Toy Story Review- By Michael J. Carlisle

Title: Toy Story
Year: 1995
Director: John Lasseter
Country: US
Language: English

As a piece of history, Toy Story presents several firsts; the first feature by Pixar, the first grand success of many in a track record that seems almost too good to be true and the first fully computer-animated film. The basis of the picture parallels the studio itself as both employ seemingly inanimate objects and give them life. It's quite an achievement to make lifeless objects from computers and have them strike the same emotional chords as say, the dog from Old Yeller. 

A little boy named Andy loves to be in his room, playing with his toys, especially his cowboy themed doll named "Woody" (Tom Hanks). Little does he know that they come to life when humans are not around. Toy Story revolves around Woody's jealousy of a new favorite toy; Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen), a space ranger who legitimately thinks he's from another planet. 

Pixar Inc's road to success was a long and treacherous one. Established in 1979,the company went under nearly a dozen times yet maintained maintained fixed on the goal of combining computer technology with traditional hand-drawn animation principles. The film's director John Lasseter had the difficult duty of mastering an art that was practically unheard of while trying to convince the founders of Pixar to use this innovation. The combined talents of George Lucas, Steve Jobs and Edwin Catmull couldn't see the importance of Lasseter's work and would attempt to sway him off the path on more than one occasion. 

110 animators were paid fairly poor salaries for their work as Disney was far too concerned about their own impending releases, Pocahontas and The Hunchback of Notre Dame, than anything Pixar worked on. Their work was quite difficult as to grasp every character in any given shot requires an extensive synchronization between animators and a profound understanding of character and story for all working on the production. Due to this unheard of unity between everyone involved, Pixar's fusion of artistry and universal storytelling made Toy Story into, at the very least, a great children's film. There is no doubt that this picture will be remembered for decades, and not just because of how it changed animation forever. 

Over the years Disney has made an incredible amount of money distributing Pixar's creations, while the corporate giant itself has created flop after flop. The traditional hand-drawn style of animation is dead in favour of Pixar's more affordable computer imagery. Proving the limitless possibility of animation, Toy Story is truly a magical  film.