THE CRITICAL DRINKER ON TOY STORY 5: Did We Really Need This?

In his review of Toy Story 5, John Podhoretz writes, “How the mighty Pixar has fallen!“

[D]irector Andrew Stanton has come up with an inspired idea at its center: He literalizes the danger posed to childhood itself by internet devices in the form of a tablet dubbed Lilypad. It is gifted to a very shy little girl and immediately takes the place of the toys that formerly provided her solace and an outlet for her imaginative play. The toys need to find a way to save her from becoming a screen-addicted zombie.

Smart, right? The problem here is that Stanton and his cowriter Kenna Harris really chicken out when it comes to exploring the theme—which is perhaps understandable, as Pixar was largely the handiwork of Steve Jobs, the person most responsible for the hypnotic power the iPhone and iPad have over all of us. Pixar lecturing us about how we let our kids drown themselves in their screens is a little like a tobacco company attacking a vape pen. It turns out that Lilypad just wants the little girl to make friends and soon sees the error of her ways—then ends up becoming part of the gang that saves her.

When Pixar had nothing to lose, it made a great and unsentimental comedy called Toy Story. It followed that with Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo, WALL-E, and The Incredibles—each of them a masterpiece. Then it began stumbling. And now that it has everything to lose, Pixar has gone and made a decent and false work of sheer sentimentalism called Toy Story 5. I’m sure it will make a billion dollars. I’m also pretty sure Pixar will never again make anything remotely resembling a masterpiece.

But Toy Story 5 should sell lots of real toys to kids, which will continue to endure Pixar with their corporate bosses: “What’s the best way to get kids to play with toys? Selling new ones, of course! That’s why we have Woody wearing a red bandana in this movie for no reason whatsoever other than to sell you the new version of this toy. Why do we have a storyline in this movie surrounding 50 shipwrecked Buzz Lightyears, complete with a new design? To sell you the new design, of course!”