Toy Story

Pixar pioneered digital animation technology in the mid 1980s. The world’s first feature length computer movie, Toy Story was based on one of director John Lasseter’s earlier shorts. Woody (voiced by Tom Hanks) is a cowboy toy and the favourite game in town – until his pal Andy gets a new Buzz Lightyear doll for his birthday and Woody finds himself gathering dust with the rest of Andy’s cast-offs. Consumed with jealousy he tries to get rid of his naïve rival – who still believes he really is a space explorer in some brave new world, and struggles to get to grips with the idea that not everything revolves around him.

Lasseter’s early computer generated animation had a synthetic texture that was well suited to this subject, but also a fluidity and dynamism the old cel style cannot match. But Pixar’s strengths go back to and beyond the drawing board: rich story sense, fresh perspectives, indelible characters. So it is that Tim Allen and Reg Varney find themselves in one of the landmark movies of film history.

Mar 18: Intro by Michael van den Bos, Capilano University Animation History Teacher

With “instant classic” written all over it, Toy Story, the first full-length feature entirely composed of computer-generated animation, is a visually astounding, wildly inventive winner.

Michael Rechtshaffen, Hollywood Reporter

The best comedy of the 1990s remains perfect. Pixar’s first feature is still the template for every great movie the studio has made since: earned emotions; ripping action sequences; dead-on insights into human nature; and lots of giddy, witty, silly laughs. Toy Story is so funny because deep down, it’s actually a very melancholy film. Woody and Buzz’s battle for Andy’s love speaks to everyone’s fear of being replaced, as well as our shared recognition that the innocence of childhood cannot last.

New York Magazine

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