Toy Story (November 22, 1995)

The movie that kicked off the Toy Story franchise as well as the first picture from Pixar, the original Toy Story still holds up despite its outdated computer generative animation. It was a strong first movie with a great plot and characters. I do believe, however, that Toy Story 2 is a superior movie, one of the few sequels better than the original. This is not to say this movie is not charming in its own right. But it has to establish the world of the characters and so is mostly exposition. The story focuses on Woody the cowboy who used to be Andy’s favorite toy until his birthday came around and he was gifted the shiny new Buzz Lightyear space ranger toy. This cases Woody to experience feelings of neglect and jealousy. Throughout the movie Buzz and Woody have to work through their difference to become the best friends we now know. Buzz is a toy who believes he is a real space ranger and he has to come to terms with reality. Woody has to realize Andy has enough love for both him and Buzz and its ok if he is not the center of attention anymore. His purpose is to be played with by Andy and he has to set aside his ego to make this realization. The voice acting in this film is amazing and is what brings the characters to life. The plot is also filled with, now iconic, lines and they are delivered in such an expert way they work wonderfully. The CGI actually works well with the Toys as it fits the plastic material and jerkier movements. It fails, however, to realistically animated the humans and they often look creepy and off putting. The signature song, “You’ve got a Friend in Me” is so timeless and nostalgic for me- it makes me emotional every time I watch the opening sequence. Overall, Toy Story is a great introductory film to both the Toy Story universe and Pixar. It helped them fund future projects and become the juggernaut of a studio it is known as today. It is well worth watching and re-watching in order to get a grasp of Woody, Buzz and the other toys residing in Andy’s room. It is also a heartwarming and relatable tale, harkening back to a simpler time in everyone’s life when we played with toys imagining worlds and acting out adventures with them. It invokes a time of whimsey and wonder when our world was smaller, but our imagination made it bigger.

Final Rating: 8.5/10