Toy Story 5 (2026) – Review by Andrea Carnevali

(L-R): Buzz Lightyear (voiced by Tim Allen) and Woody (voiced by Tom Hanks) in Disney and Pixar’s TOY STORY 5. Photo courtesy of Disney/Pixar. © 2025 Disney/Pixar. All Rights Reserved.

Toy Story 5

⭐️⭐️⭐️ ½

Not on the same level as the first three films, and so intent on making you feel something that it forgets how genuinely funny they used to be: less a life-changing cinema experience, more a big, expensive new TV episode.

If you’ve read my previous review of the original Toy Story, you will know exactly where I stand, and you’ll understand what I mean when I say the bar was high.

How do you justify yet another sequel, other than the fact that this franchise makes a whole lot of money for Disney? (Something which paid off pretty well, by the way: this first weekend alone the film made $160 million, a record for the franchise, the best opening of the year so far, and the second biggest opening of any animated film, just behind Incredibles 2.)

So let me get it off my chest straight away and spare you the suspense: this is NOT on the same level as any of the first three films, though it’s probably a bit better than the rather forgettable fourth one (I’m not saying bad, but just forgettable).

Thankfully, it’s not an insult to the Toy Story canon, and it’s certainly not a bad film (no Toy Story film has ever been bad, to be honest, not even the several shorts produced between 2011 and 2014), but it’s not going to be one my son or I will probably go back to over and over again.

It’s quite a slow burner, for a start. It takes a long time to really get going, and crucially, the film (up until the last act, at least) seems so intent on making people cry, or at least ‘feel’ something, that it forgets how genuinely funny the original Toy Story was, and its first two sequels too.

My packed cinema did not laugh once throughout the entire first hour.

Part of the problem is that the plot crams in far too much, diluting the simplicity of the story it’s trying to tell and the message at its core.

We get subplots over subplots, with dozens of characters (most of whom are there purely for fan service), and complicated backstories and motivations that, while not bad in themselves, pull the film in too many directions at once.

The squadron of Buzz Lightyears, for example, seems to belong to an entirely different film. The Jessie backstory is fleeting, feels slightly crowbarred, and a bit confusing (none of the kids I watched it with got it… and my wife didn’t fully get it either), while Jessie, who’s never been a favourite of mine in complete honesty, ends up taking too much screen time away from the characters I actually wanted more of together.

Even the way Woody is brought back into the picture feels forced and, in retrospect, rather redundant (though none of us would have accepted a Toy Story film without him).

This time, devices, screens, and possibly technology itself are the real antagonists (there is a certain irony, given that technology was the original driving force behind these films, and that it was because of it that the future of animation changed forever).

The message that devices and screens are pulling children away from their toys and inhibiting their ability to communicate with their friends is a strong and welcome one (as is the warning about cyberbullying), though the way it’s handled here is anything but subtle.

The other side of the coin (that, used wisely, devices can be genuinely useful) is muddled and probably confuses things for the kids watching.

To be honest, anything that wakes parents and children up to the dangers of screen addiction is a good thing, but it could have been handled with a bit more sophistication than this rather obvious story.

I’ve always thought the best Toy Story films handled their messages with real intelligence. The emotion was earned after the journey, and the final message to take home was born out of that.

Here, the message is the start and none of the emotions feel earned. I remained dry-eyed all the way through… and you know how much I like to cry at these films (the third one killed me multiple times).

The original films trusted children enough to discover their own emotions, and we, as adults, understood that and crumbled under the weight of all that. This one keeps pointing at its own message with a giant foam finger.

It feels like it’s been written by an AI, shouting at you in case you didn’t quite get it: SCREENS ARE BAD! Beyond that, there’s not much else to say or places to go.

The film does pick up in the last twenty or thirty minutes, with some decent action and, finally, a few proper laughs.

The animation, needless to say, is impeccable throughout, though these days that’s simply taken for granted, rightly or wrongly.

There’s still real joy in seeing these characters together again, but I just wanted more of them together, and less of everything else.

On the whole, there’s certainly still life in those toys, and I loved being back with them.

But this felt less like the life-changing cinema experience I’m used to from this franchise, and more like a big, expensive new episode of a TV series.

Ok, maybe 3 and a half stars is a bit strict, but my stomach is having the best of me. I expect so much more from these films.

Andrea Carnevali is a Bafta winning film maker who lives in Chiswick, and a co-creator of the Chiswick In Film festival.