The 1980’s brought with it the dawn of a new era for film production thanks to the increased power that computers were bringing to the table, allowing for special effects to be generated digitally rather than relying on the need for practical elements. This was early days of course, and whilst there are notable examples of films using computer generated imagery well, they were often restricted to short moments, or simple looking assets. When Disney animator John Lasseter watched Tron in 1982 it dawned on him just how much potential computers had to create amazing new worlds that couldn’t be done in live action or through traditional hand drawn animation. This led him down a path that would lead to the formation of Pixar Animation Studios in 1986. Bankrolled by Apple founder Steve Jobs, Pixar would go on to make various computer animated commercials and short films, but the team’s vision was always to create a feature film, a huge undertaking that had never been attempted before.
With Disney seeing the promise of Pixar in their short films, the company struck a deal to finance a feature film based around sentient toys. Production was far from simple with the film hitting multiple roadblocks along the way and costing almost double its initial budget, it almost never came to be. But by some miracle, in 1995 Toy Story released to the world as the first fully computer animated film and it would change the animation industry forever, as well as put Pixar under the spotlight as one of the most creative and talented animation studios in film history.
When Andy (John Morris) receives a toy Space Ranger by the name of Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen) for his birthday, it places the harmony of Andy’s existing toy collection in jeopardy as his former favourite toy, a cowboy doll named Woody (Tom Hanks), becomes jealous and plans to get rid of Buzz. But when Buzz and Woody become stranded far from home they must learn to work together to get safely back to Andy.
I’ve lost track of just how many times I’ve watched Toy Story, we’re talking hundreds of times potentially. This was one of the first films I ever remember watching as a child and I was obsessed with it. I had a Woody, Buzz, and Mr. Potato Head (Don Rickles) doll, as well as a whole lot of merchandise based on the film. The VHS copy, that I still own, is so worn and beaten up from being watched so much, even the case is held together with bits of old sticky tape that’s long yellowed. The point I’m trying to make is that Toy Story is probably one of the most important films in my life, and that as impartial as I’m going to try and be in this review, it needs to be mentioned just how much this film meant to me growing up. My latest re-watch may have been the shiny Disney+ 4K version of the film with Dolby Vision & Atmos enhancements, but I still distinctly remember what this film looked like on VHS whilst I was sat on the floor of my childhood home on my parents old Sony CRT TV.
With Disney seeing the promise of Pixar in their short films, the company struck a deal to finance a feature film based around sentient toys. Production was far from simple with the film hitting multiple roadblocks along the way and costing almost double its initial budget, it almost never came to be. But by some miracle, in 1995 Toy Story released to the world as the first fully computer animated film and it would change the animation industry forever, as well as put Pixar under the spotlight as one of the most creative and talented animation studios in film history.
When Andy (John Morris) receives a toy Space Ranger by the name of Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen) for his birthday, it places the harmony of Andy’s existing toy collection in jeopardy as his former favourite toy, a cowboy doll named Woody (Tom Hanks), becomes jealous and plans to get rid of Buzz. But when Buzz and Woody become stranded far from home they must learn to work together to get safely back to Andy.
I’ve lost track of just how many times I’ve watched Toy Story, we’re talking hundreds of times potentially. This was one of the first films I ever remember watching as a child and I was obsessed with it. I had a Woody, Buzz, and Mr. Potato Head (Don Rickles) doll, as well as a whole lot of merchandise based on the film. The VHS copy, that I still own, is so worn and beaten up from being watched so much, even the case is held together with bits of old sticky tape that’s long yellowed. The point I’m trying to make is that Toy Story is probably one of the most important films in my life, and that as impartial as I’m going to try and be in this review, it needs to be mentioned just how much this film meant to me growing up. My latest re-watch may have been the shiny Disney+ 4K version of the film with Dolby Vision & Atmos enhancements, but I still distinctly remember what this film looked like on VHS whilst I was sat on the floor of my childhood home on my parents old Sony CRT TV.
The opening scene establishes the world, its rules, and the power dynamic so well. The very start of the film sees Andy playing, having set up a bank robbery and hostage situation using some cardboard boxes and crayons. Mr. Potato Head has robbed the bank with the assistance of Slinky Dog (Jim Varney) and has also taken Bo Peep’s (Annie Potts) sheep hostage. Sherriff Woody comes to save the day with the assistance of Rex (Wallace Shawn), his pet dinosaur. It’s pure childish joy, using whatever you have laying around to make a playscape out of. Once Andy leaves the room though the toys come to life, something that wouldn’t be out of place in a horror film if it weren’t for the bright and colourful aesthetic and the fact that they proceed to have a committee meeting of all things.
