Toy Story 5: A Christian Worldview Review and 7 Questions to Ask Your Kids

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Hello, friends. On today's podcast, we are going to be talking about all things Toy Story 5. We'll first look at an overview of what the movie is, talk about some positive elements and some negative elements, and then discuss five biblically grounded worldview questions you can talk through with your children if you choose to have them engage with this film.

Who This Movie Review Is For

Before we dive into the content, I want to make sure, especially for any of you who may have just bumped into this podcast for the first time on YouTube, that you understand the correct target audience. This is not a general movie review. It is specifically designed for intentional Christian parents who want to use the medium of film to equip their children to understand the truth of the Christian worldview and to carefully evaluate every idea they encounter through that lens.

Because that is the primary audience, there are going to be spoilers in this review. The goal is not to keep you on the edge of your seat, but to give you biblically grounded questions to talk through with your kids.

Toy Story 5: A Quick Overview (Spoilers Ahead)

Most of you watching or listening are already familiar with the Toy Story franchise and the first four films, and the characters here are mostly the same.

The film opens with Bonnie playing with Jessie and her other toys. She is a creative, imaginative young girl who loves to play, but she is having trouble with friendships. Early on, she asks her parents, "Why doesn't anyone want to be friends with me?" You can imagine how a question like that from your own child would break a parent's heart, and it breaks Bonnie's parents' hearts too.

So they wrestle back and forth over whether to buy her a new device called a Lily Pad, which is clearly a spoof of an iPad. They don't really want her too involved in tech, but they know most of the kids her age are playing with it, and that's part of why Bonnie is having trouble connecting. Eventually they buy her the Lily Pad so she can get involved with other kids in the online world. At the start, her parents set screen-time limits and they do give her those limits. However, the Lily Pad eventually takes over.

As Bonnie gets sucked into the online world, she tries, like all kids and sometimes even like adults, to impress the friends she interacts with on the Lily Pad. These are in-person friends too, girls from her dance class, but they're mostly interacting online. Her friends eventually start to make fun of her for still playing with toys.

So throughout the movie, Jessie and the other toys are trying to find a real friend for Bonnie, not someone who will make fun of her or bully her for playing with toys, but someone who gets the importance of creative, imaginative play just like Bonnie does. Along the way, Jessie encounters other tech toys from earlier eras who have been discarded. She learns to appreciate them, but she also helps them realize that having games programmed into them is not the same as being engaged in real play. Jessie helps them get involved in real play with their owners, and they discover how amazing it is.

Here is the spoiler at the end. Toward the end of the film, the toys help Bonnie foster a true friendship with another creative, imaginative girl named Blaze. Then the toys help Bonnie and Blaze integrate tech in a way that is actually creative. For example, Bonnie uses the Lily Pad to take pictures of the pretend weddings and adventures they're having with the toys.

That's a basic overview of the film.

What the Film Gets Right

As with pretty much all Pixar movies, the animation is amazing and the storyline is really engaging. Pixar films seem to understand how to create a really good story arc, and they pull on your emotional heartstrings in all the right places.

But here's something I especially appreciate about the Toy Story franchise, the first four films and this one: they tend to pull on those heartstrings in ways that align with a Christian worldview, in ways that help you understand more of what it means to be human. I really thought this was an excellent, excellent story.

A Word on Seeing It in Theaters

As is typical with Foundation Worldview movie reviews, I am not going to encourage you to take your children to see this movie. Choosing to take your kids to a movie is a matter of conscience, so that's a decision you have to make for your children.

That said, if you do decide to take your children, I would encourage you to go soon. The sooner you see a film, the stronger your dollar speaks. If this is a film you can get behind and use to help your kids think critically and biblically, this is the kind of film we want to send our dollars toward, to tell Disney and Pixar, "We want more of this kind of movie." So again, I'm not recommending you go, but if you do choose to engage with this film, going sooner rather than later lets you speak with your dollar at the box office.

Two Things to Be Aware Of

There weren't too many negative elements, but here are a few to know about.

