When you’re only a few inches tall, getting across a bedroom can already feel like an adventure.
Throw in a mysterious rift that scatters your friends across the world of “Fortnite,” however, and suddenly Woody, Buzz and the rest of the gang have a much bigger problem on their hands.
Disney and Pixar are celebrating the Disney+ arrival of “Toy Story 5” with “Toy Story 5: The Great Toy Rescue,” a new limited-time “Fortnite” activation available now through October 5. And rather than simply bringing some familiar characters into the game, this adventure is playing with one of the most fun parts of “Toy Story” itself: seeing an ordinary world from a toy’s very tiny perspective.
The adventure begins inside Bonnie’s imagination, where players arrive at a persistent home base built at toy height. Suddenly, furniture isn’t simply furniture anymore. Bonnie’s room becomes an enormous environment to explore, while hidden imaginary spaces open the door to even more fantastical worlds.
Unfortunately, a “Fortnite” rift has also opened and scattered six familiar toys across different creator-made islands. Jessie, Woody, Buzz Lightyear, Rex, Hamm and Forky are all missing, leaving players with one rather important mission: find everyone and get them safely back to Bonnie’s room.
That means we’re going on a toy rescue.
Each missing character has landed in a different creator-made experience, with players completing challenges inspired by the characters along the way. Forky’s rescue involves tracking down a stash of paperclips, while finding Hamm requires collecting coins. Players can compete in two-person squads to gather crayons and return Woody, repair a necklace to bring Rex home and collect Bullseye’s horseshoes while searching for Jessie.
And naturally, Buzz Lightyear couldn’t make his return too easy.
Players searching for everyone’s favorite Space Ranger will need to climb, leap and outmaneuver their rivals while securing the batteries needed to send Buzz back to Bonnie’s room. Hopefully he doesn’t decide he’s actually flying along the way.
The larger structure also marks a first for Disney and Pixar inside “Fortnite.” “The Great Toy Rescue” connects a Disney-branded adventure across multiple participating creator-made islands, with Bonnie’s room acting as the central point tying the individual experiences together.
It is an interesting way to approach a crossover like this. Instead of building one island and filling it with “Toy Story” imagery, the story gives players a reason to move throughout the wider “Fortnite” ecosystem. Each creator-made island effectively becomes another stop in the rescue mission before everyone can finally be reunited.
More importantly, the concept feels right at home with “Toy Story.” These movies have always transformed ordinary bedrooms, backyards, stores and other familiar places into enormous worlds simply by showing them from the toys’ perspective. Letting players actually explore Bonnie’s room at that scale takes an idea audiences have watched for decades and turns it into something they can navigate themselves.
And with “Toy Story 5” beginning its streaming run on Disney+ September 23, the timing gives families another way to continue the adventure after the movie reaches home.
“Toy Story 5: The Great Toy Rescue” is available in “Fortnite” now through October 5 at 11:59 p.m. PT.
Six toys are missing.
Time to round everyone up before Bonnie notices.