‘Toy Story 5’ creators on the rise of tech toys, AI and the future of playtime

LOS ANGELES – You’ve seen kids, even toddlers, in restaurants, malls, planes, including playgrounds – totally concentrated on their tech toys, specifically tablets, unmindful of their families, companions and the world around them.

“Toy Story 5” confronts that issue through a new character, Lilypad, a tablet device that comes with her own disruptive ideas about what is best for Bonnie, the young girl character. Disney and Pixar’s fifth installment of its popular franchise asks, “Will play time ever be the same?”

All the beloved toys plus new ones appear in “Toy Story 5,” directed by Pixar veteran Andrew Stanton, co-directed by Kenna Harris, and produced by Lindsey Collins. Andrew and Kenna also wrote the screenplay, which sees the old gang, led by Woody (Tom Hanks), now balding with a paunch (more about it below), Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen), and Jessie (Joan Cusack), dealing with the new reality of being flung aside by kids in favor of bright AI screens.

We talked to the three filmmakers in a Q&A following the screening of the film’s approximately first 46 plus minutes at AMC Gardenwalk 6 in Anaheim, California.

A timely tale

At the screening, we quickly got into the film’s very timely tale of the old gang grappling with obsolescence as Bonnie becomes more preoccupied with Lilypad. The emotional core of the cherished toys feeling increasingly abandoned amid the onslaught of smart AI devices made us eager to watch the rest of the movie. More than anything, “Toy Story 5,” at least from the footage we saw, is again an entertaining offering from Disney and Pixar.

That children and teens are spending more time absorbed on their gadget screens, leading to the new phrase, “touch grass” – to go outside and detach from the internet – is a major concern among child psychologists.

Time magazine reported on the Census Bureau’s 2016 National Survey of Children’s Health: “Along with the associations between screen time and diagnoses of depression and anxiety, the study found that young people who spent seven hours or more a day on screens (not including schoolwork) were more easily distracted, less emotionally stable and had more problems finishing tasks and making friends compared to those who spent just an hour a day on screens (not including schoolwork).”

When the lights in the theater went back on, and the Q & A began, Kenna said, “When we’re talking about tech, there’s a lot of nostalgia for the way things used to be, and oh, I wish we could have it back. I wish that we could just, again, get rid of the tech flat out. We wanted to make a strong stance in the film that you’re always going to have access to your imagination.  It is always in your tool belt, and you might be a little unfamiliar with it.”

Kenna, who directed the animated short “Ciao Alberto” and was the story artist of “Luca” and “Raya and the Last Dragon,” added, “You might not be used to it.  It’s been a while, but it’s showing kids like, hey, this is a secret power that you have all the time, whether or not you’ve got your tablet or not. And I’m excited for families to see that in that light.”

Loneliness epidemic

Lindsey, whose producing credits include “WALL-E,” “Finding Dory” and “Cars,” shared, “Over the span of quite a few of our films, we’ve talked to child psychologists about this.  And it’s interesting – ‘Inside Out’ too, obviously, but also earlier, we spoke to the Surgeon General about loneliness and the epidemic of loneliness, what that is for children, and how that is affecting not just children, but everyone right now.

“It’s fascinating, not in a good way, how global an epidemic around loneliness is and how technology is playing into that, how it’s supposed to join everybody together, but the flip of that is it’s actually quite isolating at times.  So it’s been an interesting cross-film discussion around, honestly, post-pandemic, what this has done to all of us, and it obviously has affected this film as well.”

Kenna chimed in, “And speaking of deep in the field, we had a team of our parents on the crew who have kids, who have tablets, and we would meet up every day. I’m speaking as a non-parent here, but I felt like it was a therapy session for everybody to be able to go like, oh, I’m struggling with this and this.

“We would consistently be like, okay, should we reflect that into the film?  And, okay, it wouldn’t be helpful to put this into the film. That was one of the most insightful reference groups that we had – just all the parents who were making this film.”

Tackling the story in real time

She admitted, “We’ve been testing this film with audiences, and it felt very daunting to make a movie about kids struggling with boundaries with tech when in real life, we also haven’t mastered that at all.

“And a lot of people early on, when we were developing it, so desperately wanted us to pick a path, Lily’s evil, she’s bad. And then at the end, you blow her up, right? And that didn’t feel authentic.

