My recollection of Toy Story 4 (2019) is vague.  I do recall franchise stalwart Woody (voiced by Tom Hanks) deciding to head into the wilderness(?) to help abandoned toys.  At the time, I thought, good, I do not have to worry about another of these films.  Yet, here we are in 2026 and we have Toy Story 5.  Did anyone want this?  I did not, but the theater in which I saw it had a fair number of people who apparently thought otherwise.  Forgive my flippant tone.  It is not the most Catholic of attitudes.  To build the series up a little, I will say that they deal with some moving themes that touched me.  At the same time, I do not find them entertaining, and I had the same reaction to this latest iteration.  Of course, I am not the target audience, but I will not object to you seeing any of these.

One of the first thing we see in Toy Story 5 is a group of high-tech Buzz Lightyear (voiced by Tim Allen) figures waking up on a deserted island.  Seeing a pinprick of light in the sky, they collectively decide this is their “Star Command” and make it their mission to make it to its source.  We come back to them periodically, but just know of their motivation before we move on to the rest of the story.  Next, we are reintroduced to the nine-year-old that currently owns the toys we have come to know throughout the last thirty years, Bonnie (voiced by Scarlett Spears).  Though she is happy to be playing make believe with these secretly autonomous and sentient items, it is evident that she longs to make human friends.  We see this as she eyes the kids who live across the street.  Her favorite doll, Jessie (voiced by Joan Cusack), notices Bonnie’s shyness and vows to do something to help the young lady meet other kids.  When Jessie is able to get away, since these knickknacks go limp under the human gaze, she gets to the neighbor’s house and is greeted by a sight that horrifies her.  Hiding outside in the garden are their discarded toys, who explain to her that the devices to which the boy ang girl are glued are the reason for their disused state.  Jessie believes that Bonnie is too attached to her playthings to want this, but her parents also see their daughter’s lack of friends.  To increase Bonnie’s socialization, they purchase her a Lilypad “Lily” (voiced by Greta Lee), which is basically an iPad but with a frog face surrounding the screen.  Dad (voiced by Jay Hernandez) and Mom (voiced by Lori Alan) hope that the electronics will let Bonnie relate better to her peers.  As soon as Lily meets the others, they try to make it known how unnecessary is the newcomer.  To prove them wrong, Lily connects Bonnie with two of the young lady’s classmates, and soon this turns into an invitation for a sleep over.  Sensing the situation slipping from her control, Jessie contacts Woody, who is out in the world helping to rescue others like them who have been forgotten by their owners.  With their old friend coming, Jessie decides to hide herself and her horse, Bullseye, in Bonnie’s luggage in order to gauge these new acquaintances.  However, when Bonnie walks up to the house and the others see the dolls, they question her still making time for such trifles.  Thus, she hurries back to the car to retrieve Lily and leave Bullseye and Jessie behind.  Bullseye and Jessie manage to jump from the vehicle, but are spotted by an older couple who notice the address of Jessie’s first owner written on the inside of her chaps.  They take the toys to that house, leaving the items in the mailbox.  Eventually, Bullseye is found by the girl that lives there now, Blaze Manoukian (voiced by Mykal-Michelle Harris), and adds him to her collection.  Meanwhile, Jessie struggles to free herself from the hay pile, and is discovered by the Manoukian’s pig.  She is taken to a playhouse where she meets other baubles gathering dust outside.  Chief among them is an early device called Smarty Pants (voiced by Conan O’Brien).  Because Smarty Pants is of the electronic variety, Jessie is initially hostile.  All the same, she puts aside her prejudices so that they can get inside and batteries for him, and then potentially contact Bonnie to come get them.  Back at Bonnie’s house, Buzz is increasingly worried when Jessie does not return with the girl’s suitcase.  The concern is exacerbated when it becomes evident that Bonnie did not enjoy the time she spent with her so-called friends.  For Buzz and Woody, their focus is finding Jessie, and they unplug Lily’s charger in order to get her to talk.  In the process, they get an email sent through Smarty Pants about lost toys, with a picture of Bullseye and Jessie.  Bonnie’s parents eventually see the message and the address, and they take their daughter to retrieve their daughter’s prized possession.  However, the text about the missing toys also gets sent to Bonnie’s classmates, who make fun of her for owning them.  As such, when she shows up at the Manoukian house, she says she does not want them and departs with her mom just as quickly.  The confusing event is witnessed by Buzz and Woody, who had hitched a ride, but worst of all by Jessie.  The decades old toy suspects she is being discarded once more until she uncovers a picture of her first child, who as an adult named her first child Jessie.  It is at this point that the horde of advanced Buzz’s appear, and they, along with Jessie’s new friends, realize that Lily is the key to fixing their situation.  For the iPad’s part, she comes to understand how much she had misled Bonnie, and has decided to donate herself out of shame.  Contacting her, Jessie uses the army of Buzz’s to reunite Bonnie and Blaze, thereby making true friends who are less fixated on technology.

