Even the worst 'Toy Story' is the animated film of the year

BarcelonaAs the neoliberal monsters they are, the scoring websites Toy Story 5, which premieres this Wednesday, is the worst installment in the saga, the least inspired of all, even when compared to the usually undervalued – and, however, stupendous – Toy Story 4. Despite everything, Toy Story 5 is many other things, and all of them magnificent: a delightful entertainment, a demonstration of narrative talent, a (nuanced) critique of the influence of screens on children, and, above all, an almost existential reflection on our own obsolescence as human beings, toys in need of affection who pass through life, amuse ourselves for a while, love, and fall into oblivion.

With 31 years of history, Toy Story

is already the most veteran animated saga in modern Hollywood, the only one that has remained active without reboots or reformulations and that, since the third installment, has explicitly explored the passage of time and the impermanence of affections and relationships. It is inevitable, therefore, that this fifth part dialogues with its past, especially since the director is not only one of Pixar's great names –Andrew Stanton, responsible for Wall·E and Finding Nemo–, but also someone who has participated in the writing of all the installments of the saga and who has accompanied it since its historically groundbreaking birth –the first commercial digital animation feature– and in the effort to surpass itself that each sequel has presented, even, as Lee Unkrich explained to ARA, a production as accident-prone as that of Toy Story 2.

Precisely in that extraordinary sequel, the character of the cowgirl Jessie was introduced, a female version of Buddy marked by the breakdown of the bond between child and toy. That character who introduced for the first time to the Toy Story universe the poison of melancholy and nostalgia – in the very sad musical number When she loved me, one of Randy Newman's compositional peaks in the saga– and who was slightly overshadowed by Buzz and Woody in later installments, now takes center stage in Toy Story 5, a logical step after closing Woody's character arc in the previous installment. Jessie was the logical choice to lead an installment that explores the trauma of abandonment and has in her favor the magnificent interpretive work of a great actress like Joan Allen, who voices her in the original version and who, at 63 years old, brings a vocal roughness that does not hide the passage of time and adds emotional depth. By the way, it is a shame that the sixty copies that Disney is releasing in Catalan of Toy Story 5 are all dubbed and there are none in the original version subtitled in Catalan, a format that should always be advocated for.

Luxury supporting characters galore

Despite Jessie's centrality, Toy Story 5 brings together a good part of the franchise's characters, including the cowboy Woody, who takes a break from his voluntary exile with the lost toys to lend a hand to his old friends; a balder, more pot-bellied Woody, because, somehow, the years also take their toll on the Toy Story universe. Corality is one of the challenges of this new installment, which strives to distribute play among a cast full of luxury supporting characters –Rex, Mr. Potato Head, Forky, Slinky, Bo, Duke Caboom–, most with little room for brilliance, and the main trio, where this time Buzz Lightyear doesn't quite shine, perhaps too limited to being Jessie's romantic suitor. This is partly compensated by the appearance of a regiment of Buzz Lightyears with which the film opens in a magnificent shipwreck scene on a desert island which, depending on how you look at it, can be read as a metaphor for the failure of the character's solo film.

The screenwriters also have to make room for the novelties of this installment, in which the disruptive element is the appearance of a children's tablet that, almost apocalyptically, announces "the end of the toy era" and plunges children into a kind of collective state of social alienation. It cannot be easy for Pixar to address this issue, having been, since its foundation, a company essentially of technological innovation. In fact, the film also introduces technological toys discarded as obsolete – the MVP of this group is Smarty Pants, the children's app for learning to use the toilet with the voice of an scatological Conan O’Brien– to emphasize that technology is not the enemy, and that the only problem is how it is used. It must be said that, in its four decades of history, Pixar has made extraordinary use of it, and has created at least half a dozen masterpieces. Perhaps Toy Story 5 is not one of them, but it is a film generous in emotion and joy to tell. Surely, the best film that Pixar is capable of producing in 2026, and that is no small feat. It will not be easy to see a better animated film this year.

[Check out the screenings in Catalan version at this link]