Woody is the defacto leader, he’s wise and resourceful, as well as having all the inside knowledge from being Andy’s favourite toy. But this civility the toys have is clearly fragile as even the mention of a new toy possibly joining their ranks casts concern over some that they will be the one to be thrown away, donated, or left to gather dust in a cupboard somewhere. So, it’s quite funny that Woody, perhaps the only toy who wasn’t worried about being cast away, is actually the one to literally get shoved under the bed and forgotten about the moment Buzz arrives on the scene.
Potato Head is Woody’s biggest critic, he’s not a bad guy but he’s opinionated and outspoken. Bo Peep, Woody’s love interest, likes to keep him keen by playing hard to get, which includes flirting with Buzz the moment he arrives on the scene. Slink and Rex meanwhile just want to maintain the status quo, perhaps knowing that if it weren’t for Potato Head and Woody that they might not be played with as often.
There’s a surprising amount of bedroom politics that these toys have in place, and it’s made clear who’s content with it and who isn’t. It all seems fine on the surface until something comes along to cause a ripple.
That ripple is of course Buzz. A tie-in toy from a recently released film that Andy seems to have become obsessed with (see 2022’s Lightyear), and what makes Buzz such a great antithesis of Woody is that he doesn’t know he’s a toy. He thinks he’s a real Space Ranger, and so his understanding of what’s going on around him is vastly different to everyone else’s which leads to some hilarious misunderstandings. Where Woody sees a threat to his comfortable life as Andy’s favourite toy, Buzz just thinks he’s marooned on an alien planet with some strange backwater locals.
This frustration of Woody’s ultimately leads him to try and get rid of Buzz, in doing so branding himself as a murderer amongst Andy’s fellow toys. But when Buzz catches up to him and the two are too busy fighting to notice they’ve been left behind at a petrol station so begins their journey towards friendship.
Disney CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg made a very clear request for Toy Story to be a film for older children and adults, he wanted it to be ‘edgy’, and this request is ultimately what nearly sunk the entire film because it became so mean spirited. But the Toy Story that we know and love today still maintains a lot of those more ‘edgy’ elements when compared to other family animated films of the time. I distinctly remember being terrified by a couple of sequences as a child late in the film when Woody and Buzz make it to Sid’s (Erik von Detten) house. I’ve never seen an animated film do body horror but Toy Story is certainly about as close as you’re going to get with Sid’s twisted creations, and the climax of this sequence where the toys rise up against Sid is again the stuff of nightmares. It never crosses that line to be unsuitable for family viewing, but it’s definitely got that edge that Katzenberg was after.
Woody is the defacto leader, he’s wise and resourceful, as well as having all the inside knowledge from being Andy’s favourite toy. But this civility the toys have is clearly fragile as even the mention of a new toy possibly joining their ranks casts concern over some that they will be the one to be thrown away, donated, or left to gather dust in a cupboard somewhere. So, it’s quite funny that Woody, perhaps the only toy who wasn’t worried about being cast away, is actually the one to literally get shoved under the bed and forgotten about the moment Buzz arrives on the scene.
Potato Head is Woody’s biggest critic, he’s not a bad guy but he’s opinionated and outspoken. Bo Peep, Woody’s love interest, likes to keep him keen by playing hard to get, which includes flirting with Buzz the moment he arrives on the scene. Slink and Rex meanwhile just want to maintain the status quo, perhaps knowing that if it weren’t for Potato Head and Woody that they might not be played with as often.
There’s a surprising amount of bedroom politics that these toys have in place, and it’s made clear who’s content with it and who isn’t. It all seems fine on the surface until something comes along to cause a ripple.
That ripple is of course Buzz. A tie-in toy from a recently released film that Andy seems to have become obsessed with (see 2022’s Lightyear), and what makes Buzz such a great antithesis of Woody is that he doesn’t know he’s a toy. He thinks he’s a real Space Ranger, and so his understanding of what’s going on around him is vastly different to everyone else’s which leads to some hilarious misunderstandings. Where Woody sees a threat to his comfortable life as Andy’s favourite toy, Buzz just thinks he’s marooned on an alien planet with some strange backwater locals.
This frustration of Woody’s ultimately leads him to try and get rid of Buzz, in doing so branding himself as a murderer amongst Andy’s fellow toys. But when Buzz catches up to him and the two are too busy fighting to notice they’ve been left behind at a petrol station so begins their journey towards friendship.
Disney CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg made a very clear request for Toy Story to be a film for older children and adults, he wanted it to be ‘edgy’, and this request is ultimately what nearly sunk the entire film because it became so mean spirited. But the Toy Story that we know and love today still maintains a lot of those more ‘edgy’ elements when compared to other family animated films of the time. I distinctly remember being terrified by a couple of sequences as a child late in the film when Woody and Buzz make it to Sid’s (Erik von Detten) house. I’ve never seen an animated film do body horror but Toy Story is certainly about as close as you’re going to get with Sid’s twisted creations, and the climax of this sequence where the toys rise up against Sid is again the stuff of nightmares. It never crosses that line to be unsuitable for family viewing, but it’s definitely got that edge that Katzenberg was after.
