Time ages us all, even toys.

Disney released the first full trailer for Toy Story 5 recently (Feb. 19), and fans have been hung up on one detail in particular. 

Woody is now showing his age with a prominent "bald spot" aka some conveniently placed paint rub on his hair. "Someone needs a brown marker," Trixie the triceratops can be heard saying after the blinding reveal.

Pixar, perhaps anticipating the conversation, capitalized on the buzz around Woody's head with their own Instagram post. With just a few screenshots and a peeking emoji caption, the post has raked up thousands of likes and comments, far more than any recent post of theirs.

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A post shared by Pixar (@pixar)

DiscussingFilm, a popular X/Twitter account that normally posts movie updates, broke character to comment on the funny moment. 

Even Dreamworks, a rival studio, joined in with a tongue-in-cheek post featuring some of their follicle-challenged characters. 

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A post shared by DreamWorks (@dreamworks)

Many fans have been with the Toy Story franchise since the beginning, seeing the movie when they too were the perfect age to play with toys. They cried when Andy gave away Woody, Buzz, and the gang before going off to college in Toy Story 3, when they were also around the same milestone in their lives.

Now, the fans are understandably older and Woody's receding hairline is merely a reflection of this. To some, the joke is more existential, reflecting on how they themselves have aged, but others may see the absurdity of a beloved fictional character going through the same awkward change as them, which could explain this particular gag's popularity. 
 

Pixar giving Woody a bald spot is taking me out. Why you gotta remind the people who grew up with TOY STORY how old we are like that?!

— Rendy Jones (@rendy_jones) February 19, 2026

if you were alive when toy story 1 came out you may also be experiencing this https://t.co/2ITXcdsE5V

— megs 🪩🤠 (@megsknowsball) February 19, 2026

Aside from Woody's hair, some fans have commented on Tom Hanks and Tim Allen sounding older in their line delivery, another indicator of aging, but that's bound to happen when you have the same actor voicing a character for 30 years. Although that's not intentional, this seems to fit in with the general "times changing" theme of the movie, which has been part of Toy Story since the beginning when Buzz took Woody's spot as Andy's favorite toy.

In that movie though, the characters eventually learned to become friends and embrace the change presented to them. Toy Story 5 seems to be taking this concept in a new direction. The antagonist of the movie is Lilypad, a tablet that has begun to occupy all of Bonnie's attention, making our gang of toys nervous they're being replaced, an obvious commentary on the rising trend of "iPad kids," a pejorative term for kids who rely on ipads for enrichment and entertainment rather than toys.

The state of toys has also changed drastically in real life since Toy Story first premiered thirty years ago. Today, adult collectors are keeping the toy industry alive, with more and more children ditching toys at an earlier age and shifting to video games and other electronic devices. I'm curious to see what the public's takeaway from this movie is. Could it in fact, "change" children's entertainment to be more toy focused?

Change is a constant. Much like technology and hair loss, the question is whether or not you'll embrace it, or reject it. 

Toy Story 5 hits theaters on June 19.