A Three-Dimensional Masterpiece with a Special Effect in our Hearts :

Rating: 10/10 (11 January 2012)

Almost 20 years have passed since the nineties Â… Now, we are so familiar with the cell- phones, Facebook and the Internet that we're totally amnesic regarding these years where we had none, and we all scratch our heads wondering how communication was even possible back then. Not too surprisingly, the same reasoning can be applied for animation: we're so used to CGI and 3D animated films that we forgot how groundbreaking Walt Disney's "Toy Story" was in 1995, and that we witnessed an event as historical as the release of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs". It's not surprising, by the way, that the two films are the only animated features included in the American Film Institute's Top 100 List.
The comparison with "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" doesn't only rely on the technical achievement and the critical recognition, but also on what drove these two crucial aspects: an endearing and universally appealing story. "Snow White" exploited all the comical possibilities of the dwarfs, in order to use physically distinct characters with different personalities attributed to each of them, while the Queen and Snow White could be modeled in more realistic designs; the setting also allowed the drawers to extend their talents and give it the touch of magic and escapism the audiences needed back then. "Toy Story" does the exact same thing, it chooses the best setting that can justify a clever and playful use of three-dimensionality, by creating a sort of underworld made of different forms and colors, a world where toys come to life when the owner is absent. This choice is a strike of genius because it provides an escapist value in our own environment, Disney made enough movies set in forests, mountains, jungles, so for its first 3D film, we have the first in-door Disney film, which gives an irresistible feeling of intimacy.
This simplicity is the perfect counterpart to the complexity of special effects and the creativity of the screenplay because it also succeeds to add a little touch of nostalgia and hit a sensitive chord by waking the inner child inside of us. In 1995, we're in the midst of Disney Renaissance and its streak of successful films was so full of adventures and romance, thrills and laughs that "Toy Story" almost resonates as a comeback to the roots of the Walt Disney Company, childhood. Haven't we all played with toys when we were kids, whether they were dolls, Smurfs figurines, cars, monsters, haven't we all used our hands, totally invisible for our little eyes, and talked instead of characters, like magical puppeteers, imagining them sliding from a ravine that was our bathtub, or escalating a mountain, the bed-pillow. Toys were always alive for us, because our games were precisely what brought them to life, and in "Toy Story", we always have the feeling that the creators are less 'making a film' than playing with toys like we used to do, engaging a tacit complicity with the kids in the audience, and the inner kids within the adults from the audience.
"Toy Story" assumes that toys are alive, and the script is so well written that we're immediately convinced. There's no way Woody, the cowboy doll with Tom Hanks' voice couldn't be alive, that the cocky Buzz Lightyear is only a 3D talking image, that Mr. Potato Head isn't that grouchy figurine or that the Tyrannosaurus isn't that cute and
coward creature, all the toys that belong to little Andy incarnate Disney's magical power, bringing things to life, and we realize how we all had a Disney inside us when we were playing with our toys. And "Toy Story" couldn't have a more appropriate villain than a kid who destroyed toys, Sid: a character I despised so much because I was definitely not a Sid when I was younger. "Toy Story" is an odyssey in the world of toys after which we don't look at them the same way, calling them objects is almost insulting. Indeed, I've always felt guilty because as a teen, my mother told me to get rid of my toys, to give them to needier boys, and although I didn't play with them anymore, I remember how painful it was to say them goodbye, after "Toy Story", now I feel better with myself.
And "Toy Story" doesn't just take its creativity and the cuteness of its characters for granted, there are the lines, the humor, but the story too, starting with the antagonism between the two 'lead' toys. Woody is jealous because Buzz, Andy's new birthday gift, became his best friend, in other words, his favorite toy, while Buzz doesn't know he's only a toy and lives in total denial about his true nature, which adds an unexpected bit of poignancy to characters that are not just three-dimensional on a geometrical level. The film has its share of action, mostly with the Buzz and Woody's duo trying to get back to Andy's house before the family moves in, but the emotional core of the film is their friendship. And progressively, their journey will allow them to understand the value of a toy, illustrated by Newman's Oscar-nominated song "You've Got a Friend in Me"; there would still be room for Woody in Andy's heart and there's an inner nobility in toys in the way they bring happiness during our most treasured memories.
'Toy Story" is a beautiful friendship story between two lovable toys, (have you noticed that Buzz and Woody makes buddy if you associate them), whose friendship culminate at the moment where both 'fall with style' in Andy's box. And I guess this is why we hardly remember how groundbreaking "Toy Story" was, maybe we just forgot about the special effects and the whole 3D thing, and simply remember the beauty of the story.