Is there a more eagerly anticipated movie this year than Toy Story 5? For many people (with and without children), you can keep your Odysseys and Minotaurs and Place in Hells, because the return of Woody, Buzz and friends is what cinema is really all about. The series so far has made $3.3bn, and last year’s teaser trailer had 142m views in 24 hours – of which only 140m were my son pressing refresh.
The new film, which is released worldwide on 19 June, sees Jessie the Cowgirl (voiced by Joan Cusack) leading the gang in eight-year-old Bonnie’s room, with Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen) her second-in-command, after the departure of Woody (Tom Hanks) at the end of Toy Story 4 to help abandoned toys find their owners.
But a usurper enters the bedroom: a tablet called Lilypad (Greta Lee), whose benign frog-stylings conceal a dangerously addictive and prescriptive machine. Troubled by their own imminent redundancy, as well as the insidious effect Lilypad is having on Bonnie, the toys rope in Woody again to try to stay relevant – and banish the tablet.
Other newcomers to this fifth film include other malevolent pieces of tech, such as toilet trainer Smarty Pants (Conan O’Brien), a GPS hippo voiced by Craig Robinson, and a digital camera called Snappy, as well as tech-sceptic Dr Nutcase, a daredevil shaped like a peanut.
All the key names are returning for this fifth film, including composer Randy Newman, as well as Hamm, Rex, Slinky Dog, the Potato Heads, Bo Peep, Forky, Dolly, Mr Pricklepants and Trixie – though her Toy Story That Time Forgot paramour Reptillus Maximus appears not to be in the mix.
So please send your questions about all things Toy Story, children, toys and tech for Hanks, Allen, Cusack and Lee, by noon BST on Monday 18 May. We’ll publish their answers on 12 June.