First, one of the tech toys Jessie encounters is a potty-training toy, probably designed back when Blaze was two or three and being potty trained. This toy has a lot of potty humor. It's not intense, but it's consistent. For example, when the toys are trying to figure out where the Lily Pad has gone and realize she just passed a gas station, the potty-training toy says, "Huh, you just said 'passed gas.'" That toy makes those kinds of jokes throughout the movie.

Second, and this one wasn't too strong but is worth addressing: Buzz and Jessie are interested in one another romantically, and in this movie Buzz is portrayed as very passive while Jessie is very assertive. At the end of the movie (spoiler), Buzz and Jessie get married. They make clear that Jessie is the bride and Buzz is the groom, but they do a lot of things backwards. At the wedding, Jessie stands at the altar wearing a bow tie, and Buzz wears a Scottish kilt. They make clear it's a kilt for Scottish heritage, but Buzz is the one walked down the aisle, by Forky. And in the ceremony, Jessie puts the ring on Buzz's finger rather than the other way around.

This flip-flop in the wedding is a minor detail, but I actually think it could make for a great worldview conversation. So if you're interested in helping your kids think critically and biblically about what a wedding is, stick around to the end, because I'm going to include two bonus questions you can talk through about the wedding.

Now let's look at the five big worldview questions we can talk through with our kids after seeing this movie.

Worldview Question 1: Why Do Humans Long for Friendship?

This theme is woven throughout the whole movie. Both Bonnie and Blaze long for friendship, and when others reject, isolate, or make fun of them, both girls are crushed. So we can ask our kids: why do humans long for friendship?

We can take them right to the opening chapter of Genesis:

And God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. (Genesis 1:26-27)

We can ask our kids what truths are revealed here: that God designed man in his image, as distinctly male or distinctly female, and gave humans dominion over the rest of creation. And we can point to where it says, "Let us make man in our image," and talk about how God is in and of himself relational. God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. For all eternity, God has been in perfect, loving relationship with himself.

As God's image bearers, we have been designed for relationship. This is why all humans naturally long for relationships with others.

Those of you who have taken your kids through our God's Good Design curriculum know that in Unit 3, Lesson 1, the big truth we cover is that God is relational, so he designed us to be relational. If you've been through that curriculum, I highly recommend going back through that lesson's video and games to really drill down that truth.

Worldview Question 2: Why Is In-Person Friendship Different from Online Friendship?

This is a strong theme in the movie, and there are several passages we can take our kids to. The first is in Genesis 2:

Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. (Genesis 2:7)

We can ask our kids what this reveals about how God designed the first human. God designed Adam physically, from the dust of the ground, and then breathed spiritual life into him. So humans are an intimate intertwining of body and soul. We are embodied beings, which means being together bodily is how we were designed. We weren't designed to be separated, with only our souls talking to one another.

This is made clear in Scripture by the fact that in his resurrected state, Jesus is embodied. Have you ever thought about this? When Jesus was resurrected, he walked with others, he was touched by others, he ate. These are things only embodied beings can do. In our resurrected state, we too will be embodied. When we experience death, when our soul is separated from our body, that is not the natural state, nor will it be our eternal state. Paul makes this clear:

For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened, not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. (2 Corinthians 5:4)

Paul is saying that while we groan in our bodies, which have been affected by the curse of sin just as our souls have, we groan not to be unclothed, not to have body and soul separated, but to be further clothed, to be swallowed up with our immortal bodies. This points to the truth that being together as embodied beings is vital, and I think this movie does a great job of portraying why.

This is something for us as adults to really think through. Are we practicing this truth in our families, that being together as embodied beings is vital? Or are we doing too much virtually?

Think about your local church. A streaming option for corporate worship is really good if you're sick and can't be there in person. But I've watched so many people use that streaming option as a default: "Oh, we're busy this Sunday," or "We have to be at a soccer game, so we'll just watch church online." You may be able to watch a corporate worship service online, but to actually be part of corporate worship, you have to be there, because worshiping God is done in our embodied state.

Worldview Question 3: Why Is Imaginative Play Good for Children?

