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After the high bar set by the original trilogy, Toy Story has been a case of diminishing returns. In between Toy Story 3 and 4 Disney kept the franchise alive through a series of shorts and specials, all of which were entertaining in their own way but couldn’t match the quality of the storytelling in the features. Then we got the major downshift that was Lightyear last year, a spin-off that underperformed both commercially and critically. That doesn’t exactly fill us with confidence. Nor does the way this project was announced, dropped into the middle of an earnings call amidst news of mass layoffs and a handful of other sequel projects, including Zootopia 2 and Frozen 3.

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Can Toy Story bounce back if the fifth film defies the odds and proves to be a worthy successor? It’s not out of the question. Audiences will have to decide whether they’re ready to say hello and goodbye to these characters yet again. The odds aren’t in Toy Story’s favor, but we’ll just have to wait (for some indeterminate length of time) to see.