Pixar Fans Are Making the Same Toy Story Mistake for the 3rd Time in 18 Years

Pixar‘s biggest franchise is coming back in 2026 with the planned release of Toy Story 5, but there’s a very familiar concern about the movie. By the time the film hits theaters, it’ll have been seven years since we last saw Woody, Buzz Lightyear, Jessie, et al on the big screen, though that’s by no means unusual for this series, where the shortest gap between releases is the four years between the first and second movies. And after the long wait, we’re finally getting a sense of how things are shaping up with the release of Toy Story 5‘s first teaser trailer.

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The footage has reignited some old conversations around the movie. These include worries that it is immediately reversing the emotional ending of Toy Story 4 since it’s reuniting Woody with Buzz and the other toys, and that… it’s a pointless sequel that doesn’t need to exist, and only does so as a cash grab. In fairness, those are understandable. Toy Story 4‘s ending was great, and we do live in an era where IPs are milked for all they are worth and then some because it’s what drives sales at the box office, but I don’t think that’s the case here.

Toy Story Movies Always Prove The Doubters Wrong

Buzz Lightyear and Woody in Toy Story 5 — Image Courtesy of Pixar

If this were just about any other franchise, I’d likely be agreeing with the concerns and criticisms regarding the sequel, but, well, we’ve been here too many times before with Toy Story. I can remember when the fourth movie was announced, pretty much right through to its release, all those same points were raised. And what happened? We got another poignant, creative, funny movie that just added to the magic of the saga.

And… before that, similar points were raised ahead of the third movie (which was in the works for some time, and confirmed by Disney in 2007 after its 2006 takeover of Pixar), even with additional worries about how the Mouse House might handle the animation studio. And what happened? We got one of the best animated movies of the last 15 years.

Toy Story 3 and 4 are two sides of the same coin that complement each other beautifully, rather than contradicting one another. Both are about moving on, letting go, and, most fundamentally to the franchise, dealing with change and finding a sense of acceptance within that, which can vary by individual. And while it does need a strong motivator for Woody to rejoin the gang in the fifth movie, there’s really little in the track record to doubt they’ll be able to pull it off again. Indeed, the threat that “the age of toys is over” aligns with the series’ recurring themes of change and evolution, and it’ll be fascinating to see where it leads.

The third movie’s ending hit so powerfully, in particular, because it was not only Andy saying goodbye to his childhood, but it felt like we were too (depending on your age, at least). But that doesn’t mean things can’t continue, or that it can’t explore that change in other ways. And while the franchise continuing and being so popular could point to a sense of arrested development, as we are in an era where nostalgia is king and we quite simply can’t let go of things, that shouldn’t be how Toy Story is viewed.

Toys are made to be passed down and played with. I don’t have kids, but if I did, I’d love for them to get the same joy out of my old Star Wars and wrestling figures that I did as a child (or I would if my own parents hadn’t already given them away, but hopefully someone is enjoying them!). And that’s what Toy Story represents so beautifully, and why I think Pixar is continually able to pull off bringing this franchise back time and again. It unites generations, and that should be embraced.

Pixar Still Has A Problem To Fix

This isn’t to say that things are otherwise perfect with Pixar. The studio does have problems and, admittedly, Toy Story 5 doesn’t necessarily alleviate them – but it’s also not really the cause. There has been an issue with its original slate of movies, which have long underperformed at the box office. It’s a problem that may have started before the Covid-19 pandemic, but was really compounded by it when Disney effectively turned it into a Disney+ franchise.