Toy Story 5 has landed on the promotional circuit this month with the sort of attention studios dream of but cannot manufacture: Taylor Swift declaring herself a devoted fan.
After seeing an early preview, Swift told her 273 million Instagram followers she was so moved by the film that she went home and wrote an original song for it entirely on spec.
The timing could hardly be more striking. Just four days before the film’s UK release, the Government announced plans to introduce a full social media ban for under-16s.
That real-world debate mirrors the central conflict in Toy Story 5. Back in Bonnie’s bedroom, Woody, Buzz and the rest of the toy box are once again facing a familiar enemy, this time in the form of children’s growing fixation with technology.
Still, the film arrives with an unavoidable truth hanging over it: in many ways, that struggle no longer looks like much of a fight. The contest for young people’s attention has, arguably, already been decided.
Within the story, Woody, voiced once again by Tom Hanks, has eased into retirement. The former sheriff is now depicted with a comic dad-bod softness and even a newly emerging bald patch, having handed his badge over to Jessie, played by Joan Cusack.
‘Extinction! Not again!’ declares Rex (Wallace Shawn), in a nod to the familiarity of the premise.
He’s just one of many old favourites you’ll wish had more screen time (can one ever have too much of Mr Pricklepants the hedgehog?) amid a colourful crowd of new cameos including Bad Bunny’s Pizza With Sunglasses.
Buzz Lightyear (left), voiced by Tim Allen, and Woody (right), voiced by Tom Hanks, in a scene from Toy Story 5
Bullseye (left), voiced by Alan Cumming, and Jessie (right), voiced by Joan Cusack
But this Toy Story’s stakes are far higher. The shiny new interloper upsetting the pecking order isn’t Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen), it’s a frog-shaped smart tablet called Lilypad (Greta Lee), bought by Bonnie’s well-meaning parents to help her make friends.
Instead, Bonnie ends up being trolled via Lilypad’s version of Snapchat, while Jessie is informed, repeatedly, that ‘the age of toys is over’ because kids are addicted to screens.
The Toy Story franchise has always been about loss. Its heart lies in that primal parental grief of children growing up and away from you. Of being left behind.
This one asks what happens when children lose the magic of play itself.
However, having dumped us into despair – and adults, you will be reduced to a puddle – the impressively nuanced story floods you with hope and empowerment.
It gently points out that while we can’t turn the clock back on tech any more than we can stop children growing up, we can set limits and be more present.
There are loads of laughs too, courtesy of SmartyPants, a hilarious toilet-training aid shaped like a loo roll, voiced by Oscars host Conan O’Brien.
The genius of Pixar lies in making audiences feel, rather than telling them what to think. With their finest work – Inside Out, Up and the Toy Story films – they mine deep emotional truths in a way that is almost magically transformative.
The Toy Story franchise has always been about loss. Its heart lies in that primal parental grief of children growing up and away from you, writes Larushka Ivan-Zadeh
I have proof. As a parent, I walked out ready to hurl my children’s iPads into the nearest bin.
My eldest, 14, had a different reaction. ‘I loved how it didn’t say tech was bad,’ she told me. She then went home, dragged her old dolls’ house out of the attic and gave it a makeover. Yes, she actually played.
This movie is more than just another Hollywood sequel. It’s a miracle.
Toy Story 5 is in cinemas on Friday.
