Time to end this repetitive, increasingly bad franchise

There’s still wit and imagination in ‘Toy Story 5’, but the emotional stakes feel tired and the storylines recycled. It is the worst in the series by far, bemoans Clarisse Loughrey

- Clarisse Loughrey

We can only say goodbye to Toy Story so many times before it starts to get a little absurd. The series first ended in 2010 with Toy Story 3, as Woody (Tom Hanks), Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen), et al waved their beloved owner Andy off to college and prepared for a new life with his young neighbour Bonnie.

Then it ended again with Toy Story 4 (2019), an existential pseudo-epilogue about making peace with life’s many endings, as Woody and Bo Peep (Annie Potts) retired from the toy life to take a shot out in the wilderness. Yet somehow, the pair turn up back at Bonnie’s bedroom window in Toy Story 5. Scratch that personal growth. There’s more money to be made.

This one is certainly topical. It tackles the impact of technology on children’s imaginative play, and arrives in the same week that the UK government has announced an impending social media ban for under-16s. Parents will likely have thoughts about some of the lines of dialogue here, such as when one pirate figurine mournfully proclaims, “the age of toys is over... once tech invades your home, you’re dead where you lie”.