By Josh Ball
Few names are bigger in animation than Pixar Animation Studios. Across four decades, the studio produced 30 movies, entertaining children and adults alike, all the while telling timeless tales. Pixar’s first film, “Toy Story,” turned into one of its most lucrative series. The most recent installment, “Toy Story 5,” makes the company deserving of a eulogy for its downfall.
In 1995, the former film introduced the world to Buzz, Woody, Andy and the rest. With this, the filmmakers captured the wonder, creativity and imagination of a child at play. “Toy Story 5” devolved into a simple cash grab with no concrete storyline or goal.
The newest premise is that toys are being abandoned as tech takes over the fascination of children. Bonnie’s (Scarlett Spears) toys are the only ones in the neighborhood who still get used. When Bonnie gains access to the learning tablet Lilypad (Greta Lee) the toys find their oasis stripped from them. Soon, the obsession with tech causes even little Bonnie to forget her toys. This causes Jessie (Joan Cusack) to go in search of a real friend for Bonnie, from there everything goes wrong.
Jessie finally got her moment to shine. Where the previous films revolved around Woody’s growth, “Toy Story 5” gave the audience the chance to dive into the cowgirl’s psyche. She deals with the sadness of her past with Emily and Andy, and the anxiety she feels facing a future where she loses Bonnie, too. This is such a wonderful exploration of a previously underused character that is nearly unprecedented in sequels.
Randy Newman, as always, turned in a fantastic score. While there is nothing as memorable as “You’ve got a Friend in Me,” the music moved me almost to tears at times, and underscored the intended emotions. To accomplish that, it certainly did some heavy lifting.
The end of the movie still placed an emphasis on the importance of creativity, but missed the mark. Simply put, the writers were wrong about childlike creativity and how to foster it. Still, the theme was a splendid addition.
Other than those aspects, the movie was okay at best. Lilypad flip-flopped from foe to friend and back again about a thousand times. Jessie got too much screentime, so much that the other toys honestly could be removed and change nothing about the story. There was a subplot about a bunch of next-generation Buzz Lightyear toys (Tim Allen, back by popular demand) navigating to Star Command (you know Buzz, he always has to learn that he is a toy). This served no point to the main plotline except to save the protagonists at the end without seeming like a deus ex machina. Instead, they turned into a meaningless waste of screen time. Truly, this was an accomplishment of storytelling: a deus ex machina would have been better.
Almost everything was just purely bad. The worst example of this was the dialogue. Other than Jessie’s psychological and philosophical explorations, which I quite enjoyed, the script passed as a poor excuse for a screenplay. Most lines were a try at a joke, cheapening the heart of the story.
The writers focused on the wrong half of Jessie’s journey. Rather than an impactful story, they emphasized her regret and anger for the past, instead of her fear and anxiety for the future. They glossed over an amazing moment in animation history where audiences could see the future of Emily, Jessie’s first kid. Instead of both of these changes, Pixar focused on Jessie’s growth in overcoming inherent bias against technology—presenting thinly veiled political messaging in place of a story.
It is an incredible ability for a movie to contain the very best and the very worst of storytelling. Intimate moments and beautiful character work are countered by diabolically poor dialogue and plot lines. As with most stories which walk this line, the bad moments drag the good ones down.
Maybe I’m only “a sad, strange little man,” but overall, “Toy Story 5” is a disappointment from the studio which produced a generation of amazing and classic children’s films. The film is watchable, but just barely.
“Toy Story 5” is currently playing in theaters and will be released on Disney+
Josh Ball is a senior history major who loves to read and evaluate authors’ worldviews in light of his Christianity. He thinks animated movies should do bloopers again. Those were funny.
Photos courtesy of Pixar Animation Studios
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