Growing up with ‘Toy Story’: Andrew Stanton on 30+ years with Woody and
Buzz
[April 29, 2026]
By LINDSEY BAHR
Andrew Stanton has spent more than half his life with “Toy Story.” He
was the lead writer on the first three, a script savior on the fourth,
and now, cowriter and co-director on “Toy Story 5.”
“It wasn’t the plan,” he said in a recent interview with The Associated
Press. “But it wasn’t not the plan.”
Stanton has done other things than think about Woody and Buzz for the
past 34 years. At Pixar, he made “A Bug’s Life” and two Oscar-winners:
“Finding Nemo” and “WALL-E.” But “Toy Story” was the movie that started
it all. The one he and his peers couldn’t believe they got to make.
Everything that’s happened since, he said, has been gravy.
The new film, in theaters June 12, is widely expected to be one of the
summer’s biggest hits. The past two movies made more than a billion
dollars and this one is likely on the same path. But while there is a
business driving many of the decisions regarding the series, Stanton
said they’ve also had a lot of time to think about where the story
should go. It’s show business, yes, but they always try to put the
“show” first.
Remember, there was an 11-year gap between “Toy Story 2” and “Toy Story
3,” and nine more years before the fourth movie. It was around 2008,
when they’d finally cracked the story for three, and decided that it
would be the end of their time with Andy as he went off to college, that
Stanton started to think wider.
“What if it went farther? What if it was a trilogy with one kid, closed
that up, handed it off to another kid and started another one?” Stanton
said. “That seemed really exciting to me because that’s the way life
really goes with toys and mementos. They get passed down as
hand-me-downs; they go from one kid to another.”
Midway through the Bonnie era
One thing Stanton doesn’t love about the Toy Story movies are the
numbers. Toy Story isn’t Rocky — it’s something else.
“They make it sound like old blockbuster thinking,” Stanton said. “The
culture’s changed in the last 15 years. We all understand binging now.
We all understand episodic stories. Not everything’s great for it, but
some are and the Toy Story world is meant for that kind of lengthy
thinking.”
Thus, four was the beginning of the Bonnie years. Though some of the
actors were publicly saying it was the last Toy Story, as Woody went off
with Bo Peep and the rest of the toys stayed with Bonnie, Stanton was
pretty sure it was going to keep going. Bonnie’s arc wasn’t over yet. He
just didn’t know they would come knocking on his door to figure out how.
“I was skeptical at first because I didn’t know if where I would want to
see it go would match with where the studio would want to see go,” he
said. “I cautiously said, let me write the crappy first draft, because I
always write a crappy first draft, but at least I’ll figure out myself
where I’d like to see it go just as a fan, let alone somebody that’s
been behind the camera with it. And if we agree on that fundamentally
then can we start working on it and I’ll take the job.”
[to top of second column]
|
Andrew Stanton attends the premiere of the film during the Sundance
Film Festival in Park City, Utah, on Jan. 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Chris
Pizzello, File)
 He also wanted a collaborator by his
side, so Kenna Harris (“Ciao Alberto”) joined as cowriter and
director. Harris was around the same age Stanton was on “Toy Story,”
which, he said, felt like kismet. In Harris, he found someone who he
could pass knowledge to and learn from as someone who grew up in a
different era. Together, they found more commonalities than
differences.
“It’s really trying to find the things that are timeless, you know?
Because childhood is gonna keep happening,” Stanton said.
The screentime conundrum
The fifth film sees the arrival of a new thing that is taking
Bonnie’s attention away from her toys: The Lilypad. Stanton kept
checking with the lawyers to make sure it wasn’t copyrighted or a
real thing. It wasn’t, they assured him.
While the screentime conversation might not be new, how it affects
playtime with these toys is something they hadn't yet explored.
“I feel like we’re kind of late to the party. I was worried there
would be some sort of resolution to it before we finished and there
wouldn’t be so much dramatic controversy about it, but it’s a
legitimate concern that has no complete, finite answer,” Stanton
said. “That’s drama, it’s in the gray. It is like how do you
navigate something that you have to deal with? It’s not just ‘get
rid of it.’”
There were similar conversations about television for kids of his
era, and he knew that like TV, technology is not going away.
“Toy Story 5” also places more direct emphasis on the power of play
and imagination, something they dabbled with in the opening of “Toy
Story 3,” but that they really get to lean into here.
Making ‘Toy Story’ for the grandkids
Stanton doesn’t think too much about box office anymore; At Pixar,
always been aiming higher than that. On the first film, he liked to
say that they were making films for the grandkids. It might have
been a bit of magical thinking for a fledgling studio and a man with
a very young family, but in three decades, it’s come true. Stanton’s
grandchild is now watching the Pixar movies he helped create.
Just recently, Stanton was at Skywalker Ranch finishing the mix for
“Toy Story 5.” It’s the first time he’s gotten to step back and take
it in as a movie and not the jigsaw puzzle he’s been building for so
long.
“That’s when it kind of breaks my brain. I’m going, ‘Oh my God,
there’s all the characters just living their lives’,” Stanton said.
“And that’s the magic of movies. You forget that anybody behind the
scenes made it and you just believe, and that’s the real drug.”
All contents © copyright 2026 Associated Press. All rights reserved |
