If you’re wondering if the world needs another Toy Story movie, Disney Pixar will happily give you 4.67 billion reasons a fifth instalment is a great idea.
That’s how much money the four previous films in the franchise have generated at the worldwide box office, and don’t forget an additional $16 billion earned through merchandise sales and other associated revenue streams.
No wonder Woody, Buzz Lightyear and the gang have a friend in Disney Pixar.
Of course, this level of success was beyond the wildest dreams of anyone associated with Pixar around the time it was making the original Toy Story movie in the early 1990s.
Back then Steve Jobs was majority owner and CEO, having found a new raison d’etre with the company after effectively been booted from his beloved Apple in 1985.
Jobs had sunk millions of his own money into the production house and what promised to be the first entirely CGI animated feature, based on an Oscar-winning short, Tin Toy, by filmmaker John Lasseter.
How confident was Jobs that Lasseter could expand that short into a feature-length hit to save the business? Well, he considered selling Pixar to Hallmark Cards a year before the film’s release to recoup his losses.
However, history will show the faith placed in Lasseter’s project was rewarded, with the groundbreaking end result becoming the second-highest grossing film of 1995 and changing the face of animation forever.
Perhaps the most astonishing thing about this franchise is the next two instalments, landing in 1999 and 2010, were even better.
Toy Story 3, in particular, is widely considered the high-watermark for the franchise and, for some, a fitting conclusion for the characters beyond which there is diminishing artistic merit.
Tell that to the fans, who flocked to the good-not-great Toy Story 4 in 2019, making it the highest grossing instalment yet to the tune of more than $1.5 billion globally.
Needless to say, Buzz Lightyear’s catchphrase, “To infinity and beyond!” is also an accurate summation of the box office expectations Toy Story 5 carries for Disney Pixar.
Given the stakes, the studio wisely turned the toy box over to veteran Pixar director Andrew Stanton, the Academy Award-winning filmmaker who gave us Finding Nemo and WALL-E.
Stanton also has a co-writing credit on every Toy Story movie, so no one is better qualified to steward these treasured characters on another adventure.
Picking up the action after the events of the fourth film, we find Woody (Tom Hanks) and Bo Peep (Annie Potts) rehoming lost toys out in the world, while cowgirl Jessie (Joan Cusack) is leading the toys in Bonnie’s room, with Buzz (Tim Allen) as her trusty 2IC.
When the toys’ idyllic existence is upended by the arrival of a LeapFrog-esque educational tablet (voiced by Greta Lee), which dominates Bonnie’s attention, Woody must ride in and save the day.
As with previous films in the series, Toy Story 5 seeks to find the sweet spot between nostalgia experienced by adult audience members and fun for the kids.
The spectre of device addiction adds a very real topical element this time around.
“(There’s) a moment in the movie where we look out on the cityscape and we see that blue glow of a phone in bedrooms and whatnot, and it does strike terror into the heart,” Hanks said in a recent interview with the BBC.
But, with a new song from Taylor Swift — I Knew It, I Knew You — and voice performances from a cast that includes Keanu Reeves and Bad Bunny, Toy Story 5 is more likely to strike terror into the hearts of its competition at the box office.
Tracking data predicts a North American opening weekend north of $200 million, which would be the biggest for the year to date.
Toy Story 5 is in cinemas June 18.
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