Joan Cusack Joins Hanks and Allen at Toy Story 5 Launch
joan cusack was in central London on Thursday as Tom Hanks, Tim Allen and Greta Lee joined her at the Toy Story 5 U.K. launch event. The reunion put the franchise’s core voices back in front of the film’s release push, with Disney and Pixar using the event to set up a June 19 theatrical rollout.
London Launch Reunites Jessie, Woody and Buzz
Tom Hanks, Tim Allen and Joan Cusack all attended the launch, giving Toy Story 5 a cast-facing showcase before it reaches theaters. Andrew Stanton is preparing another adventure for Woody, Jessie and Buzz Lightyear, and the lineup in London signaled that the studio is leaning on the original trio as the franchise adds Greta Lee to the mix.
June 19 is the date on the calendar for the film’s theatrical debut, and the campaign around the launch is already framing the movie around a contemporary family problem rather than nostalgia alone. The story centers on eight-year-old Bonnie getting her first device and spending too much time on screen, which gives Pixar a cleaner commercial hook than a generic sequel pitch.
Tom Hanks on the hardest scene
Tom Hanks said the film contains one of the most heartbreaking scenes he has seen in any Toy Story movie. He described it as a moment when “that little girl is getting her feelings hurt by what other people are texting about her, and she doesn’t understand why. She doesn’t know what she did wrong, but it hurts, and that is a very prescient thing to have in a motion picture today about little kids and toys, don’t you think?”
Hanks also said, “You can't make people play again, but you can show them that the engagement with toys and with your life and your friends is a little more satisfying than being on your device.” That puts the film’s emotional pitch in plain terms: the movie is not just revisiting Woody and Buzz, it is trying to make device use part of the story engine rather than a background note.
Buzz gets 500 versions
Tom Hanks said the first scene with 500 Buzz Lightyears coming out of the water made him think Tim Allen would have “a field day” because Allen has to voice 500 of them. Allen said, “There’s a lot of Buzz in this, a lot of different Buzzes. They’ve opened up what he is and what makes him special. I think the word you’re looking for is Space Ranger,” and added that he was impressed Pixar chose to tackle tech head-on.
The built-in complication is clear: Toy Story 5 is leaning into screen time, texting and a character who already has enough of her own problems, while still depending on the same voices that made the franchise work. That balance is the whole bet. If Pixar lands the emotional scene Hanks described, the film has a clean path to June 19; if it misses, the device storyline will feel like a lecture instead of a Toy Story movie.
