With Toy Story 5, Disney could undermine yet another perfectly good ending
The studio is determined to keep its Toy Story franchise going to infinity and beyond
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The Toy Story films used to have the rare distinction of being one of the few franchises that got better with each installment, at least when it came to the original trilogy. Back in 2010, Toy Story 3 ended with Andy heading off to college and handing down his toys—including his best pals Woody and Buzz—to a new kid, Bonnie, after one last tearful play session. It was a perfect way for Andy, and for us, to say goodbye to these characters we’ve loved for so long.
Then, in 2019, Disney came out with Toy Story 4. The film itself was fine (we gave it a B) and made more than $1 billion at the box office. One common criticism kept coming up, though: bringing back Woody, Buzz, and the rest of the gang somewhat undermined the sweet send-off they got in the previous film. They got a new ending this time, with Woody heading off with Bo Peep and a group of other kid-less toys while Buzz and the others went back home with Bonnie.
Now, despite giving Woody, Buzz, and their toy friends another pretty definitive conclusion—not to mention last year’s disappointing spin-off Lightyear—we’re going back to do it all again. What’s left to say? We’re not even sure Pixar knows. This could be a case of Disney putting down a pin and then drawing a map around it. Can the as-yet-unannounced creative team (Toy Story 4 had no less than nine names with “original story by” credits) top either of those emotional resolutions? Although we don’t know anything yet about the story, cast, or characters, we remain skeptical. And we’re not the only ones. Here are a few of the reactions we’ve seen on social media since the news broke earlier this afternoon.
After the high bar set by the original trilogy, Toy Story has been a case of diminishing returns. In between Toy Story 3 and 4 Disney kept the franchise alive through a series of shorts and specials, all of which were entertaining in their own way but couldn’t match the quality of the storytelling in the features. Then we got the major downshift that was Lightyear last year, a spin-off that underperformed both commercially and critically. That doesn’t exactly fill us with confidence. Nor does the way this project was announced, dropped into the middle of an earnings call amidst news of mass layoffs and a handful of other sequel projects, including Zootopia 2 and Frozen 3.
Can Toy Story bounce back if the fifth film defies the odds and proves to be a worthy successor? It’s not out of the question. Audiences will have to decide whether they’re ready to say hello and goodbye to these characters yet again. The odds aren’t in Toy Story’s favor, but we’ll just have to wait (for some indeterminate length of time) to see.
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How often does a disappointing addition to a franchise actually decrease people’s enjoyment of the previous works in that franchise?
People keep showing up in greater and greater numbers for John Wick sequels so who the hell knows?
I didn’t go see it in theaters, but I watched John Wick 3 recently with some friends at home and we had a great fucking time with it. The sequels take the original fantastic movie and add more and more ridiculous lore and set pieces, but they stay super entertaining action movies with increasingly over-the-top kills (the opening kill with a book in part 3 was fantastic).
See I think they’re shit, straight-up. The second is infiniey worse than the third, but they have such tight pacing and prfect emotional weight in the first movie and the other two films fuck it up (becaus they make th mistake of killing the villian at the end of the first movie, where if they wante sequels he should have escaped – he killed Willm Dafoe, John Wick now has another emotional motive to keep fighting.
Instead we get ‘Italian man who has your blood in a stupid Hot Topic locket” and “angry bureaucrat.” And it all sucks. And by the time John Wick is agreeing to let a man in a costumed borrowed from I Dream of Jeanie cut off his finger because we’ve wandered into the worst parts of the Assassin’s Creed games, the films are so boring.
And yeah, I find that when the film that came up with an incredible gun-fu fighting style has John Wick fight three hand-to-hand fights against the goddamn ninjas for 45 straight minutes to end the movie, I’m bored to tears. The fights are bad, there is no emotional weight behind them any more, you’re drowing in shitty lore the first ha no need for.
It sucks. It all sucks. There is a purity and a simplicity and an excellence to John Wick 1 that the sequels gleefully abandon in pursuit of bigger-is-better pointless bullshit.
Yeah, I just watched 2 for the first time, and thought it was every bit as enjoyable as the first. Interested to see what I think of 3 when I get to it.
