Editor's Note: This interview contains spoilers for Toy Story 5.
"Toys are for play, but tech is for everything." That's the divide found in the new Toy Story movie. When Bonnie (Scarlett Spears) struggles to make friends with kids her age, her parents purchase her a tablet, Lilypad (Greta Lee). Lily's presence immediately puts her at odds with Bonnie's toys, especially the lead of Toy Story 5, Jessie (Joan Cusack). As the new sheriff in charge, Jessie makes it her mission to help her kid find a real friend, and through that, our favorite yodeling cowgirl reconnects with her past in a poignant, beautiful way. The fifth Toy Story movie also stars Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, and Conan O'Brien.
Ahead of the movie's release, Collider's Meredith Loftus sat down with co-director Kenna Harris and producer Lindsey Collins. The duo reveal how early in the process they (and co-director Andrew Stanton) knew the latest installment would center on Jessie, as well as how late they decided on Jessie's connection to Emily decades later. Plus, Collins explains how patience was key to connecting with Taylor Swift for the movie's original song, "I Knew It, I Knew You." You can watch the full interview, or read the transcript below.
COLLIDER: This movie initially pits toys against technology. If you could bring back an older device, what would it be?
KENNA HARRIS: Oh, that's a good question. Do the robot dogs count? Remember the little robot dogs in the early 2000s? That wasn't even that long ago. [Laughs] In the ancient times. They would play music sometimes. That's the one I would do.
LINDSEY COLLINS: You're going to be like, "I don't even know what you're talking about" when I tell you.
COLLINS: Well, there were two games. One was Merlin, which was this cool electronic game that I had that was really fun to play. Never mind. [Laughs] And then Simon, which was like this other game.
COLLINS: But that was the first tech game my parents bought. It lights up, it makes noises.
COLLINS: The future is now. [Laughs] Yeah, I loved it.
When you came together to start planning for Toy Story 5, at what point in the process did you decide to center the story on Jessie?
HARRIS: The very beginning. Andrew Stanton wrote on Toy Story 4 and all the previous films. It was one of his big decisions to really just push for Woody to give away the sheriff badge to Jessie. So when Pixar was sniffing around like, "Is it time for Toy Story 5? Andrew, what would you do with it?" His instinct right away was, "Well, Jessie is the head of the room. It's got to be a story about her." He and I and Lindsay all completely agree that we were like, "Oh, there's so much exciting emotional territory to explore with her." So right from the get-go, there was always Jessie as the lead, Lilypad as our antagonist, and 50 Buzz Lightyears just going rogue.
COLLINS: Which may have been all Andrew. I don't know, the 50 Buzz Lightyears we were like, "Oh, okay."
COLLINS: Two feel obvious. The third one, I don't know, and Andrew was like, "Just wait for it, it's going to work."
How long did you have that Emily reveal in your back pocket?
COLLINS: They had different versions of it.
HARRIS: Yeah, there were different kinds of ways we were trying to explore what exactly is the hurt that she has. What exactly would help that?
HARRIS: Sometimes there were options that while it was initially, this could be juicy or cool, it was like, "Oh, I don't think that's actually what she needs or wants to move on." I wouldn't say late in the game, but when we finally discovered kind of...
HARRIS: Pretty late in the game, sure. The producer is like, "It could've come sooner." We knew. We knew right away that this feels right, and this feels like what she deserves.
Speaking of knowing, "I Knew It, I Knew You," what a great capper to end the movie. If Taylor Swift wasn't available, did you have other singers in mind that you wanted to bring in?
HARRIS: Taylor was kind of the dream from the get-go.
COLLINS: I mean, yeah. Taylor was, and then we were like, "There's no way. She's so busy."
HARRIS: There was so much stuff going on, like The Eras Tour.
COLLINS: Yeah, you know that little tour called The Eras Tour. [Laughs] I don't know if you've heard of it. But I think we were like, "You know what? We're just going to wait and see." We left it really... I mean we had talked about it. And it was like, "Too busy. It's not going to happen." And then it was like, "Alright, what if we just wait and just hold and see?" Let's just see how the movie evolves and not commit to anything else.
HARRIS: And then the stars were aligned.
COLLINS: Then the universe delivered in the sense that all of a sudden it was like, "Wait, she might have a minute." And we were like, "To watch the movie?" So she saw a very early cut and was instantly like, "I get it. I'm totally in. Would you be willing?" We were like, "Would we be? Be cool, be cool."
COLLINS: Yeah, stop being weird. Be cool.
COLLINS: She's such a storyteller, obviously. She instantly understood, obviously having been a fan of Toy Story and of Jessie, what kind of song Jessie deserved and how it was a counterbalance in some ways to "When Somebody Loved Me." That she [Jessie] deserved this celebratory, happy song at the end of this movie. It was just such a gift. I mean, [Taylor] was like, "I don't know. You guys can tell me if you don't like it," and everything. We were like…
HARRIS: Please, please, please let us use this song!
COLLINS: She had written so many specifics into it. If you listen to the lyrics, you're like, "Wow!" So much [detail] to some of the previous films and to this film. It's all from the perspective of a toy running through the blades of the grass. Anyway, turns out she's super talented.
HARRIS: She's pretty good at the whole songwriting thing.
COLLINS: She should think about it. That's all I'm saying. Don't give up.
Toy Story 5 is now playing in theaters and IMAX.
