June 11, 2010: Toy Story
With the imminent release of Toy Story 3, I decided as I typically do to revisit the earlier entries in the franchise. It’s been quite a long time since I’ve seen either of the first two Toy Story films. I always liked them, because it’s pretty hard not to, but I’ve never felt compelled to repeatedly watch them. Toy Story was released in 1995 and seeing it again puts into perspective just how far computer animation has come, buoyed by ever-increasing computing power, in just a decade and a half.
Toy Story was the first full-length animated feature from Pixar, which up to that point had put together a few noteworthy short films (including one which had won an animated short film Oscar). This was the start of the company’s association with Disney, which would eventually result in its acquisition by Disney in 2006 from Apple, who had owned Pixar since the 1980s. In the first of what would become an unprecedented string of successful feature films, Pixar brought together a compelling story, relatable characters, and high-octane celebrity voice work to make Toy Story a blockbuster with kids and parents alike. In what turns out to be a surprisingly fast and lean story, the characters (toys) are introduced during their owner Andy’s birthday party, Andy gets a new toy named Buzz Lightyear who threatens to become the new leader of the pack, and the old leader Woody knocks Buzz out the window. Wracked with guilt, Woody goes out in the world to retrieve Buzz just in time for Andy’s move to a new house. There are the requisite number of near-disastrous scenarios which are averted just in the nick of time, the types of situations which are very common in animated films since they are easy to depict.
What makes Toy Story more than just a typical animated action movie, though, are the carefully considered small details with which Pixar has become synonymous, and the integration of real human themes into the big picture. On the small scale, we have the facial expressions and animation details and the subtle nods to kids misplacing their toys all the time (these toys actually do move, so they really aren’t always where the kid left them). On the larger scale, dark themes of jealousy and bringing harm to others are explored, as well as the issues of growing old (as in the case of worn out and discarded toys), becoming a second fiddle, and the challenges of leading a group. In a stroke of brilliance, while the personalities of most of the toys are not well-developed in the film, they are embodied by familiar shapes such as a dinosaur and a piggy bank, and known brands including Mr. Potato Head and Slinky, so from the first time these characters appear on screen, we have already known and loved them for decades. Disney is a master of merchandising tie-ins, so the licensing of “real” toys is not surprising, but it was a fascinating phenomenon to see how this collision between classic toys and the two new characters of Buzz Lightyear and Woody permitted the studio to present these two all-new toys as being immediately credible, with store shelves packed with examples of Woody and Buzz and sparking Christmas shopping shortages, blurring the lines between popularity and familiarity. Isn’t Mr. Potato Head “imaginary” as well, and only seems familiar because he’s been around for so long?
On the technical side, while the animation detail is strong, the movement is not very fluid. Considering that we’re still trying to come up with decent animation techniques for human and animal movement, that’s not surprising, but in Toy Story it’s jarringly amateurish when we see dogs or people moving, and a clear indicator of the vintage of the film. There’s less complexity to the designs and certainly not as much fine detail and shading as in newer computer animated films (including the later Toy Story films, which I’ve now also seen and which are a good direct point of comparison). Aside from that, though, it’s staggering what the filmmakers were able to achieve during a time when a 66Mhz Pentium on the desktop was the state of the art.
The only thing which really seemed like a misstep and stuck with me from this viewing of Toy Story was that the character of Woody was more selfish than I remembered him being, and in fact it was jarring how mean-spirited he was when faced with a loss of popularity and leadership. Having re-watched the second film and now seen the third film, however, I’m confident that it is deliberate, and I remain surprised at how it is such a definite part of Woody’s personality. This is a courageously drawn flaw in a lovable animated character, and a hint at the depth which was to continue to come from Pixar. It certainly doesn’t make Toy Story any less powerful, and probably makes it moreso.
Early computer animated classic remains so.
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