Thirty-one years after a cowboy doll and a space ranger changed animation forever, they’re still the most reliable friends in movies. Toy Story 5 — released June 19 and now streaming on Disney+ — isn’t just another sequel. It’s Pixar’s biggest film ever: over $1.13 billion worldwide, the largest opening in studio history ($160 million domestic, $310.2 million global), Certified Fresh at 93% critics and 94% audience on Rotten Tomatoes, and an A CinemaScore. Numbers like that don’t happen by accident. They happen when a studio remembers exactly what it’s for.
Toys Meet Tech
The premise is almost suspiciously perfect. Woody, Buzz, Jessie and the gang face their most insidious villain yet — and it isn’t a person. It’s the Lilypad, a tablet device that’s quietly eating Bonnie’s playtime as her world goes digital.
Every parent reading this just felt something. That’s the genius of it. Pixar took the central anxiety of modern family life — the screen versus the toy box — and turned it into a Toy Story movie. Not a lecture, not a scolding, but a story. What happens to toys when the kid stops playing? What happens to play itself? The film asks these questions through adventure and comedy rather than speeches, which is why they land. It’s the rare family film that gives adults and kids the same story at different depths, and both depths work — a kind of storytelling craft at its most generous.
Director Andrew Stanton — an Academy Award winner and one of Pixar’s founding voices — co-directs with Kenna Harris from a story by Stanton, and you can feel the veteran hand. This is a filmmaker who understands that the toys were never really the subject. The subject was always time: how it moves, what it takes, what it leaves behind.
The Gang’s All Here
Tom Hanks returns as Woody, Tim Allen as Buzz Lightyear, Joan Cusack as Jessie, Tony Hale as Forky — the voices are as warm and lived-in as your favorite sweater. Hanks in particular does some of his finest work in the series here. Woody has been through a lot across five films, and Hanks plays every year of it: the loyalty, the doubt, the fear of becoming irrelevant. There’s a quiet scene between Woody and Jessie about what they’re actually for that might be the emotional high point of the whole franchise. No spoilers, but keep a tissue handy.
Newcomer Scarlett Spears voices Bonnie, and the film also features an original song, “I Knew It, I Knew You,” written and produced by Taylor Swift with Jack Antonoff. Yes, that Taylor Swift. The song fits the film like it was always there — wistful, warm, and just the right side of bittersweet. It’s already doing serious business on the charts, because of course it is.
Why It Earned Every Dollar
Let’s put the numbers in perspective, because they’re genuinely historic. Toy Story 5 is the highest-grossing film in franchise history and the third-highest-grossing film of 2026, behind only Spider-Man: Brand New Day and The Odyssey. Its opening weekend set a Pixar record that may stand for years. And the Disney+ debut pulled 20 million-plus views in its first five days — one of the biggest streaming launches Disney has ever had, feeding a franchise with over 2 billion hours streamed.
But here’s what matters more than the grosses: the reason for them. Deadline’s Damon Wise called it “a fun, thoughtful, multi-generational family film,” and that nails it. This is a movie grandparents, parents, and kids can watch together and each get something real. In an era of fractured attention — when even fashion’s biggest nights compete with a thousand glowing rectangles — a film about choosing play over pixels feels almost radical. Pixar didn’t just make a sequel. It made an argument for its own existence, and for the kind of childhood wonder that no device can replace.
The Stanton Touch
It’s worth saying plainly: Andrew Stanton is one of the great directors working in any medium. The man made a movie about a trash-compacting robot that barely speaks for its first forty minutes and turned it into a masterpiece. In Toy Story 5, his touch is everywhere — in the clockwork set pieces, in the jokes that work on three levels, in the patience to let a quiet moment breathe.
The animation itself is gorgeous, obviously — it’s Pixar — but what stands out is the tactility. The toys look touchable. The bedroom light looks like late afternoon in a real house. When the Lilypad glows, it glows with that specific cold blue of a screen in a dark room, and the contrast with the warm practical world of the toys tells half the story visually. This is craft in service of feeling, which has always been Pixar’s whole deal.
The Verdict
Toy Story 5 had every reason to be a victory lap and chose to be something better: a real movie, with real stakes and real heart, that happens to continue the most beloved animated franchise ever made. It’s funny, it’s moving, it looks beautiful, and it understands exactly why these characters matter to people. The billion dollars is nice. The feeling is nicer.
If you missed it in theaters, it’s waiting on Disney+ right now. Watch it with the people you love. Watch it with your phone in another room. Woody would insist.
Verdict: a classic. Pixar’s biggest hit is also one of its best — a worthy new chapter that earns its place beside the originals. To infinity, and thank goodness, beyond.
