Why ‘Toy Story 5’s New Tablet Character Isn’t Actually the Villain’

Disney and Pixar’s Toy Story 5 opens in theaters on Friday and takes on one of the franchise’s most topical antagonists to date: a children’s tablet.

Directed by Andrew Stanton and co-directed by McKenna Harris, the action-comedy features Tim Allen as spaceman Buzz Lightyear, Tom Hanks as a cowboy doll named Woody and Joan Cusack as cowgirl Jessie.

Toy Story 5 follows the toy gang as they go head-to-head with Lilypad, a high-tech, frog-shaped smart tablet that threatens to replace traditional playtime. Greta Lee voices the character.

The story starts with Bonnie, the child who now owns the toy and who is increasingly absorbed by the device. While previous films in the franchise grappled with children aging out of toys, the fifth installment grapples with whether children want toys at all.

Stanton said Black that Lilypad is not a villain, but is perceived as a threat to toys “because it is understandably scared.”

The distinction is important for how the toy itself experiences the conflict. While the toy views Lilypad as an existential threat, the device, like the toy before it, simply tries to engage Bonnie during playtime. A central theme in the film is preserving children’s imaginations in the face of increasing screen time.

“She’s just the next stage in Bonnie’s life. She’s built like a toy in the sense that she wants to help the kid move forward, but she has very different skills and no experience, whereas Jessie has nothing but experience and is probably unprepared for what she’s going to do,” Stanton told the outlet.

Harris added that the distinction was a deliberate creative choice. “A lot of people at the studio wanted her to be a villain, and it was so hard to strike that balance because I think we all come in with such charged feelings about entities,” she shared Black.

“We’re not getting rid of these devices, no matter how hard we try. I’ll always have my phone. I’ll probably become partially addicted to it. So it felt right for the toy to have to contend with that nuance.”

The film is aiming for a domestic opening weekend of $145 million to $150 million across 4,400 North American theaters, with some industry projections placing the number closer to $160 million to $175 million, according to IMDb.

Should these estimates hold, it would exceed Toy Story 4’s $120 million debut in 2019 and Toy Story 3’s $110 million opening in 2010.