Generations of moviegoers have grown up with the Toy Story movies, starting with the 1995 original and continuing to this day with Toy Story 5, which is in theaters now. The franchise (which is streaming with a Disney+ subscription) is still going strong, although Quentin Tarantino maintains he has no interest in watching after the third movie. And now the director and cast of the new movie have weighed in on this choice.
Tarantino is known for his hot takes, including famously calling Paul Dano weaksauce in There Will Be Blood. Back in 2024 he told Bill Maher he wouldn’t watch more Toy Story movies since the third one’s ending was “perfect.” Toy Story 5 director Andrew Stanton shared his reaction to Tarantino’s opinion during a chat with THR. He offered:
That’s his choice — it’s the end of the Andy years and he can end it with Andy, but we’ve got another trilogy with Bonnie. It’s for him to miss out on.
Points were made. While the first three Toy Story films revolved around Andy and his toys as he grew up, the two most recent installments are about the new kid Bonnie, who inherited his toys at the end of the third movie. It’s a different era of the franchise, and Tarantino has every right to stick to the originals. Although he’s missing out one more delightful adventures from Woody, Buzz, and the whole gang.
Quentin Tarantino might have said he’s “done” with the franchise after the expert way Toy Story 3 ended, there are plenty of fans who have caught the two more recent movies (as well as Lightyear). Tony Hale, who has voiced Forky since the fourth film, shared his reaction to the Oscar-winning filmmaker’s hot take, saying:
I would say the simple pitch of Pixar doesn’t put out bad stuff. The thing about Pixar is they wouldn’t tell another story if there wasn’t a story to tell. Look at this — that marriage of technology and toys, I want to hear that story. So I would have him lean into his trust of Pixar.
Touché. Pixar is a well-oiled machine at this point, and regardless of each movie’s box office take, the quality of their movies doesn’t really suffer much. That goes for the Toy Story films, as well as other titles from the studio. And the Veep star seems to think that Tarantino should consider the receipts before writing off the more recent Toy Story movies.
In the Kill Bill director’s defense, Toy Story 3 really is top tier. The movie reduced millennials like me to tears when it hit theaters back in 2010, with Andy’s journey into adulthood mirroring our own. The scene of the toy holding hands as they prepare for their death was something none of us was expecting, and was overshadowed only by Andy giving them away to Bonnie in its final moments. It was a perfect way for the trilogy to end, and that’s what is seemingly holding back Tarantino from seeing any of the newer films.
Toy Story 5 is in theaters now as part of the 2026 movie release list. We’ll just have to wait and see how many movies are produced before the franchise wraps up forever.
