Baek Byung-yeul is a journalist at The Korea Times focused on cultural content, including films and cultural events in South Korea. You can contact him at baekby@koreatimes.co.kr to share your insights.
‘Toy Story 5’ returns to face challenge of smart devices
A scene from "Toy Story 5" / Courtesy of Walt Disney Company Korea
By Baek Byung-yeul
The beloved toys are back in "Toy Story 5" to face their biggest modern challenge — smart devices.
In this fifth installment, the familiar toys face a completely new reality where children put toys away and pick up digital devices. Bonnie, the main child character, gets introduced to Lilypad (voiced by Greta Lee), a smart device that begins taking away her playtime with traditional toys.
"Yes, well, one of the biggest advancements in ‘Toy Story 5’ is that we're kind of finally catching up to the truth of childhood today, which is that kids everywhere are playing with iPads and screens and devices all the time," co-director McKenna Harris said during an online conference, Monday.
"Bonnie, the main character, or the main child, has been introduced to Lilypad, a device that is really taking away a lot of playtime with the toys, so this is a bigger challenge than any of the toys in the previous films have ever had to face.”
Unlike previous films where Woody (Tom Hanks) took the lead, "Toy Story 5" places Jessie (Joan Cusack) at the center of the narrative, a creative decision by director Andrew Stanton, as she received the sheriff's star in the fourth film.
Director McKenna Harris / Courtesy of Walt Disney Company Korea
"I think he and I both agree Jessie lends this wonderful new energy to the movie, and this new energy to running a kids room," Harris said, adding that Jessie serves as the perfect caretaker and confidant who deeply understands Bonnie as a young girl.
Cusack, who has voiced the cowgirl for over two decades, expressed her joy in returning to the role and highlighted the emotional depth of Jessie's new journey.
"It's like the best job ever. And it's been 20 years of playing these characters, and it's like coming home, and you know you're in good hands with Pixar, so it's a joy," Cusack said.
"I think what's amazing about it is both parents who have to let go of their kids can relate to Jesse, and I think kids who get caught up in tech and don't get that chance to play ... is such a complex thing to solve in a film, and they did it."
From left, actors Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Joan Cusack and Greta Lee / Courtesy of Walt Disney Company Korea
Lee, a Korean-American actor who received immense love in Korea for her role in the film "Past Lives," voices Lilypad. She began her remarks with a warm greeting in Korean, saying she was happy to work with such a wonderful cast.
"I was so relieved that Andrew and McKenna immediately let me know the character of Lily, it was best to hone in on her most sort of human-like qualities," Lee said.
Tim Allen, who voiced Buzz Lightyear, recalled how the series has grown significantly since its humble beginnings, while also teasing a fun update for his character.
"The big changes here is he's expressing that he has feelings. Buzz has not really been that type of [character]. He shows feelings randomly, but he has," Allen said, adding that he also had a fantastic time voicing an entire army of new Buzz Lightyears.
Tom Hanks, who has brought the cowboy Woody to life since the 1995 original, described his character as a seasoned veteran who is always ready to come to the aid of his friends.
"Woody has been through an awful lot. From back in the original ‘Toy Story,’ he was sort of like the leader of Andy's gang," Hanks said.
"Since then, he's now out of the greater world, and he's saving rescue toys, he's finding the abandoned ones. And yet he's still very much a part of that original core whose task was to bring first, joy to Andy, and then joy to Bonnie."
“Toy Story 5” will be released in Korea, June 17.