Toy Story 5 Is Why YouTubers Look Like They Are About to Eat Hollywood’s Lunch

June 2026

 

I have grandchildren...

 

Which means I am moderately up to speed on the argot of middle school boys...

 

Although ...

Until this week...

 

I didn’t know what being “Kirked” meant...

(Don’t ask...let’s just say it’s a verb for a specific act of violence...)

 

Which I’ll admit is a bit disturbing...

But not surprising considering where I live...

 

But having grandchildren also means I see a lot of kid’s movies...

 

The Good.. Hoppers

Interesting message...

The Bad... Puss and Boots: The Last Wish

Another example of the Marvelization of kid’s movies which means it is mostly cat martial arts on the big screen....

And the Awful...Inside Out 2

A film that should be banned for the pernicious message it is sending children...

 

So this week I saw Toy Story 5...

Of which I have not much to say... because it was anodyne...

So I was pretty bored...

 

But I did wonder when Woody became a middle-aged gay man...

 

And Buzz Lightyear riding to the rescue on My Little Pony...

Was an amusing visual...

 

And Disney made good use of Woody’s bald spot...

 

But otherwise...

 

Toy Story 5 is a lot like Toy Story 1 through 4...

 

The toys are sad...

 

Because...fill in the blank

 

They are being replaced by other toys... Toy Story 1

They worry the kids may no longer want them... Toy Story 2

They get lost or given away... Toy Story 3

The kids grow up ... Toy Story 4

And now they are being replaced by devices... Toy Story 5

 

You get the point...

 

But I can only watch this story so many times...

Before my eyes start to glaze over...

 

But the kids in my packed theater apparently loved it...

Because they acted like the second coming of Christ had arrived...

 

So either they are REALLY easy to please...

Because what the film studios have been feeding them is so bad...

The bar is now so low it is buried underground

 

Or I was just seeing the power of product placement...

 

And if you have ever come off a ride at Disneyland to be greeted by a wall of Woody and Buzz Lightyear dolls...

You’ll know what I mean...

 

I’m going with the latter...

 

So the power of merch should never be underestimated...

Just ask Glitch and Gooseworx, the team behind The Amazing Digital Circus...

 

But that series is proving there is another force out there...

That also seems to be putting bodies in the seats of our theaters...

 

And that is a ready made YouTube audience...

 

Now the same grandchildren who wanted to see Toy Story 5...

Introduced me to The Amazing Digital Circus...

Which was also in the theaters...

 

And my first reaction was...WTFWT...

And then... wow...

 

More later on why...

 

But films like The Amazing Digital Circus...

Are a challenge to big budget Hollywood movies like Toy Story 5...

 

Because The Amazing Digital Circus...

Is clever, visually arresting...and very thought provoking...

In that way films from Hollywood used to be...

 

And which Toy Story 5... with its $250 million budget

Is not...

 

Now The Amazing Digital Circus began its life as a series on YouTube...

Then migrated to Netflix...

And finally ended up with a major theater release for its final episode...

 

Which is the exact opposite of the normal theater first...

Then to streaming trajectory...

We have become accustomed to expect...

 

The Amazing Digital Circus is now in the top ten of Netflix series...

And was kept in the theaters longer than expected...

Because it made $35 million over a couple of weeks...

 

Now, of course, Toy Story 5 with its legacy name recognition

Brought in a much bigger box office...

 

But The Amazing Digital Circus has now been seen by 441 million people worldwide...

And it cost around $5 million to make...

Despite the fact that it is a 3D animated film like Toy Story 5...

 

And I can tell you which one is more imaginative...and memorable....

 

So The Amazing Digital Circus...

Sent me down the rabbit hole...
Of what is coming from YouTube...

 

To a theater near you...

 

Which then led me to Obsession...

And an appreciation of how the independent film landscape...

That many thought was dead...

 

Is alive and well...

 

But not where you thought...

 

Obsession, which was made for $750,000 by a YouTuber, Curry Barker...

Has raked $300 million so far in its theater release...

 

And it... along with Backrooms...

Have that precious commodity... word of mouth ...

That is bringing to the theater people like me...

 

Who never heard of Barker or Kane Parsons before...

 

So as I sat bored by Toy Story 5...

And intrigued by The Amazing Digital Circus...

And then later Obsession...

 

For reasons I will go into in my next reviews...

 

I was struck by how little that is truly creative is coming out of traditional Hollywood...

Despite the cost of what they produce...

 

Or maybe because of it...

 

And how the film landscape is being transformed as a result...

 

Because nature abhors a vacuum...

 

Thank god...

 

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