After pulling off a pitch-perfect finale and, somehow, a poignant epilogue to the Toy Story saga, Pixar is again tempting fate with Toy Story 5. Pixar’s signature series has long been teetering on the edge of spoiling its legacy, an idea explored metaphorically (or should we say “meta-fork-ally”) in Toy Story 4. Returning after the series’ first real stumble—the culture-war-inflaming, Snoop Dogg-scaring, and timeline-disrupting Lightyear—an older, wiser, and balder Woody returns to the fold to wrestle with the toys’ greatest threat yet: Screentime.
Here’s the synopsis:
“The toys are back and this time, Buzz Lightyear, Woody, Jessie and the rest of the gang’s jobs are challenged when they come face-to-face with Lilypad (voice of Greta Lee), a brand-new tablet device that arrives with her own disruptive ideas about what is best for their kid, Bonnie. Will playtime ever be the same?”
The trailer isn’t shy about the series’ age. For perhaps the first time, the actors’ ages have really started to show, with the voices of Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, and Joan Cusack all sounding a bit gruffer and hoarser than in previous iterations. To that end, building on Blake Clark assuming the role of Slinky Dog from the late Jim Varney, Pixar has also recast Mr. Potato Head (originally voiced by Don Rickles) with Jeff Bergman and Mrs. Potato Head (originally voiced by Estelle Harris) with Anna Vocino. Ernie Hudson takes over Combat Carl from the late Carl Weathers—that character essentially replaced Sarge (voiced by the late R. Lee Ermey). Few things remind us of our mortality quite like a Toy Story, but at least the immortal Keanu Reeves is back as Duke Caboom.
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