All 5 Toy Story Movies, Ranked by How Much It Will Make You Cry

all 5 – From Andy’s first shuffle to Bonnie’s painful growing-up moments, here’s a ranked run through every Toy Story movie—and the scenes most likely to leave you wiping your eyes.

When Toy Story changed animation in 1995, it did more than invent a new kind of toy story. It made people feel it—in laughter. in loyalty. and in that sudden pinch behind the ribs when a kid’s love moves on. Thirty-one years later. Toy Story 5 is arriving with the franchise’s biggest opening in its history. and the question on every fan’s mind is simple: how hard will it hit?.

Five Toy Story movies, ranked by how much they’ll make you cry.

5 ‘Toy Story’ (1995)

Even putting the original Toy Story at number five doesn’t mean it’s gentle. It still comes with heartbreak. right from the premise: Andy gets a new toy. Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen). complete with buttons and cool features that make him more exciting than Woody (Tom Hanks). who has been with Andy for the long haul.

That shift is the emotional knife. Woody finds himself out of favor and left behind, and the movie doesn’t stop there. Buzz’s story lands hard, too. Fresh out of the box. he believes he’s a real Star Command astronaut—until he learns he’s a toy. Coming to terms with that truth takes him on a journey that moves from painful to heartwarming. as he welcomes his role and becomes friends with Woody and the other toys.

4 ‘Toy Story 5’ (2026)

Toy Story 5 has the saddest setup before most audiences have even seen a single frame outside the trailer. A new rival toy enters the scene, but this time the threat is technology—the idea of toys from a bygone era competing with a smart tablet set on replacing them.

The pain doesn’t stay abstract. The story turns personal in the way Toy Story often does: watching what it does to Jessie and Bonnie. The child who loves these toys so much is growing up. and her friends make fun of her for still being a child who plays with dolls. Lonely and wanting to fit in, Bonnie rejects the toys—everything, including Jessie (Joan Cusack).

Left behind. Jessie returns to the home of her former owner. Emily. whom she has never gotten over all these years later. There will never be a going back to the past. But Jessie does get closure when she finds a lunchbox belonging to Emily’s daughter. On the surface is the child’s name: Jessie. The moment becomes a tearjerker when the story brings in the emotional weight associated with “When She Loved Me. ” as the cowgirl realizes just how much she meant to Emily.

3 ‘Toy Story 2’ (1999)

Toy Story 2 turns the spotlight to a different kind of new toy: Jessie, the cowgirl from the Roundup Gang. Like Jessie’s place in the story, her pain is specific. She, too, had a child owner she once loved, only to be abandoned. Now she’s lonely—an unplayed-with collectible.

The montage playing Sarah McLachlan’s “When She Loved Me” over Jessie going from favorite toy to being forgotten is gut-wrenching. And the film keeps proving that being forgotten isn’t just a big emotional concept—it’s something that looks like a dusty shelf life.

One scene shows Woody on that dusty shelf, where he discovers a penguin with a broken squeaker named Wheezy. Wheezy has been sat there for years, with no one. In a bittersweet moment, Woody—still the hero—chooses to give up a life with Andy. He decides to stay with the rest of the Round-Up Gang. That choice means saying goodbye to everyone he knows and letting Andy go, even though he’ll come back. Even with that knowledge, the farewell is the kind of scene that keeps landing as tears.

2 ‘Toy Story 4’ (2019)

Toy Story 4 arrived with pressure, and fans felt it. Many weren’t accepting the idea, especially after the third film seemed like the perfect ending. But Toy Story 4 still went straight for the heartstrings.

The toys are now living with Bonnie, and Woody has to accept that he’s no longer the favorite. Bonnie’s scared owner enters pre-school. and she creates a makeshift toy named Forky (Tony Hale) to get her through it. Forky doesn’t understand his worth. Built out of a spork, he’s convinced he’s trash—and he wants to throw himself away.

Forky’s lack of self-worth is tragic, but his growth lands as a quieter kind of sweetness: watching him realize how important he is.

At the end of Toy Story 4, Woody accepts that his time as an important toy to Bonnie has ended. It’s time for him to move on and save other lost toys with Bo Peep (Annie Potts). That means Woody must say goodbye—seemingly forever—to the other toys. They gather around, hugging and laughing, but the emotional punch is the silent embrace with Buzz.

As the RV pulls away, Woody and Bo watch, ready to begin their next journey. “He’s not lost, not anymore,” Buzz says.

1 ‘Toy Story 3’ (2010)

Number one is obvious here, and for good reason. Toy Story 3, released in 2010, came to a perfect end for the franchise—and it’s described as the best of them all, with two big moments that leave audiences bawling their eyes out.

The first hits during the film’s climax. The toys end up in a dump and find themselves on a conveyor belt headed for the fires of an incinerator. With no way out, the toys accept their fate. In their final moments, all they want is to be together. They grab each other’s hands as the music swells—an image that the article describes as devastating because it asks. in effect. whether a kid’s movie would dare kill them.

Then comes the ending. The toys have been with Andy since the beginning of the franchise. Now that he’s off to college, he wants to give them to another child who can appreciate them. He takes them to Bonnie’s house and shows her how fun they are.

At the bottom of the box sits Woody, Andy’s favorite toy of all. He hesitates—how can he let go of him?. Seeing the look on Bonnie’s face, Andy hands Woody over, letting go of his childhood. He has grown up. but everything will be okay because another child has already fallen in love with the toys that mean so much.

The run from 1995 to 2026 makes one thing clear: Toy Story doesn’t just trade in nostalgia. It keeps returning to the same emotional engine—belonging. being left behind. and the wrench of watching love move to the next kid. The settings change, the toys change, even the rival threats change. But the tears keep making sense.

Toy Story Toy Story 5 Toy Story 4 Toy Story 3 Toy Story 2 Pixar ranking tearjerker movies Jessie Woody Buzz Lightyear