The Toy Story films, revolving around a group of toys that secretly come to life when humans aren’t watching, have always held a special place in the hearts of children and adults alike, including the groundbreaking 1995 original, which was a trailblazer for CGI animation. But for its fifth film – which has already broken box office records for the franchise, earning $300m (£227m) globally in less than a week – its makers at Pixar are tackling a particularly bold subject matter: the dangers of modern technology.
My children Lola, 10, and Liberty, eight, were dying to see the movie, despite not having seen any of the earlier Toy Storys, and knowing full well that the film’s premise would hit a nerve. In it, toys Jessie (voiced by Joan Cusack), Woody (Tom Hanks) and Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen) come under siege from frog-shaped tablets known as Lilipads (the main one in the film, called simply Lily, is voiced by Greta Lee) – toys that are both educational, in that they feature different kinds of games to complete, and social, with in-built chat functions that allow users to “connect” with their IRL friends. The trouble is that, as lonely eight-year-old Bonnie (Scarlett Spears) discovers, kids don’t want to indulge in imaginative play anymore.
And toys are being discarded at such an alarming rate in favour of Lilipads that for Woody and co, their very existence is under threat, as is the mental health of the children hooked on them. Sadly, the only way to fit in and get invited to a sleepover is to be armed with a Lilipad – and Bonnie gets sucked in like the rest of them.
Sound familiar? Well, yes it is – and since I took my children to Toy Story 5, Liberty won’t touch her iPad at all. The film’s quiet anti-tech propaganda has traumatised her to such an extent that rather than me snatching her iPad off her, I’m witnessing her sitting alone playing with her Barbies and making DIY blindboxes. I’m relieved about it, but I’m not sure this was the best way to go about it.
Life at home used to be one argument after another for us, with me hiding Liberty’s iPad, only for her to find it again within hours. She treated the device like her comfort blanket, and me like a “digital nanny”. But suddenly it’s as if her iPad never existed – she doesn’t even murmur its name.
When we left the cinema, I was shocked by her response. Liberty burst into tears when I asked her what what she thought of the film. And I couldn’t get a word out of her in the car park through the sobs, until I heard her say: “I feel like Bonnie, because Lola won’t play with me anymore.”
Weirdly, Lola isn’t into screens, but is a book worm. But it confirmed to me that Liberty’s dependence on her iPad was less about the appeal of the device itself and more about her loneliness – and I’d never understood it in such an emotional way before. I would merely scream at her “get off your iPad”, in despair at the hours she’d spend on YouTube Kids.
Liberty also told me that she finally understood why screentime was damaging, and was upset that I’d never properly explained it to her. “You just snatch it away,” she said, “and I didn’t understand why.”
The look on Liberty’s face as she watched the film was one of shock – as the reality of the danger of devices sunk in”
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Her screen time use began to change pre-Toy Story 5, when I told Liberty the news that social media is to be banned for under-16s – a plan announced under the former prime minister Keir Starmer’s government earlier this month. Liberty sprung into action, returning from school and declaring: “Mummy, I’ve deleted YouTube.” What I found so sweet wasn’t that she was being an upstanding member of society, but that she was terrified of being arrested. But I was so happy that she’d finally taken her device use seriously that I didn’t even tell her that You Tube Kids – as opposed to regular YouTube, along with TikTok and Instagram – wasn’t on the government’s banned list. Toy Story 5 has only accelerated her anti-device sentiment.
My kids are at an age where it only feels a matter of time before they’ll be exposed to the big, wide world of scary social media sites, so anything to help them avoid it was welcome – even when it comes in the form of a Pixar film. But at times the movie feels a bit like a lecture – it’s essentially an entertaining and well-made educational finger-wag, similar to those frightening anti-drugs films we’d be shown during assembly when I was in school.
The film is also a refection of what many parents feel they are going through – losing their offspring, even friends, and even themselves to social media. As Jessie grieves the loss of her owner Bonnie to the device, she asks: “Am I no good as a toy?” Bonnie is on her Lilipad 24/7, even grabbing it before she’s fully opened her eyes in the morning. She uses it in the car, at breakfast, and practically everywhere she goes, including sleepovers, where children don’t talk to one another but tap away at their individual screens. “No, no, no. This is all wrong,” Jessie says at one point. “How is she going to make friends?”
It’s now the norm to be on screens. In fact, anecdotally I’ve noticed traditional toys have become a bad word, or something to be shamed over. Children seem to view them with bafflement – like they are so over.
In Toy Story 5, somebody has to get the blame and it’s 100 per cent the screens that get it in the neck – never the parents for allowing it. In one scene, Jessie is seen beating up the Lilipad, and Bonnie’s mum and dad don’t ever connect the dots that allowing their child on the Lilipad all the time could possibly be a problem. They seem clueless – as do all the other kid’s parents we see on-screen, who never even check on what is going on at their children’s sleepovers.
But the look on Liberty’s face as she watched the film was one of shock, as if the reality of the dangers of devices has finally sunk in. They make kids grow up too fast, disconnect them from their peers, and steal their childhoods. It’s the film’s clearest message, and with the adults of the movie (what we see of them, anyway) getting off scot-free, it feels as if children are being shamed for ever using them.
I haven’t helped, exactly, by mum-raging at Liberty when all she’s wanted to do is watch unboxing videos. I couldn’t get across to her why I was taking it away without it seeming punishing. Given the chance, most kids do seem to prefer IRL adventures and imaginary play more than being stuck with an iPad. This has always been reassuring to me, and it became evident in the film, when my children squealed with joy during scenes that involved more practical forms of play. Luckily Bonnie is saved from screen time death by her toys and the Lilipad itself, who feels guilty about leading her down the wrong path. It’s a good outcome – and one that we are experiencing in my household, too.
But I question whether parents have got off too lightly here, without taking any responsibility for the problem. Not only is the government banning social media in under-16s and restricting usage in under-18s to help take the decision out of our hands as parents, Pixar is turning kids off screens for us – and blaming devices.
There is no doubt that Toy Story has scored again by addressing a tough subject matter in a clever and accessible way for children and adults alike. But nobody wants a lecture – especially the ones paying for the tickets. That’s why, annoyingly, children like Liberty might come away with a sense of shame, and stick their devices in a dark cupboard. It’s certainly doing a good job in putting kids off using devices, but it’s in danger of making them feel like it’s all their fault they turned to them in the first place.
‘Toy Story 5’ is in cinemas