I grew up in an era with parents where the idea of “play” was marginally tolerated, if only as a means to get us kids out of the parents’ “hair.” And even then, it was the reward for having completed all of one’s chores and only allowed once all the work needing to be done had been completed. It was the small dollop of ice cream at the end of an exhausting day. It had no value in and of itself, and was the least important thing in one’s day. And somehow, despite all of that, I guess I turned out okay.

I understand that’s a lot of baggage (or backstory) for an introduction to a review/reflection on an animated kid’s movie. The thing is, Pixar movies are never just “kids’ movies,” and I knew going in that the antagonist was going to be tech and how tech is killing childhood (and healthy socialization). While being decidedly an oldster (I remember seeing the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan show, or the Apollo 11 moonwalks…), I have always maintained a net-positive relationship with the technologies that I use and have never been nostalgic for the world before tech became part of my life. So, I am not a “tech is evil” person and tend to default to “it’s just a tool” side of the spectrum.1 In this case, I think Pixar get the technology pro/con story correct.

They get the arrogance of the tech (the new stuff) correct. I spent a lifetime working with largely techno-phobic educators and maybe the folks selling them x, y and z tech solutions defaulted to over-selling how using their tech product was going to fix “everything,” but it is endlessly irritating to hear some “youngster” go on and on about how their way is so much better and how those doing it the “old way” are just dumb. This isn’t to say that the “oldsters” aren’t stuck in their ways and that generally hurts their cause or purpose, in the long run. I mean, in the long run, what is the purpose of a toy? And how magical is it when a child imbues a toy with the imagination and adventure and personality that’s inside of them. 

It turns out that “playing a game” is not the same as “Play.” And while I had whatever gaming-gene I might have had in me squashed by my parents’ puritanical approach to work vs. play, I love building my LEGO sets… and then after I’m done I will often come back and change things, add bits and look for ways to make the model “better.” The point isn’t to be “done,” but to be enriched by the activity of doing (wish is a definition of Play). Toy Story 5 and Pixar gets it right (even while selling a boatload of toys and action figures!). Enjoy. 

[Movie viewed on 2026-06-30 at Regal Fox Tower Portland]

Sources:

Tags: 2026 movies, Pixar, play, The importance of Play, video Fridays

Creative Commons License

JosephBruceBustillos.com (website) by Joseph Bruce Bustillos is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

FOOTNOTES:
  1. I get that the engineers and corporations behind the tech are not always so neutral in their intentions and that tech’s availability or deployment usually reflects the biases and stereotypes of the cultures where it was created. But those are sociological and cultural issues, not primarily tech issues. If you eliminate the tech, you still have the same problems and prejudices, just more isolated and slower moving through society. Great. Problem not solved. If I had my choice, I’d rather not go back to typewriters and depending on huge publishing houses to distribute paper versions of everything.[↩]