“So tackling that in real time and then getting to screen this with families. But I actually feel the film is coming at a very integral time when a lot of our young people are actively going, you know what?  I’ve had enough. I want to be free of my tech. I don’t want it to own me.’

“And the movie empowers audiences in that way.  So I would like to think that culturally, ‘5’ is going to make an interesting impact because it is weirdly aligned with just the way a lot of young people are going as well.”

Andrew, who we have interviewed from the very first “Toy Story,” and has been involved with every installment as the screenplay writer, and now directs this latest iteration, suggested regarding screen usage among kids, “My kids are in their 30s now. It’s definitely everything in moderation. I just don’t think we’ve figured out the regulation and the moderation just yet.

Lilypad

“It feels like it’s going in that direction, but the one thing that we did know that we were being honest about is, it’s not going away, and that something is being lost for remote friendships that needs to be revived or treasured and protected.

“But our big thing was, it’s not going away, and there’s got to be a way that it still is useful. We had a different issue because we made it a character and we weren’t going to like, kill the character, but we’d love that the character becomes more aware.

“She (Lilypad) is built like a toy, built to do what’s best for our children. And then we’re like, what would a device like that be like? Oh, it would be like a helicopter parent and your personal assistant. And it’s like, we got to get into Harvard now. You’re at that age and you’re starting to be like, we got this to do and this to do and we know what everybody else is up to. And so there was an attitude. The other thing that we thought that was a real epiphany was like, that device wouldn’t be competitive at all.

“It just wins for showing up, like putting an iPhone in the room for any of us, and it just wins. That was an interesting way to deal with it.  So a lot of that revelation and soberness that comes to Lilypad is all in the backend. But we came to a nice gray area of hopefulness of how it will be addressed, at least with these girls, toys, and these devices, but it’s all in the spirit of regulation. Every family has to figure out what works for them with their kid and stuff.”

Lindsey commented, “It’s been an interesting challenge with the toys in this story. Kenna and I have talked about it a lot, too. It’s obviously kind of characterizing it as the antagonist and kind of making the antagonist feel nuanced and have an arc, which we try to do. We never try to make it black and white, but it’s also been an interesting conversation around friendships.

“And it’s the first time I would say on our ‘Toy Story’ films where we really spend a lot of time talking about the struggles of the kids. Usually, we spend most of the time talking about the struggle of the toys, about a birthday party, or oh, no, they’re going to college.

“Or they’re going to camp, but there’s not a lot of talk around what their kids are struggling with. And so this is the first time that we spend a lot of time talking about that and having the toys really reckon with that.

“And that it happens to be around this technology. On the surface, obviously, the toys are struggling with technology, but underneath that, so is Bonnie. You’ll see as it plays out that we really did try to lean into the struggle.”

Andrew continued, “The stakes of making a friend at Bonnie’s age are everything. We all remember not being able to make that friend or not being able to fit in. And sometimes that friend you make is your friend for life.”

Jessie and girl empowerment

In this latest “Toy Story,” Jessie embodies girl empowerment, taking over from Woody as the new leader of the toys, who overcomes fears of being left behind again as she teams up with Buzz Lightyear.

“You’re going to really like the back half of this movie,” Andrew promised about Jessie’s character.

“When they asked me to do ‘5,’ there wasn’t an idea yet. I said, let me write a crappy first draft first, because I always write a crappy first draft, but at least it will tell me where I’m interested as a fan of watching a movie. And the major ingredients of that first draft were to make it about Jessie, make it about the truth that toys are being played with less and less, with devices.

“And then the shallow desire I’ve always had to see 50 Buzz Lightyears in a hive mind and the fun of writing and figuring out these movies as a group, which is how I learned it in the first movie, discovering how to make that story work with those pieces.  It’s almost like a game or cooking, like here are the ingredients, what can we cook with them?

“I always just thought Jessie had so much to contribute. And that was why I pushed when I came onto ‘Toy Story 4.’  I said, make sure Woody gives her the badge, and let’s legitimize that she runs the bedroom when we come. So if there is a next movie, she’s running the show, and we’re already accustomed to it. She’s the lead toy now.”

Woody’s balding pate and paunch

In a humorous nod to reality – after all, it has been over three decades since “Toy Story” debuted in 1995 – Woody is shown, gasp, with a balding pate and a paunch. I asked Andrew about this decision to show Woody, voiced all these years by Tom Hanks, as aging like the rest of us.

