It's been thirty years since the original "Toy Story," and it's interesting to see how the franchise has evolved over time. It's become more and more clear that the toys, especially our most prominent major characters like Woody, Buzz, and Jessie, are really stand-ins for parents. Their relationships with the children that they safeguard have become more and more explicitly parental over the last few movies. And what are parents worried about these days? Electronic devices. It was one of the neatest tricks of advertising that I saw this year, putting the new tablet character Lilypad (Greta Lee) right in the middle of the poster, representing a massive existential threat to the "Toy Story" gang, and instantly grabbing the attention of every concerned parent who has had to wrestle with the screentime question.
Bonnie (Scarlett Spears) is now eight years old, as imaginative as ever, but having trouble making friends because it seems like every other kid is spending so much time online. Her well-meaning parents buy her a kids' tablet, Lilypad, to the consternation of her toys. Jessie in particular is worried that the "devices" make kids grow up too fast. Initial encounters with Lilypad do not go well, and Jessie and Bullseye mistakenly end up far from home, in the custody of another girl, Blaze (Mykal-Michelle Harris). Meanwhile, Sheriff Woody and Bo are called in as reinforcements, and there's a whole subplot involving a lost army of the newest generation of Buzz Lightyear toys, which come with some interesting new hi-tech features. Conan O'Brien, Shelby Rabara, and Craig Robinson voice new characters, and nearly everyone from the older "Toy Story" films reprises their roles in some capacity.
The franchise is definitely feeling its age. "Toy Story 5," directed by Andrew Stanton, has a lot of jokes about Woody being old and out of shape, a lot of freak-outs about technology, and a lot of nostalgic callbacks to earlier films, especially "Toy Story 2." The voices of several of the actors, like Tom Hanks and Joan Cusack, have noticeably changed, and the performances have changed with them. Moreover, it feels like the movie was marketed more towards adults than children, though there are plenty of elements in the film that kids will enjoy watching. PIXAR finally gives into toilet humor in the best way, introducing a toilet training toy named Smarty Pants (O'Brien) to deliver several very silly and mild scatological jokes. While the animation is as eye-catching and detailed as ever, and all the actors and artists clearly remain very committed to delivering quality entertainment, there's a safeness and overly familiar quality to the film that left me comforted, but largely unmoved. There are no big set pieces, no feats of animation spectacle, or any innovations in animation or storytelling that we haven't seen before. They also feel a little slower, a little gentler, and more tentative.
The treatment of the devices, for instance, turns out to be very even-handed. Maybe a little too even-handed. Though initially viewed as threats, Lilypad and a few other tech-enabled toys are eventually revealed to be just as concerned about the well-being of their owners as the toys are. The negative aspects of too much screentime, and the dangers of online interactions are highlighted, but it's the human beings who are at fault, not the technology. With an eight year-old at the center of all this, the examples of online bullying and irresponsible behavior are understandably very mild. However, I still raised eyebrows at the amount of bad screen habits we see in the movie that escaped comment. It feels like a missed opportunity for PIXAR to more definitely take a stand for toys and offline play over screens.
It's been seven years since "Toy Story 4," so I'm not as worried about the franchise being overexposed as I once was. This is one of the rare cases where I believe that new installments don't get made unless someone has a really good idea for one. However, "Toy Story 5" feels so remote from those first three films now, and the filmmakers seem reluctant to handle the characters too roughly anymore. Maybe this is just a rare misstep that will be righted eventually, but I think it's more likely that "Toy Story" has inevitably plateaued, and may be on the decline.
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