This is another strong theme: how imaginative play is vastly different from playing an electronic game online. To answer it, we can take our kids back to the first chapter of Genesis:

And God blessed them. And God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth." (Genesis 1:28)

From this verse we see that as God's image bearers, we have been designed to exercise dominion, to steward the rest of creation. Imaginative play is what prepares children and helps them grow in their ability to steward the world around them. As image bearers, children need imaginative play.

So here's another good question for us adults to reflect on: Are we providing our children with time for unstructured, unmonitored, imaginative play? Or is daily life so scheduled that our children only have small blocks to play, most of it highly structured and monitored by adults, with very little imagination? Because if that's the case, we're stifling our children's God-given need to engage in imaginative play.

With the way our world is structured, helping our kids engage in imaginative play might actually require a little help from us. Several years ago I was watching a friend's two kids and took them to the playground in my neighborhood. They kept asking, "Can we go back and play our video games?" and I said, "No, no, no, we're not going to do that right now." After about ten minutes they got bored and wanted to go home.

So I thought, "Okay, I've got to help them see that this playground involves more than swinging on the monkey bars and sliding down the slide." I got on the play structure with them, gently grabbed the arm of one child, and said to the other, "Oh my goodness, he's a monster, we've got to get away!" The other child and I ran off, because we were pretending we were on a pirate ship and he was a sea monster. Before you knew it, all the other children on the playground had joined the game. Pretty soon I backed myself away, sat down on a bench, and watched them play that imagination game for two more hours.

So our kids might need a little help figuring out how to engage in imaginative play if we haven't let them do much of it in the past. But it's so important, because as God's image bearers, this is what we were designed for as children.

Worldview Question 4: How Can Technology Isolate Us?

Now, before some of you go crazy, yes, there are many good things about technology, and this movie does a good job here too. It is not saying throw all tech in the garbage. Think about how medicine and transportation have advanced. There are so many good uses, and we don't want to throw the baby out with the bathwater.

However, technology can really isolate us. I think this is seen most clearly in the movie when Bonnie and her mom get in the car to go get Jessie and Bullseye back from Blaze's house. Bonnie is excited about getting her toys back, but suddenly her friends from dance class start messaging her and making fun of her for still playing with toys. Her whole demeanor changes. By the time they walk up to Blaze's house, she's decided she doesn't want her toys anymore. Her mom is confused. They were in the same car together the whole drive, but in that car ride Bonnie's attitude completely changed because of messages her mom had no idea about.

Things can happen while we are physically present with others that they have no idea about, if they're not engaged in the same technology with us. Bonnie and her mother were really separated during that drive, because Bonnie was experiencing something her mom couldn't see.

So we can talk with our kids about how we might be using technology to isolate ourselves, and how our families can change it. Is there any way technology is causing family members to be isolated from one another? Maybe right now everyone engages with media separately: mom and dad watch TV in the living room while the kids are in another room on tablets.

Now, some alone time, quiet time reading a book or listening to an audio drama, can be good for recharging. I won't say technological isolation is never good, because maybe there's an exception, but I'll say it's almost never good. So talk about what you might change. Maybe you'll only engage with media together as a family, or maybe you'll put the iPads away all week except for one hour on a Saturday afternoon. Talk about how to change your technology usage so it's not causing isolation.

Worldview Question 5: Where Do We See True Love Modeled?

Those of you who faithfully engage with these movie reviews can probably already guess this one, because I encourage you to ask it in almost every movie we review: where do we see true love modeled? This theme is woven through almost every film, because it's an echo of the gospel. The gospel is the grandest story ever told, because it's the story of reality, and it's echoed throughout almost every movie.

In this movie, we really see Jessie model true love (and again, this is a spoiler). Toward the end of the film, as Jessie realizes she and the other toys are just going to be left in the closet because Bonnie has clung to the Lily Pad, she says to one of the other characters, "I can't do this again. I can't love another kid just to find out that I never mattered."

