‘Toy Story 5’ tackles screens with balance, not fear

“Toy Story 5,” opening Friday, turns screen time into a family conversation rather than a technology villain. In the story, Bonnie’s toys feel threatened when a tablet called Lilypad pulls her attention away, pushing her parents to navigate digital life with r

On the dusty backroads of Radiator Springs, it’s the kind of chaos that looks tailor-made for a disaster movie—meteors raining down, threatening even the quarter-size cars. Buzz Lightyear races in to save the day, and the imagination stretches from one toy story to the next.

Then, back in the living room, another scene hits harder.

As a parent and a toddler played out the scenario with toys. a familiar guilt appeared—one not even tied to the usual questions of “is this educational?” or “did we hit the limit?” Instead it arrived from the fear that a movie meant to be watched on any screen would somehow make the parent feel worse about giving a child kid-friendly content at all.

That fear doesn’t last.

“Toy Story 5” opens Friday, and the film doesn’t treat technology as the enemy. Screens do bring conflict—bonnie’s toys are “despondent over the arrival of Lilypad. ” a tablet that threatens to consume the 8-year-old’s every waking moment. The tablet leaves little time for making memories with her “partners in pretend.”.

Early on. a long-abandoned toy robot tells cowgirl Jessie (voiced by Joan Cusack) that “the age of toys is over” and that screens have taken over. Lilypad then leaps into Bonnie’s life and bedroom because her parents want to help their imaginative child make friends in real life—though those friendships “begin in the digital world.”.

The parents are both desperate and deeply hesitant about introducing their daughter to screen time. What follows is emotional, but it’s emotional in the way many families recognize: the heartbreaking work of managing a child’s relationship with technology when the outside world depends on it.

What the parent finds relief in is the framing. The movie is not aimed at parents who allow their children to use tech. It’s aimed at parents who want to do it differently—parents who can actively participate in their children’s digital lives.

One small scene lands this message without speeches. The parent asks a simple question: if a “gaggle of toys entered your front door. ran the length of your home and exited out the other side. ” would anyone miss it?. Or would the family. like one household in the film. become so absorbed in their “device of choice” that the whole moment passes unnoticed. with faces lit in cold blue?.

The takeaway is plain: device use is a whole family issue. Younger children model what they see and do, without nuance. Josephine Hunt—a longtime public-school teacher and children’s mental health advocate based in Park Ridge, New Jersey—puts the concern into everyday terms.

“We may be on a device answering emails or doing work, working on proposals or projects, but our children are seeing us on the screen and not really understanding that,” Hunt said.

Simple. age-appropriate conversations can help children separate “necessary engagement” from “recreation.” It can also be practical: discussing screen time with children can help them recognize signs of overuse like “tired eyes or neck pain. ” and it gives parents a way to start a conversation before habits harden.

Hunt also emphasizes involving children in the parameters. The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry estimated in 2025 that, on average, children ages 8 to 18 in the United States spend 7.5 hours a day watching or using screens.

An open dialogue, Hunt adds, helps children prepare for real-life scenarios—especially ones Bonnie runs into in the film.

A sleepover that Bonnie has long wanted turns into LilyPad Fair, with the girls glued to their devices. The toys are crushed to see it happen, and Bonnie’s disappointment shifts into something closer to acceptance. Later, the same “supposed friends” share mean words about her in their group chat.

In those moments, parents are reminded to stay engaged—“virtual hallway monitors”—but the tone stays from overbearing to present. Dr. Siggie Cohen. a child development specialist and author of “You Are the Parent: Move From Overparenting to Balanced Parenting and Become the Leader Your Child Needs. ” argues that curiosity matters.

“First and foremost, stay connected to your children, even when they’re on the devices,” she said. “Know their world, understand it — not just because you’re watching like a watchdog, but because you really are present.”

Confidence online is another thread running through the advice. Hunt says kids need help anchoring self-worth in “internal sources instead of external,” because bullying can happen on screens the way it happens anywhere.

“We all got bullied, and kids will continue to get bullied, and it’ll continue to happen on the screens, but how do we teach our kids that we don’t value what other people impose on us?” she said.

The film ends with a happy resolution: Bonnie and her parents figure it out “on their own terms,” helped by her toys’ intervention and a technology-aided connection with a new friend who shares her interests in creative play.

By the time credits begin, viewers learn alongside Jessie and her friends that creativity and tech can work together. Cohen describes it as a point worth remembering as the virtual world increasingly becomes a peer-connection space alongside the playground.

“We focus on, ‘Let’s get away from technology. Let’s stop it. Let’s fear it. let’s put boundaries on it and so on.’ All of that adds so much more pressure. temptation. stress. ” Cohen said. “I think what we want is, ‘What is our time together?. What is the quality and the culture of our time together?’”.

Because devices can be part of that quality—like co-viewing movie nights or games with virtual elements—Cohen’s message doesn’t demand a total escape from screens.

That guidance fits with the American Academy of Pediatrics’ advice: parents should consider “the quality of interactions with digital media and not just the quantity, or amount of time.”

Hunt adds that screens can be a win when they’re used to enhance “multisensory learning and engagement,” rather than becoming the foundation.

This isn’t the first time Pixar has offered that idea. Hunt points to the first film, where Buzz Lightyear arrived in Andy’s room with “buttons, lights and generally more dazzle than his simpler peers,” and says it embodied a message Pixar has consistently gotten right.

“They don’t say, ‘This is bad’ or ‘Get rid of this,’” she said. “They show you how to work together and how to use it as a supplemental part of your learning and creativity and imaginative play.”

For parents walking into “Toy Story 5” carrying worries about screen time. the film lands a different kind of comfort than reassurance alone. It doesn’t tell families to panic. It shows a way to stay close—so the child doesn’t face the digital world alone. and the household doesn’t lose the rest of the story while the screen is glowing.

Toy Story 5 Pixar screen time Lilypad Bonnie Jessie Joan Cusack child development Josephine Hunt Dr. Siggie Cohen bullying parenting technology and kids