Toy Story 5 Review: Jessie Takes Lead in Stanton's Anti-Screen Sequel
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- Andrew Stanton ('Wall-E') directs his first 'Toy Story' film, with the review calling the result a 'sublime summing up' and possible 'perfect ending' to the franchise, likened to the Beatles' 'Abbey Road'
- Jessie (Joan Cusack) takes center stage as the lead toy, with Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen) pursuing a romantic subplot that includes a proposal attempt during the film's 'climactic wedding ceremony'
- Bonnie, an 8-year-old voiced by Scarlett Spears, becomes addicted to a Lilypad talking tablet (voiced by Greta Lee), driving the film's theme of 'the disappearance of play' as children increasingly socialize through screens
- Woody (Tom Hanks) returns as a 'balding old man' cowboy, joining Jessie, Bullseye (Alan Cumming), and a trio of primitive tech toys — Smarty Pants (Conan O'Brien), Snappy (Shelby Rabara), and Atlas (Craig Robinson) — in a plot to restore imaginative play
- The film introduces Multi-Buzz, an army of Buzz Lightyears stuck in demo mode led by Tim Allen's character, and a new 9-year-old human character Blaze (Mykal-Michelle Harris) at a farmhouse
- The review highlights the film's 'ambitious and delicious layer-cake density,' noting it depicts tech less as a villain than 'a new metaphysical realm of the kiddie cosmos,' with its message distilled as: 'Slow down, be real and play'
Why it matters: Handing a 'Toy Story' film to Andrew Stanton — and elevating Joan Cusack's Jessie over Tom Hanks' Woody — marks a notable creative handoff within Pixar's most valuable franchise, one now pivoting to confront the screen-time era as its central antagonist rather than toys-versus-toys conflict.