Throughout the movie, you see Jessie flash back to her first owner, who loved her and played with her until she grew up and basically threw Jessie in the trash. So Jessie doesn't want to experience that rejection again. But once she realizes Bonnie and Blaze would make really good friends and starts trying to get them together, one of the other toys asks, "But what if Bonnie just rejects you again?" Jessie responds, "If Bonnie and Blaze become friends, it will all be worth it."

Jessie was willing to face hurt and rejection again for Bonnie's ultimate good. This is exactly what we see in Scripture: Jesus was willing to go through abuse, rejection, torture, and death so that we might be forgiven and reconciled to God. Jesus paid the ultimate price for us, and we see that echoed here in Jessie's willingness to endure rejection again for Bonnie's good.

So those are five biblically grounded worldview questions we can talk through with our kids after seeing this movie.

Two Bonus Questions: What the Wedding Scene Got Backward

I mentioned earlier that one negative element was how the wedding of Buzz and Jessie was flipped on its head. But this provides another opportunity for worldview conversation. Here are two more questions.

We can say: in the movie, Jessie stood at the end of the aisle wearing a bow tie, Buzz was walked down the aisle in a kilt by Forky, Jessie said the vows first, and Jessie put the ring on first. Then we can ask, do you know why brides are walked down the aisle by their dads while dressed in white?

We can talk with our kids about how the whole Christian wedding ceremony, which is what most ceremonies in the US and other Western countries are modeled after, was designed to mirror the marriage supper of the Lamb. We can take them to Revelation:

And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. (Revelation 21:2)

As Christians, we are part of the body of Christ, and collectively we are the bride of Christ. One day, at the marriage supper of the Lamb, we will be presented to Jesus as his bride. Then we can take our kids to Ephesians:

Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. (Ephesians 5:25-27)

This is saying that husbands are supposed to love their wives just as Christ loved the church. In a wedding and in a marriage, the husband represents Christ and the wife represents the church, the bride of Christ. Jesus is in the process of sanctifying all of us Christians; he is going to present us to himself one day without spot or blemish. That's why a bride walks down the aisle in white: it represents the purification, the cleansing, that Jesus bought for us through his own blood. And why does a bride's father walk her down the aisle? Because God the Father is presenting us to his Son as the bride. It's all symbolism.

So what happened in Toy Story 5? They got it backwards. Jesus is not presented to us as the groom; we, the church, are presented to Jesus as a pure, spotless bride.

We can also talk about the second detail: Buzz was walked down the aisle, Jessie said her vows first, and Jessie put the ring on first. In Christian wedding ceremonies, the groom takes his vows first and puts the ring on the bride's finger first. Why? Because the ceremony represents the marriage supper of the Lamb, and any time God makes a covenant with his people, it is always God who initiates it. Think about the covenant God made with Noah; God initiated it. With Abraham; God initiated it. With the people of Israel; God initiated it. With David; God initiated it. The new covenant through Jesus; God initiated it.

God is the initiator. God is the pursuer. So in the Christian wedding ceremony, the husband takes his vows first and puts on the ring first, because he is a picture of Christ, a picture of God the Son. And when God makes a covenant, he always initiates it with his people.

A Closing Encouragement

I'm sure I've now given you more material than you ever hoped to cover with your kids, because you have seven worldview-based questions to talk through with your children. As I said at the beginning, I never recommend that you take your kids to see a movie. However, if you do choose to take them to Toy Story 5, I'd encourage you to go soon to really speak with your dollar. And if you do go, don't miss the opportunity to have at least one or two, if not all seven, of these conversations with them, because this film provided so many amazing opportunities to help our kids think critically and biblically.

As we leave our time together, my prayer for you is that no matter the situation in which you and the children God has placed in your care find yourselves, you would trust that God is working all things together for your good, using all things to conform you more into the image of his Son.

Want to go deeper on the truth behind Question 1? Our God's Good Design curriculum walks families through exactly why God designed us to be relational, image bearers made for friendship and community (it's the big truth of Unit 3, Lesson 1). If this film opened up good conversations about friendship, embodiment, and play, the curriculum gives you a structured way to keep building that foundation with your kids. You can find God's Good Design in our shop.