Toy Story 5 opens in U.S. theaters on June 19, 2026 — the first Pixar sequel to the franchise since Toy Story 4 in 2019. Andrew Stanton, who directed the original Toy Story and WALL-E, returns to direct alongside Kenna Harris. The film follows Woody, Buzz, and Jessie as Bonnie stops playing with them in favor of Lilypad, a new tablet device. Stanton described the theme as "a realisation of an existential problem: that nobody's really playing with toys anymore." Box office analysts project a $150–175 million U.S. opening and $275 million globally — which would be a franchise record.

1. The Franchise Is Back in the Right Hands

Stanton's return matters because of what happened when he left.

Toy Story 4 went wrong, and fans knew exactly why. Josh Cooley directed without Stanton, and the ending — Woody walking away from the group — divided the fanbase deeply. Stanton shaped the first two films and has never made a bad one. His return signals a course correction, not just a sequel.

Their return after Toy Story 4's goodbye matters more than it sounds. Toy Story 4 felt like a farewell for both Tom Hanks and Tim Allen. Coming back implies the story has somewhere new to go. Randy Newman is back as composer for his tenth Pixar collaboration, and Taylor Swift contributed an original single, "I Knew It, I Knew You," which reached No. 1 on the Billboard Global 200. Critics who like the film — a 92% on Rotten Tomatoes — are calling it a return to form.

2. But Pixar's Sequel Pivot Has a Real Cost

The studio that made WALL-E now needs five Toy Story films to justify its budget.

The last Pixar original to open successfully in theaters was Coco, in 2017. Everything since — Soul, Luca, Turning Red — went direct to Disney+. Elio, the most recent original, opened to $21 million domestically in 2025, the studio's worst-ever theatrical debut. Pixar CCO Pete Docter responded with a public shift toward films with "clear mass appeal." Toy Story 5 is the first and most expensive product of that pivot.

The negative reviews aren't wrong that something is missing. Peter Bradshaw at The Guardian gave it 2 stars and wrote that "IP exhaustion has set in" and the franchise is "played out and in need of new batteries." Rolling Stone's headline: "'Toy Story 5' Is What Happens When You Beat a Franchise to Death." The film's 92% Rotten Tomatoes score is the lowest of any main-series Toy Story — still good, but telling.

3. Still, the Tablet Villain Is the Smartest Call They've Made in Years

Stanton built the movie around the one threat toys can't fight back against.

The tablet villain works because it's real. Lilypad isn't a cartoon menace — it's a 2026 parenting anxiety rendered in animation. Stanton is making a genre children's film about the thing parents are actually scared of: screens winning, kids unreachable, and the old ways becoming irrelevant.

Human animators built this, with no AI. VFX supervisor Thomas Jordan confirmed the studio tested AI tools and rejected them: "So far nothing lives up to the standards or expectations that we have for the quality of our films." In 2026, that's a labor and creative stance. Pixar paid people to make a movie about why people still matter.

Where This Lands

Fans who wanted Stanton back get it, and the early reviews say he delivered. Critics who think Pixar has been mining IP instead of making originals aren't wrong: the studio pivoted to sequels after Elio flopped, and Toy Story 5 is the flagship product of that pivot. What makes the film worth watching regardless of where you land is the premise — a $250 million animated movie whose villain is the device you're reading this on.

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