Disney’s Toy Story 5 racked up the animated franchise’s best ever opening weekend, with ticket sales of more than $300m (£227m) globally.

Released on 19 June, the fifth installment of the Toy Story saga follows Woody, Jessie and Buzz Lightyear as they face their toughest rival yet – a tablet computer.

Its strong box office performance is a return to form for Disney and Pixar after a series of challenges in recent years.

It is estimated to be this year’s second-biggest opening weekend globally, after The Super Mario Galaxy Movie. That film is currently the highest grossing film of the year, taking in more than $1bn.

Toy Story 5 grossed over $160m in North America and more than $150m internationally in its first weekend in cinemas

With an estimated production budget of $250m, it will need to make at least twice that amount to cover the additional costs of marketing and other expenses.

Disney’s Pixar films have historically recouped their budgets – often comfortably – with many titles bringing in three times as much as they cost to make and promote.

A handful of its films – especially sequels like The Incredibles 2 and Inside Out 2 – have crossed the $1bn mark.

But some of the storied studio’s more recent titles, like the alien adventure Elio and Toy Story spin-off Lightyear, have bombed at the box office.

The Mandalorian and Grogu, Disney’s latest big-budget Star Wars spin-off, has yet to double its $165m cost.

Overall box office revenues have declined since the Covid-19 pandemic, as studios struggled to draw people back to cinemas as the industry has seen a shift towards streaming services like Netflix and Disney+.

Big-budget blockbusters in particular have suffered, with many films underperforming at the box office.

Still, the Toy Story series is one of Pixar’s most lucrative franchises, having raked in more than $3bn at the global box office since audiences were introduced to Woody and Buzz in 1995.

The original movie, set in a world where toys come to life, revolutionised the use of computer-generated graphics and propelled Pixar into the ranks of leading animation studios.

The series’ third and fourth instalments each made more than $1bn at the box office.

I dipped out of reviewing the online series The Amazing Digital Circus for a few episodes. That was more than half its season ago, and it’s now coming to an end. Remarkably, TADC – a co-production from Glitch Productions and animator Gooseworx – is the most watched indie animation on all of YouTube, the pilot episode alone racking up nearly 450 million views.

This has come with downsides. Two other YouTube hits have recently been upgraded to full theatrical outings: Backrooms (whose imminent movie version I mentioned in my first TADC review) and Obsession. The ninth and final, hour-long TADC episode was screened in cinemas, paired with episode eight for catch-up purposes; that two-week run took around $38 million internationally.

This has led to the most toxic wing of the show’s fanbase pouncing on Gooseworx for not bending the knee to fan service, and the Brazilian dub of the last episode somehow getting leaked ahead of release. It was enough to make Gooseworx wish they had never made the show in the first place – and suggests it’s found appeal with a youthful age bracket. As an TADC admirer myself, I’ll admit there are a few aspects of cringe in play. Yet in this finale, emotions run high, and it’s easy to be pulled in.

Michael Kovach has his finest hour here as voice actor for Jax, a divisive character who was easy to hate yet hard not to love – and who finally gets his backstory, just before ‘abstracting’, as we see an intimate sharing session with new character Ribbit (played by Skye Redden), a female frog who is shortly rejected. Clown character Kaufmo finally gets his first appearance too, voiced by Arin Hanson aka YouTuber Egoraptor (and not, as was rumoured in some quarters, by Jack Black).

Previous episodes had revealed Caine, the ‘ringmaster’ of this strange world, to be totally in control of the Circus. Not featured in this episode until its final third, when he logs onto a cafe’s wi-fi it enables him to see who these individuals, under his yoke in the Circus, actually are – and the error of his ways. Wrongs are thereby made right – yet the TADC fandom (including this writer) have questions.

It would appear that whilst these avatars are stuck in the Circus as brain-scanned copies, their real-life counterparts have been continuing their various lives throughout. I was hitherto under the impression that the actual people were in the game, and that a lot more would ride on this as a plot point. This is how the finale opens and cracks show through this. The reveal of the characters’ actual names, professions and so forth is essential, if underwhelming.

TADC’s animation and voice acting both improved over its three-year run, and Gooseworx’s own music is fluffy and luminous (the main theme is already a classic). The writing could stand to be tweaked here and there, though the emotional beats work for the most part; the level of anxiety and dread conveyed in scenes such as the spiralling of harlequin character Pomni is impressive.

Fans – myself again included – appear disappointed that the character of Agatha did not get more time onscreen; her fallout with Pomni was less than fully realised, often leaving tension without much context. Still, in light of the major theme of this show – the families we make for ourselves – and message – not to wallow too much in our own negative emotions – here’s to more successes as potent and touching as The Amazing Digital Circus. 

The Amazing Digital Circus is available to watch on YouTube & Netflix now. 

words JAMES ELLIS

Bodfish said completing the purchase and getting the keys to the house had been “surreal”.

“The quirkiest thing for us about it is every time you open the curtains you’ve got 25 people outside taking photos of your house – that takes a lot of getting used to.”

He said the couple had already got to know those involved in Gavin and Stacey themed tours around Barry – including Dave’s Coaches.

They now plan to turn the property into a holiday let, where fellow fans can literally immerse themselves in the show.

“We want to create a space which is Uncle Bryn themed for the real fans to actually come, with little bits, little Easter eggs, for people to discover when they get there.”

But guests will have to obey one rule, don’t mention the fishing trip.