Grade: A- … Back in 1995 when I was 12 years old, the very first Toy Story movie hit theaters. It was a smash hit and everyone I knew went to go see it. Back then I never made it to the theater to see the hottest movie around. To this day, I have not seen the movie in theaters. Like all the other kids my age, I had Toy Story “mania” and had the Sega Genesis game and even quite a few Toy Story trading cards. Funny enough, I knew all about the movie thanks to the Sega Genesis game’s story following the movie rather accurately. I played (and beat) that game numerous times with my brother. It was a blast! I finally got to see Toy Story on VHS a while later and it became my favorite Disney/Pixar franchise.
Buzz and Woody were my favorite characters of course. I always appreciated the wonder their adventures brought to mind as a kid. The fact that Buzz still thinks Emperor Zurg is a real-life threat is still funny to this day! Maybe one day Buzz will realize that he is “JUST A TOY!” and that he never actually has to report to “Star Command.” Until that time comes, I will continue to enjoy the long running gag.
Fast forward to June 2026. The wait is over for the fifth installment in the Toy Story franchise. Of course this long time Toy Story fan unabashedly pushed kids out of the way (kidding, obviously) to be among one of the first to see it. Toy Story 4 was back in 2019 so I could not wait any longer to see Toy Story 5. The wait was well worth it!
In Toy Story 5, the cast of toys are threatened by a new villain. The villain, this time around, is tech because it’s 2026 and many of us are addicted to screen time with whatever fun piece of tech we can get our hands on. The main character, Bonnie, gives her “old school” toys a “time out” only to be replaced by a Lilypad. The Lilypad is essentially a tablet that Bonnie and her friends use to communicate and play games together over the internet. As a result of the Lilypad, Bonnie forgets about physical human interaction and the purity of playing in person outside, as a kid once did before tech took over our lives. The gang of toys make it their mission to make Bonnie remember how to play, the way she used to play.
While Toy Story 5 does not tug at your heart strings nearly as much as Toy Story 3 did (where all the toys almost died), it does make you reminisce about the times as a kid where you’d play outside with your friends until the street lights came on. There were no screens to bury our faces in, just your friend beside you making cherished memories each day not knowing that one day might be the last day you would spend outside together.
While the regular cast of toys were great as always, we did get a few new toys in the mix. My favorite new toy, or character, was Smarty Pants who was voiced by Conan O’Brien. Truthfully, I have never been a fan of Conan nor found him very funny in general. Surprisingly in Toy Story 5, he had some of the best lines in the movie and stole the show in my opinion. Smarty Pants is basically an educational device to help kids with potty training. While I do not remember anything of that nature existing back when I was potty training, but I am sure some kids have used it during their time potty training recently.
Toy Story 5 was a good time. Wrangle up your closest friends you used to play out in the streets with and go to the movies to experience a good dose of nostalgia!