Toy Story 5

This is a version of a review airing on ABC Victoria's Statewide Mornings program on June 24, 2026.

(G) ★★★★

Director: Andrew Stanton.

Cast: (voices of) Joan Cusack, Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Scarlett Spears, Greta Lee, Conan O'Brien, Shelby Rabara, Mykal-Michelle Harris, Craig Robinson. 

Ghosts were more hi-tech these days.

It's been 31 years since Toy Story changed everything.

While someone else would have made a fully computer-animated feature film eventually if Pixar hadn't in 1995, Toy Story's true legacy is that it's a genuinely fantastic movie, regardless of its status as a CGI first. This meant that the bar was set incredibly for all computer-animated films right from the get-go,  while simultaneously legitimising it as an artform from day one.

Then came the sequels, and each has been just as fantastic as the original. #2 upped the game massively with an even more compelling story and better animation even though only four years had passed, #3 is the peak of the series, taking the action, humour and pathos to new heights, and #4 is an hilarious but surprisingly compelling footnote to the series.

#5 is easily the worst film of the series, but when we're talking about Toy Story, that's not necessarily a putdown. The Toy Story franchise sets such a tough pass mark that #5 can be a genuinely great and enjoyable film, while still being the worst in the series. It's a four-star film in a five-star series, and that's nothing to be sneezed at.

The story centres on Bonnie (Spears) getting her first piece of tech - an iPad-like tablet called Lilypad, which throws the eight-year-old into a new world of online friends, cyber-bullying, and trying to fit in. As she ditches her toys for tech, cowgirl Jessie (Cusack) decides to fight back, unwilling to be left behind by another child.

With its central theme of "tech is ruining children", Toy Story 5 has a level of pontificating in its first half that none of the other films in the franchise have, making it feel like a belaboured after-school special initially. The lecturing sucks some of the humour out of proceedings, and it makes you fear you're in for the worst.

But the Pixar boffins are better than that and soon enough something more interesting emerges from the black-and-white tech-is-bad story. It means the film is a bit more of a slog in the first half, but it gets better from there, spreading its wings and soaring as the story becomes more nuanced.

The voice acting is brilliant as always, with Cusack's Jessie getting a bigger role, and O'Brien a welcome addition. It's interesting to see Woody (Hanks) and Buzz (Allen) as side characters somewhat, as it gives the film a slightly different feel. The old favourites are there such as Rex and Mr Potatohead, but the film is happy to move into new territory, with new characters, and it's not a bad thing.

Toy Story 5 offers everything you expect from the series. There are good laughs, interesting new characters, a surprisingly complex villain, some fun action set pieces, plenty of inventiveness, and the whole thing looks incredible. 

You could argue that the whole thing should have ended with #3, and that it would be folly to make #6, but the fact remains Toy Story has the best strike rate of any film franchise, and #5 manages to keep that streak alive. 

Masters Of The Universe (2026)

This is a version of a review airing on ABC Victoria's Statewide Mornings program on June 11, 2026.

(M) ★★★

Director: Travis Knight

Cast: Nicholas Galitzine, Camila Mendes, Idris Elba, Jared Leto, Alison Brie, James Purefoy, Charlotte Riley, Morena Baccarin.

This crew came to party.

He-Man, to me, was the toys and the original cartoon, which I was shocked to learn only ran from 1983-1985. I'd forgotten about the minicomics that came with the toys, and the She-Ra spin-off series, and I know I saw the 1987 live action film, though I have little-to-no memory of it.

But I was stunned to learn there was so much more Masters Of The Universe material out there: beyond the comics and video games, the cartoon was rebooted in 1990, 2002, and twice in 2021. Even She-Ra got rebooted in 2018.

It just goes to show that even as the Gen Xers moved on, there was something about the mythos and characters of Masters Of The Universe that endured, presumably beyond Mattel's desire for a never-ending cash cow. 

Perhaps the appeal lies in its oddball combination of sci-fi and fantasy, in a world where spaceships exist side-by-side with magic (without being too much like Star Wars). Or maybe it's in its dichotomy of good and evil - that the lazy Prince Adam could become the ultimate hero, and where the villian has a literal skull for a face and who wants nothing more than to rule the world. Or maybe it's the fact that just about everyone in the show has some kind of superpower, like some weird kind of X-Men in Space. Or maybe it's the campy silly fun of it all.

All of these things are what Travis Knight and Mattel appear to be aiming for in this long-gestating live action reboot (it's been in the works for about 17 years). The new film acknowledges the goofiness of its source material (perhaps a little too much) but seems fully aware of what worked for the franchise in its many incarnations. It's definitely trying to have its meta-cake and eat it too, and is semi-successful in doing so.

The new film centres on Adam (Galitzine), a prince on Eternia but sent to Earth for his safety when Skeletor (Leto) turns up to take over as ruler. Adam is sent with a sword that holds the power of Grayskull - a force that has the potential to turn him into a god. If only he could find the damned thing and use it to get home to save the day.

