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![\"Bullseye](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/intro-1781912091.jpg\")
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Disney\/Pixar<\/p>\n
Pixar’s very first movie, 1995’s “Toy Story,” just won’t go away. The story of Woody, Buzz, and all their other toy pals have anchored multiple movies, including the latest installment,\u00a0“Toy Story 5,” which follows up the enormous cultural legacy left behind by its predecessors. Part of the untold truth of the “Toy Story”\u00a0franchise<\/a> is that it’s a beloved institution that forever changed the trajectory of animated cinema. These movies keep tapping into deeply relatable and thoughtful aspects of existence (like what happens when you have to say good-bye to loved ones) that have ensured their pop culture dominance for decades.<\/p>\n With “Toy Story 5” pitting classic toys against modern tech, it’s as good a time as any to look back on all five\u00a0“Toy Story” installments and rank them from least to best. What makes a great “Toy Story”\u00a0film?\u00a0What elements of this franchise have defined its best moments? Are there aspects of the saga that could have been realized better? There are many finer nuances of these five high-profile features to explore in this kind of ranking. Examining the highs and lows of this saga can also let one appreciate the enormous artistic accomplishments that the “Toy Story”\u00a0films have achieved.<\/p>\n Few other animated family movie sagas can claim to have reached the creative heights to which the best “Toy\u00a0Story”\u00a0films have ascended. Let’s start this ranking, though, with what’s technically the “weakest” entry in the “Toy Story” pantheon.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n 5. Toy Story 5<\/p>\n
Disney\/Pixar<\/p>\n Director Andrew Stanton\u00a0began his Pixar movie career working as a character designer, screenwriter, and story artist on the first “Toy Story.”\u00a0In addition to working on many of the biggest Pixar films of all time<\/a>, he’s also contributed to the screenplays and\/or stories for every “Toy Story” sequel (and even additional screenplay material for 2022’s “Lightyear”). “Toy Story 5” functions as this franchise veteran’s first time helming a “Toy Story” installment (Kenna Harris serves as co-director and co-writer), but there’s no denying he knows his way around this world. Even with that experience, this is still a wobblier enterprise than usual for the “Toy\u00a0Story”\u00a0saga.<\/p>\n Tonally, “Toy Story 5” especially struggles to balance out its louder comedic impulses with the more tender digressions that involve Jessie\u00a0(Joan Cusack) confronting her worries about no longer being seen as useful. An overly crowded script (which leaves poor Woody returning only to be the butt of tired fat jokes) doesn’t help this problem. Despite these qualms, Stanton and Harris reaffirm with this installment that the “Toy\u00a0Story”\u00a0universe is still a pleasant place to explore. The film’s zippiest segments, including set pieces involving an army of Buzz Lightyear toys, are a delight, while any poignant moments involving Jessie are movingly realized.<\/p>\n Plus, voice actor newcomers like Conan O’Brien and Craig\u00a0Robinson are a riot in their new roles. This franchise is showing wear and tear, but\u00a0“Toy Story 5”\u00a0still proves these familiar toys have some seriously enduring charms.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n 4. Toy Story 4<\/p>\n
Disney\/Pixar<\/p>\n After “Toy Story 3,” the world didn’t necessarily need more “Toy\u00a0Story.” Woody, Buzz, and the other toys had just wrapped up a magnificent trilogy charting the experience of being there for a child and then letting go. “Toy Story 3”\u00a0closing with a reference to the very first image in the original film just seemed to suggest any potential “Toy Story 4”\u00a0was doomed to be superfluous. This particular movie doesn’t evade that descriptor, but it’s also shockingly entertaining nonetheless. What “Toy Story 4”\u00a0lacks in essentiality, it at least compensates for in its comedic and visual ingenuity.\u00a0<\/p>\n Most impressively, the screenplay that Andrew\u00a0Stanton and Stephany Folsom concocted for “Toy\u00a0Story 4”\u00a0channels the epilogue to “Watership Down,” where the story’s lead rabbit, Hazel, is allowed to finally rest and ascend to the afterlife. Similarly, “Toy Story 4” feels like a coda to its predecessor, as Woody realizes he can finally live for himself.\u00a0That, the welcome return of Bo Peep (Annie Potts), and the hysterical antics of adorable new character Forky (Tony Hale) bolster “Toy Story 4” tremendously.<\/p>\n Unfortunately, this does have by far the weakest third act in the “Toy\u00a0Story”\u00a0saga, especially in overly hyperactive and noisy cutaways involving an RV that really strain the credulity of toys and humans “interacting.” Still, director Josh Cooley and company wring a surprising amount of enjoyable material out of a sequel that, on paper, should have been a wholly disposable cash-grab.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n 3. Toy Story 3<\/p>\n
Disney\/Pixar<\/p>\n Randy Newman’s songs for the “Toy Story” movies are rightfully beloved, but the orchestral scores he composes for them also deserve plenty of love. His artistry in this department is in rare form with “Toy Story 3,” particularly when it comes to the Sunnyside\u00a0Daycare sequences emulating a prison escape. In these scenes, Newman’s orchestral passages channel “The Great Escape” without lapsing into just hollow pastiche. Instead, his cues radiate propulsive energy and tangible tension. Just because these characters are made of plastic doesn’t mean there isn’t potent danger in this scenario, a reality that Newman’s score deftly conveys.<\/p>\n Delivering such a great score is one of the many ways “Toy Story 3” goes above and beyond the quality of a typical third movie. That excellence is also felt in the commitment to extraordinary emotional sequences in the film’s second half, like a masterfully realized dialogue-free scene depicting Woody and the gang holding hands as they accept their fate in a fiery furnace. Even with so many ruminations on mortality, “Toy Story 3” still makes time for delightful comedic digressions, such as any of the gags involving new character Ken (Michael Keaton).<\/p>\n Whether it’s paying homage to the likes of “Stalag 17”\u00a0or saying good-bye to the ones we love, “Toy\u00a0Story 3” is exemplary cinema that firmly solidified the original trio of “Toy Story” installments as one of the greatest film trilogies of all time<\/a>.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n 2. Toy Story 2<\/p>\n
Disney\/Pixar<\/p>\n What’s immediately impressive when revisiting “Toy Story 2,” one of the best movie sequels of all time<\/a>, is the feature’s breakneck speed. The movie wastes no time in giving Woody a ripped arm, placing him on a shelf, and then giving him an existential crisis about his own usefulness to Andy. This pacing ensures that “Toy Story 2” keeps on delivering imaginative characters and set pieces at an incredible clip. This includes new figures like Jessie (Joan Cusack) and Bullseye, as well as thrilling sequences like Woody navigating a landscape of Cheetos without making a noise. Every new “Toy Story 2” scene is a triumph that makes the soul sing.<\/p>\n
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\n ![\"Buzz](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/toy-story-5-1781912092.jpg\")
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\n ![\"Woody](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/toy-story-4-1781912093.jpg\")
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\n ![\"Lotso](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/toy-story-3-1781912093.jpg\")
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\n ![\"Jessie,](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/toy-story-2-1781912094.jpg\")
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