By Joshua Tyler | Updated 9 minutes ago
The first teaser trailer for Toy Story 5 has arrived, and it reveals something incredibly disturbing. It’s about a new type of toy. That toy is an iPad called Lilypad.
That might seem like it makes sense on the surface. After all, iPads have become a commonplace parenting tool. Unfortunately, giving your child an iPad is also one of the worst things you can do for them. That glowing rectangle doesn’t just keep them busy; it causes severe emotional and developmental damage.
MRI studies of kids aged 3 to 5 found that higher “digital media use” scores were associated with reduced cortical thickness and sulcal depth in brain regions tied to language, visual processing and attention. Children with higher daily screen time show more attention problems and distraction. A systematic review covering multiple studies concluded that “exposure to excessive screen time… can be associated with attention problems.”
Dangerous mental-health effects? You bet. One longitudinal study of early adolescents found higher overall screen time linked to increased depressive and ADHD symptoms.
There’s even a term for kids suffering from screen exposure. It’s screen-induced autism.
On the other hand, playing with a Buzz Lightyear toy boosts fine motor skills, spatial awareness, and problem-solving. Research shows that hands-on play strengthens neural pathways for creativity and focus, while pretend play enhances language and emotional intelligence.
Promoting toys as a healthy thing for children used to be what the Toy Story franchise was about. Even in the 1990s, when the internet wasn’t as prevalent, the idea was to get your kids playing and imagining rather than watching television. It glorified play over screens. It’s the entire point of the Toy Story universe and that’s never been more important than it is right now.
Word is that Lilypaid (voiced by Tron: Ares star Greta Lee) is supposed to be the movie’s villain. That helps, I guess. But it’s still in the context of this kid’s parents, parents who’d previously gone out of their way to make sure their child had healthy toys, thinking it’s a good idea to gift one.
Likely, the movie will take a somewhat ambiguous stance, concluding that iPads are Okay in small doses, or something equally weak. That’s the only way this can go, unless Disney has relented and allowed John Lasseter to return to Pixar. It’d take a genius of his caliber to do something else.
What it’s definitely going to do, no matter how the movie approaches it, is normalize lazy parents letting their kids zone out on iPads. Toy Story 5 is normalizing something so damaging that nearly every scientist on the planet advises against doing it. Making this not terrible will take one heck of a script.
A few months back, filmmaker Quentin Tarantino revealed on Club Random that he’s both a huge fan of the first Toy Story trilogy and that he’s vowed never to watch another Toy Story movie after Toy Story 3. Quentin says, “You literally ended the story as perfect as you could, so no I don’t care if it’s good. I’m done.”
Continuing your franchise after you’ve achieved the perfect ending is maybe the dumbest thing any Hollywood studio could do. The result of such unimaginably stupid decisions isn’t just a bad movie, but done wrong, it could also be a toxic one, dedicated to normalizing behavior harmful to children.
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