Toy Story 5 Review: Pixar’s Best Film in 16 Years Blends Hilarious AI Satire with Heart
Pixar’s “Toy Story 5” turns the franchise’s long-running fear of being replaced into a modern story about childhood, technology and emotional connection. Running 102 minutes and rated PG, the film arrives in theaters as a sharp, funny and surprisingly moving continuation of the beloved series, despite doubts that another sequel was necessary after the mixed reception to “Toy Story 4.”
The new movie brings back Tom Hanks as Woody, Tim Allen as Buzz Lightyear and Joan Cusack as Jessie, and gives the toys a renewed purpose in an age dominated by screens. Instead of helping a child preserve innocence, they are now trying to protect a child who is in danger of losing it. The story centers on Bonnie, now eight years old, shy, lonely and struggling to connect with other kids. Feeling left out at school, she wants a Lilypad, an interactive touchscreen tablet that has become a must-have among children.
Lilypad becomes the film’s main antagonist, voiced by Greta Lee. Rather than leaning into familiar science-fiction fears about superintelligent machines or apocalyptic artificial intelligence, the movie focuses on a more immediate and recognizable anxiety: the way digital devices can absorb children’s attention and reshape their behavior. The toys look out at a world filled with glowing screens and children staring into them, and they see a future where human imagination and play may be disappearing.
Director Andrew Stanton uses that conflict to create a story that is both timely and emotionally grounded. Jessie takes a larger leadership role in the film, and the shift works well. Her maternal, steady presence fits the story better than Woody’s familiar cowboy charm. After a sleepover accident, Jessie becomes separated from the group and ends up at a different house, where a girl named Blaze lives. There, the film introduces one of its strongest new characters: Smarty Pants, voiced by Conan O’Brien.
Smarty Pants is a forgotten educational toy from the early 2000s, designed to teach children how to use the toilet. Years after being powered down, he returns with manic energy and becomes one of the movie’s biggest comedic highlights. O’Brien’s voice performance is especially wild and inventive, adding a burst of chaos that fits the franchise’s sense of playful absurdity.
The film also makes effective use of a group of lost Buzz Lightyears, turning them into an amusing force that gradually becomes part of the adventure. These sequences add action and humor while reinforcing the movie’s central theme: obsolete things still have value, even in a fast-moving world that constantly encourages replacement.
What makes “Toy Story 5” resonate most is its generational appeal. It speaks to audiences who grew up with the original 1995 film and are now raising children of their own. The movie understands that the relationship between parents, children and technology has changed, but the emotional need for guidance, imagination and connection has not. With warmth, wit and a clear sense of purpose, “Toy Story 5” feels like a franchise return that is both nostalgic and urgently current.