“Sometimes they come out of gags,” Andrew answered. “That specific thing was done as a joke by one of our story artists.” Kenna credited Steph Waldo for the sight gag.

Andrew shared, “Again, it was like laughing about Andy going to college, and then we stopped and went, ‘No, wait a minute. What if we do let age hit?’ And then we started coming up with all the other things we could do.”

Kenna, turning to Andrew, said, “At first, when you started the draft, everyone was feeling this way. We were like, what do we do with Woody? They’ve done everything with him. And then it really was just this gag session where there was the bald spot, there was his little belly.”

Andrew added,  “And changing his costume. We just realized he’s gone outdoors and he’s become sort of a guy in the field, so his wardrobe changed a lot.”

“And he doesn’t care,” Kenna said. “He’s just kind of living a new chiller. He’s confident in himself. He loves himself.”

Andrew joked, “He joined a cult.”

Lindsey quipped, “Tim Allen was thrilled. He was like, he’s bald and fat. Tom Hanks is bald and fat. Fantastic.”

Andrew added, “Tom is hilarious. He would do little asides like, oh, my hip. I think it’s still in there somewhere.”

Kenna agreed, “Yes, he improv’d a lot of cute stuff for Woody.”

AI in animation

Reminded that “Toy Story” made cinematic history in 1995 as the first feature-length movie made entirely with computer-generated imagery, and asked about the use of AI, if any, in the new installment, Kenna replied, “The pressure!”

Andrew riposted, “I just feel old.”

But on the potential use of AI in animation at Disney/Pixar, Lindsey answered, “We’re always exploring technology, and we’ve always been at the forefront of all of that. So I would say, we are looking at different tools still. The goal is always to see what makes the artists’ lives easier, what makes them have more time to put their work on the screen.

“We’re always trying to optimize how much time they can get their work on the screen versus doing other things. So that’s always the goal and that every tool we’ve ever made has been in search of that. So I would say, that’s what it’s about.”

Andrew remarked, “I never talked to a machine or anything. I always talk to an artist. That’s why I like what I do.”

“It’s always about maximizing the art,” Lindsey stressed, “That’s what we’re exploring. So far, we haven’t seen anything great.”

New toy characters

As for new toy characters, Kenna pointed out, “I’m just thinking of so many.  One of my favorite new characters is not a toy. It’s the pig you saw, Jimmy Dean. He is my boy. We love Smarty Pants (Conan O’Brien).

“I love Pizza with Sunglasses (Bad Bunny). I love Atlas (Craig Robinson) and Snappy (Shelby Rabara). Shout out to Bob Pauley (production designer). I’m obsessed with hippopotamuses. Bob basically designed Atlas to be a hippo just because he’s my friend, and that was wonderful.”

Shelby Rabara, a Filipino American, is noted as the voice of Peridot in Cartoon Network’s “Steven Universe.” Her new character, Snappy, is described as “an excitable, digital camera toy.” Shelby is married to Harry Shum, Jr., the actor behind “Everything, Everywhere All at Once,” “Crazy Rich Asians,” and “Glee.”

Kenna continued, “And the tech trio in general, getting to record Conan O’Brien, Shelby Rabara, and Craig Robinson. Just finding their dynamic and making sure that was as entertaining as possible, getting their squad all tight.”

“The millennials will really enjoy that,” Andrew pointed out. “I felt we were late to the party talking about devices and the shrinking of toy times. That’s been going on for almost seven, eight years, for sure, that I’ve been hearing people like, my kids are stopping playing with toys at a younger and younger age.

“And so I thought like, there’s already been a new generation of toy devices in that time, or devices that are played with. So these early 2000s toys that are like the first generations and very limited in their technology, that’s what I always picture the tech trio was.  And I like that they’re like the nerds from the past trying to link up with the current ones.”

“Toy Story 5” opens June 19 in the US and June 17 in several international markets, including the Philippines.

Ruben V. Nepales is an LA-based journalist whose honors include nine first prizes from the National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Awards and the Los Angeles Press Club’s Southern California Journalism Awards. He authored “Through a Writer’s Lens,” which won first prize in nonfiction at the 2020-2021 National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Awards. In 2004, he became the first Filipino voter of the Golden Globe Awards, He is a member of the Golden Globe Foundation, one of Hollywood’s biggest philanthropic organizations.

The post ‘Toy Story 5’ creators on the rise of tech toys, AI and the future of playtime appeared first on USNewsRank.