TOY STORY 5

Yes — and bring the whole family. This is Pixar doing what it does best: a delightful, emotional ride that earns its laughs and its tears in equal measure, building to a third act full of cheers and a genuinely redemptive, joyful ending.

What makes it more than just fun is what it's actually about. Bonnie's parents hand her a scheming tablet called Lilypad, and the toys watch a real child get swallowed by a screen. The film turns that into a heartfelt warning for parents about tech addiction and the value of physical play — timely, gentle, and never preachy. It also lands on friendship, repentance, making amends, and a surprise church wedding that quietly celebrates traditional marriage.

The only caution: a little potty humor (one device is literally a potty-training gadget) and a handful of situations that could stress out very young or sensitive kids. Neither is a reason to skip it. Take the family — this one's worth the trip.

Back at Bonnie's house, life is changing. When Bonnie's parents give her Lilypad — a new, oddly jealous tablet that connects kids online — Bonnie starts drifting from her toys and into the screen. Jessie the cowgirl and Bullseye the horse sneak along on a sleepover to keep an eye on things, but the mission goes sideways and they end up lost. Now it's up to Buzz Lightyear and Woody to track them down — and figure out how to bring Bonnie back to real friends and real play.

Four stars means this one delivers on nearly every level. The film revisits and expands the emotional territory of Toy Story 2, and the comparison is earned — it builds toward a third act loaded with laughs, cheers, and real tears. The redemptive ending, capped by another wedding, gives the whole thing a satisfying shape rather than just another round of toy-box antics.

There isn't much here in the way of technical critique from the source material to weigh against that praise — this is a film reviewed on how well it moves you, and by that measure it succeeds completely.

This is a film that exalts the right things. It champions friendship strong enough to risk everything for a friend — echoing Jesus's own words about love. It honors traditional marriage with a surprise church wedding, celebrates good parenting, and gives its villain, a lying and manipulative device, a genuine arc of repentance and amends rather than simple punishment. Good overcomes evil here, handled lightly enough for the whole family, but sincerely enough to mean something.

Most notably, the film takes direct aim at a real problem: children absorbed and reshaped by tech devices at ever-younger ages, losing the physical play that builds real relationships and emotional health. That's a subject worth taking seriously, and this film treats it with both humor and conviction rather than lecturing.

Underneath the toys and tablets is the oldest longing there is — to be truly known and not replaced, to have a friend who comes looking when you're lost. Jesus put it plainly: "Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends" (John 15:13). A toy chest turns out to be a strange but fitting place to find that truth restated.

This one earns its place on family movie night — funny, moving, and quietly wise about the tech habits creeping into all our homes. A little potty humor and a few tense moments aside, there's nothing here to hold you back. Worth the trip — gather the family and go.