Action News: Pixar Blazes New Trails for Diversity by Perfecting Curly Hair in Toy Story 5

Toy Story 5 is coming out soon … maybe tomorrow … this editor isn't interested in looking it up. In any case, it's certain to be a big hit, but for Action News in Philadelphia, the film represents something even bigger. It's set to blaze new trails for diversity by perfecting curly hair. Finally.

Pixar perfects curly hair in 'Toy Story 5,' blazing new trail for diversity https://t.co/Gd8zGEKyHs
— Action News on 6abc (@6abc) June 18, 2026

6abc's Ashley Mackey and Joe Maxfield report:

The film features Woody, Buzz, Jessie, and friends fighting for the attention of 8-year-old Bonnie after she gets a new smart tablet.
But it also introduces another character, Blaze, a young Black girl who has naturally curly hair - something Thomas Jordan, the VFX supervisor says was important to the animators.
"We have a character named Blaze with beautiful, long, tight, curly hair, which is something we have not been able to do before," he said. "And with very recent technological breakthroughs, we finally solved that."
The filmmakers tell On The Red Carpet that since this is a sequel and they don't have to create every character and setting from scratch, it leaves a little more time to solve issues they've struggled with in the past - like animating curls.
"We want our movies to reflect the audiences who watch them, Jordan said. "And we want the whole world to see our movies, so we want to feel like they see themselves in our films, which means we want to be able to create cultural diversity that feels authentic, and different types of hairstyles are an incredibly important part of that. And technology has been an obstacle. In that regard, especially with curly hair until very recently, and so I think this just opens the doors now to future films being able to represent anyone."

Action News: Pixar Blazes New Trails for Diversity by Perfecting Curly Hair in Toy Story 5

Recommended