June 19, 2026

There was a time when a new "Toy Story" movie was worth all the buzz (pun intended). After all, Disney-Pixar's beloved original franchise (and major cash cow) had consistently given audiences an adventure they'd never quite seen before, and we enthusiastically responded to the ingenuity of each story, its cultural and coming-of-age insights, and the humor and emotion surrounding the underlying notion that toys are alive and possess their own personalities.

But if "Toy Story 4" (which was alleged to be the final in the series) showed faint writing on the wall that perhaps this longstanding property was running out of steam...