Toy Story 5: Is the Age of Toys Over?

By: R.A. Rayne

Before I get started, I must tell you there will be spoilers in this piece. Usually, when I am reviewing a movie or television show, I try not to give away too much or reveal spoilers. Unfortunately, with this article, there will be some spoilers.

When you go into a Toy Story movie, you know you are in for an emotional roller coaster. Toy Story 5 did not disappoint. From the film’s opening to its ending, anyone who has ever had a toy and/or a child will know what I mean.

This time, the toys face a new threat. ‘Tech’ has invaded, and the Age of Toys seems endangered. Hoping to help Bonnie overcome her shyness and make friends, her mom and dad buy her a Lillypad tablet to encourage her to socialize. But the new device pulls Bonnie away from her true friends, her toys. It’s up to Jessie, Buzz, and Woody to save Bonnie from becoming a mindless drone, obsessed with making her digital friends like her, and to help her find a true friend.

Toy Story 5 is Jessie’s movie. Not only do we learn more about her past, but we also see how she’s become the leader of the toys since Woody’s departure.

Deadline reports that Toy Story 5 could make $160M-$170M in its domestic opening weekend and could beat the projected $275M internationally. With $129.3M so far, the Andrew Stanton-directed movie is bound to beat its worldwide opening forecast of $275M. With numbers like this, Toy Story 5 is not only proving to possibly be one of Pixar’s biggest hits, but it is also proving that in the current state of the Movie-going experience, movies can still pull in big box office numbers.

Toy Story 5 is a good movie, but in my opinion, it’s not the best in the Toy Story series. I know most people think Toy Story 3 is the best, and while it is really, really good, nothing can beat Toy Story 2. Jessie’s song alone makes that movie better than the others.
I hate to say this, but I feel Toy Story 5 dropped the ball on a few small things that could have made it one of the best, if not the best, Pixar films.

For instance, as much as I hate to admit it, Woody serves no purpose in this film. First, Jesse doesn’t actually need his help, and she doesn’t ask for it. Putting Woody in the film makes Buzz look less important. Now, of course, Woody has to be in the film. He is as much a part of Toy Story as any of the other characters, and you are not going to make a Toy Story without him and Tom Hanks. BUT, he could have worked, even with what was written. They just needed to make a few small changes. For instance, Woody finds the “Advanced” Buzzes in the shipyard. Second, Buzz should be the one who contacts Woody for help after Jesse gets lost. And third, at the end of the film, Blaze should find Woody and Bo Peep trying to rescue her old toys in the old dollhouse in the woods and adopt them.

Speaking of Blaze, I love this character. I just wish they had connected her to Emily beyond the fact that she lives in the house Emily grew up in.

Now stick with me, we may be going down the rabbit hole with this one, but this is how I think you could have made Toy Story 5 spectacular.

Imagine this:

Toy Story 5 plays out as it does, with the few exceptions I already mentioned. Only now we don’t see Blaze’s mom so soon. In fact, we don’t see her until after Jesse discovers ‘real’ Jesse’s time capsule lunch box beneath the tire swing tree. After Jesse discovers that Emily named her daughter after her favorite toy, and after Woody and Buzz save Lillypad and set up the ‘play date’ for Bonnie and Blaze to become friends, we see an older version of the girl pictured with Emily in the lunch box. Then, while Blaze and Bonnie are playing, Blaze is the one who asks Bonnie to sleep over. While they are playing, they discover Blaze’s old dollhouse in the woods and find Woody and Bo Peep inside, attempting to rescue the forgotten toys. Now that everyone is reunited, we have Buzz and Jesse’s wedding, with Woody as Buzz’s best man.

As the wedding ends, a car pulls up, and Blaze runs over to it, pulling Bonnie and Jesse along to introduce her new friends to the newcomer. Blaze introduces Bonnie to her grandmother, who we still haven’t seen, and the grandmother asks, “What do you have there?” Bonnie shows her the cowgirl doll, and we see an older hand gently take hold of Jesse. The grandmother says, “I knew you.” The grandmother hugs Jesse, and for the first time, we see that it’s Emily. The movie ends, and Taylor Swift’s song “I Knew It, I Knew You” plays.

Now I know it’s easy to sit here and say “this could work” or “they should have done this” and dismiss everything these talented writers and animators created, but I assure you that is not my intention. This is simply how I would have written it and how I felt it would have made Jesse’s story come full circle.

Toy Story 5 is a wonderful movie that made me cry several times, and I recommend it to everyone 3 and up (a wink to the toy makers).