Theme: The Journey Home
Disney Pixar’s Toy Story 5 follows in the grand storytelling tradition which made its first four predecessors box office hits. Since the release of the first Toy Story in 1995, the cast of characters, Woody, Buzz, Jessie (’99), and all the gang from Andy and Bonnie’s rooms have become beloved toys to “children” of all ages. It seems these anthropomorphic characters have made audiences laugh and cry for over thirty years and in an age of high anxiety and rapid change, the topic of technology and toys was too timely to pass on . . . it also gave Disney Pixar the box office boost it needed.
There is one small break with tradition from the first four G-rated movies; Toy Story 5 earned a PG rating for rude “potty” humor and thematic elements (a first kiss). Parents may also appreciate knowing the movie is not exactly easy to follow. There are two stories (a major and a minor) being told, and the movie fluctuates back and forth between the two. If that is not confusing enough, within the major story the imaginative play of Bonnie is done in Storybook style using a pastel chalk drawing technique for those sequences. So, there is lots of back and forth from one story line to another. Adults may find the first viewing “choppy,” while young children may be lost.
All these cautions and caveats aside, Toy Story 5 does ask and explore some very profound and meaningful questions. What does it mean to be displaced, and what happens to someone who is replaced or no longer needed because they are viewed as old or antiquated? Is “new” always better and finally how important is play?
The major story follows Jessie the spunky cowgirl now endangered of being replaced with a new “tech toy” named Lilypad. The minor story finds a whole slew of new high-tech Buzz Lightyears lost on a remote island not knowing who or what they are. This minor story opens the movie with a prologue and ends the movie with an epilogue after the final credits. The major story begins where all good stories start . . . A Long Time Ago . . .Once Upon a Time . . . In the Beginning.
Replaced: The Loss of Heart
The story opens with Jessie and her original owner, Emily, playing joyfully together in an Eden-like setting under a huge oak tree. Emily has inscribed her address on the inside of Jessie’s chaps so her beloved cowgirl will never get lost. But time passes and the movie flashes forward to Bonnie, Jessie’s new owner, telling her how much she loves her as Emily did. Jessie has journeyed from Emily to a toy dealer’s collection (Toy Story 2), where Woody and Buzz rescue her, to Andy’s room (Toy Story 3), and then given to Bonnie. When Woody departed (Toy Story 4) she became Bonnie’s image bearer/sherif responsible for all the toys and making “play” delightful for Bonnie. Now however something new has entered the room which has never entered the world of toys before, a piece of technology . . . tech for short . . . that manifests as a toy with no real friends. The lonely Bonnie latches on to this “Lilypad” for dear life and Jessie is once more replaced.
The word replace means superseded for being outdated and inferior to something new. Supplanted is another synonym which means a clever scheming displacement by a new entity which perfectly describes Lilypad as she assumes control of the room and Bonnie. Lastly, substitute, putting something else (another toy) into her very special place.
For Jessie, this is all too much. She contacts Woody, telling him, “Emily gave me away; it feels like that all over again. I am losing Bonnie.” Here is the great loss of heart; to be replaced means a loss of home, loss of identity, loss of vocation, loss of love. To go from being rooted in all the ways it means to belong, into exile, abandonment and being unloved, is the real meaning of the “Fall” and loss of Eden and Home.
Replaced: Ranch Road
The word replaced has another meaning which in some dictionaries is listed first. To replace is to restore to former place or position. This is exactly what Jessie needs for her broken heart. The address Emily so lovingly put on Jessie’s chaps now serves to take her back to, as she says, “the place where it all started.” Finding herself in her original home floods her with memories even though there are changes with the new owners. Looking out the window of what was once Emily’s bedroom, she sees the oak tree on the hill where they played every afternoon. This is the place she must go, the place where she believes she was abandoned by Emily.
Named, Known and Needed
Jessie is at the oak tree and looking at the sun when Bullseye her faithful horse arrives. She bemoans the fact he followed her and tells him she can’t love another kid only to find out she never mattered. With his nose Bullseye directs her attention to a carved heart on the tree with the words “Jessie was here” on it and an arrow pointing down.
Like a root of a tree, they discover an old metal lunch box that belonged not to Emily but to her daughter; for the box contains a picture of mother and daughter and on the back is inscribed “Jessie you will always be my little cowgirl. Love Mom.” Jessie the toy was not replaced with another toy. Emily simply grew up and became a mother of another little girl she named Jessie, thus honoring her beloved childhood toy with her own namesake. It is important to know the meaning of Jessie’s name; it is a biblical name and in Hebrew means God exists and Gift.
For cowgirl Jessie finding her roots are not rejection and exile but being deeply loved and remembered, she is able to grasp her true vocation and her being needed in a new light. She tells Woody and Buzz, who have arrived, that toys don’t get to decide for themselves, for all that really matters is they are there at the right time to help the child along partaking of their imaginative play.
Play
Play is not all fun and games, nor is it just relegated to children. The serious business of all creation is play, giving the Creator great delight, for even the mountains sing, the trees clap and the leviathan frolics1. Play was the intended “life with God” in Eden and will be restored in the New Creation2. Only in the fallen world does life become toil and hard labor3. Play is intrinsic to human nature and the animal kingdom; it is not something which is learned. To laugh, to sing, to dance, to act all come naturally.
The beauty of Toy Story 5 is how it captures Bonnie’s imaginative play sequences and demonstrates that the human imagination can transcend the ordinary world and enter the special world of life in God’s creation. This is rehearsal time for life in the age to come. Human beings are God’s toys created to be his image bearers and run the room of the plant and animal kingdoms. Toy Story 5 is the story of how every human needs to be replaced, restored, and re-rooted just like Jessie was; for all have been not only replaced but displaced.
Displaced: The Minor Story
The movie opens, closes, and has interspersed vignettes of a minor story. It is the tale of very high-tech new Buzz lightyear toys which have been lost on a remote island in some sort of cargo crash. They awaken not knowing who or what they are but have a slight memory of two words . . . Star Command. They see a bright star in the sky and like three ancient wise men begin their journey of discovery. Marching over hill and dale, they learn adult humans are to be avoided while young children are not only safe but loving. The lost toys play a great part in the rescue of Bonnie’s Play and her newfound friendship with Blaze, the girl who now lives in Emily’s room on Ranch Road.
In the Epilogue having learned from the “old” Buzz their mission is to bring joy and delight to children like all toys, they descend on a playground filled with youngsters and find their new home in the arms of a child.
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Footnotes:
- Isaiah 55:12, Psalm 104:26
- Isaiah 11, Revelation 21 & 22
- Genesis 3
