Tablets vs. Toys: Woody & Buzz Lightyear Face the Screen-Time Epidemic in First ‘Toy Story 5’ Teaser, Soundtracked by INXS

Modern parents know all too well how difficult it can be to tear their kids and their tablets apart — and that’s exactly what the new Toy Story 5 teaser (soundtracked by INXS) touches on.

In a 50-second preview released by Pixar on Tuesday (Nov. 11), Woody, Buzz Lightyear, Mr. Potato Head and more of the franchise’s beloved toy characters tremble in fear as a frog-shaped tablet — named “Lilypad” — enters their household. Voiced by Greta Lee, the new piece of technology will make the “gang’s jobs exponentially harder when they have to go head to head with the all-new threat to playtime,” according to a description.

The teaser also features the 1988 INXS hit “Never Tear Us Apart,” which reached No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song’s romantic lyrics take on an eerie new meaning in the context of the movie premise, with the refrain — “Two worlds collided/ And they could never tear us apart” — now serving to reflect how parents are becoming increasingly reliant on screens for their children’s entertainment, creating what some people are calling a generation of “iPad kids.”

We certainly live in a very different world than we did back when the first Toy Story premiered in 1995, long before the age of cellphones and tablets. Back then, toys such as Woody and Buzz only had each other to compete with for their kiddos’ attention, as was the plot of the original film.

The Toy Story franchise — which stars Tom Hanks and Tim Allen as the lead voice actors — quickly expanded in 1999 with a sequel, which Pixar followed up with Toy Story 3 in 2010 and Toy Story 4 in 2019. Toy Story 5 is set to hit theaters on June 19, 2026.

Check out the new teaser for Toy Story 5 below.