in animation history. By giving toys emotions, fans were brought into the world of something almost everyone has deep childhood experiences of. Meanwhile, the toys have to deal with complex emotions: a child who’s outgrown them struggles with purpose, finding love, and letting go of the past.
The second and third films somehow improved on the first, with Toy Story 3 winning the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature for its harrowing rescue story. The movie cemented the first three Toy Story films as a near-perfect trilogy, one of the finest in both animation and film history. Toy Story 4 came out nine years later, reuniting Woody (Tom Hanks) with his love, Bo-Peep (Annie Potts).
Toy Story 4 gave us interesting sides of beloved characters, but it didn’t quite reach the heights of the original trilogy, despite being a perfectly charming film on its own merits. In 2022, the franchise made perhaps its only true blunder with Lightyear, an exploration of the lore embedded in the Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen) character’s universe rather than a Toy Story film following Buzz Lightyear the toy. Toy Story 5 may have an uneviable set of tasks to accomplish, but it's a stellar entry in the series with ample heart to boot.
Joan Cusack Leads a Moving, Unique Entry
In Disney and Pixar's Toy Story 5, Jessie (Joan Cusak) is a happy toy as the chosen favorite of the sweet Bonnie (Scarlett Spears), an imaginative but shy girl who has a hard time making friends in a world where other children have tablets, not toys. When Bonnie is given her own tablet, Lilypad, Bonnie and other toys think they will face the inevitable doom of many toys that have suffered at the hands of technology.
In a surprise to no one, screen-mediated friendships do not turn out to be as healthy for Bonnie as intended, so Jesse and the other toys set out to help her make a real-life friend. It's a film that balances heart and humor, bringing back appearances from fan-favorites and charming new additions, with unexpected vocal stars.
Toy Story 5 is a particularly excellent showcase for Joan Cusack as Jessie, a toy with a long history who, like so many of the toys we’ve seen in the franchise, is deeply afraid of being replaced. Her number one concern, however, is the welfare of her beloved Bonnie. The narrative does wonders at balancing these threads, allowing the character to explore the franchise's themes of purpose and connection effectively, and Cusack gives the character's journey significant depth.
Tim Allen is yet again exceptional as Buzz Lightyear, here more than a little love-struck after serving so long as Jessie‘s deputy. It’s an engaged betrayal that is often genuinely funny, and he gets extra time to shine at the introduction of a fleet of other Lightyears that form the film’s funniest part.
Greta Lee brings much-needed complexity to the well-meaning but perhaps overzealous Lilypad, while the young Spears delivers a moving portrayal of the shy young Bonnie that should also be noted.
A Great Toy Story Film That Stops Slightly Short of Franchise Highs
Toy Story 5 feels different than some of the iterations that have gone before, in part because it spends so much time with Western-coded characters in rural settings, and in part because that isolates those characters from their gaggle of toys we’ve been following over the franchise's history for much of the film's runtime.
Cusack anchors the new digs well, and some additional cast members provide strong sources of interaction, tension, and comedy when needed. It’s a smartly scripted film with a lot of comedy and pathos throughout, including a well-performed journey for Jessie. Buzz delivers many of the film’s funniest moments, laying the foundation for a wonderful addition to a widely beloved series.
Considered on its own, the film works, though it is similar to prior films in the franchise in undesirable ways. As a Toy Story film, it capably adds new layers to the themes that have fueled prior entries while evolving the characters we’re familiar with. Beloved toys from past iterations are variably present this round, and while the new digs often work and add new elements, there are times when you miss the buzzy back-and-forth of these different personalities.
Toy Story 5 had huge shoes to fill, returning to a masterful franchise that hasn’t been well served by subsequent entries and coming off perhaps the only iteration that was genuinely inadvisable. It’s a strong entry in the direction of franchise highs, though stopping slightly short of them. It's hard not to miss the joyous cacophony of the many toys that center on the original trilogy, here reduced to brief, selective appearances. But it's nonetheless full of emotion and humor, offering a fine addition that puts the franchise back on track for Disney and Pixar.
Final Rating: 8/10
Toy Story 5 heads to theaters June 19, 2026.
