Taylor Swift with Cowgirl Jessie at the presentation in Los Angeles.Image: Kevin Mazur / Getty Images North America
In “Toy Story 5” a tablet becomes the villain. Taylor Swift delivers the emotional climax at the premiere – and launches the Oscar campaign.
July 25, 2026, 10:11 p.mJuly 25, 2026, 10:11 p.m
Marlène von Arx / ch media
“Toy Story 5” premiere in Los Angeles: A murmur goes through the balcony ranks. Cell phone cameras are pulled out. Down in the orchestra, Taylor Swift is escorted to her seat. Celebrity sightings are common at the Dolby Theater, where the Oscars are presented each spring, but Taylor Swift is a special presence here too. The big surprise: After the film she is pushed onto the stage at the piano. She sings the “Toy Story 5” song “I Knew It, I Knew You” solo, thanks all the artists who worked on the film, and finally performs the “Toy Story” classic “You’ve Got a Friend in Me” in a duet with composer Randy Newman. The Oscar campaign 2027 has now been launched.
“Toy Story 5” has already grossed $959 million worldwide. The box office record of over a billion is expected to be broken by “Toy Story 4” (2019). Generations have grown up with the nostalgic “Toy Story” toy stories about cowboy Woody and astronaut Buzz Lightyear, and the Pixar blockbusters have maintained the high standard of quality since the first film in 1995.
These are reasons why even a superstar like Taylor Swift wants to be involved. Swift was on tour, but then a window of opportunity opened up, explains producer Lindsey Collins: “She’s a ‘Toy Story’ fan and asked if she could see the film. She immediately understood what it was about and that she wanted to write a song for Jessie.”
Cowgirl doll Jessie takes the reins
In “Toy Story 5”, the cowgirl doll Jessie takes over the reins: she received the sheriff’s star from Woody in “Toy Story 4” and was essentially promoted to his successor. Now she lives in eight-year-old Bonnie’s bedroom. She is worried about the child. It has no friends because the neighborhood children are sitting at home on their screens. The parents are at a loss and so they also buy Bonnie a Lilypad, a talking tablet that connects her with other children. Bonnie is now making friends online. They have nothing to do with puppet shows. Realizing that Lilypad is suppressing Bonnie’s imagination, Jessie rallies the Toy Story friends to free the girl from the device’s manipulative clutches.
“We wanted to portray the complicated relationship that we and our children have with technology today,” says Collins. «Lilypad is the antagonist, but she originally comes into the children’s room like all the toys in “Toy Story”: she wants to help. She has a job. She wants to tackle them with the help of data evaluations, which is in stark contrast to Jessie.”
As with the previous films, the story framework comes from Pixar veteran Andrew Stanton. In order to stay relevant with Gen Z, this time he brought 31-year-old non-binary person McKenna Harris to his side: “The first film I saw in the cinema as a child was ‘Toy Story 2’,” recalls the Pixar dramaturgy talent, who has advanced to co-authorship and co-director here. «Andy’s childhood in the first film was simpler than Bonnie’s today. I get nostalgic myself when I think about my childhood: the iPhone was just coming along and I spent a lot of time outside. For some kids today, it almost has the character of a history book.” And so time doesn’t stand still for the toys either: Harris misses Woody Beginning of a bald head.
Tech revolution is not demonized
However, demonizing the tech revolution cannot be in the spirit of “Toy Story,” as the original heralded a new era in cinema as the first fully computer-generated feature film in history. “The technology enchants you for just three seconds,” says Pete Docter, Chief Creative Officer of Pixar Animation Studios and man of the first “Toy Story” lesson. “A film must then create a real, emotional connection with the audience and have something to say.”
That’s why there’s no need to be afraid of artificial intelligence in animated films: “‘Toy Story’ was the turning point for many of my colleagues who studied hand-drawn animation. Computer animation is now the norm. And now we have another game-changer tool with AI that allows us to make mistakes and try new things.” Producer Collins agrees: “Our tech artists can solve any problem today, but that doesn’t mean the films are made faster and with fewer people. All savings go directly back into improving the story.”