Toy Story 5: A Five-Star Hollywood Miracle!

This month Toy Story 5 hit the promotional trail with the kind of publicity money can’t buy: revealing she’s a superfan.

An early glimpse of the movie so inspired her that, as she told her 273million followers, she went straight home and wrote a new original song for it, completely on spec.

And four days before its UK release date, the Government

Back in Bonnie’s bedroom, Woody, Buzz and the gang must be cheering because that’s what Toy Story 5 is all about: the battle for children’s attention between toys and tech.

Not that it’s much of a contest. That battle has already been won.

With Woody () settling into retirement – complete with an amusing dad paunch and a newly acquired bald spot – he’s passed his sheriff’s badge to Jessie (Joan Cusack). She’s got her work cut out.

‘Extinction! Not again!’ declares Rex (Wallace Shawn), in a nod to the familiarity of the premise. 

He’s just one of many old favourites you’ll wish had more screen time (can one ever have too much of Mr Pricklepants the hedgehog?) amid a colourful crowd of new cameos including Bad Bunny’s Pizza With Sunglasses.

But this Toy Story’s stakes are far higher. The shiny new interloper upsetting the pecking order isn’t Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen), it’s a frog-shaped smart tablet called Lilypad (Greta Lee), bought by Bonnie’s well-meaning parents to help her make friends.

Instead, Bonnie ends up being trolled via Lilypad’s version of Snapchat, while Jessie is informed, repeatedly, that ‘the age of toys is over’ because kids are addicted to screens.

The Toy Story franchise has always been about loss. Its heart lies in that primal parental grief of children growing up and away from you. Of being left behind.

This one asks what happens when children lose the magic of play itself.

However, having dumped us into despair – and adults, you will be reduced to a puddle – the impressively nuanced story floods you with hope and empowerment. 

It gently points out that while we can’t turn the clock back on tech any more than we can stop children growing up, we can set limits and be more present.

There are loads of laughs too, courtesy of SmartyPants, a hilarious toilet-training aid shaped like a loo roll, voiced by Oscars host Conan O’Brien.

The genius of Pixar lies in making audiences feel, rather than telling them what to think. With their finest work – Inside Out, Up and the Toy Story films – they mine deep emotional truths in a way that is almost magically transformative.

I have proof. As a parent, I walked out ready to hurl my children’s iPads into the nearest bin.

My eldest, 14, had a different reaction. ‘I loved how it didn’t say tech was bad,’ she told me. She then went home, dragged her old dolls’ house out of the attic and gave it a makeover. Yes, she actually played.

This movie is more than just another Hollywood sequel. It’s a miracle.