By the D23 Team
Woody (voiced by Tom Hanks), Buzz Lightyear (voiced by Disney Legend Tim Allen), Jessie (voiced by Joan Cusack), and the beloved toys that have defined playtime for over 30 years are back for an all-new adventure in Disney and Pixar’s Toy Story 5, releasing in theaters nationwide June 19.
Filled to the brim with comedy, heart, fun, and friendship, this new chapter of the groundbreaking franchise reunites Woody and Buzz and explores how the toys react to the rise of technology now affecting contemporary childhoods—all while the rootin’-tootin’ cowgirl Jessie is on her own journey discovering what it means to truly matter to her kid.
In the film, the gang’s jobs are challenged when they come face-to-face with Lilypad (voiced by Greta Lee), a brand-new tablet device that arrives with disruptive ideas about what is best for their kid, Bonnie (voiced by Scarlett Spears). Will playtime ever be the same?
Directed by two-time Academy Award® winner Andrew Stanton (WALL•E, Finding Nemo), co-directed by Kenna Harris (Ciao Alberto) and produced by Lindsey Collins (Turning Red), Toy Story 5 features a screenplay by Stanton and Harris and balances the legacy of the previous films with a timely twist.
“I always figured they’d keep going with Toy Story, the world is just so rich,” says director and screenwriter Stanton. “The toys don’t really age, but the world does. It’s not every movie idea you come up with where time is part of the interesting aspect of a story about childhood, parenthood, growing up and moving on. The toys are the observers of everything.”
Entertaining audiences was the No. 1 guiding principle when it came to the filmmakers’ approach. “Andrew and I are on a similar wavelength about wanting every idea to be entertaining,” explains co-director Harris. “If we had a story problem, the hurdle it needed to pass was whether it was entertaining and something an audience would clamor to see.”
“Andrew and Kenna wanted to show the audience what Bonnie’s imagination looks like, because Bonnie is different than Andy,” explains visual effects supervisor Thomas Jordan. “The idea was, ‘What if all kids have their own unique way of imagining playtime?’”
Since audiences don’t see inside of Bonnie’s imagination in Toy Story 4, the team had freedom to explore new character designs, costumes, textures and more to create playtime scenes that are unique to her. Jordan continues, “We started to narrow in on what we eventually landed on for Bonnie’s imagination—it’s this very imaginative handmade style that looks like how a child would make arts and crafts. We used a pastel chalk drawing technique. It’s very melodramatic, and there’s an absurdity and a sort of tactile handmade quality to it that we all fell in love with.”
“The things that look like they should be the simplest are often the most difficult,” adds producer Collins. “The goal was to show what it might feel like to be inside Bonnie’s imagination. It had to feel fantastical and draw you in, but still be grounded enough in the real world of the film that we could move in and out of her imagination without it feeling jarring. It was a tricky balance.”
In addition to being genuinely entertaining, the filmmakers wanted the story of Toy Story 5 to feel especially relevant—and that meant introducing tech devices into the world of Toy Story to create an organic, nearly inevitable conflict: “We wanted to build in all the fun, thrills and humor you expect from a Toy Story film, but also focus on an aspect of childhood that we hadn't yet explored,” Harris continues. “We've noticed—or at least it feels this way to us—that toys have become less of a factor in a child's life. Having toys in a room without electronic devices dominating is almost antiquated now. How does that shift in dynamics affect the child, let alone the toys? This seemed like something worthy of tackling in a new Toy Story film—something we could sink our teeth into and have fun with at the same time.”
Toy Story 5 is also shaped by music from renowned artists including Taylor Swift, who performs the all-new original song “I Knew It, I Knew You” for the upcoming film. The song draws inspiration from Jessie’s ongoing journey and is written and produced by Swift and Jack Antonoff.
“It’s incredible just how meaningful it’s been having Taylor write and perform this song,” admits Stanton. “Her connection to Jessie and the immediate way she understood what the character was going through was undeniable. The song is so deeply connected to Toy Story. So much so that on first listen, it instantly felt like it had always belonged there, like a long-lost family member. It was kismet.”
Returning for his fifth Toy Story feature is two-time Oscar® winner and Disney Legend Randy Newman, whose iconic scores, themes, and songs are as emblematic of the franchise as the toys themselves. The celebrated song “You’ve Got a Friend in Me”—written and performed by Newman for the original Toy Story—is featured in all five Toy Story films.
Disney and Pixar’s Toy Story 5 arrives in theaters June 19!