When Toy Story first arrived in 1995, it came at a time when the majority of kids’ playtime involved… well, toys. But fast-forward over three decades later, and things have changed. A lot. So it is that Toy Story 5 tackles something genuinely existential for Woody, Buzz, and Jessie: the arrival of tech, embodied by Lilypad. The film’s incoming villain, voiced by Past Lives’ Greta Lee, will give youngster Bonnie a whole new way to play – one that’s much more enticing than her dolls.
As director – and Pixar legend – Andrew Stanton sees it, our beloved heroes are truly no match for Lily. “When tech comes in, it wins,” he says. “It happens to adults and kids. It just wins. So that was the more interesting slant to take: there’s no competition. Have a kid playing with toys, drop in a screen device and see what happens. And so we leaned into the truth of that, and had fun with that.” It was, he says, the reason to make a fifth Toy Story – to speak to the fundamental change in the way kids play today. “The biggest thing that was lingering all this time is the way that technology has usurped playtime in real life. Lily is representative of what we’re up against,” he explains.
Still, it won’t all be doom and gloom – don’t expect another trip to the furnace for Woody and co., necessarily. Stanton reckons the kids are alright. “My co-director, McKenna Harris, is 30, which is my kids’ age,” he says. “I’m not writing them off as some lost generation. They’re just as hungry and passionate and clever as you ever thought your generation was. It’s made me a lot more hopeful about how the youth are going to navigate through this than I was before.” Let the war for Bonnie’s attention begin.
Read Empire’s full Toy Story 5 story in the Steven Spielberg issue – on sale Thursday April 9. Pre-order a copy online here. Toy Story 5 comes to cinemas on June 19.