Technology may spell the tip of youngsters enjoying with toys, kids’s creator warns
Traditional toys could soon be banished as technology takes over to ‘infinity and beyond’, a leading children’s author warned yesterday.
Frank Cottrell-Boyce said he was increasingly hearing that children no longer played with toys.
The Children’s Laureate previously warned that the government must give children access to more books because of ‘a recession of happiness’ from a lack of reading.
Reflecting on the theme of the new Toy Story 5 film – recently revealed in a trailer 30 years after the first movie – Mr Cottrell-Boyce, whose books include Millions and Cosmic, said: ‘Toy Story 1 was the first completely computer-generated animation story – it was the magical curtain up on the digital age.
‘The films are the story of what happens when one child grows out of his toys, but more and more I am hearing the phrase, “children don’t play with toys any more – they have ditched their toys for screens”.’
In the film, due in UK cinemas next June, a green frog-shaped tablet called Lilypad is delivered to the play room – terrifying the traditional toys.
The hugely successful franchise introduced generations of children to the adventures of wooden cowboy Woody and the space age superhero toy Buzz Lightyear.
But Toy Story 5’s trailer suggests it will reflect the modern era rather than being a coming-of-age tale like the original.
The moment in Toy Story 5 when Buzz Lightyear and Woody are shocked when at realising children are not playing with toys the same anymore
Instead, in Toy Story 5 the creators wanted to reflect society and introduced a green frog-shaped tablet called Lilypad to show a shift from traditional toys
Referencing Buzz’s famous catchphrase, Mr Cottrell-Boyce told BBC Radio 4 yesterday: ‘Are we on our way to a digital toyless infinity and beyond?’
It is six years since the last film in a franchise which has netted $3.3billion (£2.5billion) for Pixar and Disney.
Toy Story 5 director Andrew Stanton said the latest instalment was ‘simply trying to reflect where we are’.
He told Empire magazine: ‘It’s not even really about a battle so much as the realisation of an existential problem – nobody’s really playing with toys any more.
Technology has changed everybody’s lives, but we’re asking what that means for us – and to our kids.’
He added: ‘We can’t just get away with making tech the villain.’