Masters Of The Universe does its best to balance its source material and a modern sensibility, mostly through an offbeat sense of humour. The dumb names of characters - Ram-Man, Fisto, and, dumbest of all, He-Man - remain, but are dismissed as a childish lack of imagination. Skeletor's lack of character depth is a throwaway joke or two. The generally campy and silly vibe is offset by bursts of sci-fi violence. 

In doing this, the film tries hard to appeal to the Gen Xers that liked the IP in the first place, and to appeal to the next generation too. It's a fine tightrope to walk, and the biggest criticism is that it repeatedly stumbles in trying to do so. There are some truly horrendous jokes in the name of winking at the grown-ups, and some equally bad ones for the kids with the aim of being goofy.

But where the film works is in its sense of irreverent fun. It has a generally good sense of humour about it all, and is smart enough to know what to be slavish about with the source material and what to jettison. It keeps up a pretty good pace for the most part, barreling from one CG set-piece to the next, and has just enough character development to be interesting in between. 

The cast are the real highlight. Galitzine does a fine job as Adam/He-Man, Elba brings gravitas but also humour to Man-At-Arms, Brie is a joy as always despite being in the thankless role of Evil-Lyn, and Mendes is great as Teela. The absolute highlight though (surprisingly) is Leto - his Skeletor chews the scenery, leans into the camp, and manages to veer from ridiculous to evil perfectly. 

Masters Of The Universe is a fun outing. It's the kind of idea that would never get off the ground these days, so it's only the nostalgia that makes it fly. While we don't necessarily need more of it, we should at least be glad we got this one.

The Mandalorian & Grogu

This is a version of a review airing on ABC Victoria's Statewide Mornings program on May 28, 2026.

(M) ★★★

Director: Jon Favreau.

Cast: Pedro Pascal, Brendan Wayne, Lateef Crowder, Jeremy Allen White, Sigourney Weaver, Steve Blum, Jonny Coyne, Martin Scorsese, Shirley Henderson, Stephen McKinley Henderson.

Great day for birdwatching at the beach.

The Star Wars universe is many different things to many different people. 

To some, it's for kids - it's about Ewoks, The Phantom Menace and TV shows like The Clone Wars.

To others it's about more adult concerns of light vs dark, of authority vs rebellion - it's about The Empire Strikes Back, Andor and Revenge Of The Sith.

And for others still, it's just about high-energy excitement - it's about podraces, lightsabre battles, spaceships, weird aliens, and shooting laser pistols. Often all at the same time.

The Mandalorian & Grogu sits squarely in the final of these three categories, with a dash of the first. It's about the titular characters careening from one laser-filled shootout to the next, and ensuring the audience has a fun time in the process. There is also cuteness, because Grogu is the cutest creature this side of the Kessel Run. 

Basically, if you liked the TV show, you'll like this.

The story finds bounty hunter Mando (played variously by Pascal, Wayne and Crowder) and his adorable Force-powered sidekick Grogu hunting down Imperial warlords for the New Republic. This inadvertantly leads them to accepting a sidequest for a couple of evil Hutt crimelords, landing them in more trouble than they can handle.

The Mandalorian & Grogu is basically a fistful of episodes of the Mando TV show stuck together, and this is not a criticism. It's a great TV show, especially the first season, with high production values and, initially at least, a tone that was more Pale Rider than Pod Racer.

As time and seasons went on, the show became less of a space western and dug more into the Mandalorian mythology and broader lore of the Star Wars universe. Boba Fett popped up, then a major Clone Wars character, then a major original trilogy character. For better or worse, the cool unique tone of the first season made way for a toneless generic Star Wars vibe, which is what we also have in The Mandolorian & Grogu.

Again this isn't necessarily a criticism, but the best additions to the Star Wars franchise of late have found a unique place within the canon - Andor, Rogue One, Skeleton Crew and The Mandolorian's first season all did something different to stand out, using the backdrop of the much-loved universe to tell great stories in a fresh tone, as opposed to simply name-checking parts of the much-loved universe and forgetting to tell good stories (The Rise Of Skywalker, The Book Of Boba Fett, Obi-Wan).

All this is to say that The Mandalorian & Grogu isn't aspirational - it's just fun. It's a big-screen blast that looks like the small-screen version, and wants you to not take it all too seriously. Plotwise, it goes out of its way to add a sense of threat to the main character, who essentially wears a a suit of invulnerability that he never takes off.

Most of the film looks great, but some characters fall short. Rotta the Hutt (voiced by Jeremy Allen White) looks off and sounds wrong. The other main CG character Zeb (who adds little to the story) also looks not-quite-right. The only person who fares worse is Weaver, who gets little to do. She's basically the equivalent of the NPC who hands out side quests in a video game - not exactly the level of character worthy of a Hollywood great. Even Martin Scorsese gets more to do with a more interesting character.

The Mandalorian & Grogu is fine, mid-tier Star Wars content. It's fun, and rewatchable, and far better than The Rise Of Skywalker, The Book Of Boba Fett and The Phantom Menace. And maybe that's all we need in this beloved 49-year-old universe - for it not to totally suck.