TOY STORY

(November 1995, U.S.)

When my son was a little boy, I must have watched just about every computer-animated feature that was ever made because that's just what you have to do when you're a father. The original release of TOY STORY in 1995, though, was at a time during the crust of my '20s, when animation was just about the last thing I had on my mind when I went to the movies. Any initial interest I had in this brand new full length Pixar feature was more about the comic voice of Tom Hanks behind one of its characters than anything else.

Taking place in a world where anthropomorphic toys come to life when human beings aren't present, the plot tells of the relationship between a vintage pull-string cowboy doll named Woody (voiced by Hanks) and an astronaut action figure, Buzz Lightyear (voiced by Tim Allen), as they evolve from rivals competing for the affections of their owner Andy, to close friends working together to be reunited with Andy after being accidentally separated from him and his house. On the day of Andy's birthday, all his toys are in a panicked frenzy because they've yet to discover what new toys are going to be a part of their world. All seems safe until the final birthday present is a brand new Buzz Lightyear action figure who's looking to be the best of the group above Woody. Buzz, however, things he's the one and only space ranger, and not a toy, though Woody repeatedly tries to convince him otherwise. It's days before Andy, his mother and his little sister Molly are due to move, and the toys are organized to make sure it all goes smoothly. Before going to dinner at Pizza Planet, Andy is permitted to bring one toy with him. Knowing that Andy will choose Buzz, Woody attempts to trap Buzz behind a desk but ends up knocking him out of the window, causing most of the other toys to accuse Woody of "murdering" Buzz out of jealousy. Before they can exact revenge, Andy arrives and, after failing to find Buzz, takes Woody with him.

Now faced with the challenge of getting back home, Woody and Buzz reach Pizza Planet and end up getting stuck in a crane game filled with alien toys. They're both retrieved by Andy's neighbor Sid, who takes pleasure in sadistically torturing toys. Inside Sid's room, Woody and Buzz meet the mutant toys who have suffered under Sid's torture. While trying to escape Sid's room, Buzz sees a TV commercial for a Buzz Lightyear action figure and suddenly and painfully realizes he is just a toy, and nothing more (his drunken stupor as "Mrs. Nesbitt" still cracks me up even today). But as cliché would dictate, Woody restores Buzz's confidence by convincing him of the joy he brings to Andy as a toy. The next morning, as Sid is about to launch Buzz on a his newly-acquired firework rocket, Woody and the mutant toys come to life in front of Sid, terrifying him into no longer abusing his toys.

The duo manage to make it to the moving truck by not only working together, but by actually employing Sid's rocket that was meant to destroy Buzz. In the end, the beloved toys are reunited with Andy (who's never been the wiser to anything that happened to them) and on Christmas Day at their new home, the new challenge (if not threat) to the toys will be a new puppy who may just enjoy chewing up toys.

Twenty-five years later, even as compared to the TOY STORY sequels, the original film looks a bit lame and underdeveloped in terms of its computer animation quality. For the mid '90s, of course, it was considered state-of-the-art with its bright, flashy colors. It also helped to reinvigorate animation through Pixar's arrival, even after a series of successful Disney animated releases that started with THE LITTLE MERMAID in 1989. Again, for its time, the film is a feast of visual razzle-dazzle offering a secret world beyond our own in a way we'd never seen before. As comedy, Tom Hanks, Tim Allen and the rest of the cast make it fun, imaginative and inventive, with just the right amount of adult wit to keep one interested. For children, it's surely a pure and free-spirited romp though a world of toys that many of us may have grown up with as kids. It may also open our own minds and imaginations to how much our childhood toys really meant to us beyond the initial gratification of getting them from our parents when we asked for them. At least, that's how it works for me.

Favorite line or dialogue:

Buzz Lightyear: "Don't you get it!? You see the hat!? I'm Mrs. Nesbitt!!"