Toy Story 5 Built Around Jessie and a Frog-Shaped Tablet, Stanton Says
Andrew Stanton, co-writer and co-director of Toy Story 5, says the film was built around Jessie from the start. In an interview with Deadline published on 5 November 2026, he said he decided early that the story would follow Jessie, and that a device character would stand in for the new technology reshaping children's play. That character became Lilypad.
Lilypad is a smart tablet framed like a frog, voiced by Greta Lee. Disney says Jessie competes with Lilypad, which is the film's high-tech rival for her place in a child's life. The toys in the film face a world where electronics increasingly take the place of toys, a tension that Reuters described when the film came out.
Stanton is not new to the franchise. The Associated Press reports that he was lead writer on the first three Toy Story films and served as a script saviour on the fourth. Disney lists him as Vice President, Creative, overseeing all of the studio's feature projects. Kenna Harris co-wrote the screenplay with him.
The returning voices are Joan Cusack as Jessie, Tom Hanks as Woody and Tim Allen as Buzz Lightyear. The new cast includes Mykal-Michelle Harris as Blaze, a confident young girl.
The film reached cinemas on 19 June 2026, according to a Disney announcement of its summer slate. Disney's own pages put Jessie at the centre of the story.
For longtime fans, the shift is a notable one. The first films were built around a toy's place in a child's bedroom. This one asks what happens when the object on the shelf has a screen, a voice and its own opinions, and it puts a toy at the centre of that question.