In 1995, Toy Story was lightyears (no pun intended) ahead of the competition in terms of the quality of Pixar’s CG animation. Whilst there are definite examples of truly outstanding CG used in live action films before this, as well as some incredible 3D CG moments in otherwise 2D animated films, the fact that Pixar managed to pull off this standard of CG animation across an entire feature film is nothing short of mind blowing. Obviously in the nearly three decades since Toy Story released, its age has certainly shown. But even now in 2022 some aspects of the animation remain impressive when you consider that many animation studios today still struggle with aspects that Toy Story excelled in.
Let’s start with the character models. In an age before motion capture and tools to aid with predictive movement, Toy Story was keyframed frame by frame. The fact that motion is as smooth as it is really is impressive, especially when you factor in how few moving joints characters had. Computer processing power in the 90’s meant that characters couldn’t have as many moving parts, and yet Pixar animators somehow made each character move not only realistically based on their material makeup but also in believably lifelike ways. Woody for example feels much looser and more flexible in his movement style because he is mostly made of fabric, whereas Bo Peep is considerably stiffer and precise in her movements because she’s porcelain. Whilst Buzz may be made entirely of rigid plastic, his extremely mobile joins allow him a much greater range of movement; whereas Rex who likely has a similar material makeup is considerably more restricted in his range of movement because of his joint makeup.
Materials are a huge part of the design of Toy Story, not only in the movement as I’ve just mentioned, but also in the aesthetic. Woody’s fabric has visible stitching lines, as well as distinct patterns based on how the fabric has been weaved together. His hands and his face that are comprised of a soft plastic are shiny, smooth, and naturally reflect light that he’s positioned in front of. Compare this to Buzz whose hard plastic is more matte in composition and so doesn’t have the same kind of reflective qualities as Woody’s head, but does have visible roughness to it as a result.
Sid’s dog Scud is really the only time that the texture work falls flat in Toy Story. Hair has always been notoriously difficult to animate effectively in 3D and something that Pixar wouldn’t even have the technology to work with properly until Monsters Inc. in 2001. As a result, Scud looks a bit weird. In some shots he appears seemingly textureless, almost like his fur is actually skin; but then in other shots his fur is so clearly defined it looks like deep ridges in his body, this is made worse because they aren’t animated to move so they stay entirely rigid despite the body moving. It’s not a deal-breaker, but it’s without a doubt the most immediately obvious way in which Toy Story shows its age. Human characters also look a little weird, something that Pixar arguably wouldn’t get right until The Incredibles in 2004, but the only two humans to have any decent screen-time are Andy and Sid, and it’s kept as infrequent as possible in order to hide Pixar’s inability to animate them naturally.
Let’s start with the character models. In an age before motion capture and tools to aid with predictive movement, Toy Story was keyframed frame by frame. The fact that motion is as smooth as it is really is impressive, especially when you factor in how few moving joints characters had. Computer processing power in the 90’s meant that characters couldn’t have as many moving parts, and yet Pixar animators somehow made each character move not only realistically based on their material makeup but also in believably lifelike ways. Woody for example feels much looser and more flexible in his movement style because he is mostly made of fabric, whereas Bo Peep is considerably stiffer and precise in her movements because she’s porcelain. Whilst Buzz may be made entirely of rigid plastic, his extremely mobile joins allow him a much greater range of movement; whereas Rex who likely has a similar material makeup is considerably more restricted in his range of movement because of his joint makeup.
Materials are a huge part of the design of Toy Story, not only in the movement as I’ve just mentioned, but also in the aesthetic. Woody’s fabric has visible stitching lines, as well as distinct patterns based on how the fabric has been weaved together. His hands and his face that are comprised of a soft plastic are shiny, smooth, and naturally reflect light that he’s positioned in front of. Compare this to Buzz whose hard plastic is more matte in composition and so doesn’t have the same kind of reflective qualities as Woody’s head, but does have visible roughness to it as a result.
Sid’s dog Scud is really the only time that the texture work falls flat in Toy Story. Hair has always been notoriously difficult to animate effectively in 3D and something that Pixar wouldn’t even have the technology to work with properly until Monsters Inc. in 2001. As a result, Scud looks a bit weird. In some shots he appears seemingly textureless, almost like his fur is actually skin; but then in other shots his fur is so clearly defined it looks like deep ridges in his body, this is made worse because they aren’t animated to move so they stay entirely rigid despite the body moving. It’s not a deal-breaker, but it’s without a doubt the most immediately obvious way in which Toy Story shows its age. Human characters also look a little weird, something that Pixar arguably wouldn’t get right until The Incredibles in 2004, but the only two humans to have any decent screen-time are Andy and Sid, and it’s kept as infrequent as possible in order to hide Pixar’s inability to animate them naturally.