John Wick 3 was rated 4 stars on RogerEbert.com, silly James.
Ridley Scott will keep making Alien prequels unless we agree to his demands.
no he won’t
I think he’s stopped, and there’s a contingent (me) which is severely bummed.
Ridley Scott, pointing a film camera at a trembling Sigourney Weaver: “I’ll shoot! I’m not fucking around here, I’ll shoot the whole thing!”
I think you could make an argument that it does, if only because it introduces division into a fan community.
There is also something to the idea that the stories people imagine (vaguely) to follow up the original one are almost always disappointments. There’s the occasional exception like Mad Max, Top Gun, or the like, but more often you get Rise of Skywalker. There’s some part of your mind that watches Return of the Jedi now and thinks “yeah, but it’s all a waste because 20 years later somehow, Palpatine returns”. You can’t unring a bell.Granted, these are the first worldest of first world problems, but if the question is just that its possible, sure.
“There’s some part of your mind that watches Return of the Jedi now and thinks “yeah, but it’s all a waste because 20 years later somehow, Palpatine returns”.”
Yeah, nope.
Try maybe not assuming that everyone else has the same issues you have?
“You can’t unring a bell.”
I’ve forgotten every frame of the last movie, and for me Star Wars equals three movies from the late 70s to the mid 80s, so don’t tell me I can’t get past a shitty addendum to a classic story.
Some of us are adults who are capable of separating one trilogy from another that came decades later.
I suppose that if you lived through those 30 (not 20, FWIW) years of relative peace, you might feel differently about that “waste.” When “The Force Awakens” came along, I thought, “Really? Thirty years later and we’re doing the Empire again?” And then real life was overrun with Nazis.
I didn’t really get the impression there was much peace in the intervening 30 years (thanks for the correction, btw), but then again I’ve done virtually no investigation into whatever nonsense Disney came up with to replace the Expanded Universe they trashed when TFA came out. (Not that the EU was really all that great either, give or take the Thrawn Trilogy, but at least it didn’t feel like a complete retread).
Perhaps this is a personal anecdote, but I feel like I’ve heard a lot of people say that Star Wars Episode 9 was so bad they can no longer enjoy either of the other 2 in the sequel trilogy. Not that it has ruined Star Wars in its entirety, but that it retroactively ruins those other 2.
“Not that it has ruined Star Wars in its entirety, but”
No no, there’s no “but” in this question. It *didn’t* ruin Star Wars for them, PERIOD.
I didn’t think 9 was nearly as bad as 7 and 8. The start of the trilogy was just terrible characterization, and 8 just destroyed the world building. 9 was trying to make chicken salad out of chicken shit.
For me it’s the “Alien” films. Can’t watch “Aliens” without thinking that Ripley’s efforts to save Newt are undone the moment she closes the hypersleep chamber. And can’t watch “Alien” without thinking that the mysterious “Space Jockey” is just Powder in an environmental suit, and that the Alien itself isn’t some cosmic horror from an unknown world, but something that was bioengineered by a pissed-off android.
for me, constantly. the arrested development netflix stuff ruined the series for me, for example.
This happens a lot. The Prequel and Sequel trilogies pretty much snuffed out my deeply-rooted Star Wars obsession, every movie after Aliens has been putting a nail on that franchise, and I honestly believe that JK Rowling would have a lot more defenders if the Fantastic Beasts movies didn’t suck as bad as they did
Fairly often.
Is there anyone who worked on the first Toy Story that would still be around and involved in this one? Feel like Pixar has gone through much turnover since that golden run of their first ten/eleven films.
I think Peter Docter is the only one still there full time. Andrew Stanton mostly just floats around the Disney empire. Brad Bird could be available as a hired gun if they wanted him back. Joe Ranft is dead, Lee Unkrich retired. And we all know what happened to that other guy.
“And now, ending for the fifth and final time, it’s Toy Story!”
The fifth in the increasingly inaccurately named Toy Story trilogy.
Mostly Toy Story
Toy Story 5: The Return of the King.
Wait, so Disney announced that there would be no sequel after each and every film? That’s weird. I’d think I would remember that happening four times.
