Toy Story (1995 film)

Rating: Null/10 (17 September 2011)

One of the most popular computer-animated films released in 1995, Toy Story takes place in the bedroom of a little boy named Andy Davis. With no human around all the toys in Andy's room come alive. One week prior to Andy's birthday the toys discover the newest addition which is a astronaut action figure named Buzz Lightyear. As the family is about to go to Pizza Planet to celebrate, Andy's pull-string toy Woody becomes jealous of Buzz and begin fighting as a result they accidentally knock themselves out the car window. As the car drives off, Woody and Buzz attempt to get back to Andy by way of a Planet Pizza delivery truck. This is where the journey begins as both Woody and Buzz undertake a plethora of dangerous obstacles such as the spaceship-shaped claw game machine, a nightmarish neighbor named Sid with Scud his voracious dog that takes pleasure in torturing toys. As Woody, the pull-string cowboy, and Buzz Lightyear, the astronaut action figure, soon learn to respect each other's differences and as a result of their adventure to Andy they become close friends.
By the time Woody and Buzz finally make it to Andy, the family has packed the moving truck and is about to drive away when the two toys use a daring stunt to catapult themselves into the family's car with almost perfect precision. Next the narrative shows the Davis family on Christmas Eve. As the movie comes to a close Andy's toys are shown organizing a mission to discover the new editions named Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head and a surprise arrival of a puppy. The movie ends with Woody and Buzz showing a look of concern on their faces in reference to the family's new puppy.
As the sequel to Toy Story, the film Toy Story 2 continues the pattern of the original film in which Andy's toys organize a reconnaissance mission to save Woody from an international toy dealer. In this movie the producers utilized the same computer-animated style that allowed audiences to view the toy characters in this film as real people. Though various computer generated scenes were to develop this film, two techniques such as angle and lighting were specifically needed to create life-like scenery and characters throughout the film. For example diverse lighting methods were necessary in order to help viewers decipher the mood of a particular scene or event. This can be seen as the family goes to Pizza Planet in which the claw game machine stands out from all the surrounding games due to its bright colors in dark game room.
Film angles were also used throughout the Toy Story film, for example when traveling in the Planet Pizza truck the two toys met up with three toy aliens hanging from the truck's rear view mirror. In this scene Woody and Buzz were viewing the aliens from an angle in which they appeared to be descending from the sky. In my opinion this was yet another example connected to the theme in which both Woody and Buzz had to overcome their prejudices and accept the differences of others in order to achieve a common goal. In my opinion lighting and angles were a significant part of the film's theme which is about how two toys, Woody and Buzz, were able to overlook each other's differences in order to achieve the common goal of safely getting back to their kid owner Andy. In the end this film did an excellent job at portraying computer- animated toys such as Woody and Buzz Lightyear in a humanized manner. Wonderful family movie!