Can 'Toy Story 5' Win Back Kids Lost to Screens?

Virtual interview with the cast and director of "Toy Story 5"

Toys face an existential crisis as smart devices crowd out playtime

Director warns against a black-and-white view of technology and play

Tom Hanks on Woody: 'I felt the weight of 30 years'

A scene from "Toy Story 5" [Walt Disney Company Korea]

Children have changed. Playgrounds have gone quiet, and toys no longer hold their attention. Many kids today play on screens, study on screens and connect with friends on screens — growing up almost entirely inside them. The sight of children sitting together yet staring separately at their own smartphones has become entirely unremarkable.

The "privilege of childhood" — sprawling across a toy-filled room and letting the imagination run free — has quietly become a relic. That shift unsettles more than just parents. The toys themselves have been pushed aside, suddenly out of a job, their owners stolen away by the screen world.

"Toys are for playing, but electronic devices can do everything." — Woody

Arriving June 17 after a seven-year absence, "Toy Story 5" holds up a mirror to that reality through a new character named Lilypad — a smart tablet who becomes Bonnie's new companion, plunging the toys into a crisis unlike any they have faced before. In response, Woody, Jessie, Buzz and the rest of the gang reunite and set off on a journey to show Bonnie what true friendship means.

Co-director McKenna Harris, speaking Monday in a virtual press conference with Korean media, said today's children spend far more time with iPads and other smart devices than with toys. She described "Toy Story 5" as a film that channels that reality through the imagination of a very different kind of child — one facing a crisis bigger than anything the toys have encountered before.

Pixar's flagship franchise returns with much of its original voice cast intact. Tom Hanks and Tim Allen, who have voiced Woody and Buzz since the first film in 1995, are back, as is Joan Cusack, who joined the series as Jessie in 1999. Korean American actor Greta Lee voices the new character Lilypad.

Hanks said he had been hoping to make another installment ever since the first "Toy Story" and was thrilled the series had reached a fifth film. Cusack said returning felt like coming home. Lee greeted the Korean press in Korean, saying she was happy to be working alongside such wonderful people and asked audiences to look forward to the film.

Set in an era when children no longer play with toys, "Toy Story 5" delivers the franchise's signature blend of humor and heart through the toys' latest journey. Deserted streets evoking a zombie apocalypse underscore the weight of the premise — yet the film stops well short of declaring all technology bad. The throughline is that toys and devices alike ultimately want what is best for their owner.

Voice cast members of "Toy Story 5" (from left) Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Joan Cusack and Greta Lee [Walt Disney Company Korea]

"It would be easy to just say all technology is bad, but that's not reality," Harris said. She added that from the outset she was determined not to frame the story as traditional play good, technology bad.

Greta Lee said she kept that complexity in mind throughout her performance. Harris had asked her to focus on Lilypad's human qualities, Lee said, and she approached the role by thinking about how smart devices are reshaping children's childhoods and how adults should make sense of that shift. "Technology isn't a matter of good or bad — it's simply reality," she said.

Jessie, whose arc in "Toy Story 2" left a lasting emotional impression as she overcame her past, steps into a leadership role in "Toy Story 5." She struggles against Lilypad's overwhelming capabilities, but with Woody back at her side, she grows into a true leader.

Joan Cusack, who voices Jessie, said parents who have had to let their children go will find something of themselves in the character, and children who have drifted away from play into their devices will relate to her as well. "Kids need to have fun, and they need the bonds that come from sharing their hearts with good friends," she said. "I think the film captures that beautifully."

McKenna Harris, co-director of "Toy Story 5" [Walt Disney Company Korea]

Hanks and Allen have voiced Woody and Buzz for more than 30 years, and both said they approached this installment with a particular sense of responsibility. Showing something new while honoring a long-running story was essential, they said.

Hanks said Woody serves as a steady support for Jessie in this film. "As the veteran with more experience than any other toy, I tried to be conscious of everything that has accumulated over 30 years with 'Toy Story' and bring all of that to the performance," he said.

Allen said he has upgraded his performance with each film and that this installment features a more evolved version of Buzz. "I had a lot of fun trying different things and throwing in some ad-libs," he said.

Can the returning "Toy Story" draw children back out from behind their screens? Harris named "connection" as the film's defining theme. "The desire to connect and communicate with others is an instinct that never changes, no matter how much time passes," she said. "Play, too, is something that doesn't disappear even as the times change."

She added that the film moves across several tones — funny, entertaining and, at the same time, genuinely moving. She said she particularly hopes Korean audiences will connect with the journey Bonnie and the toys take as they build friendships and find their way to one another.

balme@heraldcorp.com