By Chris Snellgrove
| Published
There’s no living director as controversial as Quentin Tarantino. The man makes undisputably great films: Pulp Fiction is the ultimate argument that style and substance can be one and the same. Kill Bill is the ultimate love letter to the boldest, bloodiest movies ever created. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, meanwhile, is a powerful deconstruction of the media machine that is so fundamental to our lives. What makes Tarantino so controversial, then? Sometimes, it’s the filthy content of his movies, with haters complaining about everything from the ultraviolence to the abundance of racially-charged language. More recently, though, Tarantino has gotten himself in trouble by dropping hot takes on various movies and actors.
For example, it wasn’t that long ago that Tarantino described beloved actor Paul Dano’s performance in There Will Be Blood as “weak sauce” and the actor as “the weakest f*cking actor in SAG.” After that, the entire internet wanted the director’s blood. However, with Toy Story 5 on its way, I thought it was time to revisit one of Tarantino’s less controversial takes: that Toy Story 3 was such a perfect ending to the franchise that it made no sense for Pixar to create any more of these movies.
Hollywood’s Filthiest Director Loves A Children’s Movie
In December 2025, Quentin Tarantino appeared on The Bret Easton Ellis Podcast to talk about a subject near and dear to his heart: his favorite movies of all time. He said a lot of crazy things during this appearance, including the extremely controversial comments about Paul Dano. But perhaps the most shocking thing Tarantino said in the interview was that Toy Story 3 was his second-favorite film of the century and “almost a perfect movie.” He went on to describe how “That last five minutes ripped my fuck*ing heart out” and how “if I try to even describe the end, I will start crying and get choked up. … I can’t even do it.”
It’s admittedly wild to imagine Tarantino tearing up over a Pixar movie about toys. But he’s serious, and in 2024, he told Bill Maher that Toy Story 3 was so good that it completely killed his interest in watching further films in the franchise. “You literally ended the story as perfectly as you could,” he said. “So no, I don’t care if it’s good. I’m done.” It’s a comment that raised many moviegoers’ eyebrows, especially in the wake of Toy Story 5’s success. Now that Toy Story 5 is about to come out, though, we need to admit that Tarantino was right and that Pixar should have ended things with the third movie.
The Toys Are Back In Town
Toy Story 3 basically wrapped the story up for Andy, the owner of all those fantastic toys like Woody and Buzz Lightyear. By the end, he is headed off to college and ends up donating all of his old toys to Bonnie, a young girl in the neighborhood. Woody says goodbye to his oldest friend, and he and the rest of the gang settle in for life with a brand new kid. Tarantino’s absolutely right about this ending, by the way: it’s guaranteed to make you cry, and it’s wonderfully meta to see Andy put away his beloved toys even as we, the audience, put away the franchise we’ve been enjoying for decades.
Perfect ending, right? Unfortunately, Disney likes money more than they like art, so we ended up getting Toy Story 4 and, now, Toy Story 5. Bonnie is now the central character, but she never becomes quite as compelling as Andy. Even if she was, though, Toy Story 4 felt like a creative rehash of things we had seen before. The idea of toys being secretly alive and going on crazy misadventures is a powerful one, but what’s the point in going back to the well for a fourth time if the movie feels derivative? Honestly, Disney should have gone all Spaceballs on us and called this sequel Toy Story 4: The Search For More Money.
Toys Vs. Electronics
Now, Toy Story 5’s big gimmick is that Bonnie is a little older and wants to play with a tablet rather than her old toys. Like, seriously, who wants to watch that? Obviously, the rise of iPad kids has been a problem in the real world, but I doubt that parents want to see an onscreen recreation of the tablet arguments they are constantly having with their children every night. For that matter, I doubt that kids are in a serious rush to watch a movie that constantly reminds them they could be accessing the sum total of all entertainment and information instead of playing with a toy that has only a few points of articulation.
Obviously, not everybody shares Quentin Tarantino’s thoughts on this matter. Toy Story 4 was a critical and commercial smash hit, earning over a billion dollars at the box office. Movies making that kind of money are guaranteed to get a sequel. However, the very existence of sequels to Toy Story 3 underscores that everyone involved cares more about an easy payday than anything else. The third film was, as Tarantino said, “almost perfect,” effectively providing a perfect ending to the franchise and (in many ways) our collective childhood.
If nothing else, maybe Tarantino’s hatred of these sequels will spur him on to finally create his next film. With movies like Inglourious Basterds and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, the director has developed a penchant for rewriting history in ways that he finds more personally pleasing. Maybe, just maybe, we’ll get a Tarantino film where Pixar never made another Toy Story movie after the third one. That beats the alternative: a Toy Story reboot from Tarantino where a grown-up Bonnie’s feet somehow never leave the frame.
