TOY STORY: A Great Leap Forward in Animation and in Perspective

Toy Story is an awesome, now-classic milestone in animated children's films. It grows even more interesting with each passing year, and it is well worth watching if you are an adult who has never seen it as much as if you were a child who had never seen it. If it has been a while since you've seen it, you might want to go back and look at it again; you may see something you missed the last time around.

Released in 1995, it was the first all-computer-animated film. That in itself gives it a place in history, but it is the quality of Toy Story itself over and above the technical breakthrough aspect of the film which gives Disney/Pixar something to be as proud of here as the original Mickey Mouse. It was a real "jump" for Disney in perspective too…going from the straight & sweet & ultraromanticized "Kid's Film" to a funny movie with some hip humor and some bad-boy action scenes too. Quite a difference in marketing and I know some of the conservative studio majordomos at Disney must have shaken their heads at first, until the money started rolling in.

In the early 21st century, animated films have become much more detailed and complex. Yet by 1995 standards, Toy Story was an overwhelming combination of drama, sound, and visual detail which was as attractive and as humorous as it was barrier-breaking.

There is a playful myth, probably as common as an archetype, in which children of many cultures share. It is that when the human aren't around, toys come to life and talk to each other. This myth is brought to life in Toy Story. I am reminded of the famous scene in STAR WARS IV: A NEW HOPE where George Lucas has the (robots) (androids) (droids) C3PO and R2-D2 talking with each other (about their new master, Luke Skywalker) as if they were persons with a life wherein they say something like this:
C3PO: "Do you like him?
R2D2: Strange whistling noise
C3PO: "No, I don't like him either."

Can droids, and toys, like their "masters"? It's an intriguing thought, with almost theological implications. Most religions teach that the deity delights when mortals love him or her. Do we care? If we are practical and jaded we don't. But in the world of childhood the main thing that matters is that friends stick together, and love each other, and take care of each other come what may. And it is every child's secret wish that all of his or her toys would reciprocate the love that is given out. After all, dogs love us when we love them; why not our toys too? And in Toy Story the plot hangs on how much the toys love their master. In contrast, to heighten the effect of this kind of bonding, we are even shown a "villain" child who hates toys and destroys them; this cements the idea of reciprocal master-toy love even more deeply.

In Toy Story , Andy, a six-year-old boy, has a favorite toy named Woody, a cowboy "action figure". Woody is the favorite toy and the leader of all of Andy's toys until Buzz Lightyear, an "action figure" of a space-man, is given to Andy at a birthday party and becomes his new "favorite toy". Woody becomes depressed at this idea. (For some reason, I had this off-the-wall thought: in those fabled harems you hear about in the Middle East, that must have been the feeling the favorite wife of the Sultan felt when he got a "new" "favorite" wife: ultimate rejection. Poor ladies.)

But Woody isn't about to give in to this turn of events. The second half of the story is about one-upmanship and its consequences as both Woody and Buzz go through a process of radically learning about who they are individually and eventually who they must become as friends.

The screenplay is outstanding and the voiceover dialogue, mainly carried off by superstars Tom Hanks and Tim Allen (but also by comic genius Don Rickles, who manages to slip in his trademark "You hockey puck!" line, complete with an onscreen hockey-puck to illustrate the line) is great.

The soundtrack, by Frequent Oscar Contender Randy Newman, is fantastic too. Randy just let it all hang out and had a lot of fun with licks all over the board and it works, with backup songs that make you want to laugh and cry at the same time. It is a sort of Emmett Kelly, sad-clown-with-a-rose music, and it is great. (Aside- Don't you think Randy would have won the Music Oscar long before 2002 if he hadn't written the greatly misunderstood "Short People"? I think all the "Shorties" in Hollywood voted him down for that all those years- just a speculation. No sense of humor. Glad he finally got the Big O in 2002.)

Toy Story's tag line is "To Infinity And Beyond". In many ways that's where this film in 1995 goes. It crossed over a barrier where no one had ever been before, but then it went beyond it. The story itself is great for kids and families, not just because it tells a nice tale. But it also reinforces friendship values and what it means to conduct yourself as a healthy person in a society. There is humor anyone will understand and yet there are also little hidden jokes that will keep the high IQ people awake too. It's a great film, and the standard by which its successors have been measured. Five Stars.


*****