"TOY STORY" (1995) (voices of Tom Hanks, Tim Allen) (G)
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QUICK TAKE:
Animated Comedy/Adventure: In a world where toys come to life whenever humans aren't around, a toy cowboy figure must contend with the arrival of a new space ranger toy who enamors the other toys as well as their human boy owner, but doesn't realize he's not the real character from which he's molded.
PLOT:
Like most other kids his age, Andy (voice of John Morris) has a lot of toys in his bedroom, and his favorite is his talking, pull-string cowboy. Little does the kid realize, however, that Woody (voice of TOM HANKS) and the rest of the toys only pretend to be inanimate when he and other humans are around, and otherwise are alive when they're just among their own kind.
With Woody as their unelected leader, the various toys -- including Mr. Potato Head (voice of DON RICKLES), Slinky Dog (voice of JIM VARNEY), Rex the tyrannosaurus (voice of WALLACE SHAWN), Hamm the piggy bank (voice of JOHN RATZENBERGER) and Bo Peep (voice of ANNIE POTTS), among others -- are always worried when a new toy arrives in the house.
Since they're moving to a new home soon, Andy's mom moves up his birthday celebration, and that means the arrival of space ranger toy Buzz Lightyear (voice of TIM ALLEN), who arrives with all of the latest cool gizmos and gadgets, all of which impress not only Andy, but the other toys as well. That is, except for Woody who's jealous of the attention being diverted away from him and can't believe that Buzz thinks he's the real character and not a toy replica.
Woody's jealousy gets the better of him, and Buzz ends up knocked out the bedroom window. Realizing he must retrieve his rival in order to keep the rest of the toys from turning on him, Woody sets out to do just that. In doing so, however, that takes him out into the real world where various dangers lurk, including the next door neighbor teen, Sid (voice of ERIK VON DETTEN), who enjoys abusing toys (not realizing they're sentient beings), and eventually gets his hands on both Woody and Buzz.
OUR TAKE: 8 out of 10
While not a walk in the park in any figurative sense of that phrase, short films are far easier to conceive and create than feature length ones. In short form, both the duration (obviously) and plot are condensed and there usually isn't a great deal of need for character growth, especially among secondary characters if there even are any. The plot's quickly introduced and set into motion, and things wrap up fairly quickly, with little worry that viewers will grow bored or that there won't be enough material to fill the running time.
Back in the 1990s, Lucasfilm offshoot Pixar created and filled a small niche of telling fun and funny little tales of normally inanimate objects that were alive and, best of all, had empathetic and endearing human qualities with which viewers could identify. Who can forget the desk lamp interacting with a ball, the snowman stuck in the snow globe, or the wind-up drummer toy being terrorized by a toddler?
It may have been "Tin Toy," the 1988 Oscar winner for Best Animated Short film, that inspired writers Joss Whedon & Andrew Stanton & Joel Cohen and Alec Sokolow to come up with the idea for "Toy Story." Although animated films were certainly no strangers in theaters, none had been completely computer generated, and there was always the nagging worry about whether those who excelled at short pics could replicate that success in a full-length effort.
That was quickly answered upon the film's release in 1995 in what would be the first in a long line of critical and box office hits from Pixar. Working from a clever script idea -- that toys act inanimately whenever humans are around but are otherwise alive when just in their own company, complete with various human emotions -- director John Lasseter hit a home run his first time at bat in the big leagues, and hasn't looked back.
Continuing the tradition of making a film that both kids and adult alike could enjoy, the filmmaker created a highly entertaining experience that put story and characters first, and all of the gee-whiz computer-generated effects second, which is really the only way to make such an effort work, and this one does on all fronts.
It certainly didn't hurt that the filmmakers assembled a terrific vocal cast (Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Wallace Shawn, John Ratzenberger and the fabulous Don Rickles, among others) and that their voicing of the characters is about as perfect as one could imagine, with their voices indelibly being associated with the roles forever.
Re-watching the film 14 years after its initial release, it holds up incredibly well, with my only quibble being too many songs from Randy Newman, some of which don't do anything to move the story forward and are a bit obvious in the lyrics. Beyond that, just about everything is pitch perfect, with funny and engaging characters, an entertaining and straightforward tale (with plenty to amuse adults without pushing the G rating), and computer graphics that still look decent (even if the humans are a little primitive in realistic appearance and movement, etc., but the toys are spot on).
What's interesting about the film's look is that it's almost as if Lasseter and his technical crew knew the film would be rereleased in theaters with a new 3D veneer, as many of the shots and sequences were seemingly designed with exactly that in mind. While the new use of that is obviously a gimmick (albeit a likely successful one) to get kids and adults into theater seats, it's nice that those who missed this on the big screen the first time around will get the chance once again (although supposedly only for two weeks, so don't delay).
Just as entertaining and enjoyable as it was when it first came out, "Toy Story" may have been eclipsed by other Pixar films that eventually followed it (including the fabulous 1999 sequel), but it's still fun to watch. The film rates as an 8 out of 10.
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