News Toy Story 5 Toy Story 5 Trailer Leaves Us Asking: What Year Is It in the Toy Story Movies? Of course we’re doing ok. Why do you ask? By Matthew Byrd | Published on November 11, 2025 Photo: Pixar Comment 0 Share New Share Photo: Pixar The teaser trailer for Toy Story 5 was just released, and it raises some serious (and possibly unknowable) questions about the timeline of the Toy Story movies. Let’s start with the essentials. The brief trailer shows our various toy friends reacting to a package like it’s the recently opened Ark of the Covenant. At the end of the trailer, we see that the package contains Lilypad: an electronic kids’ tablet voiced by the great Greta Lee. The trailer ends with Toy Story 5‘s theatrical release window (June 2026), and the implication that the age of toys may finally be over. On the surface, that all makes sense. It’s fair to say that most modern kids are more interested in playing with smartphones, tablets, and handhelds than traditional toys. It’s been that way for quite some time now (the last 10-12 years or so have seen a drastic shift in the toy market). As such, it stands to reason that a Toy Story movie would eventually address the idea of Bonnie becoming more interested in an electronic than her collection of toys (voiced by Tom Hanks though they may be). The problem is that it doesn’t really make any sense at all. Kids today are certainly more interested in electronics, but there is nothing to suggest that the Toy Story movies take place in the modern age. In fact, what we do know about the movies’ timelines suggests that Toy Story 5 takes place before a kid would realistically have their own tablet. Indulge my insanity for a moment. The first Toy Story opens in 1995 on Andy’s 6th birthday party. We know the year in that universe is 1995 thanks to the opening text of 2022’s Lightyear. By the end of Toy Story 3, we also know that Andy is 17 and on his way to college. So, 11 years have passed between Toy Story and Toy Story 3, which would mean it should be 2006 by the end of the movie. Toy Story 4 takes place roughly one year later, so let’s say it’s 2007 or maybe 2008 just to give us a little wiggle room for error. Going off of what we’ve seen in the trailer and other assumptions that are based on what we know about Toy Story 5‘s plot, Bonnie has probably aged no more than three years between Toy Story 4 and Toy Story 5. So that would make it 2010 or 2011 in the Toy Story universe by the time that Toy Story 5 kicks off. So this movie would have us believe that young Bonnie has access to what looks to be a fairly advanced tablet in the year 2010 or 2011. Mind you, the first generation iPad was released in 2010 (in our world). So what happened here? Did the launch of the Buzz Lightyear toy kick off a technological race between the toy companies that led to rapid advancements? Are the people in Toy Story living in some kind of toy-driven For All Mankind alternate world? Or does Pixar just think we’re stupid? Well, believe it or not, the math does make (some) sense. In 2011 (in our world), the company LeapFrog Enterprises released the LeapPad Explorer: a tablet version of their famous learning toy, the LeapPad. The Lilypad certainly seems to be based on the LeapPad Explorer and, if my dodgy math is correct, it could have realistically been available by the time that Toy Story 5 kicks off. Granted, the movie may be taking some liberties about how advanced that toy would actually be and how quickly the cultural shift from toys to tablets happened, but Pixar’s dicey timelines may have survived another round. Now, if you’ll excuse me, my head hurts from doing math that reminds me that I’m very old and have lost my ability to accurately recall the passage of time. I’m going to lie down and watch the Toy Story 5 trailer again. [end-mark] The post <i>Toy Story 5</i> Trailer Leaves Us Asking: What Year Is It in the <i>Toy Story</i> Movies? appeared first on Reactor.