Pixar didn’t just push its software limits for Toy Story 5. They pulled the brake.
Lindsey Collins, the film’s producer, told me there was a “lot of restraint” in Emeryville, California recently. The studio has evolved since 1995. Their tech is sharper. Faster. But jumping ahead visually risks alienating the audience.
“We don’t want to all of a suddenly feel like we’ve jumped so far technologically that these don’t feel like the same characters,” Collins said.
So, what do you do with cutting-edge rendering engines and new hair simulations? You use them for texture. For mood. For moments that matter. Not for spectacle sake.
The film tackles a timely fear. Bonnie gets a tablet. It’s called Lilypad. The toys feel threatened.
This isn’t a luddite rant. Pixar knows tech.
“We’re a technology company. So we’re not sitting here going… how dare you?”
They explore how screens and gadgets change creativity. Both the good parts and the weird isolation.
How Toy Story 5 Balances New Animation Tools With Old School Charm
You’d expect Toy Story 5 to look different. It does. Just subtly.
Meet Blaze. She’s human. She loves animals. She has tight curls. Pixar hadn’t modeled hair like this before.
They built tools to make it happen. That tech sticks around. Future movies might feature more diverse hairstyles because of the groundwork laid here.
Then there’s Bonnie’s imagination.
It doesn’t look like the rest of the film. It looks like a watercolor painting. Soft edges. Muted pastels. Dreamlike.
“We wanted to give it a much more mind’s eye feel,” says co-director Kenna Harris. “Pixar doesn’t have as much practice [with this].”
Director Andrew Stanton pushed for a live-action approach to lighting.
He wanted the lights set early. Not bolted on at the end. Enter Luna. A new lighting tool lets animators set multiple shots simultaneously. It gives the team a clear vision of the scene’s tone before they even finish the models.
RenderMan XPU debuted here too.
It uses both CPU and GPU. Artists see near-final renders much sooner. No more waiting weeks to see if a shadow looks right.
Why Pixar Chooses Understated Tech Over Photorealistic Rain
Remember the rain in the first Toy Story? It was just smudges on glass. Tech wasn’t there for individual droplets.
Toy Story 4 had the photorealistic storm.
Toy Story 5 didn’t need that.
Pixar stopped asking “What can we do?” and started asking “What serves the story?”
Consider the Buzz Lightyear chase scene. Fifty Buzzy toys. Fifty horses.
It’s expensive.
“It’s not a cheap scene. But it’s important. So let’s do it,” Collins said. “Let’s do those kinds of conversations.”
But the quiet moments got more tech love than you’d expect.
Blaze lives on a farm. Green pastures. Golden hour light.
The filmmakers wanted the lighting to feel visceral. To sit in that world. To let the viewer feel the isolation of nature.
“Toy Story 4 took us to ‘It looks real’,” Harris reflected. “For Toy Story 5, that wasn’t the goal. What sets this apart is the serenity.”
They had the tech to do the farm scenes right this time.
How AI And Human Artists Work Together At Pixar
AI isn’t the enemy at Pixar. Not yet. Not necessarily.
The studio uses machine learning to clean up images. Remove visual noise. Sharpen the final pixel.
Collins sees tech and art as symbiotic.
“It’s not to replace it. It’s to make the artists’ jobs easier.”
As long as tech clears the path for creativity, they’ll use it.
But don’t forget the physical space.
Pixar remains the last major studio keeping everyone under one roof. Writers next to modelers. Coders near storytellers.
“That’s what we’re most proud of,” Collins said. “Under no circumstances would we ever change.”
Toy Story 5 hits theaters on June 19th.
The toys are safe. For now. The tech is quiet. And that’s the trick.
