What Toy Story 5 Teaches Us About Screen Time & Community
A Bible Study on the movie Toy Story 5
Not sure where to get started? Find our 101 Guide to using our curriculum here.
Opening Prayer
Start with a prayer inviting understanding.
Sample Prayer:
God, thank You for creating us for friendship and community. Give us wisdom as we talk about the people and technology influencing our lives. Show us which relationships help us become more like Jesus and which ones pull us away from who You created us to be. Teach us to use technology as a tool for love instead of allowing it to replace real relationships. Amen.
Prep Questions
Have you watched Toy Story 5? What did you think of it?
Who is your favorite character from the Toy Story movies?
Have you ever expected someone or something to be the villain, only to discover that the situation was more complicated?
Do you think technology usually helps friendships or hurts them? Why?
Have you ever felt pressure to change yourself so that you could fit into a group?
What qualities make someone feel safe to be around?
Shortened Transcript
In Toy Story 5, Bonnie struggles to make friends, so her parents give her a tablet named Lily. Lily connects Bonnie to a group of popular girls, but they mock her for still playing with toys. The problem is not simply the screen—it is the people using it. Jessie senses that this quick, easy belonging is unhealthy, connecting to Jesus’ warning in Matthew 7:13–14 about the wide and narrow roads.
Bonnie later meets Blaze, a girl who accepts her without judgment. Blaze shows what healthy friendship looks like: she helps Bonnie feel safe enough to be herself. This reflects both Paul’s warning that “bad company corrupts good character” and Proverbs’ picture of friends sharpening one another.
By the end, Lily changes from a crutch that replaces real connection into a tool that helps Bonnie find a real friend. The sermon challenges us to ask two questions: Are the people around us making us more like Christ, and is our technology helping us connect with others or quietly replacing them?
