My Thoughts on Toy Story 5 (From a Mom of Teens)

P.S. I was 9 when Toy Story was released in 1995.

I went into Toy Story 5 with pretty low expectations.

Toy Story 3 felt like the perfect ending. Toy Story 4 felt a little like Star Wars: Episode I for me. There were parts I enjoyed, but I also spent a good portion of the movie wondering if we were creating a Forky-sized Jar Jar Binks situation. (With that being said, I must add, Forky Asks a Question was a brilliant addition.)

So when I heard about Toy Story 5, especially with the addition of Taylor, I didn't want to be let down, so I kept my expectations pretty low. 

Turns out, I was pleasantly surprised.

The first thing that stood out to me was the humor. It felt more sophisticated than previous Toy Story movies. There were multiple moments that landed with both kids and adults, but in different ways. At one point, a trail of horse tracks leads back to a shelf full of horses, and I actually heard my 14-year-old laugh out loud.

If you have teenagers, you know that's saying something.

The movie also trusts its audience more than earlier Toy Story films. It isn't built around constant slapstick jokes or trying to entertain toddlers every second. It feels like the franchise has grown up alongside the people who grew up watching it.

The new characters worked for me, and I appreciated that several of the leading characters continued to be female. Nothing felt forced or inserted just to check a box. They were simply good characters who belonged in the story, which is exactly how it should be done.

That said, there were a few things that felt a little off.

Some of the voice actors sounded noticeably... different. Older. Which is understandable given how much time has passed. One performance in particular felt a little disconnected from the animation, almost like the voice and character weren't fully matching up anymore.

While I did enjoy the new characters, especially more than the last few Toy Story movies, I would have liked to see a little more of the classic Toy Story group dynamics. Rex, Slinky, Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head, and the rest of the gang have always been a huge part of what makes these movies feel like Toy Story.

Now let's talk about the main theme.

Screens.Phones.Tablets.

Technology = bad.

While the movie absolutely raises valid questions about screens and the role they play in childhood, it reminded me that every generation thinks the next generation's “technology” is the problem.

We had MTV Spring Break.

We had TV dinners.

We had cable television.

We had AIM.

We had Nintendo.

We had technology too. It just looked different.

We convince ourselves that today's kids are facing brand-new problems.

They're not.The tools are just new. The problems aren't.

I was bullied in elementary school for being overweight and a little different. There were no smartphones. No social media. No group texts. Kids still found ways to be mean.

Does technology make some of those things easier? Absolutely.

A mean comment used to stay on the playground or in a passed note. Now it can follow you home or spread like wildfire.

But let's not pretend bullying, exclusion, peer pressure, and insecurity suddenly appeared when someone invented Instagram.

Most of these issues have always existed. Technology just makes them more visible and more immediate.

Previous generations love to talk about how much worse things have gotten and how bad kids are these days.

But are they?

Because my soon-to-be sophomore spends a lot of weekends at home with her family opening My Little Pony collector cards.

At her age, I was trying to figure out how to get to a party. And thanks to lack of technology, my parents had no idea where I was, even when they thought they did.

Every generation tends to romanticize its own childhood while criticizing the next one.

The reality is that kids today are facing many of the same challenges we did, just in a different format. Too often, we focus on the outlet instead of the actual root of the problem.

In fact, one of the things I actually appreciated was how Bonnie's family responded to what she was experiencing instead of drawing arbitrary hard lines. There was an openness to discussing feelings and working through emotions that felt very normal and natural. Not just pro or anti technology.

Now, do I have some questions about parenting choices?

Absolutely.

Like, who is letting their kid spend the night with people they just met... ON THE INTERNET?

But I digress.

The bigger point is that many of today's kids are growing up with emotional tools (and parenting) that simply weren't available to previous generations.

When I was younger, if you were struggling with anxiety, depression, or mental health issues (which I was), the advice was often some version of, "Don't worry about it," "Pray about it," or "You'll be fine."

Therapy was something people whispered about.

Parents were NEVER wrong.

Adults had the answers.

Kids obeyed.

End of discussion.

Today's kids have a language for emotions that many of us didn't develop until adulthood and are still going to therapy to find. They're learning about boundaries, mental health, self-advocacy, and emotional regulation at ages when many of us were simply told to keep our feelings to ourselves.

The bigger challenge facing families today to me isn't technology itself. It's that modern families are often trying to do the work that used to be divided among more people.

In many households, both parents work. Grandparents may not live nearby. Kids are involved in more activities than ever. Schedules are packed. We keep living through what feels like one catastrophic event after another. Everyone is stretched thin and, unfortunately, in many families, traditional roles still exist even when the family itself doesn't look traditional. That can make modern parenting almost impossible.

Maybe that's why the movie worked for me. It wasn't really about toys competing with technology. In the end, both were helpful. It was about trying to navigate a world that looks very different from the one we grew up in, as it should. But if you don't hone in, you might miss that even though Jessie hit the nail on the head with that in the end.

So will you like the movie?

I think maybe we should start thinking about Toy Story the same way we think about Harry Potter.

The first Toy Story movies were lighter. They focused on the wonder of being a toy and the magic of childhood.

But as the audience grew up, the stories grew up too.

The difference between Sorcerer's Stone and Order of the Phoenix is huge. The tone matured because the audience matured. That's kind of where Toy Story feels right now (with much, much fewer Death Eaters, of course).

It doesn't seem particularly interested in entertaining brand-new five-year-old fans with cheap laughs and simple stories. Instead, it feels like it's trying to keep up with the audience that has been following Woody and Buzz for nearly 30 years.

One final takeaway: the movie reminded me why we had a "no group texts" rule when our kids first got phones.

Group texts never end well.

Ever.

And while we're at it... no sleepovers.

I've learned many things throughout my parenting journey, and Toy Story 5 only reinforced that some rules exist for a reason.

So while everyone else is debating screens, I walked away thinking about something else entirely.

We really need to stop romanticizing the past and fearing the future.

Bonnie turned out fine because her parents did something that never goes out of style: they parented.

Not perfectly. But they showed up, paid attention, listened, adjusted, and stayed involved.

Technology matters.

Parenting matters more.

Final verdict: Must see.

Us in 2012, 2018 & 2023 💙