To infinity and beyond: The impact of ‘Toy Story’ throughout generations

I have interviewed a lot of people in my 17-plus years in this industry. Celebrities, world leaders, beauty queens and rock stars. But I want to be completely honest: nothing and I mean nothing could have prepared me for the moment Tom Hanks looked into the camera, made that signature grin, and said, “You got us!”

That was it. That was the moment I became a six-year-old again.

Because that’s what “Toy Story” does to you. It doesn’t matter how old you are, how many press junkets you’ve attended, or how many times you’ve told yourself to stay professional. The second Woody and Buzz are in the room — even virtually — something in your chest cracks open and out spills every childhood memory you forgot you were still carrying. It even took me awhile to grasp that the interview happened.

I have Bea Antonio and the incredible team at Disney Philippines to thank for this gift. Because that’s exactly what it was — a gift, not just an interview. A full-circle, pinch-me-I’m-dreaming kind of moment that reminded me why I fell in love with this job in the first place.

“Toy Story 5” is now in cinemas, and with it comes the return of the most beloved bromance in cinema history — Tom Hanks as Woody and Tim Allen as Buzz Lightyear. Thirty years. Five films. One unbreakable bond, both on- and off-screen.

When I asked them about the secret to their decades-long friendship, Tom didn’t even hesitate.

Tim and Tom discuss the movie’s lasting impact with the author during a virtual conversation.

“It’s all about connections,” he said. “You never let go of those connections. You make them. You keep them for the rest of time. You pick up right where you left off. You don’t have to get to know each other again. When your friend calls, you are there.”

Then came their unofficial Top Three rules for lasting friendship, delivered with the easy confidence of two men who have clearly lived it. Tom’s list: be honest, be kind and — his word — presence. Just show up. Be there.

Tim, ever the comedian, looked at his co-star mid-answer and deadpanned: “Why does it have to be so smart?”

Taylor Swift, pictured at the world premiere of ‘Toy Story,’ wrote the OST for the film.

And that, right there, is 30 years of friendship distilled into thirty seconds. The teasing, the warmth, the ease of two people who have long since stopped performing for each other. Watching them together is like watching a masterclass in what genuine, enduring A-listers actually looks like, and it has somehow produced five blockbuster films and counting. The fifth installment even set a record opening for 2026.

Let’s go back to 1995 for a moment.

The author and her husband, fellow journalist Oscar Oida, with their daughter Aerin, who has caught the ‘Toy Story’ fever after the ‘Toy Story 5’ premiere.

When “Toy Story” first hit theaters, it didn’t just make children cry over the idea of their toys having feelings. It rewrote the rules of filmmaking entirely and is historical. It was the world’s first fully computer-animated feature film, a technological watershed moment that launched Pixar into the stratosphere and permanently changed the animation industry.

But here’s what no technical achievement can fully explain: it stuck. Not just to one generation, but to all of them. Kids, who watched it in 1995, are now in their thirties and forties, watching it with their own children. And those children are now watching it with their children.

The franchise has somehow managed to age and evolve with its audience, meeting every generation exactly where they are — in their joy, their nostalgia and their very human fear of being left behind.

I know this because I lived it. And then I lived it again, this time, through my daughter.

I don’t usually write about my family, but this story calls for it. My husband Oscar and I watched “Toy Story 5” with our six-year-old daughter Aerin, and I want to share with you this scene: our girl, completely in her feelings like it was the most precious thing on earth. Because to her, it genuinely is.

Aerin has been bitten hard by the “Toy Story” fever after the “Toy Story 5” premiere.

That Woody toy goes everywhere with her — to the dinner table, to the car and yes, absolutely to bed, with matching blanket. I felt my own childhood sitting right there in the room with us whenever I marathon the “Toy Story” franchise with her.

I remembered what it was like to believe, completely and without irony, that my toys had inner lives. That they worried about being forgotten. That the worst thing that could happen to anyone — toy or human — was to no longer be loved.

“Toy Story” gave an entire generation of children the emotional vocabulary to understand loyalty, loss, friendship, and the particular ache of growing up. And here it was, doing the exact same thing for my daughter, 30 years later.

That is generational magic. And sitting between my husband and my little girl, all three of us fully invested in the fate of a plastic cowboy, I understood in my bones why the franchise refuses to be forgotten.

“Toy Story 5” is smart enough to know that the world Aerin is growing up in looks very different from the one I grew up in. This time, Woody and Buzz don’t just face a new toy rival. They face something far more formidable: technology itself.

Enter Lilypad, a high-tech gadget threatening to steal the attention of young Bonnie and, by extension, an entire generation raised on screens. It is a plot that feels less like fiction and more like a Sunday afternoon in most households right now. Even on weekdays, if I may say.

Tom said it as plainly as anyone could.

“There is no substitute for a game that you play with somebody else, or sharing, or just an imaginative thing. If you don’t have that in your life — and all you have is a version of brick breaker or Minecraft or whatever it is — you’re really missing out on one of the biggest pleasures of life. And that is play.”

He is right. And I say this as someone who has watched her daughter’s eyes light up over both a YouTube video and a game of pretend with her Woody doll — and who knows?, without question, which one produces the deeper, longer-lasting joy.

These are the questions every parent I know is sitting with right now.

Because the universe clearly has a flair for the dramatic, “Toy Story 5” also arrives with a Taylor Swift moment. She performed a duet with original composer Randy Newman on You’ve Got a Friend in Me  and it is exactly as wonderful as you’re imagining during their world premiere in Hollywood. But Taylor also contributed an original song to the film, and her words about it stayed with me, thanks to the interview Disney shared with us.

She said she hoped the song would make people think about someone they miss — someone they haven’t seen in a long time and the possibility that those people could still come back. That sometimes people part or diverge, but that doesn’t mean the memories stop mattering. “That’s special in itself,” she said.

That is the “Toy Story” thesis, isn’t it? That love doesn’t expire. That the people, and yes, the toys that shaped us stay with us, even when circumstances change — even when we grow up, even when we move on. The film has always known this. Thirty years later, it still does.

Here is what I keep coming back to, days after that interview: Tom and Tim are still here, still showing up for Woody and Buzz, still meaning every word of it. There is no cynicism in the way they talk about the franchise: only gratitude and genuine, unguarded belief that what they are making matters.

Aerin’s Woody doll is still beside her as I write this. She doesn’t know yet that I got to speak with the man behind the voice — that Tom Hanks himself told me friendship is about showing up, being honest and never letting go. One day, I will tell her. And one day, maybe, she will tell her own children.

To infinity and beyond — and all the way home.

“Toy Story 5” is still showing in cinemas nationwide. Toy Story 1 to 4 are streaming on Disney+ Philippines.