Toy Story 5 (2026)
There are few pressure tests for a film quite like renting out a cinema for twenty-nine hyperactive eight-year-olds and hoping for the best. That's exactly what I did to celebrate my son's birthday, and I can tell you now: Toy Story 5 passed with flying colours. Not a single complaint from the kids. Not a wandering eye, not a restless shuffle in the seats. Full, rapt, joyful attention from start to finish. The parents in the room were just as won over, and I'll hold my hands up and admit there were a few sniffles from the adult contingent during the more emotional moments. As a crowd-pleaser, it absolutely delivers the goods.
Andrew Stanton is, of course, no stranger to this world. I've been a fan of his Pixar work going back years, and if you want my thoughts on what I'd consider his finest hour, my review of Finding Nemo says it all. He knows how to build warmth, he knows how to earn emotion, and he brings both here. The animation is, predictably for Pixar, absolutely gorgeous. Every frame looks incredible. That side of things, as ever, is beyond reproach.
But here's where it gets complicated. Once the birthday sugar rush wore off and the kids were safely delivered home, I had a chance to sit with it properly, and a nagging issue started to surface. This is a franchise built on ensemble magic. The whole appeal of the Toy Story world, from the very beginning, has been that sprawling, chaotic, brilliantly realised gang. Woody, Buzz, Rex, Hamm, the Potato Heads, the lot of them together, bouncing off each other, getting into scrapes, having each other's backs. That's the formula. That's what makes it sing.
Toy Story 5 largely abandons that formula. Woody and Buzz, the two characters whose names are basically synonymous with this franchise, are treated as afterthoughts. Rex and Hamm are blink-and-you'll-miss-them background furniture. The Potato Heads barely register. Instead, the film plants its flag almost entirely on Jessie's story, digging into her backstory and giving her the lion's share of the runtime.
Now, I want to be clear: Jessie is a brilliant character, and in principle, shining a light on her is a perfectly reasonable creative choice. But there's a difference between giving a beloved character their moment and essentially making a solo character study while slapping the Toy Story name on the tin. If this were a Jessie spin-off, I'd probably have fewer reservations. As Toy Story 5, it's a bit of a head-scratcher. It strips away the very thing that made the earlier films feel so alive and full, and that's a genuine loss.
Those of us who've followed the series closely, and I've covered a fair bit of this universe on the blog, from the shorts like Toy Story of Terror! and Toy Story That Time Forgot through to my thoughts on Toy Story 4, will know there's a rich bench of characters here that deserves better than a cameo. The decision to sideline so much of that established equity feels like a missed opportunity, particularly for what could have been a proper, collaborative send-off for the whole gang.
So where does all of that leave us? It's not a genre-defining entry on the level of the original or Toy Story 2. But it's a long way from being the worst thing with this logo on it, either. It's polished, it's emotionally effective in its key moments, and it is genuinely entertaining. For a room full of eight-year-olds on a birthday afternoon, it was just about perfect. For the rest of us, it's a very good film wearing the clothes of something that could have been a great one.
Three and a half stars. A cracking time for the kids, and a decent enough watch for the adults, just don't go in expecting the whole gang to get their due.
Rating: ★★★½ | Year: 2026 | Watched: 2026-07-13
Where to watch
Watch in the UK
Stream: Disney Plus
Buy: Apple TV Store · Rakuten TV · Amazon Video · Sky Store
Physical: Amazon UK · Zavvi
Watch in the US
Rent: Google Play Movies · YouTube
Buy: Amazon Video · Apple TV Store · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Physical: Amazon US
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