14/06/2026 12:47 - Entretenimiento
Un vaquero de juguete con sombrero y un astronauta espacial de plástico parados sobre una madera vieja, iluminados por una luz cálida que proyecta sombras dramáticas, con una pantalla digital brillante de fondo
"Do you remember, brother? Those were the days," Buzz might sing to Woody in this new adventure, echoing a nostalgic Argentine tango sentiment. Thirty years after that first film revolutionized the very foundations of animation, Toy Story 5 arrives in Argentine theaters on June 18, 2026.
The return is a celebration for the studio that transformed a computer into the most powerful instrument of cinematic fantasy, but it also poses an existential question: What will old toys do in this world of screens?
In the mid-1980s, in a corner of Silicon Valley, a group of engineers and artists obsessed with digital imagery attempted something no one had ever achieved: telling a complete story using computer-generated animation.
That group was Pixar, a division of Lucasfilm that Steve Jobs purchased in 1986 for $5 million. Jobs, recently ousted from Apple, bet on a company that originally sold hardware to hospitals and visual effects studios.
The leap to feature films came in 1991, when Disney signed a $26 million deal with Pixar to produce three films. The team presented three concepts: two based on children's books and one idea about a pair of toys. Disney chose the third option.
| CGI Duration | 77 pure minutes |
| Woody's Controls | 700 for his face |
| RenderMan Cost | $15 million USD |
| Rendering Hours | 800,000 hours |
| Sun Computers | 117 units |
| Box Office | $400 million USD |
Year 2000: 50% of animated films used CGI
Year 2009: 90% already used digital animation
The technical revolution would have been irrelevant without the story supporting it. Woody, the pull-string cowboy with Tom Hanks' voice, was designed as a loyal and protective character, but also one haunted by the fear of being replaced.
That fear—universal, recognizable in any relationship or job—immediately connected with audiences of all ages. Beside him, Buzz Lightyear, the space ranger with Tim Allen's voice, completed an unprecedented on-screen duo.
Steve Jobs, who bet on Pixar when no one else would, saw in the premiere the confirmation that technology could also be poetry. Pixar's IPO made Jobs a billionaire for the first time. He always considered Pixar one of his most important achievements.
Thirty years later, Andrew Stanton, one of the founding fathers of the saga, returns as director with a proposal that pits Woody, Buzz and their friends against a more threatening enemy than Sid or Lotso: technology.
The plot emerges from what Stanton described as an "awareness of an existential problem": the reality that today's children almost don't play with physical objects.
What place do toys—and stories—have in a world of screens and algorithms? It is, in a way, the most honest question Pixar could ask itself on its thirtieth anniversary.
Yesterday it was avant-garde, inventing computer animation and transforming the global animated landscape forever; today, when all animated films resemble it, it questions its place in the world.
Source: El Día
Alfredo S. Quiroga
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