Toy Story
d. John Lasseter, 1995
Toy Story is, I believe, one of the first few films that I actually remember watching. I'm sure it wasn't, but it certainly was one of the first to make an impression on me. At the time I hadn't really seen many "great" films (except maybe some Keaton, Chaplin, and early Looney Tunes shorts), and the amazement of that first viewing of Toy Story (in theatres I believe), was only later surpassed when I discovered a film like Apocalypse Now or Rear Window.
Now, watching the film after a couple of years, I can definitely see why I liked it so much to begin with. Toy Story, as many people know, was the first fully computer-generated film. Essentially, it's like ballroom scene in Beauty and the Beast except that instead of a couple of minutes, it's 80. However, John Lasseter and his Pixar staff were smart enough to not use this ability as a gimmick, as most animated films do, but instead as a way to fully realize the inventiveness of their story.
The story of the film is very simple, it works under the pretense that all toys lead lives when their human owners are not present. The film opens with Andy's birthday party, and the toys, lead by sheriff Woody, fear that they will be replaced by the new toys that Andy is to recieve. They send an army of army men with a walky-talky to tell the rest of the toys what the presents are.
Problems ensue when Andy receives a Buzz Lightyear. Of all the toys, he is the one not in on the joke; he truly believes he is a "space ranger." The other toys' admiration of Buzz strikes a nerve with Woody, whose jealousy takes over when he feels rejected. Their conflict can only be solved by realizing that they were both just as wrong to begin with. Woody's cynic, jealousy-ridden personality is obviously a bad one, but no more than Buzz's childish idealism. The film argues that a balance is necessary between the two; which is realizing that life is real and not a game, but also acknowledging that, within in this not-so-magical life, there is much room for hope.
Every scene in Toy Story is as lovely as the next. This is in no small part due to the wonderful voice-acting of the whole cast. Tom Hanks as Woody is fantastic, as is Tim Allen's Buzz Lightyear. The "supporting toys" are just as great; Wallace Shawn's neurotic Rex and Don Rickles' Mr. Potato Head are often hilarious and deliver some of the funniest lines in the movie ("Look at me, I'm Picasso","It's Laser Envy").
Every computer-generated film to be released after Toy Story obviously owes something to it. The thing is, the people making recent animated films like, say, Chicken Little are only superficially looking at what the film is is. Sure, the animation's great, but that's not the reason so many people keep going back to it and look at it as the standard for all films of its kind nearly 10 years after its release. Toy Story is, above everything else, a glorious example of what can happen when technical skill and imagination collide.
