{"id":507269,"date":"2026-06-19T03:40:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T03:40:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/507269\/"},"modified":"2026-06-19T03:40:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T03:40:13","slug":"varietys-owen-gleiberman-unpacks-why-we-love-toy-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/507269\/","title":{"rendered":"Variety’s Owen Gleiberman Unpacks Why We Love ‘Toy Story’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tOn today\u2019s episode of \u201cDaily Variety\u201d podcast<\/a>, Owen Gleiberman<\/a>, Variety\u2019s chief film critic, sings the praises of Pixar\u2019s \u201cToy Story\u201d movies<\/a> as the fifth installment arrives in theaters on June 19. Pixar\u2019s pioneering CG animated series, which began in 1995, amounts to \u201csome of the greatest movies ever made about childhood,\u201d Gleiberman enthuses.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn Gleiberman\u2019s role as a critic, it\u2019s his job to question and interrogate material. But there are times when he gets to express unabashed love for a franchise that has now spanned a generation. The first \u201cToy Story\u201d debuted in 1995, a landmark moment for computer generated animation that came some 11 years before Disney acquired Pixar. In Gleiberman\u2019s view, \u201cToy Story 5<\/a>\u201d is a worthy edition to the world of Buzz Lightyear, Woody, Jessie and the gang.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201d \u2018Toy Story 5\u2019 is as fantastic as all the others. There\u2019s never been a series in all of Hollywood history that is quite like that,\u201d Gleiberman says. \u201cPeople like to choose their favorite \u2018Toy Story\u2019 movie. A lot of people say \u2018Toy Story 3\u2019 is the masterpiece. I personally think the greatest \u2018Toy Story\u2019 movie is still the first one made back in 1995.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tGleiberman emphasizes that the five movies to date fit together as a larger piece. And he turned to a musical metaphor to underscore the depth of his appreciation for the artistry of \u201cToy Story.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cEach and every one of these movies is amazing. They all work together. They\u2019re greater than the sum of their parts,\u201d he says. \u201cThat got me to thinking that they\u2019re kind of like the Beatles albums. They\u2019re all different and they\u2019re all of a piece. Why choose? And to push that analogy into slightly ridiculous terrain, I thought if the original \u2018Toy Story\u2019 is \u2018Meet the Beatles\u2019 and \u2018Toy Story 3\u2019 is \u2018Sgt. Pepper,\u2019 then \u2018Toy Story 5\u2019 feels to me sort of like \u2018Abbey Road.\u2019 It\u2019s this sublime summing up. It\u2019s a movie that reflects the whole series, and it might just be the perfect ending.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tListen to Daily Variety<\/a>\u00a0on\u00a0iHeartPodcasts<\/a>,\u00a0Apple Podcasts<\/a>, Variety\u2019s\u00a0YouTube Podcast<\/a>\u00a0channel,\u00a0Amazon Music<\/a>,\u00a0Spotify<\/a>\u00a0and other podcast platforms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On today\u2019s episode of \u201cDaily Variety\u201d podcast, Owen Gleiberman, Variety\u2019s chief film critic, sings the praises of Pixar\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":507270,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[9959,93,61,60,270,171400,65723],"class_list":["post-507269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-daily-variety","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-movies","tag-owen-gleiberman","tag-toy-story-5"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507269","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=507269"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507269\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/507270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=507269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=507269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=507269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}