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Major spoilers for Toy Story 5 lie ahead!
Toy Story movies have been in my life for 30 years now and, in that time, one particularly emotional sequence has never left my brain. In Toy Story 2, we meet Jessie, who had a previously special relationship with a girl named Emily before she grew too old for her, and Jessie was donated to charity. I never expected we’d get closure for Jessie’s backstory, but then Toy Story 5 became part of the 2026 movie schedule. And, as I (and CinemaBlend learned) one of the film's most affecting Jessie scenes wasn't initially planned.
In the latest Toy Story sequel, Jessie, who’s voiced by Joan Cusack, ends up at the home where Emily previously lived. Late in the movie, the doll finds a remnant of her former owner's later life after she was donated, and it comes right as the character needs it. Jessie finds a lunch box belonging to Emily's daughter, who happens to be named Jessie and referred to as her mother's "little cowgirl." I definitely felt the tears well up as Jessie realized just how much she truly impacted Emily's life.
Fans may find it hard to believe that full-circle scene was only added at the last minute. During CinemaBlend’s Toy Story interviews, the filmmakers told us about how the scene came about. Per co-writer Kenna Harris:
I think the thing that's kind of interesting is the specificity of that moment, especially in regards to naming, was something we found a little bit late in the development of the movie. If anything, Jessie's arc was all about momentum while we were developing. We knew it's like, ‘Oh, this is a character that has this deep, deep well of emotional backstory, just so much richness to her. But what is going to be an ending that’s deserving to her?
It’s actually wild to me that this Toy Story 5 moment wasn’t originally in the script originally, because it really feels like the emotional center of the film to me. In a separate interview, co-writer/director Andrew Stanton told us that exploring Jessie's backstory further was the jumping off point for the sequel for him, but the idea of Jessie inspiring the name of Emily’s child didn’t come until later. As producer Lindsey Collins added:
What is it that she's searching for? What's going to feel like a healing resolution for her?
When Toy Story 5 starts, Jessie is dealing with the trauma of being pulled away from Emily as she watches her new person, Bonnie, get sucked into technology and cease to play with her toys. So, when Bonnie initially decides to desert Jessie in the third act of the film due to peer pressure, Jessie is ready to give up on being a toy out of sadness. However, when she learns of Emily’s daughter, she feels validated by how much she meant to Emily after all. As Harris also told us:
Luckily, with some time to spare, [we] landed on the idea that we have now. And it just was something that felt right with us. And with the people we screened it, we were suddenly like, ‘Oh, this is what she needed’.
Pixar movies take many years to make, and famously go through a lot of changes throughout their production cycles. Stanton, for example, told us that when he first wrote Toy Story 5 he did so without Woody before deciding he wanted him in the movie. It took awhile to land on the emotional Jessie scene, but I’m so happy they did. Collins also said this:
That feels pretty amazing because it's the best way to show the impact of kind of what you had on somebody that you had no idea without having to be super literal about it, or having it have to be spelled out for you or having to revisit that person. And specifically, it's like, what greater impact or gift than to have you name your child after that.
I’m not the only one who loves how Toy Story 5 turned out, as it’s earning rave reviews from critics and positive reactions from general audiences. Honestly, it's wild to me that we’re on the fifth Toy Story film and the quality of the storytelling hasn't been diminished. As far as I’m concerned, the franchise doesn’t need to end as long as the filmmakers continue to come up with worthwhile ideas. It's thanks to that continued creative inspiration that I'll be thinking about this sweet Emily revelation for quite some time.
Check out Toy Story 5 in theaters now, and stream the first four installments using a Disney+ subscription.
