Review: ‘Toy Story 5’ revives the classic Pixar franchise

Photo Courtesy of Deviant Art

Pixar Studios has done it again, delivering a classic movie with the fifth installment of the “Toy Story” franchise. 

With a fifth installment, the question always heading into the theatre is whether or not the movie can deliver a fresh perspective and new narrative without drawing too much on its older box-office hits. 

Well, “Toy Story 5” does — albeit with some flaws.

Judging this movie is like judging my own childhood. The plot follows a very Generation Z-esque style of growing up: Imagination and playing with toys, to bringing in a “helpful” electronic device that numbs a kid’s brain into oblivion, ushering in the new-age “iPad kids.”

Without spoiling, here are some of my key takeaways from Pixar’s latest film.

This should have been the fourth movie

I’ll be straight up: I watched “Toy Story 4” the night before seeing “Toy Story 5.” And when I watched it — all cozy and snuggled up in my bed — I enjoyed the movie. I thought it was certainly the least likeable of the franchise. (But let's be real, nothing is beating that original trilogy.) It lacked the teamwork that the first three films had.

Woody, Buzz and Jessie kind of each had their own adventure, instead of “Toy Story 2” and “Toy Story 3,” where we see all the toys work together against a common enemy, like Al in No. 2 and Lotso and the other toys at Sunnyside in No. 3.

It was nice to see Bo Peep return, but for Woody to leave his toys to be with Bo? That sucked.

So, my first thought going into “Toy Story 5” was “how are they going to get Woody back to Bonnie and the toys?” It was obvious from the trailer that he returns, but we knew that he was going to be on the road. How would Woody get in contact with the toys? Would he just show up? It was a question that I had no idea how the movie would answer.

Well, it's probably the cheapest way they could go about explaining it.

Woody just so magically has a kid's walkie-talkie that can communicate with his other toys at Bonnie’s house. I mean, talk about laziness.

I don’t know about kids’ walkie-talkies today, but when I grew up, those things couldn’t reach a signal across my own house. To say that Woody is that close to Bonnie's house is lazy writing.

Bringing Woody back this way also completely undermines his emotional departure at the end of “Toy Story 4.” Buzz, Jessie, Bullseye, Rex, Mr. Hamm and Slinky all think he’s gone. But come to find out, he and Jessie are communicating all the time through a janky walkie-talkie.

The “Hi-Tech Buzz” plotline

The movie opens with a new set of Buzz Lightyear toys washed up on a deserted island. It was not how I thought the movie would have started if you gave me 100 guesses. For most of the movie, it really slows the pacing down. It feels like we get somewhere with the regular toys, and then we’re sent back to this plotline with the Buzz Lightyears. I found myself checking my watch too many times when these scenes came on.

However, the plotline is redeemed later in the movie, and the Buzz Lightyears all come together to set up the climax of the movie.

There are about six (or maybe seven) scenes before it becomes clear how it relates to the story.

Despite my boredom in some of these scenes, I think it was a nice ode to Buzz, who typically gets the more wild character arcs in the franchise. If there is not a sixth “Toy Story,” then sending Buzz out like this was the best way that they could do it. 

Curly hair and bonnets

I took my girlfriend, Izzy, to see this movie and we were the oldest people in the theatre that were not parents by a large margin. (I don’t even think half the kids were born when “Toy Story 4” came out.) While the franchise was one of the first movies we watched together, she was inspired to watch this movie because her favorite artist — Taylor Swift — was going to have an original song in the movie.

Izzy has curly, jet-black hair. She’s proud of her curls. But she’s never really seen a movie portray curly hair correctly. 

So, when one of the main characters, Blaze, had hair just like hers, I got an immediate slap to my right arm. And when I looked over at her, Izzy had the most feral-looking smile I have ever seen from her.

Just as my arm had stopped hurting from that first slap, they show Blaze wearing a bonnet to bed. As soon as my mind registered that she was wearing a bonnet, another haymaker hit my right arm. (I think I still have a bruise from this one.) I look over again, and I am met with yet another feral-looking grin from Izzy.

For the people who clamor about Disney being “woke” and whatnot, you’ll never experience the joy of seeing someone who looks like you in a movie.

My whole life, I have seen characters that look like me, have my kind of hair, smile, facial features and skin complexion. So many people haven’t. It’s a special kind of emotion seeing that much joy emitted from a person.

A classic tug of the heartstrings

If there’s one thing that Disney will do right every time, it's get the tears flowing.

Jessie’s arc in “Toy Story 5” is so beautifully written and pulls her entire character together through her time in all the films. She finds the tire swing that she and Emily used to play at and finds a carving in the tree that says “Jessie was here.” Except, it’s not Jessie the doll, its Emily’s daughter, Jessie. 

Throughout her time in the franchise, Jessie has arguably the most heartbreaking story of all the toys. Her abandonment on the side of the road, being stored away, almost being thrown in the attic and then her time at Sunnyside all builds to this character climax of finding out her first owner, her first child, named her own child after her.

It was such a touching move and gave Jessie that perspective for the final act of the movie.

In all, “Toy Story 5” is not a cash-grab sequel that I think most people might think it is. While it does undermine the fourth movie, it does offer that new narrative that will bring people back to the box office. And, let's be real, it's nostalgia for the rest of us that really brings us back to see these characters back in the theatre.