I would love another Toy Story movie provided they expanded beyond the Buzz/Woody dynamic. There are a lot of kids with a lot of toys and their stories deserve a good movie, What’s the story of the toys owned by the kid who gets into modding and creating custom action figures? What’s the story of the toys who live in the thrift shop? Why not a movie all about the little green army men? They could call it Playtoon!
the kid that makes custom action figures was the villain in Toy Story 1
Sid wasn’t customizing them. He was mutilating them. I’m talking about the kid who really cares about their toys and what they do to them. The kind of kid to takes a Superman action figure and repaints it to be Captain Marvel, the kind of kid who learns to sew to make custom barbie outfits, the kind of kid who buys three busted old G.I. Joe vehicles at a garage sale, strips them down, then builds them back up into a kickass robot.
sid was customizing them and playing with them.
If by play you mean blow up . . .
He was framed as the villian, sure, but a movie based around toys that he frankensteined would be pretty great. Misfit Toy Story!
Perfect! I’d buy this pitch.
What’s the story of the toys owned by the kid who gets into modding and creating custom action figures?You mean Syd?
Toy Story 1 had the modder kid, and Toy Story 4 had an antique shop, at least. I’d really say the series stopped using the Buzz/Woody conflict/dynamic as its spine after 2.
This was my thought, too – they could continue the series without diminishing the former movies by centering on other toys.
Eventually, this series is just going to dissolve until all that’s left is a movie about a one-armed, half-burned Woody wandering around a landfill weeping and hopelessly calling out for Buzz.
🙁
The real friends are the ones we can never get back oh god Buzz
While an acoustic guitar, minor key, delicate-voiced-female-sung version of “You’ve Got A Friend In Me” plays in the background.
Or, an echoing, high octave, minor key, slow piano version.
Agree on the piano. That’s what I was hearing in my head but wrote guitar. Thanks for improving it!
The real Buzz all along was the flies hovering over the dump.
Maybe Mr Potato Head gets a cell phone?
How about a crazy wedding?
Has Buzz ever had a bear?
I’m feeling some real Toy Fatigue these days.Also, I’m not sure I’m very enthusiastic about another Toy Story sequel.
Just go slow and remember to breathe.
“Here are a few of the reactions we’ve seen on social media since the news broke earlier this afternoon…”Are you guys seriously doing this in the middle of thinkpieces now too? I assure you nobody cares what any of these people think. Have strength in your own convictions rather than checking in on the Twitter hivemind!
They’ve been doing this for a while now.
I am baffled by this sort of thing, too. I get that we now have the technology to link to things (which we’ve had for a while now) which differentiates this from a tangible, paper-based magazine or newspaper, but why use it on something so pointless? If it were a link to Tom Hanks’ or Tim Allen’s reactions or someone else attached to the films, okay I get that. But some rando off the street who knows nothing about the film? Why? If that crap matters to me, I’ll look for it. All it does here is piss me off that what passes for professional journalism has dropped so significantly in the past decade. It’s lazy and reflects a lack of ability on the part of the writer to write their own story.
I mean, news programs have been asking “the man on the street” for opinions on breaking stories for decades now. I’ll give Twitter this, at least the opinions took a few moments to formulate and write down. Some of those people who had microphones shoved in their faces were clearly shooting off at the mouth with minimal input from their brains.
The worst is when entire website articles are just stolen from Reddit AMAs
I won’t watch it. They pulled off a miracle with 4… they will not do it again with this clearly cynical cash grab. These are my favorite animated movies ever- like not watching Blues Brothers 2000… I won’t sully my enjoyment by watching a clearly inferior sequel (it will be).
cool story bro
I didn’t watch 4. They always do this where they create an amazing trilogy with a well rounded and sometimes phenomenal ending, then just want more money so they create more story.Same with Pirates of the Caribbean, Star Wars, Die Hard, The Matrix etc. I wish they did just a different story in the same universe instead, instead of touching on the same characters. Like Rogue One or The Hobbit. I’m really thankful that the creators of my favourite franchise (Back to the Future) tell people to piss off when they want to make a BTTF movie.
