Toy Story 5 Is A Direct Sequel To Toy Story 2 (And Makes That Movie Even Better)

Whoa there, partner! This article contains spoilers for "Toy Story 5."

Since 1995, the "Toy Story" series has been about how kids outgrow their toys, from the toys' perspective. The latest, "Toy Story 5," explores this across a whole generation. Kids nowadays turn to screens and the games and/or social media on them to stay entertained. To paraphrase a certain ring-loving Dark Lord — the time of the dolls is over. The age of the tablet has come.

"Toy Story 5" explores how toys might be going obsolete when pitted against technology, and the central POV belongs to the toy with experience being replaced: Jessie (Joan Cusack). One of the most famous sequences in her debut film, "Toy Story 2," is her musical montage backstory. Jessie was once the favorite toy of a little girl named Emily, but as Emily grew up, as all girls do, she became less interested in cowgirls, more in makeup, boys, etc. One day, a teenage Emily left Jessie in a donation box, and that was the last the once-best friends saw of each other. The sequence has no dialogue because the aching words of "When She Loved Me," sung by Sarah McLachlan, are all it needs.

Jessie, who is also the leader of Bonnie's toys after Woody (Tom Hanks) named her sheriff at the end of "Toy Story 4," takes the greatest umbrage with Bonnie's new Lilypad (Greta Lee) and the threat she poses. Jessie spent years sitting ignored as Emily grew up, and she resents how screens make kids grow up and instantly shun their imaginations, not gradually over years of childhood.

In "Toy Story 5," Jessie's quest is to prove that toys are still Bonnie's best way to make friends, and it takes her back to the beginning of her own toy story.

Jessie still has Emily's name and address written inside her pants. So, long story short, when she and Bullseye are found on the sidewalk, an elderly couple take them back to Emily's old house, rather than Bonnie's. Emily is long gone, and a new family has settled in. Jessie tries to orchestrate the meeting of the family's young daughter, Blaze (Mykal-Michelle Harris), and Bonnie. When that goes poorly, she despairs and thinks her fears about her own uselessness were right.

She heads to a familiar spot, the tire swing on a hill where she and Emily played many years ago. Now the tree has a new feature, the words "Jessie was here" carved into it. After some (literal) digging, Jessie finds a box buried under the carving. Inside are 1980s-era effects including a card revealing who the alluded-to "Jessie" is: Emily's daughter. That revelation brings Jessie back to life, for she realizes that Emily never forgot her or their happy times playing together.

The whole emotional throughline of "Toy Story 2" was toys' disposability. After Woody's arm tears, he fears Andy will forget him or throw him away. Jessie was someone who'd already gone through that, which is why being preserved as a museum exhibit appealed to her and tempted Woody.

Their "Woody's Round Up" cohort Stinky Pete (Kelsey Grammer) asks Woody, "Do you really think Andy is going to take you to college, or on his honeymoon?" as he tries to convince him the museum is the best option. Woody, Jessie, etc. don't disagree with Pete that their time with Andy will end, but rather that limited time with him is worth more than forever in a cold museum display. "Toy Story 5" now underlines why toys staying with kids is so important, and not only for the toys.

Jessie's discovery in "Toy Story 5" is a rebuttal to Stinky Pete's self-loathing cynicism. Emily keeping the name "Jessie" with her shows how even when kids don't physically preserve toys, the memories those toys built can linger.

The "When She Loved Me" sequence in "Toy Story 2" has been making everyone from kids to parents tear up for 27 years now. But it's also so emotional because there is no catharsis; Emily drops Jessie in a donation box one day, drives off, and that's that. You completely understand Jessie's sadness and loneliness. Returning to that sequence, and finally giving Jessie some closure to it, risks weakening "Toy Story 2" rather than enhancing it.

Thankfully, "Toy Story 5" finds the right balance. There was a dropped plan for Jessie to literally reunite with a much older Emily. That would've been a mistake, the kind that would undercut the emotions of "Toy Story 2." Jessie learning Emily never forgot her instead conforms with "Toy Story 2" and its theme that kids don't keep toys. A toy's job is to help a kid have a happy childhood, not to be an eternal friend. Jessie realizes she did exactly what she was supposed to for Emily; it's a silver lining to the sadness in "Toy Story 2," not an erasure.

"Toy Story 4" kept Jessie in a supporting role, and her taking over as the protagonist of "5" feels like recompense. The movie completing her arc, as shown all the way back in "Toy Story 2," is the strongest proof the admittedly uneven "Toy Story 5" still has a handle on the series' heart.

"Toy Story 5" is now playing in theaters.