Environments are a whole other kettle of fish though and Toy Story certainly presents various kinds of indoor and outdoor spaces to showcase just what the creative team, and their equipment, were capable of. The film’s first act takes place almost entirely in Andy’s room which is bright and mostly consists of wooden materials. The detail really lies in the rooms intricate decoration, the number of toys and games in there, and the decorative details to the walls. Compare this to Sid’s room where the details lie in making it look rough, worn down, and dirty. The carpet is worn thin and has thick dark patches of dirt. His workbench has peeling paint and is chipped in multiple places. Wallpaper appears torn and peeling in places, and it visually communicates his kind of damp feeling.
Outdoor locations such as Sid’s Garden feature lots of different environmental details though. There’re patches of grass, something that Pixar would focus on more closely in their next film, A Bugs Life, but here in Toy Story grass doesn’t really do much. The muddier areas of the lawn are either bone dry, though don’t react to characters interacting with it, or are wet and have a sludgy kind of quality. The wet mud definitely needs some work to look more natural, but water looks surprisingly good. There’s not much of it but the way the liquid reacts to other objects is pretty good for 1995. It doesn’t leave characters wet surprisingly, but this is something that Pixar would spend a lot of time perfecting in 2003’s Finding Nemo which took place almost entirely underwater.
Obviously, I can’t not address Randy Newman’s great score and original songs. Toy Story really comes to life through its impressive soundscape and emotionally engaging score, but to double down with some original songs without falling into the trap of becoming a musical makes Toy Story feel considerably more mature than many of its animated peers. From the opening song of “You’ve Got A Friend In Me”, to the touching “I Will Go Sailing No More”, Newman delivers on all levels to make Toy Story sound as great as it looks.
What director John Lasseter and the entire team at Pixar achieved with Toy Story is at times beyond comprehension, which is ironic because I’ve just written two thousand words about it. When you consider that only 110 people worked on Toy Story it’s even more impressive, for reference, The Lion King which released one year prior had over 800 people working on it. Toy Story truly is a landmark in filmmaking history, and it did, for better or worse, begin a dramatic shift in the way animated films were made. Whilst Pixar never wanted to replace traditional 2D animation, once everyone saw what they had achieved with Toy Story ever major animation studio was jumping on the bandwagon of making computer animated films, and come the late 00’s 2D animation was all but extinct with only a handful of releases not using 3D CG.
I could talk about Toy Story forever, it’s one of those films that I just simply adore. I re-watch it at least once a year usually, and the magic has never died. It is a true triumph of technological wizardry, as well as something that hits every single emotional beat it possibly can. Toy Story isn’t just one of the best animated films ever made, it’s one of the best films ever made, period.
Outdoor locations such as Sid’s Garden feature lots of different environmental details though. There’re patches of grass, something that Pixar would focus on more closely in their next film, A Bugs Life, but here in Toy Story grass doesn’t really do much. The muddier areas of the lawn are either bone dry, though don’t react to characters interacting with it, or are wet and have a sludgy kind of quality. The wet mud definitely needs some work to look more natural, but water looks surprisingly good. There’s not much of it but the way the liquid reacts to other objects is pretty good for 1995. It doesn’t leave characters wet surprisingly, but this is something that Pixar would spend a lot of time perfecting in 2003’s Finding Nemo which took place almost entirely underwater.
Obviously, I can’t not address Randy Newman’s great score and original songs. Toy Story really comes to life through its impressive soundscape and emotionally engaging score, but to double down with some original songs without falling into the trap of becoming a musical makes Toy Story feel considerably more mature than many of its animated peers. From the opening song of “You’ve Got A Friend In Me”, to the touching “I Will Go Sailing No More”, Newman delivers on all levels to make Toy Story sound as great as it looks.
What director John Lasseter and the entire team at Pixar achieved with Toy Story is at times beyond comprehension, which is ironic because I’ve just written two thousand words about it. When you consider that only 110 people worked on Toy Story it’s even more impressive, for reference, The Lion King which released one year prior had over 800 people working on it. Toy Story truly is a landmark in filmmaking history, and it did, for better or worse, begin a dramatic shift in the way animated films were made. Whilst Pixar never wanted to replace traditional 2D animation, once everyone saw what they had achieved with Toy Story ever major animation studio was jumping on the bandwagon of making computer animated films, and come the late 00’s 2D animation was all but extinct with only a handful of releases not using 3D CG.
I could talk about Toy Story forever, it’s one of those films that I just simply adore. I re-watch it at least once a year usually, and the magic has never died. It is a true triumph of technological wizardry, as well as something that hits every single emotional beat it possibly can. Toy Story isn’t just one of the best animated films ever made, it’s one of the best films ever made, period.