Toy Story 5 reviews: Jessie leads Pixar sequel against screen time, but critics split on franchise's necessity
Pixar's fifth Toy Story film centres on cowgirl Jessie as a tablet device threatens to make toys obsolete, drawing mixed reviews that range from praise for its emotional depth to criticism of a formulaic plot.
A new leader faces digital obsolescence
Eight-year-old Bonnie (voiced by Scarlett Spears) struggles to make friends in her neighbourhood, where every other child is glued to a screen. Her parents reluctantly buy her a Lilypad, a frog-shaped kiddie tablet voiced by Greta Lee that quickly monopolises her attention and sidelines her toys. Jessie the cowgirl (Joan Cusack), now the de facto leader of Bonnie's room, takes it upon herself to remind Bonnie that physical play still matters. The film opens with a flashback to Toy Story 2, revisiting Jessie's past abandonment, and uses that emotional weight to anchor a story about the disappearance of imaginative play in a tech-saturated childhood.
Tech anxiety meets real-world policy
Toy Story 5 arrives in the same week that the UK government announced an upcoming social media ban for under-16s, following Australia's legislated ban last year. Bonnie's parents are shown torn between preventing isolation and exposing their daughter to online risks – a dilemma that several reviews call brutally timely for modern families. One article notes that the film's depiction of children hunched silently over glowing screens, contrasted with vibrant fantasy sequences of toy-fuelled imagination, gives the movie a quietly eerie resonance.
Jessie's emotional core and supporting cast
Joan Cusack's Jessie shoulders the narrative, with Woody (Tom Hanks) appearing only briefly after departing in Toy Story 4 and Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen) taking a back seat except for a subplot in which a shipping container full of upgraded Buzz toys washes up on a deserted island. The voice cast includes Alan Cumming as Bullseye and Annie Potts as Bo Peep, though many secondary characters like Rex and Mr. Potato Head are largely shelved. Director and co-writer Andrew Stanton threads Jessie's fear of being discarded again through the film, with one review quoting her despair: "I can't do this – I can't love another kid just to find out I never mattered."
Critical reception: charm or formula?
Opinions vary sharply. Variety calls Toy Story 5 a "sublime summing up" and the "Abbey Road" of the series, while The Independent argues it proves the franchise should have stayed ended and ranks it as the weakest entry. The Scotsman gives three stars, praising poignant gags but lamenting a "formulaic" quest structure. Gizmodo declares it a "wonderful film" that exceeds expectations, while The Irish Times hears "squeaky joints" and an outdated rant about screen time. Common ground exists on the relevance of the tech theme and the strength of Cusack's performance.
- Toy Story introduces Woody and Buzz Lightyear in the first computer-animated feature film.
- Toy Story 2 debuts Jessie the cowgirl and explores her abandonment trauma.
- Toy Story 3 ends Andy's childhood and passes the toys to Bonnie.
- Toy Story 4 gives Woody an existential epilogue alongside Bo Peep (some sources cite 2018).
- Toy Story 5 shifts focus to Jessie and tackles children's screen time with a tablet villain.
A franchise timeline of endings
Toy Story has now said goodbye multiple times: Toy Story 3 in 2010 concluded Andy's story, and Toy Story 4 in 2019 gave Woody an existential epilogue. Toy Story 5 reopens that closure, bringing Woody back for a smaller role and shifting focus to Jessie. Reviews consistently note the irony of a series that keeps returning despite its own themes of obsolescence, with one critic remarking that "we can only say goodbye so many times before it starts to get a little absurd."
