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Toy Story 5 could have featured a drastically different ending for Jessie, as seen in scrapped concept art.
The latest installment in Pixar’s beloved series has launched in theaters and is off to a great start at the box office, and is enjoying a generally positive from audiences and critics alike.
But its ending was once planned to resolve very differently, an art book for the movie has revealed — with comments from director Kenna Harris explaining more about the film’s alternate finale plans.
Warning! Spoilers for Toy Story 5 follow…
Toy Story 5 centers on Jessie, who struggles with the fact her current owner Bonnie has become addicted to an iPad-like tablet. Through a rather convoluted series of events, Jessie finds herself back at the house of her original owner Emily — as seen briefly in Toy Story 2 — who left her heartbroken after ultimately giving her up and donating her to charity.
Pixar’s latest adventure ultimately resolves this plotline by reframing Jessie’s abandonment as simply part of Emily growing up, and beautifully reveals that Emily never forgot about Jessie, who she named her daughter after. Rather than being forgotten, Jessie realizes that her purpose had been fulfilled as she was a key part of Emily’s childhood, leading her to accept that toys are designed to simply be there at the right time for children, even if they will always grow up and move on.
However, the art book reveals that Emily herself was once planned to reappear. Now a grandmother, artwork shows an elderly Emily reunited with Jessie, holding her former toy in scrapped concept art drawn by Harris.
“Emily was now a grandmother and introduced her beloved childhood doll to her grandbaby in a touching climactic sequence,” Harris said, via SlashFilm. “I drew this in exploration of that special, nostalgia-filled moment. Though the film ultimately went in a different direction, we always knew that Jessie’s special connection to Emily would be key to Toy Story 5.”
While it’s not explained how Emily would have returned — or how the rest of her reunion with Jessie would have played out — one possibility here would be that Emily saw the “lost toys” message that attracts Bonnie’s attention in the final version of the story. Perhaps Emily would have revealed her daughter’s name to Jessie in person? And maybe Jessie would have ended up being her granddaughter’s toy rather than returning to Bonnie? Ultimately, however, Pixar ditched the idea — leading to the version we have now.
“We knew from the beginning that this scene was integral to Jessie’s arc, and therefore would be one of the most difficult to execute,” story artist Tessa Abrams added in a further comment. “So I felt incredibly grateful that our directors entrusted me with the scene. [Jessie] defined her time with Emily by how it ended — being forgotten and thrown away, but here, she finally understands that it was worth much more than that.”
If you’re still debating whether to go see Toy Story 5, IGN’s verdict on the movie returned a 7/10. “With a handful of new characters adding some fresh batteries to the mix, and sidelining the right legacy characters at the right time, the fifth installment of Pixar’s main event finds another good way to wrap up,” we wrote in IGN’s Toy Story 5 review. “At least until the inevitable Toy Story 6…”
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at [email protected] or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
