Toy Story (1995)

Toy Story (1995)

10/10

Starring the voice of

Tom Hanks

Tim Allen

Directed by John Lasseter

Every child dreams of his toys coming to life and playing back, but the main idea has always been what it will be like if toys did come to life. Well, Toy Story answered that question in a more enlighten way that made you eager to see more of the adventures Andy’s toys were getting into. Toy Story has a masterpiece storyline that makes you just sit and wonder, the screenplay that blends this toy acts to human interaction is so well done, that if not that the fact that this can’t be true, this movie may make kids think this is possible.

The movie is about a group of toys who pretend to be lifeless whenever humans are present and come to life to discuss, when humans are not around. The toys' behaviour, actions and fears are all based on their need to be played with by their owner.

This group of toys belong to a boy named Andy, and the Andy's favourite toy is Woody (voiced by Tom Hanks), a cowboy dull. Things were rosy when Woody was on top, but then came a new toy who took Woody's place, Buzz (Tim Allen). Now Woody who feels threatened tries to get back at Buzz, but he drags himself down with his acts, and now he may never see Andy again.

Toy Story was the first fully computer animated feature film at its time, and it came about when Disney approached Pixar to produce a computer animated feature for them after seeing their short animated film Tin Toy (1988). The production of this movie went through many ups and downs, mostly due to the fact that Disney wanted a story that was nail-biting and out of this world perfect, which caused Pixar to work on re-writes that saw the lead characters changing form till they finally settled on Woody the wise leader of the Toys in Andy's room and Buzz the new addition to Andy’s toys who is confused as to who he really is.

Then there was the talk between Pixar and Disney about songs. Disney's movies at that time were all musicals with the characters breaking into songs, to further pass their message along, but John Lasseter didn’t want that at all claiming this is a buddy film, so the two reached a compromise, that the score of the movie will be directed towards the action at hand at the point. That can be seen in the movie at one point when Buzz wanted to fly out the window to prove that he could fly and that he was not a "Toy". The song that was playing during that scene of Buzz trying to fly had such lyrics as: ...no, it can't be true, I can fly if I wanted to.

Toy Story received massive recognition during its time Review aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes has the movie at a 100% approval rating from critics, and it also won Three Academy Awards (for Best Original Song, Best Original Score and Best Screenplay).

The movie was a financial success, and it gave birth to two other sequels which were bigger financial success Toy Story 2 (released in 1999 and gaining 100% approval at Rotten Tomatoes) and Toy Story 3 (released in 2010 and gaining 99% approval at Rotten Tomatoes, and it is the highest grossing animation till date making over 1 billion dollars). There was also a direct-to-video animated film titled Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: The Adventure Begins (about Buzz) and also an animated television series Buzz Lightyear of Star Command.

Toy Story is a classic true and true one DVD you should own.