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

Coldplay Inadvertently Exposes an Affair

Martin inadvertently exposed an extramarital affair 

If you're having an affair with someone, don't go to a Coldplay concert, as one couple was found out in Foxborough, Massachusetts the other day.

Frontman Chris Martin wanted to perform to a few select fans, and after singing a happy birthday song to one person, the camera swung to a couple, the man standing behind his date, his arms around her chest area.

Byron and Cabot reaction as camera was on them

But they were not married to each other.

When they realised all the attention was on them, she flew out of his arms, covered her face and turned around, while he sunk as low as he could out of the camera's range.

"Wow, what? Either they're having an affair or they're just really shy. I'm not quite sure what to do," Martin said to the crowd.

The video was posted on TikTok and immediately went viral with over 77 million views.

Meanwhile people online went to work to identify the couple as Andy Byron, the married chief executive of a tech company called Astronomer, and Kristin Cabot, the firm's chief people officer, or head of HR. 

Needless to say there were a lot of questions around the company's water cooler in the office the next morning.

The incident is now nicknamed "Coldplaygate"

While the identities of Byron and Cabot were confirmed by Astronomer's spokeswoman, Byron was placed on leave. The company said in a statement it would launch an investigation into the incident.

People wondered if Byron's wife would be launching a divorce suit.

The pair became the fodder of many morning talkshow conversations, when they had suffered more than enough humiliation.

The moral of the story is, don't go to a concert to carry on your affair, unless you want the whole world to know about it.

Review: Ferris Bueller's Day Off

Imagine taking over a parade to sing Twist and Shout!

Yesterday I went back to my teens and re-watched Ferris Bueller's Day Off which was released in 1986 at the VIFF theatre downtown. The community theatre is having an 80s film festival, showing everything from Back to the Future and Ghostbusters, to Fatal Attraction, Sex, Lies and Videotape, and E.T.

The theatre was hardly full for the matinee, or maybe people were taking advantage of the nice (hot) weather?

Ferris persuades Cameron to take his dad's car

Nevertheless, it was an interesting experience re-watching something from 37 years ago. First off, it reminded me of how young and charming Matthew Broderick was, and how amazing it was that his character could pull off a sick day from school with such an elaborate plan as a teenager.

The other was all the antics he, his girlfriend Sloan and friend Cameron got up to in Chicago, from getting a table in a fine dining restaurant to catching the baseball in a Cubs game, and taking part in a parade -- on a weekday?

It was all a fantasy written by John Hughes, who had apparently finished the script in one week. That may explain why Ferris' character was quite flat, while his doting parents were just characters who had to be there because, well, they're his parents.

The only person who grows in the film is his friend Cameron, who starts off as someone who is sick all the time and then realises he needs to stop cowering in front of his domineering father and grow up. Meanwhile Ferris just seems to want to have fun all the time, and gets away with everything, much to the annoyance of his sister.

Contemplating art at the Art Institute of Chicago

In fact Ferris seems to dismiss Cameron's insecurities and moodiness which today feels insensitive. 

Perhaps this is why Broderick had trouble connecting with Ferris as a character as the time of filming, as Ferris didn't seem to care much about Cameron and his life problems while he hardly had any.

In any event it was enjoyable watching the school principal, Ed Rooney trying to catch out Ferris; he would probably still get away with it using today's technology like smartphones, Uber and maybe even ChatGPT?

What still stands the test of time is Ferris' statement at the beginning and the end of the film, which is very mature for a high school senior -- "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it."

So true.

Ferris Bueller's Day Off

Written and Directed by John Hughes

98 minutes

Covid-19 Inquiry Welcome, but with Caveats

Many agree to an inquiry, but after the pandemic is over

After infectious diseases expert Yuen Kwok-yung pitched the idea of an independent inquiry into the Hong Kong government's handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, others are putting in their two bits as well.

Fellow experts David Hui Shu-cheong and Leung Chi-chiu agreed, but said the inquiry should start later.

Meanwhile professor Lau Yu-lung in the University of Hong Kong Paediatrics agrees in principle, and adds the inquiry should be headed by a judge and that it should start after the World Health Organisation declares the pandemic over.

Hui says inquiry should start later, not now

However, Executive Council convenor and chairperson of the New People's Party Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee threw in her opinion and as expected, she had many caveats. 

She did not like the idea of independent judges heading the inquiry because they are not policy experts, but isn't that the point?

Ip also said the inquiry should be held after the WHO declares the pandemic over, as there are still new variants. But as they are not as life-threatening as the original Covid-19, there is an argument to have it sooner rather than later.

Nevertheless, she did acknowledge there was a lack of support for infected patients at the peak of the crisis last year, saying the review should look into how to better mobilise social resources and how to maintain medical services when handling a large number of infected residents.

In addition Ip suggested looking into ways to make good use of technology and mobilise civil servants in handling major crises -- isn't that what they did in the latter half, when there was not enough manpower for essential services? 

Ip says officials should not be targeted

But perhaps most importantly, she stressed the inquiry should not target government officials who she says worked hard over the past three years.

"Everyone was handling it hand learning along the way, as well as optimising measures. We should not hold anyone accountable for everything, but should instead look for shortcomings and optimise procedures," she said.

While a blame game is not productive, an inquiry needs to uncover what happened and why, and how to make things better in the future.

But in some cases, there were things the health experts suggested and the government did not take the advice, or processes were completely mismanaged or incompetent. The design of the LeaveHomeSafe app comes to mind... 

Most would agree the community vaccination clinics were well organised, but did the government do enough to encourage people, particularly the elderly to get jabbed? Why did the authorities not clamp down on mis- and disinformation on vaccines and how many vials of vaccines were wasted? 

Taxpayers deserve to know what happened, and an inquiry -- if it ever happens -- is a good place to start. But caveats aren't very helpful when the government lacks integrity and transparency...