Walt Disney Animation Japan has shared a new trailer for Toy Story 5, teasing a highly anticipated flashback sequence centered on Jessie. The minute-long trailer is packed with heart as Jessie recalls memories of her previous owner, Emily.
We first learned about Emily in Toy Story 2, which explored Jessie's tragic past. One of the franchise's most heartbreaking storylines, Jessie was originally owned by a young girl named Emily, and the two were inseparable for years. As Emily grew older, however, she gradually lost interest in her toys. Set to "When She Loved Me" by Sarah McLachlan, the film's iconic flashback shows Jessie being forgotten under the bed before ultimately being donated in a box by the side of the road.
The experience left Jessie with deep emotional scars and a fear of being abandoned again. Although she eventually chose to join Andy's toys, the pain of losing Emily has remained a defining part of her character ever since.
This latest trailer from Walt Disney Animation Japan offers a brief glimpse at the new flashback sequence awaiting fans in Toy Story 5, including our first look at Emily since her appearance in Toy Story 2.
The translated text accompanying the trailer reads:
Jessie's happy memories.
And the painful farewell that arrives, along with encounters with friends👢
Jessie, who has found a new place to belong,
What can she do for Bonnie.
The bond between toys and humans
that "Toy Story" has depicted—its answer is here💫
Shed tears at that answer—
Speaking to Cinemablend this week, writer and director Andrew Stanton revealed that Jessie's backstory helped inspire Toy Story 5.
"From the get-go, I knew that nobody's ever seen the back of [Jessie’s] chaps," Standon revealed. "And nobody knew that she was an Upholstering Doll, but she always was. If you go back, she was always designed just like Woody. And so, just knowing her backstory from Toy Story 2 and knowing that she was running Bonnie's room and those two elements, I, just as a writer, I was like, ‘Oh, there's so much to be had here that we can dig into.’"
Without spoiling too much, we know that Jessie, now the de facto leader of Bonnie's toys after Woody passed his sheriff badge on to her at the end of Toy Story 4, will take center stage and head out on her own major adventure that will touch on her emotional roots. After a mishap during a plan to help Bonnie make friends, Jessie will find herself back at her original owner Emily's old house, which is now occupied by a new family. It's at this ranch where she meets a new child named Blaze, along with a few new toy friends and foes.
Co-writer Kenna Harras added further added how the ideas of the film came to fruition, explaining: "And then we got to kind of specify it along the way. It was interesting to think about ruminating on the Emily of it all, but then being able to bring in ‘Well, what if there was this person who kind of took over the place that you started at and the place that you have all these memories with someone else.’ And that's kind of how Blaze came into being."
I'm already preparing the tissues for what I know will be an emotional sequence in Toy Story 5. I'm sure Taylor Swift’s new original song "I Knew It, I Knew You," which will connect to Jessie's ongoing story arc, will only add to the emotion and truly tug on the heartstrings.