Toy Story 5 relates to its predecessor, Toy Story 4, without quite the level of sweaty “I’m sorry! I’m sorry!” backpedaling that The Rise of Skywalker had with The Last Jedi. Still, this new installment does seem intent on “placating” certain audience complaints about Toy Story 4, a film I found on repeat viewing to be surprisingly strong. Though not without some mighty fun charms, this “course correction” signals larger storytelling problems keeping it from reaching its predecessor’s lofty heights.

This chapter trades the melancholy summertime evening vibe of its predecessor for a wackier, louder sensibility. It also quickly undercuts the ending where Woody (Tom Hanks) bid farewell to his friends. Consequently, Bo Peep ends up relegated to a cameo. In her place, the film rolls out a cavalcade of callbacks from the first two movies, including an echo of the original’s rivalry between a classic toy and a new, electronics-powered interloper. This time out, they’re embodied by Jessie (Joan Cusack) and the eponymous Lilypad (Greta Lee) tablet.

As this entry begins, Jessie is now in charge of Bonnie’s (Scarlett Spears) room with Buzz Lightyear as her deputy. Under her direction, all the familiar toys are making plenty of new memories with their owner. Unfortunately, outside of her room, Bonnie struggles to make friends, feeling increasingly lonely. Thus, her parents give her a Lilypad tablet. It proves so versatile that Bonnie bonds with it immediately, suggesting all other toys are now obsolete. Jessie, still so close to the trauma of original owner Emily abandoning her, won’t go down without a fight, though.

She and her trusty steed, Bullseye, are determined to prove that they’re still best for Bonnie. Meanwhile, Woody, returning to the playroom, brings dark news from the outside world. Turns out kids everywhere are abandoning their toys in favor of screens. Is there room in this new status quo for the Toy Story stars? Or has the end Jessie has always dreaded come for her once more?

With apologies to the delightful Forky (Tony Hale), the Toy Story saga totally should’ve ended with Toy Story 3. Still, if these movies must rage, rage against the dying of the light, they should strive for this latest one’s pleasantness. Screenwriters Andrew Stanton and Kenna Harris (also director and co-director, respectively) know what makes lovable characters like Jessie or Buzz so enjoyable. These toys have always worked well reflecting our real-world insecurities, and that remains the case here.

Toy Story 5’s creative team has an especially solid grasp of Jessie. Whenever the movie slows down to linger on her anxieties and fears, it sings. Even a seemingly throwaway moment, like Jessie briefly panicking when she’s temporarily stuffed into a mailbox, provides poignant insight into her fear of being abandoned and confined once more. The always reliable Joan Cusack’s strong voice-over performance is a tremendous asset in realizing these moments.

The “toys vs. tech” concept is also executed with more finesse than expected. Initially, the feature’s depiction of youngsters clutching their tablets and ignoring toys has unshakeable “kids these days” energy. Additionally, the irony of Disney—a company built on app and streaming revenue—offering such commentary is groan-inducing. Thankfully, the script soon reveals it’s more concerned with timeless, emotionally resonant experiences, such as messily grappling with loneliness. The tour of arcane tech, like a GPS hippo or Conan O’Brien’s potty-training toy, ensures Toy Story 5 never feels like an infomercial hawking Silicon Valley wares to youngsters, à la The Emoji Movie. Using these elements as catalysts to jokes and emotional exploration helps the film navigate the slim space between “things were better in my day” empty nostalgia and uncritical tech boosterism.

Fittingly for a movie about playthings, Stanton, Harris, and company have an infectious blast playing around with familiar Toy Story characters. Segments where a Buzz Lightyear army commandeers a gigantic crane or scours a picnic area for weapons, for instance, are enormously fun. Repeated emphasis on these plastic characters interacting with various real animals—like deer, salamanders, pigs, and horses—unwraps unprecedented sights and sounds for the franchise while further emphasizing the importance of flesh-and-blood connections.

Unfortunately, this installment’s screenwriting problems, beyond awkward Toy Story 4 backpedaling, undercut some of the fun. Certain gags and didactic dialogue don’t quite work with the heavier elements. This feels especially disappointing in light of how Stanton, in his past Pixar features, deftly combined the likes of 60s showtunes and apocalyptic sci-fi or surfer-dude turtles and tumultuous father-son relationships. Here, though, the louder comedic impulses and tin-eared expository verbiage clash with sequences that channel Jessie’s “When Somebody Love Me” flashback. It’s all a far cry from the distinctive wit littering the greatest Toy Story adventures.

Similarly frustrating is the sheer size of the cast. As the wise Griffin Newman pointed out in the Toy Story Midway Mania episode of Podcast: The Ride, the film saga has amassed so many plastic characters that juggling them all is cumbersome. This entry struggles with that most when it comes to “the rootinest, tootinest, shootinest, hootinest cowboy around.” Tom Hanks is as lively as ever in his voice-over work. His depiction of Woody’s lived-in chumminess with Buzz is genuinely sweet. However, if he was going to return, give him something more meaningful to do instead of tired fat jokes.

While some familiar faces get the short shrift, Toy Story 5’s new characters are generally quite amusing. O’Brien’s Smarty Pants in particular is a lively delight. It’s impressive how much expressiveness the Pixar animators get out of this device that has an intentionally limited facial range.

While throwing so much at the wall leads to some frustrating miscalculations, Toy Story 5 reminds audiences how much fun it is to spend time in this corner of the Pixar empire. It may lack in essentiality, but, by shining a spotlight on great voice work like Cusack and O’Brien’s, it makes up for it in affability.

Toy Story 5 is now “yee-hawing” through theaters everywhere.

Toy Story 5 Trailer: