Social media encroaches on the realm of playtime in 2026's Toy Story 5. The first Toy Story movie made without the involvement of John Lasseter, the helm is taken by series co-creator Andrew Stanton for a story that examines the role of play in children's psychological development. It has some of the effective sweetness of the first three Toy Story movies, a little effective comedy, but mostly this one is more interested in commentary on the experience of childhood and caretaking.
This Toy Story has a remarkably lean writing team with director Andrew Stanton having sole "Story by" credit and sharing "Screenplay by" only with Kenna Harris. All previous Toy Story entries had no less than four writers with Toy Story 4 boasting nine. This is the first feature film writing credit for Harris, who is non-binary, but they wrote and directed "Ciao Alberto", the tie-in short film for Elio. Tiny, nigh-imperceptible portions of LGBTQ content in previous Toy Story films pissed off fringe conservative groups in the U.S. and I wonder if a scene early in Toy Story 5 in which Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen) gives mouth-to-mouth to the toy dinosaur (Wallace Shawn) was meant as a deliberate provocation. It was funny. It's notable that all thought of tailoring toys for gender has been abandoned with no-one suggesting it's odd for Bonnie (Scarlett Spears) to be playing with spacemen and dinosaurs instead of Barbies.
Like some previous Toy Story movies, this one involves the presence of an interloper, in this case LilyPad (Greta Lee), essentially a child's iPad modelled on a real tablet called LeapPad. Through LilyPad, the shy child, Bonnie, is able to socialise for the first time via the tablet's automated chat group inclusion algorithm. This pulls Bonnie away from the toys, who are led in this film by the cowgirl, Jessie (Joan Cusack), the film's true lead, as the poster art suggests, despite Tom Hanks and Tim Allen getting top billing.
More than previous Toy Story films, this one is interested in the intrinsic value of the child's play with her toys. There's another reality established with a slightly different animation style in which the toys enact scenarios dreamt up by Bonnie and Blaze (Mykal-Michelle Harris), another child character. Bonnie likes to dream up weddings for the toys while Blaze, who lives on a farm, concocts an espionage drama for Jessie. This was the first time watching a Toy Story movie I actually thought back to my own childhood, playing with toys. Like Bonnie and Blaze, I would dream up stories that combined my disparate collections of Ghostbusters, Ninja Turtles, and Thundercats figures. I can see this as part of the process through which I became a lover of fiction and storytelling. So when Bonnie's interest is diverted by a more compulsive use of social media it's easy to see the harmful psychological impact.
The problem here is ultimately not put down to technology, though that is Jessie's preliminary diagnosis, but to the proper use and application of technology. LilyPad matches Bonnie with children who deride her interest in toys while Jessie recognises Blaze as a more positive influence. So AI is no substitute for the more human coded Jessie.
What is Jessie, who are the toys? Many critics interpret them as metaphorical parents because their efforts are in support of the child's development and well-being, particularly Jessie in this film and Woody in Toy Story 4. I would say the toys don't fit perfectly to any human corollary. They don't set rules for their humans or impose punitive measures as parents are compelled to do. They're more like devoted servants exercising a superior understanding of psychology and mental health in complete dedication to the child. They could be seen as teachers but maybe the best analogy would be artists. Or court jesters. It's a character type that used to be common but generally isn't thought to be relevant to-day--they're like Jiminy Cricket in Pinocchio or Sabu in The Thief of Bagdad or Jim in Tom Sawyer.
There were moments that made me laugh but this film certainly felt more like drama than comedy. There are some inventive and exciting chase sequences but perhaps they might have been better if they'd have been shorter. Blaze's design is kind of odd, her face looks like an adult's face on a child's body. But I don't have any substantial complaints about this film.
Toy Story 5 is now in theatres.
No comments:
Post a Comment