Tom Hanks Thinks ‘Toy Story 5’ Is Going To Break Your Heart

I’ve been watching the Toy Story movies with my kids in anticipation of the fifth installment. They had only seen the first (and maybe the second?), but have now made it through three, and are loving every minute. Watching it through their eyes has also turned it into a completely different experience. It wasn’t until now that I realized how much the toys work as a stand-in for parents, watching their kid grow up and dealing with all of the changes that brings.

Once I swapped in that lens, it’s been hard to view them any other way. I’ve yet to rewatch the fourth, which I haven’t seen since theaters, but I’m excited about what that one will make me feel. There’s a moment in the second one where Woody says, “I can’t stop Andy from growing up, but I wouldn’t miss it for the world,” and it hit me like a dump truck this watch. With the third, I assumed I wouldn’t cry until the furnace or final scene, but it is so thematically rich, especially concerning the idea of accepting change, that I was a mess from the first sequence on.

So, pardon my skepticism when someone says that a scene in the upcoming sequel is one of the “most heartbreaking” in the franchise, even if the person saying it is America’s sweetheart, Tom Hanks. The Monsters and Mazes star recently attended the U.K. “launch” of the film (was it not screened?), and while he was there, he discussed a scene from the new film, in honestly a bit more detail than I expected. I’m going to post the whole quote below, but if you want to remain completely clean before seeing the film, just skip over it.

“These movies, they end up speaking [to] and puts in words [and] stuff that everybody is thinking anyway,” Hanks explained to THR. “There’s one of the most heartbreaking scenes I’ve ever seen in any of the Toy Story movies — when that little girl is getting her feelings hurt by what other people are texting about her, and she doesn’t understand why. She doesn’t know what she did wrong, but it hurts, and that is a very prescient thing to have in a motion picture today about little kids and toys, don’t you think?”

Hanks is not wrong in the slightest! I am constantly afraid of what technology will look like, especially socially, for my twin sons in the future. I’m going to stay as up-to-date as I can, and will help them navigate it, but some things will be out of my control, and cyberbullying is definitely one of them. It is also not something I expected from a new Toy Story film, but I’m happy and impressed that they are going that route. The franchise doesn’t have a ding against it yet, and tackling tough subjects helps with its staying power.

There was lots of tech talk from the launch event, including Tim Allen lauding Disney for making a film that is anti-tech despite being, as he says, a “tech company.” He ain’t wrong, but I don’t know if they get to pat themselves on the back when, while making this movie, they signed away all of their characters for some of that sweet AI money (even if they did eventually pull out of that deal). Regardless, it feels as if the new film will be especially prescient and touching, so get those tissues ready.