Buzz Lightyear (voiced by Tim Allen) with some new friends in Toy Story 5. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Pixar. © 2026 Disney/Pixar. All Rights Reserved.
Arturo Hilario
El Observador
The toys are back in town. Toy Story 5 brings audiences back into the beloved world filled with toys who come alive when no one is looking, and this time there’s tech toys to face off against.
Returning on a new journey filled with tech-themed peril are Woody, Buzz Lightyear, Jesse, and the other friends which generations have come to love, as well as surprise voice cameos and a new smart tablet named Lilypad who has her own ideas about what’s best for children’s playtime.
Carlos Felipe León and Ricardo Pacheco are two animators at Pixar Animation Studios in Emeryville, California who just finished their work on helping to bring the iconic toys of Toy Story back to life in this newest adventure.
León is a Lighting Art Director on the film and originally from Bogota, Colombia. Pacheco is a Character Shading Technical Director and originally from Monterrey, Mexico.
They were responsible for designing the lighting of the film, designing the color of the film and character shading amongst other duties.
Recently I had the opportunity to speak with both of the animators and find out about the most intricate technical challenges of working on this film, as well as the legacy of Toy Story and the emotions that each of them felt at the opportunity to bring the classic characters back for another outing while being able to work on new characters who add new dimensions to the world made famous by Woody and Buzz.
Toy Story 5 is out now exclusively in theaters.
Well, thank you very much for taking the time to talk about your experiences working on Toy Story 5. I’d like to start by asking: What specific areas of animation did you work on? And what were some of the biggest challenges your departments faced on this project?
Carlos León
Well, I’ll briefly describe my role in the film. I was the art director for lighting and color, which means I chose the colors for the sets and characters, as well as where to place the lights and how to light them.
And with those two variables, you can completely change the emotion conveyed in a shot or a sequence in the film. I think the biggest challenge I faced in this process was trying to give this film something that would make it special while at the same time respecting all the iconography and the legacy of the previous films.
So it was quite a difficult balance to get right, but in the end the film turned out really well, and I hope everyone enjoys it when they see it. Personally, I was very satisfied with the result and, above all, with the experience, which was wonderful, and with a phenomenal team of people.
Ricardo Pacheco
Well, I work in the character department, and my specific role is character shading. Basically, it involves applying materials. So, let’s say a character is made of plastic, I’m in charge of making that plastic look new or worn. But also, let’s say there’s a character with human skin; I have to make sure the skin looks like skin and not plastic.
So my role is to figure out how to take the materials that exist in real life and make them look exactly as they should in the movie. As for the technical side, what was the hardest part for me? Well, everything is hard. There’s no such thing as, let’s say, “easy.” Take, for example, a specific aspect of a new character who’s going to appear in the movie, a character everyone knows: Buzz Lightyear. This is a new version of Buzz.
It’s actually a movie about technology, and this new character embodies those new technological aspects. So instead of following my usual approach to shading, the way I typically do it, I had to apply new techniques, talk to many departments, and ask, “Look, I don’t know how to do this, how can we integrate it? How can we make this new technology work?” I’ve been working here for 10 years now, and every project has its own complications. So for me, that was one of my biggest challenges.
I’d say that many people who have gotten into animation over the past few decades have fond memories of the original Toy Story, since it’s such an important film in the history of digital animation. So I wanted to know: What’s it like to work on this fifth installment of one of the most important and beloved animated franchises of all time?
Carlos León
Well, I can say that when I started working on it, I definitely felt a mix of excitement and nervousness about working on it, because you want to do a job that lives up to the incredibly high standards set by the previous films. But as production went on, I found some phenomenal collaborators in the art department and in all the other departments as well, where I felt a lot of mutual support and where we were able to work by supporting one another.
And I think that shows in the result. And, well, having a really beautiful story and a very relevant topic to explore also makes it easier to make creative decisions when you have such a solid foundation. So what started out as a mix of excitement and nervousness has turned into a deep sense of pride in the work we were able to do and satisfaction with how the film turned out in the end.
Ricardo Pacheco
Well, Toy Story came out when I was 5 years old, and that was the first animated movie I ever saw, I was fascinated. I mean, I didn’t know if they’d actually filmed it with real toys or if it was a cartoon, because the genre of 3D animation hadn’t really been established yet. So I was so intrigued, and I kept asking, “What? How are they doing that?”
And I remember being in a supermarket, looking at the TV section, and I just stood there, I don’t know, to me it felt like an eternity, or maybe it was just a minute, but I’m sure it felt like hours while I was watching the movie. That’s when I first got the spark that made me want to get into animation. I studied animation, and one of the first films I was assigned to work on at Pixar was Toy Story 4.
And they told me, “Look, you’re going to create a new character.” It turned out that character was Forky. I didn’t know he was going to be so important, but after Forky, they gave me Woody. And I was so excited because I thought, “I saw that character when I was 5 years old, and now I have to improve him.” I mean, how am I going to improve him? And of course, I had a lot of colleagues who helped me with the art direction.
“Add this, take that away”, that’s how you solve technical problems. And now, with this new movie, I got Buzz Lightyear, but also another new character that I don’t think anyone has seen yet, and you’ll have to go to the theater to see him, because if he shows up there, when you see him you’ll say, “Oh, that character is back again!” So, when I’m assigned new characters, it’s always such a thrill, and I go home and tell my wife, “Guess which character they gave me?” So, even though I’ve worked on other movies before, this is always an honor, and it really excites me to work on characters I haven’t voiced before. It’s very rewarding.
Well, Carlos, Ricardo, thank you very much for your time. One last question: Why would you recommend that the audience go see Toy Story 5 and appreciate the work that went into it?
Carlos León
Well, I’d say it’s a movie that should have been seen on the big screen a couple of weeks ago, it looks phenomenal. All the details Ricky mentions, from every department, these are people who put their hearts and souls into their work, and you can tell; you can see it in the movie. It’s a film made with a lot of love. It has laughter, it has tears, and it has adventure.
So I think it’s exactly what you look for in a summer movie, it’s a film that will leave you thinking and talking about it with friends and family, one that tackles a very relevant topic related to technology, but above all, it’s a really fun movie to watch. So, I’m sure everyone is going to enjoy it a lot.
Ricardo Pacheco
I would recommend, as Carlos says, that you go to the movies, because when we make a film, we don’t shoot it on a tiny cell phone and we don’t watch it on such a tiny screen. I mean, we make it with the intention that people will watch it on the big screen and see all the details. That’s the technical way to ensure that you can enjoy all the “visual treats”, as we say here in the studio.
But also adding to what Carlos said about the message: there is indeed a message about technology and how it affects children, but also how it affects adults. And there are other messages about friendship and nostalgia. So, this, the theme of technology is relevant, but I’d say go in prepared, just like with other Pixar movies, to laugh and to cry. So go see it in the theater.
