When Andy handed off his beloved toys to a new child, Bonnie, before heading off to college, it seemed like the perfect ending to the Toy Story movies. When Woody found a new purpose as a leader of “lost toys,” that seemed like the perfect coda. But now, a new adventure for Jessie, Woody, Buzz, and the gang seems to open up infinite possibilities for more Toy Story movies, endings be damned. And maybe, in a franchise that frequently gestures at, but smoothly sidesteps, the bittersweet pains of growing up, that may be the only direction these movies could go.
That’s a very cynical way to open a review for Toy Story 5, a movie that I genuinely, surprisingly, had a good time with. But that may be because I’m the target demographic for this film: a millennial who has grown up with the Toy Story movies (I remember seeing Toy Story 3 the summer after I graduated high school) and who would readily laugh at all the movie’s surprisingly sharp jokes and bathroom-related puns. The innuendo-filled humor, the surprising PG-rating, and the centering of a story about old-fashioned playtime and imagination being superseded by shiny new technology — it all feels very geared toward millennial adults. And while Toy Story 5 doesn’t quite justify its existence, it is nice to see Pixar continue to rep the family movie that doesn’t talk down to its audience.
