Review: Toy Story 5

The latest instalment of Toy Story introduces debate on screens

Yesterday I saw Toy Story 5 in the theatre with my two nephews. The last one I saw? The original one by Pixar, way back in 1995!

Luckily you don't need to have seen Toy Story 2, 3 and 4 to know what's going on in the latest one, which has a very apt storyline that resonates with the debate on kids and screen times.

Bonnie is a girl who first appeared in Toy Story 3, inheriting the toys that now teenager Andy used to play with. In this latest instalment, Bonnie loves Jessie, the cowgirl with her trusty steed Bullseye.

Jessie (centre) tries to grapple with technology

However, Bonnie is shy and scared to make friends, mostly due to insecurity, as she still loves playing with toys.

Her parents worry and give her a tablet called Lilypad which makes Bonnie happy, but then she is soon addicted to the device, neglecting Jessie and the other toys.

Sound familiar? The scenes of seeing children and adults addicted to screens in every household, from tablets to phones and computers is so relatable and interesting to see it reflected through this feature animation.  

Through Lilypad the tablet, she can connect with other "friends" online, but Jessie believes the girl needs to connect with friends in real life and makes it her mission to make that happen.

Along the way Jessie meets some other low-tech toys that were quickly ditched. Conan O'Brien is funny as Smarty Pants, a first-generation tablet that supposedly helps kids potty train, and his buddies, a GPS called Atlas and digital camera named Snappy.

Meanwhile there is a subplot where a shipping box filled with a lot of the latest high-tech version of Buzz Lightyear get stranded on an island and they look to the sky to find "Star Command", and some how manage to meet up with the original Buzz.

Smarty Pants (left) voiced by Conan O'Brien

Lilypad is voiced by Greta Lee, while Joan Cusack reprises her role as Jessie, Tom Hanks as Woody and Tim Allen as Buzz. This time around Jessie is the star of the show, with a romantic sides story involving Buzz; Woody is just a supportive character this time, as are the rest of the toys.

How much longer can the Toy Story franchise keep going? 

If they can find more storylines like this one about screen addiction that are relevant, then yes. If not, it might actually be time for these toys to really end up in the garbage heap...

Toy Story 5

Written and directed by Andrew Stanton

102 minutes

In Appreciation of Sue Johanson

Johanson gave no-nonsense advice about sex and relationships

On social media there's a lot of outpouring of appreciation for Sue Johanson, who gave the straight-up talk about sex to young people in the mid-80s for over 20 years. She died yesterday in Thornhill, Ontario yesterday at the age of 93.

I found out about this woman on the TV guide and had to watch her show. I was thankful -- like many other young people -- that she gave us the information we needed to know (or wanted to know) about sex, relationships, and sexual identity.

She enjoyed making O'Brien blush on TV

Here was this grandma figure who took callers' questions with a straight face, didn't judge them and answered them the best she could. Johanson gave tips on how to apply condoms, and birth control, what to do with bad boyfriends and sex toys. 

Her daughter Jane Johanson said: "She never brushed people aside. She treated everyone absolutely the same. She was never judgmental, nor was she condescending or disapproving of any question that came her way... I think everybody felt like they had another mother or another grandmother with Sue."

Johanson trained as a nurse in Winnipeg, and later opened a birth control clinic at a Toronto high school for two decades. 

In 1984 she began hosting a Toronto radio show called Sunday Night Sex Show and later had a TV show. Then viewers in the United States got to know her on Talk Sex with Sue Johanson from 2002 to 2008.

During that time there was a lot of fear around AIDS and she gave the medical facts around it, which is why she was insistent that people use condoms. She also was sympathetic to young gay people who were discovering their identities and Johanson gave them support and resources to make them feel less alone.

Johanson talking to host Jay Leno

"It didn't matter who you were, what your sexual preference was, how you identified, what you might be dealing with in terms of the time of AIDS -- like, she embraced everybody and who they were. And that just... made me so proud. We are so proud of our dear Sue, my mom," Jane Johanson said.

I'm seeing on YouTube she made several appearances on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, making him feel uneasy as she pulled out numerous sex toys and demonstrating how to use them in a no-nonsense way. In one she shows how to test out a vibrator by holding it under your nose. 

While O'Brien may have thought this was entertaining (at his expense), it was informative for millions of viewers who wanted to know more.

"She loved what she did. She cared about people's sexual health, sexual information, and she just wanted to be of assistance to people in that way," Jane Johanson said.

"She just invented a niche for herself and did a beautiful job teaching people about sex and sexual health."

Last year a full-length documentary about her, called Sex with Sue was released. Hope to watch it one day.