Toy Story 5: Why Jessie Is The Center Of The Story This Time Around
· BCPosted in: Disney, Movies | Tagged: toy story 5
Toy Story 5: Why Jessie Is The Center Of The Story This Time Around
Toy Story 5 director Andrew Stanton explained why he believes this story was the time for Jessie to take center stage over Buzz and Woody.
Published Sun, 14 Jun 2026 18:47:08 -0500
by Kaitlyn Booth
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Article Summary
- Toy Story 5 puts Jessie at the center, a shift Pixar first teased in 2025 as the franchise moves beyond Woody.
- Director Andrew Stanton says Jessie has untapped emotional depth, while Woody’s story felt fully explored.
- Toy Story 5 uses Jessie’s abandonment fears to fuel a new conflict as tech begins replacing traditional play.
- Jessie’s heartbreaking Toy Story 2 backstory makes her the ideal lens for Toy Story 5’s emotional story.
We have known since April 2025 that Toy Story 5 would focus largely on Jessie, as the toys themselves went up against the idea of tech and the notion that kids no longer really play with toys. It's one of those topics that has been floating around for a while now, and as the first generation of kids who were raised with iPads continue to grow up, we are also seeing what happens when you place a kid in front of a screen all day with little to no regulation or time limits. That sort of idea is very on brand for Pixar to explore in a film, and shifting the perspective isn't that surprising either. We saw them do it with Finding Nemo and Finding Dory, and after four films of Woody and Buzz, director Andrew Stanton explained to GamesRadar+ why he felt it was time to explore Jessie as our central POV.
"I just felt she had so much unaddressed that she had a deep well to draw from," Stanton said. "Woody used to have a deep well, but we drew so much from him, I just thought he needed a break. And we made a conscious point of passing the badge on from Woody to Jessie at the end of [Toy Story] 4. I loved, even if we didn't go to another film, we'd have that, knowing she was a leader now in running Bonnie's room. So, it just made sense when I was asked to work on this one to start there, because it would be a very different room run by her. Even though it's a similar problem of a new thing coming into the room and disrupting things, it's a different era, it's a different kind of character. And she had so much, like I said, under the hood, I knew her insecurities of abandonment would come out right away."
One of the most gutwrenching moments of Toy Story 2 was discovering Jessie's story, so delving deeper into that makes a lot of sense. As Stanton said, Jessie's sense of abandonment plays perfectly into the idea of Lilypad coming in and taking over Bonnie's entire life to the point that toys are a thing of the past. If Jessie's scene in Toy Story 2 wrecked you, I'd say there's a good chance you're going to get wrecked while watching Toy Story 5. Then again, this is Pixar, and is it a Pixar movie if you don't leave with more emotional damage than when you started?
Toy Story 5: Summary, Cast List, Release Date
It's Toy meets Tech in Toy Story 5 as fans are introduced to the new character Lilypad, a high-tech, frog-shaped smart tablet voiced by Greta Lee (Past Lives, The Morning Show, TRON: Ares) that makes Buzz, Woody, Jessie, and the rest of the gang's jobs exponentially harder when they go head to head with the all-new threat to playtime.
Tom Hanks returns as the ever-loyal cowboy Woody, Tim Allen reports for duty as Buzz Lightyear, Joan Cusack saddles up again as the rootin'-tootin' cowgirl Jessie, and Tony Hale is back as the voice of the handcrafted toy Forky. It was recently announced that Conan O'Brien will also join the voice cast as the toilet training tech toy Smarty Pants.
Toy Story 5 is directed by Academy Award® winner Andrew Stanton (WALL•E, Finding Nemo, Finding Dory), co-directed by Kenna Harris (Ciao Alberto), and produced by Lindsey Collins (Turning Red, WALL•E, Finding Dory). The animated adventure releases in theaters nationwide on June 19, 2026.
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