Toy Story 5 splits critics, but most praise its 'cautionary' message about tech

The film is, he said, is "another parable of parental crisis dressed up as a brightly coloured family adventure" - and a "cautionary tale about online childhoods".

Yet it "pulls fewer punches than might be expected", he added, regarding its social commentary on technology.

Kevin Maher of the Times also offered four stars, commenting that "Sir Keir Starmer will love it".

He said the movie's message is "a sign of turning tide or an audacious act of self sabotage".

"A touchy-feely third act seems to argue for a shaky compromise of the toxic tech debate (group chat = bad, non WiFi-enabled tech toys under supervision at certain times = tolerable)," he pondered.

"Yet in the end, Toy Story 5 cannot shake the lingering sense that it's not only the age of toys but childhood itself that is over."

But there was scepticism from Rolling Stone's David Fear, who said: "Why are you doing this, Pixar?

"Regardless of well-deserved worries about screen-time or not, there doesn't feel like there's a reason for this to exist other than keeping your stockholders happy."

Empire's Helen O'Hara awarded four stars for "a welcome return to philosophical form" in film five, which, she said, is "funny, warm-hearted and largely - perhaps overly - optimistic".

There was another positive review from Screen International's Tim Grierson, who said it was "another delightful adventure that mines fresh emotional terrain while producing plenty of hearty laughs".

Elsewhere, the Hollywood Reporter's David Rooney said the film "does the enduring franchise proud," adding: "The movie's captivating sweetness is hard to resist."

The Financial Times's Danny Leigh dished out three stars, saying it paints a "portrait of tech rendering the young both sadder and meaner".

And BBC Culture's Nicholas Barber branded it "the year's most traumatic film - for parents".

Earlier this month, Hanks told BBC News the latest Toy Story film highlights children's addiction to screens, an issue that he said strikes "terror in the heart".

The US actor said the cast related to the storyline because they had all "met that disinterest" of young people who "look down at their phone, look up, look down, look up".

"This is a generational thing," he told the BBC's David Sillito, "where one generation has this thing that defines them technologically in society, and they pour everything into it."