125. Toy Story (1995)

Stars:  Tom Hanks (Woody), Tim Allen (Buzz Lightyear), John Morris (Andy), Erik von Detten (Sid), Don Rickles (Mr. Potato Head), John Ratzenberger (Hamm), Wallace Shawn (Rex)

Director:  John Lasseter

Awards / Honors

•  1 Oscar Win – Special Achievement 
• 3 Additional Oscar Nominations – Best Original Score (Musical or Comedy), Best Original Song ("You've Got a Friend in Me"), Best Writing (Original Screenplay) 
• #99 on AFI’s 100 Years… 100 Movies list (2007)
• #6 on AFI’s 10 Top 10 lists – Animated Movies (2008)
• Toy Story is approximately the 108th highest grossing movie of all time, accounting for inflation (see Box Office Mojo)
• In 2005, Toy Story was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".  

Genre:  Kids / Animated
Running Time:  1 Hour, 21 minutes
Format:  DVD, Blu-ray

Odyssey Rating: 5 Stars (John – 5 Stars, Beth – 5 Stars)

John’s Take

I believe that any person that saw this movie and didn’t give it at least 4 Stars must just be dead inside. Also, if you don’t get at least a little misty-eyed when Buzz starts to believe he can’t fly – well, I just feel bad for you, I really do.

That being said, this movie was also a marketing execs wet dream. Released during the Christmas season of 1995, I am not sure there is a parent alive during that period in history that does not have a few Toy Story related scars – “I want a Buzz / Woody / Mr. Potato Head / etc. doll, and I want it now!”. My parents are just lucky I was 28, or so, when this movie came out. Believe me, I would have been horrific.

Speaking of me as a child, an event that always comes to mind when I watch this movie, is some vague memory I have of my mother desperately trying to convince me that my toys could not move on their own. The memory is a bit fuzzy – I was pre- kindergarten in age and it wasn’t that I was afraid of my toys (no clowns dragging under my bed ala Poltergeist or anything), I was just absolutely convinced they could move on their own. I suspect this belief was due to me having seen some toys move in a cartoon on TV. At this period of time in my life, if I saw it on TV, it was absolutely true.

For example, at about the same time, I was absolutely convinced I could fly if I just flapped my arms fast enough. Unlike the situation concerning toy-locomotion, I know for a fact that Wile E. Coyote and host of other cartoon characters are to blame. As I understand it, it used to drive my parents to distraction that my faith in the Warner Bros.-school-of-physics was so strong that I was convinced that it wasn’t my personal lack of aerodynamics, but the lack of height my take-off platforms had that contributed to my failure to achieve flight. I can vaguely remember my parents freaking out about me jumping off a fairly tall (at least to a 3 or 4 year old) deck in the back yard. I don’t remember much after slamming into the concrete slab under the porch, other than being undeterred and my parents being fairly exasperated at that.

I seem to remember my mother also being fairly exasperated with me concerning the question of whether toys could move on their own as well. Apparently, I was difficult child.

This movie, however, vindicates my childhood stubbornness. :)

With vast amounts of computer animation dominating the cinema these days (Avatar, anyone?), it is easy to forget that basically this is the movie that started it all. The same mix of animation, kid’s humor and kid-friendly adult jokes has been used many times since its release (The Incredibles, Ice Age, Cars, etc.) so, it is easy to forget just how much of a “wow” factor surrounded this movie. Having just watched it again, especially when compared to those later movies, you can start to see that the visual affects are starting to become a little dated and those more recent movies are just a little bit hipper and cooler. It is still very funny, however, and deserves praise for being the first of a successful formula and for changing the very way animation itself is done.

So, without thinking twice before I jump to the end of my first review, I give this movie – 5 Stars!

John

Beth's Take

This movie was sooo cute! Although it was released in 1995, I am ashamed to say I didn't watch it until many years later. I know...shame on me! But when I finally watched it, I loved it. Silly as it may seem, John is right...it made you think back to your childhood and all the toys you just had sitting around. I actually felt quilty, because there were so many that I never played with. After watching the movie, I felt sorry for them. Like my Cabbage Patch Doll, Stacey...I begged my parents for this doll..you know, like every other child back in the day when parents were literally fighting over them at Christmas LOL. But when I actually got her, I didn't want to play with her..she was too pretty and too clean to drag everywhere. I just wanted to put her on my cleanly made bed and have her just sit there and look pretty. After watching Toy Story, I wondered if she ever got lonely and it made me sad :( I still have her, I will have to remember to take her out of the storage closet and tell her "I'm Sorry!"...I know that is sad huh!

Let me tell you how hard it was to find this movie to watch...
First of all, I can't believe we don't own this movie...we only have a gazillion movies..but no, not "Toy Story"...WHAT???
We looked everywhere for this movie..Blockbust, Amazon, Netflix, Ebay, FYE...come to find out, the clerk at FYE said that Disney had put the movies back into vault because they were making Toy Story 3. Well, that hardly seems fair. Nobody we knew had a copy.  But my sweetie John was persistant, and after a long while of looking, he finally found a copy on Amazon..whew! That was a close one there..this was the first movie on our list to watch and we came close to not being able to watch it.

I rate this movie of course 5 Stars...can't see how anyone couldn't!!
Beth