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

Disney and Pixar's Toy Story 5 opens in theaters Friday, taking on one of the franchise's most timely antagonists yet: a child's tablet.

Directed by Andrew Stanton and co-directed by McKenna Harris, the action-comedy film stars Tim Allen as spaceman Buzz Lightyear, Tom Hanks as a pull-string 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 picks up with Bonnie, the child who now owns the toys, increasingly absorbed by the device. While earlier films in the franchise grappled with children ageing out of toys, the fifth instalment wrestles with whether children still want toys at all.

Stanton told Variety that Lilypad is not a villain but is perceived as a threat to toys “because they’re understandably intimidated.”

The distinction matters to how the toys themselves experience the conflict. While the toys view Lilypad as an existential threat, the device, much like the toys before it, is simply trying to engage Bonnie during playtime. A central theme of the film is preserving children's imagination in the face of growing screen time.

"She's just the next phase in Bonnie's life. She's built like a toy in the sense that she wants to help the kid go forward, but she's got very different skills and zero experience, whereas Jessie has nothing but experience and is probably unprepared for what to do," Stanton told the outlet.

Harris added the distinction was a deliberate creative choice. "Lots of people at the studio wanted her to be a villain, and it was so hard to strike the balance because I think we all come in with such loaded emotions towards devices," she told Variety.

"We're not getting rid of these devices, no matter how hard we try. I'm always going to have my phone. I'm probably going to be partially addicted to it. So it felt right for the toys to have to grapple with that nuance."

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

Should those estimates hold, it would surpass Toy Story 4's $120 million debut in 2019 and Toy Story 3's $110 million opening in 2010.

Disney's recent animated sequels have set a strong precedent. Inside Out 2 debuted to $154 million in 2024 and ultimately grossed $1.6 billion worldwide, while Zootopia 2 opened to $100 million in 2025 and earned $1.8 billion globally.