Film Review of Toy Story

Rating: 7/10 (26 April 2017)

The movie Toy Story is an animated film about the life of toys and their struggle to be kept by children. The story starts with a child named Andy whose favorite toy is a cowboy sheriff named, Woody (voice by Tom Hanks), and their inseparable bond. For years, Woody is Andy's number one toy, until one birthday Andy is given a new play pal, Buzz Lightyear, (voice by Tim Allen). Immediately, Woody is aware that Buzz is taking his place as the favorite toy and becomes jealous. Woody's plan to get rid of Buzz eventually leads to the both of them being far away from home and in the hands of Sid, the child toy terrorizer who lives next door. In the end, the two work together and make it back to Andy's house. Woody realizes that he will not always be Andy's favorite and becomes friends with Buzz. The overall theme of the film is accepting change and understand that sometimes it is a good thing. Woody was so worried about being replaced that he did not see a good person (toy rather) in Buzz. The next-door neighbor kid, Sid, also learned a valuable lesson in this film. He spent all of his time torturing and destroying toys as a way of having fun, but finally got what was coming to him when he seen that toys come to life. Another teachable moment was with Mr. Potato Head; one of Andy's toys, and his trust issues with Woody. Throughout the film, Mr. Potato Head constantly lacked faith in Woody and always gave a negative comment about what Woody wanted to do. Once Woody and Buzz teamed up, the other toys and Mr. Potato Head were convinced that Woody was right. Out of everyone, Buzz learned the biggest lesson; never give up on your dreams. Buzz did not comprehend that he was not really a space ranger and could not r fly. When Woody told Buzz that he was just a toy, Buzz did not believe it until he saw the commercial. Yet, he still got to ride his rocket and fly through the skies. Watching Toy Story and all of the messages that it displayed reminded me of one of my favorite films Dead Presidents. Everyone is going through the same journey, but have a different perspective on the situation. All of the characters have a diverse outcome of the lesson and they take an important life learning experience with them. The film was strictly a kid's movie, so the lighting was very bright and colorful. This worked well with the theme, because what easily influences kids are the things they see and hear. Having those cheerful images and giving a positive insight helps the children understand messages in a fun way. Many of the angles in the film were close ups of the characters faces, giving you great detail of the animated work done by the editors. Every expression was shown as if they were real people, and you could almost feel what the characters were going through. Andy's happy face, Sid's mean face and Buzz's sad face; all right there so you could relate to the emotion. I think it is cute and inspiring to young children to receive a good message in any film. Animated films have always been seen as funny and playful, but they do teach a lesson at some point. It may not be major, but it tells the audience something that they want to put out there, and most of the time that one message can grow into many different opinions; not everyone thinks the same.