Actually, Toy Story 5’s final message is one of inclusion, with Jessie and Lily being part of the same pretend wedding that unites Buzz and the old cowgirl doll in make believe matrimony.  As a Catholic, I was not entirely shocked to see the toy presiding over the ceremony being adorned with a mitre.  That is the tall hat that you often see Catholic bishops wearing during official functions.  Movies frequently use the imagery of Catholicism in order to present either Christianity broadly or to mark a solemn occasion.  I do not necessarily rail against this because it shows that my Faith is used in order to represent Christianity as a whole.  There is a broader reason, though, as to why such scenes are interesting.  Whenever the children playing with the toys and concocting some scenario for them to act out, they shift into a sort of dream state where they become these imagined characters.  This works cinematically because who among us at that age did not do the same thing?  It allows the audience to connect with what is happening in an entertaining way.  Yet, since this is a Catholic film review blog, I see in these sequences parallels to how we can use our minds to experience God.  There is in the Church a method for consuming Scripture called “Lectio Divina,” which is Latin for “Sacred Reading.”  A key aspect of this practice is putting yourself into Bible passages in order to better understand what God is trying to tell you with any verse.  It is meant to be a more immersive experience rather than the artificial ones found in electronic devices.

Speaking of electronic devices, what Toy Story 5 says about them is that they are not as bad as some might want you to think.  Jessie spends most of the movie mad at Lily because the cowgirl doll feels she is being replaced.  At the same time, they both think that they know best how to help Bonnie get friends.  As such, there is a selfless aspect to their disagreement.  Selflessness is the ultimate Christian attitude, but Jessie and Lily have ulterior motives at the outset.  Put simply, they have their own definitions of how best to make Bonnie happy, and they ignore the ideas of others who might have good intentions, too.  For Lily, she is dismissive of the abilities of the primitive items without connections to the internet.  With Jessie, she deems anything with a screen to be soulless.  Separately, these thoughts have merit from a Faith perspective.  The internet is a tool that can be used for ill purpose, but can also function for the betterment of humanity.  After all, the digital space is shared by the profane and sacred alike.  The fact that there is the profane to be found there should serve as a counter to allowing people to become zombified by devices, as we see in the movie.  To put a Catholic spin on this, what Bonnie and other users are doing is making an idol out of Lily, one she is eager to encourage as being the sole arbiter of the girl’s happiness.  That sort of thing can only be accomplished in any lasting manner by God.  One of the ways in which this is made possible is by doing selfless acts, which God has done for us so many times throughout history.  First Jessie, then Lily, realize that the best solution for pleasing Bonnie is through connections with real people that the toys facilitate facilitate.  Put differently, they remove their prejudices for the greater good.

As such, I am sure there are those that see Toy Story 5 as good.  I feel differently, but I am not the target audience.  The lessons to be learned from watching it are good, which is why I have no objections to anyone seeing it.  However, none of this is entertaining for me, and I will not be seeing it again unless under duress.