I feel we’ve been having this conversation since TS2 was announced. How can they make a sequel to such a groundbreaking film without losing the magic? TS3 announced: they caught fire in a bottle twice, how can they possibly make another movie that’s as good as the other two? TS4 announced: they ended the series perfectly, what could they possibly do now that Andy’s out of the picture?The hell. At least it’s not another Cars sequel.
Yeah, except TS4 actually was pretty forgettable. As in, I’ve almost completely forgotten what happens in it. Wells do dry up, and that bucket definitely didn’t come up with as much water last time, so there’s no reason to think that a fifth installment is going to recapture magic that was already fading.
Counterpoint: It wasn’t, and I haven’t, so it’s a tie.
Cars 3 was a great, yet underrated movie and the whole trilogy would have been better if they just stuck with grounded racing instead of the ridiculous international spy storyline in Cars 2.
Completely agree with this. Cars 2 is an abomination. But I really enjoyed Cars 3.
If I could go back and remake Cars 2, there’s only one thing I’d keep and that’s their choice to switch from stock car racing to road racing. It would have worked if they had Lightning join IMSA or the Cars universe equivalent and started as a rookie again. Sure, it’s treading some of the same themes from the first movie, but instead of a hot-headed rookie, he’d have years of experience to back him up. It makes sense, a lot of stock car drivers do this in real life after they’ve been in the cup series for a few years. Hell, it would actually resemble current driver Jimmy Johnson and his real life trajectory too. A former NASCAR champion, he then switched to Indycar in his twilight years, and now he’s back at NASCAR running a limited season while taking partial ownership of a team. If you couldn’t tell, this stays rent free in my head lol.
In the yers between seeing Cars 2 and Cars 3 I got into F1, so that when I finally saw Cars 3 a year or so back I cried and felt like a putz.
Oh man, Cars 2 is hysterical. My kids were disappointed when it came out, but now they are teens and they just watched it a month or so ago because they think it’s the best of Pixar. It’s got everything they like. The existence of the pope-mobile clearly implies the potential existence of vehicular Jesus. Cars are getting murdered left and right, a car being tortured implies he hooked up with his captor’s mom AND sister the night before. Had they kept going that direction we would have naturally had a sequel more along the lines of Owen’s SNL sketch for Cars 4.
These movies are gradually becoming less ‘movies’ and more ‘blatant enterprises in shameless overt emotional manipulation’.
I must be one of few people that utterly hated Toy Story 4. The story felt so incredibly disjointed, just like a bunch of set pieces haphazardly strung together.
Can’t believe they aren’t just making Woody (Naturally starring Chris Pratt)
I saw Toy Story 3 the summer before I went to college. That was good enough for me. I’m not even interested in the 4th lol
“Somehow. Woody has returned.”
Do kids even buy traditional toys anymore??
I feel like the appropriate title will be:
“Toy Story: Roblox”
They do! They’re particularly into ‘blind box reveal’ style toys nowadays which, granted, make for web video fodder when opening, but are filled with pretty traditional dolls, action figures, etc with accessories.
I know that a lot of folks think that “Toy Story 3” was the capper of the series, but for me everything after “Toy Story 2” was overegging the pudding. I wasn’t wowed by the third one. I saw the fourth on an airplane, and aside from the carnival prizes, nothing at all sticks out.
Because coming up with a new IP is too hard.
Just fun to see literally the exact same argument put forth when they announced Toy Story 4 being slapped onto the table again today.
People seem to forget that while these films are enjoyable to people of all ages, a large portion of their audience is children. Most kids don’t give a shit about the series stopping after a logical endpoint and will just be happy to have new stories featuring characters they like.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with another Toy Story. In fact, it could probably be super creative and fun. It just needs to not include any of the toys from the previous films. Toys that are alive is a great concept, it’s just that the story arcs of Buzz and Wood are complete. We need new toys that want to do something other than pine over the loss of their kid. Misfit toys living in the sewer? Fine. The story of a group of toys traveling cross country to find the owner that left them behind? OK-ish. The continuing story of Buzz and Woody? Not good.
Why can’t Disney-Pixar just go back to making maudlin animated family dramedies about inter-generational trauma? They tend to be pretty good, had a good thing going the last couple years.
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