It’s certainly not uncommon for directors to praise films. But hardly any enthusiasm has made the rounds as much as Quentin Tarantino’s statement that “Toy Story 1 – 3” represents the perfect trilogy for him. This probably also has something to do with the surprise effect that the mastermind behind “Pulp Fiction” and “Kill Bill” of all people chooses an animated family story – ahead of “The Godfather” or “The Lord of the Rings” – as the ultimate. However, Tarantino also stated in the same interview that he wouldn’t watch the rest of the series for exactly this reason – and that’s pretty stupid. After all, not only “A Toy Story: Everything Doesn’t Listen” seven years ago proved to be a deeply touching, immensely creative, incredibly funny and technically groundbreaking animated adventure…
… “Toy Story 5” by Pixar legend Andrew Stanton (“Finding Nemo”, “Wall-E”) also continues the unique quality success series! I’m not sure if I agree with Tarantino that “Toy Story 1 – 3” is really the best trilogy of all time – but you’d be hard-pressed to find a better pentalogy than “Toy Story 1 – 5”! The previous playroom heroes Woody (voice in the original: Tom Hanks, in the German version: Michael Bully Herbig) and Buzz (Tim Allen, Walter von Hauff) take a step back for the first time to make room for Jessie (Joan Cusack, Carolin Hartmann), who takes the lead as the new protagonist. A smart decision, and not just because women under 25 make up the strongest group of the “Toy Story” audience – the bright cowgirl also brings a breath of fresh air to the franchise in other ways.
Jessie and the other toys are not at all happy that their owner just stares at the screen of her children’s tablet from the time she gets up until she goes to bed!
Jessie does everything she can to find human friends for her owner Bonnie. But it’s not that easy, because apparently the eight-year-old is now the only child in the neighborhood who still plays analogue. Everyone else is just stuck in front of their tablets – and friendships are only made in apps. Even at sleepovers, the girls are physically in the same room but still only interact with each other through their screens. When Bonnie is bullied by her chat friends for her classic toys, Jessie and her crew end up in a box in the garage. Instead, from now on the only thing that counts from getting up to going to bed is the frog-shaped tablet Lilypad (Greta Lee).
Woody, who now runs a rescue team for lost toys with his girlfriend Porzellinchen (Annie Potts, Cathlen Gawlich), comes to her aid. But in the end, Jessie has to put Bonnie’s world back in order – even if she first makes an unplanned stopover at the farm of her former owner Emily, where she has to team up with a technically backward and therefore also discarded potty learning toy in the shape of a toilet paper roll (Conan O’Brien) …
Issue? Yes! Flat? No!
After the stormy, muddy night at the beginning of “A Toy Story: Everything doesn’t listen to any command,” “Toy Story 5” also starts with a big, fat animation-technical exclamation point: From the slowly opening eyes of someone awakening, we see the wet sand of an island where an open shipping container has apparently landed. In terms of photorealism, this sequence goes even further – and at the same time, like the opening of “Up”, it functions as an opening quasi-short film:
The washed-up cargo is a whole troupe of Buzz Lightyears of the next generation, who are now playing through a season of “Survivor” (or for the more literary-minded among you: 400 pages of “Robinson Crusoe”) in fast motion. Even later, “Toy Story 5” – based on Scrat from “Ice Age” or the Minions – repeatedly cuts to the space ranger armada making its way back to civilization, contributing some of the funniest scenes in the film.
Lilypad also has only the best intentions for Bonnie – but the newly purchased frog tablet still causes fear and terror in the children’s room.
But “Toy Story 5” doesn’t just entertain, it also has something to say: When Bonnie stretches her arms up after waking up, but then naturally reaches for her Lilypad during her first yawn, the movement is so perfectly executed that even as a viewer you immediately feel “caught”. After all, we’ve all done it at some point (if it hasn’t become part of our every morning ritual). Now it doesn’t necessarily make family films better if they have a certain intention, in fact the opposite is often the case.
But on the one hand, it really touches the heart when Bonnie becomes a victim of bullying in the chats with her virtual friends, and on the other hand, online networking is not simply dismissed as the root of all evil. Instead, “Toy Story 5” is also so tragic because Lilypad actually only wants the best for Bonnie, but that is precisely why she ends up in ruin – the parallels to AI (also in relation to the toys that are no longer needed) are obvious and will probably affect the adult companions even more directly than the child audience.
Not just photorealistic
“Toy Story 5” is also about not outsourcing your own (childish) imagination completely into virtual space – and in order to visualize this, those responsible have also come up with something in terms of animation: While the “Toy Story” series, as the technical spearhead of the genre, has always strived for the most realistic look possible, there are now and again passages in “Toy Story 5” that – in the tradition of “Puss in Boots 2” or “Spider-Man: A New Universe” – are designed in a deliberately abstract, alienated picture book look. In this way, Bonnie’s imagination becomes tangible for the audience – and who doesn’t want to know who insidiously poisoned the T-Rex maid of honor at the Gabel wedding?
Conclusion: Laughed! Cried! Even after the fifth part, there is absolutely no reason to mothball the “Toy Story” series like a discarded toy in the attic – on the contrary: even Quentin Tarantino should definitely give it a try, otherwise he will really miss something!