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In Pixar's Toy Story 5, the Big New Villain Is a Tablet

Woody, Buzz and Jessie will go up against Bonnie's new learning tablet in Toy Story 5 when it hits theaters in a year.

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Headshot of Nelson Aguilar
Nelson Aguilar
With more than a decade of experience, Nelson covers Apple and Google and writes about iPhone and Android features, privacy and security settings, and more.
Nelson Aguilar
2 min read
Toy Story 5 concept art

Concept art showing Jessie, Buzz and Bullseye facing down the Lily Pad tablet.

 Pixar

In the fifth installment of its beloved Toy Story movies, Pixar is giving its old-school toys a decidedly modern antagonist: a tablet.

During the studio's Friday showcase at Annecy's International Animation Film Festival in France, chief creative officer Pete Docter revealed that Toy Story 5's villain is Lily Pad, a "sneaky" and "prickly" tablet that convinces 8-year-old Bonnie Anderson that friends and games on a device beat dusty ol' toys in the closet.

The first concept art shows the frog-faced tablet looming over Buzz, Jessie and Bullseye like a touchscreen tyrant of the toy box. As you can probably foresee, this is a battle between analog toys and always-on tech. (You can stream Toy Story movies 1 through 4 on Disney Plus.)

The Lily Pad reveal topped a jam-packed Walt Disney Animation and Pixar showcase, where the company rolled out updated release dates, never-before-seen footage and a couple of all-new original films.

Toy Story 5: Tech is the enemy

The premise of Toy Story 5 is that Anderson gets a Lily Pad for school chat and online games. But the tablet decides that Anderson's toys, including Woody, Buzz and Jessie, are holding her back. Tom Hanks, Tim Allen and Joan Cusack are all returning, while Ernie Hudson steps in as Combat Carl, honoring the late Carl Weathers.

Docter shared the opening scene of Toy Story 5, which shows a crate full of stranded Buzz Lightyears trying to escape a desert island. Toy Story 5 is set for release on June 19, 2026, more than 30 years after the first movie came out. It's set a couple of years after the events of Toy Story 4, but no word yet on how Woody, who departed with Bo Peep at the end of that movie, will return to Bonnie's house -- or whether Bo Peep will be in the fifth movie.

Buzz Lightyears stranded on an island

Toy Story 5 starts off with Buzz Lightyear action figures, stuck in toy mode, searching for Star Command (shown here in concept art).

 Pixar

Pixar's two new original films: Hoppers and Gatto

Daniel Chong's Hoppers, scheduled for release on March 6, 2026, turns an eco-heist into a critter-powered caper: 14-year-old Mabel uploads her mind into a robotic beaver to save her local pond from a highway project. 

Gatto, slated for summer 2027, centers on Nero, a black cat in Venice who's burned through most of his nine lives doing jobs for a feline mob boss. Now, questioning whether he's wasted those lives, Nero stumbles into an unexpected friendship that could finally give him purpose. The film will be shot in a "living storybook" style, which is new to Pixar. 

New footage from Zootopia 2 and Elio

Jared Bush, Walt Disney Animation Studios' chief creative officer and director-writer of Zootopia 2, showed some new footage and images from the anticipated sequel, which should come out in November. The audience also got to watch a 27-minute sizzle reel from Elio, the cosmic coming-of-age adventure, which opens on June 20.