Toy Story 5 review: Pixar is not afraid to put the iPad generation’s most pressing issue on the table. If a screen can be more of a draw than an action figure, does the old way of playing stand a chance? We find out in India come June 19th, and the word is yes. A sequel that puts being relevant first, and for the most part, it works.
A franchise faces the screen age
Make it thirty years since Woody let us in on the secrets of Andy’s room and the opposition has changed. The new rival isn’t some upstart toy but the Lilypad, a kid-friendly piece of tech with a battery that seems to last forever, and it has made itself the focus of Bonnie’s life. The movie makes its point in no uncertain terms: this isn’t a case of toys vs. toys anymore. It’s about vying for a child’s attention.
You won’t get a lecture from Pixar on why you should put the tablet down. They handle the subject with a kind of quietness. The question is what you do when your imagination is being put through a glowing rectangle that’s meant to have you in its grip.
Jessie steps up, and it clicks
The real move here is to put the reins in Jessie’s hands. Cusack’s character is the story’s centre of gravity, and not just for a laugh or to tick off a memory. In her fretting over Bonnie and the pull of all this tech, there is a modern kind of pain to it, if you will, in the same vein as Woody was in the very first one. In Bonnie’s orbit, she is as much the sheriff as the intrepid ranch hand. That comes with some soft underbelly. Put her and Bullseye in a spot where they run into Blaze, a nine-year-old with a mind of his own, and you see her fears put to better use.
Woody and Buzz without the weight of nostalgia
Hanks and Allen are back, but they don’t need to be in every scene. Letting them be a bit more subdued gives the film some breathing room and stops it from becoming a greatest-hits collection. There have been times the franchise has been a little off-kilter with that; not this time.
Tech is not the villain, distraction is
It’s not a simple equation. The parents in the film are no stock characters; they notice their daughter being put out by the fact that her friends have all gone to The Pond. So they offer up the chatty Lilypad, and you can see they mean well. The problem is never the device. You could call it a case of tunnel vision. Toy Story 5 is in the business of one question: if a gadget can put on the act of being a friend, what happens to play? The movie’s best laughs are when you have the toys make sense of a world full of pings and group chats, creatures that are hard-wired for the old-fashioned kind of magic where you get to be picked up and put to use. Some of the things you’ll be talking about after you leave the theatre: – Jessie as the new emotional centre – The screen as an opponent the toys can’t quite figure out – The humour in them trying to read an online room – Some very fine animation in the unspoken moments – A less heavy-handed Woody and Buzz
It’s a good-looking film, but you can tell it’s the fifth one
Pixar is in top form with the visuals. You have your textures and light and the little tells on a face. A toy sitting there for a pick-up, or a kid’s hand going for a tablet on autopilot – those are the moments that hit you harder than any action set piece. But a number five has its weight. You run into some underwritten side pieces and subplots that are just there to keep the plot in motion. The film is about purpose and where you fit in, sure, but sometimes the point is made a little too tidily for a subject that is far from tidy in real life. This isn’t the kind of invention we saw in the past. It won’t break you like Toy Story 3 or give you the heady feeling of the fourth. Then again, it has a way of putting a finger on something: the dread of not mattering doesn’t go away, it just puts on a different outfit.
What makes it worth seeing (and when it hits India)
There is a soft warning in all this. Under the surface of the gags, the film gets at the kind of solitude that comes with being connected all the time. It makes a case for boredom as the place where you let your mind wander. It’s not anti-technology; it’s for having some rules. The directors know what they’re doing behind the lens, and in front of it, you see Jessie put her foot down. Bonnie’s Lilypad isn’t some henchman to be put out of commission, it’s something to work with. That’s the core of it. Mark your calendar for June 19 in India. If you want a film that will give you something to put over on the family on the drive home, this is it. Not to harp on about how bad screens are, but to talk about how you hold on to a bit of awe when everything is a swipe away.
The bottom line:
A sharp, well-timed follow-up that puts the series back in step with the way kids are growing up now. When you can still be moved by a bunch of plastic with a three-decade history, you know the box is far from empty.
