Toy Story 5

♣♣♣♣/♣♣♣♣♣

Cowgirl rag doll Jessie (Joan Cusack) is now in charge of all the toys in the household of Bonnie (Scarlett Spears), the little girl to which they all belong and who finds it hard to make friends. When her parents give her a frog-designed tablet named Lilypad (Greta Lee), her toys are faced with the realization that the age of playtime is over now that screens have become children’s primary plaything. Distressed, Jessie asks help from Woody (Tom Hanks) who now spends most of his time outdoors rescuing abandoned toys. As Jessie gets lost and is returned to her original owner’s address, Woody and Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen) go on a rescue mission to bring her back to Bonnie. But does Bonnie even want her back now that her eyes are constantly glued to Lilypad’s screen? And so begins an existential crisis for toys finding themselves living in the smartphone era.

If I watched Toy Story 4, I can’t really recall. My last vivid memory of this franchise was the ending of 2010’s Toy Story 3, when Andy packed all his toys in a box as he prepared to go to college. I remember how that scene left me teary-eyed. Now in my 40’s, I’ve realized that that scene hit so damn hard not because it was a goodbye to childhood, but rather because it was really an acknowledgment of lost childhood innocence that, no matter how hard you try, you will NEVER get back anymore.

When I found out that a 5th film was in development, my reaction was the typical dread of another soulless cash grab. After all, this is Disney. When I watched the trailer, though, and saw that a tablet was the main villain, I thought perhaps Disney might be on to something. Let them cook. True enough, the finished product provides a good social critique of how the childhood experience nowadays has been redefined by our species’ collective addiction to screens. After all, if we adults find the temptation of looking at our phone and laptop screens difficult to resist, what more a child in his/her formative years?

So which side does Disney take? Are screens good or bad? Well, at first they seem to be swaying over to the Screens-Bad camp, but Lilypad is not really a villain. In fact, she gets a redemption arc toward the end. So, no. Disney’s stand is that screens are neither good nor bad. As with most tools and technological innovations, they can only be considered as useful or not. As is the case with most tools in life, it is the manner of use, as well as intent, that makes the difference. At the end of the day, it is the parent who decides whether to raise a screen-addicted child or one who knows how to legit play and actually socialize with other children.

As much as I thought my loss of unretrievable childhood innocence drama was the peak, Toy Story 5 made me realize that our generation is raising an entire generation of screen-addicted children. When you think about it, this is a more tragic dilemma. More than innocence, what those screens have killed is imagination itself, a generation who has traded creative gameplay with a screen that already does everything for them. As to how this will affect their development into adults, only scientific studies will be able to tell. While schadenfreude doesn’t help, this film does make you grateful for a wonderful childhood well-spent. When kids were really kids, not technological automatons "paired" with their smartphones.

As for structure, there is a main storyline involving Bonnie, from which a subplot revolving around Jessie diverges. I expected a bit more from this subplot, some kind of poignant reunion with who would now be her adult owner. While this does not happen, she does get something similar and still emotional to complete her story arc. Another subplot, that of an army of Buzz Lightyears marooned on an island in what appears to be a maritime transport delivery mishap, eventually converges with the three storylines, seamlessly, as the film reaches its climax. Over all, a well-written sequel, in my opinion. Solid storytelling with social relevance.