Toy Story 5 will contain one of the franchise’s “most heartbreaking scenes” according to lead star Tom Hanks. The new film, which is released next month, sees Hanks return as Woody alongside Tim Allen as Buzz Lightyear.
The fifth instalment in the long-running animated franchise will pit the toys against technology, as eight-year-old Bonnie gets her first device, a frog-shaped tablet named Lilypad (voiced by Greta Lee).
Speaking about the upcoming Disney-Pixar film in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Hanks shared that the animation will contain a “heartbreaking” scene that is as powerful as anything in the series’ history.
Pixar//Disney
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“These movies, they end up speaking [to] and puts in words [and] stuff that everybody is thinking anyway,” Hanks said, with the actor explaining that the scene in question sees a young girl have her “feelings hurt” by “what other people are texting about her”.
“She doesn’t understand why,” he noted. “She doesn’t know what she did wrong, but it hurts, and that is a very prescient thing to have in a motion picture today about little kids and toys.”
Hanks, who first voiced Woody three decades ago, also shared that there are elements of playing the toy cowboy character that still surprise him, with the actor saying the role always takes him to an “emotional place”.
“Tim and I have done this enough. When I saw the first scene where 500 Buzz Lightyears come up out of the water, I just said, ‘Oh, Tim’s gonna have a field day on this.’ Thank goodness he has to voice 500 of these things, and I don’t’,” he quipped.
Kate Green//Getty Images
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Toy Story 5 will see the return of Joan Cusack as Jessie, the leader of Bonnie’s room, while Conan O’Brien joins the cast as Smarty Pants. The film will also give voice to Bullseye for the first time, albeit with a twist, as Alan Cumming takes on the iconic role.
There are also some smaller roles for British stars in the UK release, with radio presenters Sian Welby and Jordan North having voice cameos as Inflatable Flamingo and Garden Gnome respectively.
Toy Story 5 is released in cinemas on 19 June.
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After graduating with a degree in history from Queen Mary University, London, she studied journalism at Birkbeck University.
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