Toy Story 5

The new film may not be as overwhelmingly emotional or moving, but credit must be given to the makers to ensure this one too reaches the finish line.

Paramveer Singh Cheema and Ranvir Shorey's show about a fraud business does not breathe fun.

At heart, it has gone dead. For all the intensive, high-energy creative work that has clearly gone into this film's every frame, the jeopardy, the novelty, the ideas and the passion are lacking; the crucial Toy Story theme of mortality feels underpowered. But now it is played out and IP exhaustion has set in.

A relevant and thoughtful sequel for the iPad generation

Toy Story 5 delivers a timely and visually stunning narrative that gently but firmly advocates for protecting children's imagination from the pervasive influence of digital devices. The film is an absolute visual marvel, and makes a strong case for finding ways of letting kids be kids and not tech-absorbed zombies.

In many ways, the fifth part in the popular animated franchise brings back the charm of some of its predecessors. The film ultimately bats for embracing technology with mindfulness without forgetting the older ways of connecting with each other in real-time. Jessie's thoughtful reckoning fuels the film with a humanistic zeal, something that is drifting away quickly in a rampantly digitised world, making the film to be the only one in the franchise to have direct parallels with the dystopian reality of our times.

The Fifth Time's the Charm in a Nimble, Moving, Irresistible Sequel That Takes on the Threat of Tech Toys