It doesn't happen overnight, but it happens for sure. Our kids grow up. Watching Disney Pixar's Toy Story 5 with my crew, this reality really hit home. At the theater, I sat between my 14-year-old who is about to graduate 8th grade and start high school and my 5-year-old who just graduated from kindergarten. As the credits started rolling (to a new Taylor Swift original song, by the way, called "I Knew It, I Knew You," inspired by Jessie's journey), I got all the feels. It's not just that they're changing, the toys are left behind, technology has taken over (and not in all bad ways!); it's about what that reality means and how much we try to fight it, just like Woody, Buzz, Jessie, and the gang do in every movie. Toy Story 5 in particular hits differently.
Directed by two-time Academy Award® winner Andrew Stanton (WALL·E, Finding Nemo) and co-directed by Kenna Harris, Toy Story 5 tackles something every modern parent recognizes immediately: the rise of tech and devices in our children's lives. Woody (Tom Hanks), Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen), and Jessie (Joan Cusack) are back, but now they're up against Lilypad (voiced by Greta Lee), a smart frog-shaped tablet that becomes Bonnie's new obsession. She wakes up with it, goes to bed with it, talks to "friends" through it on something called "The Pond." Sound familiar? Just like the toys have to figure out if they still matter in a world full of tech, I find myself asking the same question sometimes as my kids grow up. How do we find a balance between screens and real life? I have to admit, I was judging Bonnie's parents hard for not putting a limit on her and Lilypad or enforcing some old-fashioned playtime. But then I looked at my two oldest and realized they were on their phones during the previews before the movie even started.
My two older kids, 11-year-old Sofia and 14-year-old Sebastian, have definitely moved on from their toys. But it's not because their toys have failed them or weren't fun, like Jessie at one point in the movie believes. It's just a normal part of growing up and evolving. Saide, my 5-year-old, still plays with her toys. She's inherited many of her older siblings' things and she can spend hours playing with her kitchen, her food truck toy, her little supermarket, and everything else. Yes, in my day, I didn't have an iPad or anything to keep me busy and we definitely could not afford anything fancy. But I had my juguetes, some dolls, and my imagination. I want them to have the same.
The toys, especially the leaders, Woody, Buzz, and Jessie, don't give up; they adapt, but they also fight for what matters. I noticed with glee how some of the toys had evolved into new roles for this movie. Dolly was wearing glasses. Rex and Trixie took on different hero and villain roles in Bonnie's imagination. And Woody was literally balding. "Someone needs a brown marker," quipped Trixie at the ultra shiny "bald spot."
The film also introduces a trio of older tech toys: Smarty Pants (Conan O'Brien), Atlas (Craig Robinson), and Snappy (Shelby Rabara). They, too have been forgotten in a junk drawer, like the non-tech toys. Even Lilypad, for all her disruption, ultimately wants what the traditional toys want. (And, sidenote, I loved Pizza with Sunglasses, only because he was voiced by none other than Bad Bunny!)
And just like at home, the toys find a way to make peace with the tech. Here, we enforce strict screen time limits, shutting off all phone communication as of 10 p.m. for Sofia and Sebastian. Only a couple of hours total time for Saide. While we don't want the kids to become mindless zombies in front of glowing blue screens, we also understand that they find their time online useful — homework, connecting with friends, games. The real question this movie raises isn't whether tech is good or bad. It's whether we're staying present enough to guide our kids through it. All the toys, including Lilypad herself, remind Bonnie that personal connection and play still matter. That's something no algorithm can replace.
Toy Story grew up with us. Now it's helping us raise the next generation, even if that generation learned to swipe before they learned to talk.
Watch Toy Story 5 in theaters now!
