Every Toy Story film has had a villain you could point to. Sid. Stinky Pete. Lotso. Toy Story 5 is doing something more uncomfortable, and director Andrew Stanton wants to make sure you understand why.
Ahead of the film’s release, Stanton has been reframing how audiences should think about LilyPad, the frog-shaped tablet at the center of the story. Most fans who saw the trailers assumed she was the film’s primary antagonist. Stanton says the reality is a lot more nuanced than that.
Andrew Stanton on Why LilyPad Is an Antagonist, Not a Villain
In a recent interview with Variety, Stanton drew a clear line between the two.
“She is to the toys because they’re understandably intimidated,” he explained. “She’s just the next phase in Bonnie’s life. She’s built like a toy in the sense that she wants to help the kid go forward, but she’s got very different skills and zero experience, whereas Jessie has nothing but experience and is probably unprepared for what to do.”
That framing lines up with what Stanton told Empire separately. “Lily means well, like all good villains,” he said. “Antagonist, I guess, is a better word. It’s not like a mustache-twirling villain, which may make it boring.”
The tweet that has been circulating also captures his broader point cleanly: “No parent willingly puts a device in the hands of their child without thinking it’s going to help them develop.” LilyPad, voiced by Greta Lee, isn’t trying to steal Bonnie away from her toys. She genuinely believes she is helping.
Co-director McKenna Harris revealed there were active debates inside Pixar about whether LilyPad should be a villain at all. The studio ultimately landed on something messier and more honest, a character whose threat to Woody, Buzz, and Jessie comes not from malice but from simply being better at holding a child’s attention.
It is the most relatable conflict the franchise has ever tackled. Bonnie, now around 8 years old, has a new obsession in LilyPad, and the traditional toy gang faces the possibility of becoming irrelevant. That is not a villain’s doing. It is just the way things go.
Toy Story 5 opens in theaters on June 19, 2026.
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