Inside ‘Toy Story 5’ — ‘We try to capture what we’re dealing with in the moment that we’re in’
DUBAI: Nearly three decades after audiences first met Woody and Buzz Lightyear, Pixar is heading back to the toy box with “Toy Story 5.” But for director Andrew Stanton and producer Lindsey Collins, the latest installment is not simply an exercise in nostalgia; it’s about reflecting the realities of modern childhood. While the beloved franchise reunites familiar characters, the film will also grapple with kids’ shrinking attention spans and constant screentime.
Speaking to Arab News, Stanton said “Toy Story 4” was never intended as the definitive ending of one of cinema’s finest franchises — animated or otherwise.
“I never looked at it as finishing the whole series, that was just Woody’s story,” Stanton said. “I look at the films like the lives of the children — so there’s the Andy (the original owner of the toy crew in the first three films) years, and they are finished, and now we’re deep in the Bonnie (who received Andy’s donated toys) years.”
In “Toy Story 5,” the new territory is a deeply contemporary setting: a child whose imagination and emotional life are competing with tablets, phones, and endless streams of content. Collins feels that tension was impossible to ignore.
