Toy Story - Review

It is crazy to believe that in an era of cinema where the discovery of CGI changed the way movies were made, the first fully CGI film was a children's film about toys. With films like Terminator 2: Judgement Day and Jurassic Park showing us the magic of what CGI could do, you would think that the first fully CGI film would be an action film of sorts. However, since the animators felt like they really couldn't animate humans in the most believable way, they decided to create a story about toys. Little did they know that Toy Story would become a major success with multiple sequels, merchandise and the golden standard for all 3D animated films to come. Much like what Super Mario 64 did for video games, Toy Story did for animation.

So if you are one of the unfortunate people in this world to have never experienced Toy Story before, here is a quick rundown. In Toy Story, we have Woody (Tom Hanks) who is a cowboy toy who belongs to a kid named Andy. Andy has many toys who all come to life when there are no humans around like a dinosaur named Rex, a Mr. Potato Head, a Piggy Bank named Hamm, a Slinky Dog and many others, but undoubtedly, Andy's favorite toy is Woody. However, at one of Andy's birthday parties, Woody's title as "Andy's Favourite Toy" is challenged when Andy is gifted with Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen) who just happens to be the coolest toy in existence. He has it all like laser blasters, voice command buttons, a glow in the dark space suit and of course, wings. This, of course, makes Woody extremely jealous. After a plan from Woody to get rid of Buzz goes wrong, both of them end up lost and stranded in the streets. So it's up to Woody and Buzz to work together and make it back to Andy's house before "moving day".

From that quick little synopsis, you'll notice that there isn't a truly clear villain. Yes, we do meet Andy's neighbor Sid who likes to destroy his toys rather than play with them, but the main conflict of the film is between our two main characters and the jealousy that plagues them. Tom Hanks and Tim Allen really knock it out of the park with their performances and mixed with a really clever script full of very smart modern dialogue, Woody and Buzz are one of the best on-screen duos in cinematic history.

Along with the great script comes great comedy. Of course, there isn't any swearing or anything, but the dialogue and the creativity of the screenplay allow for some great laughs. With our main characters being toys, their reality is much different than ours. What we might consider being mundane moments in our world are life and death situations for our toys. And how serious all of the toys are taking situations makes it all the more enjoyable. For example, when Andy is opening presents downstairs for his birthday party, Woody sends down little army men to scope out the situation via a walkie-talkie to all the other toys in Andy's bedroom and they talk like how you would expect military men to act.

Great written characters, a simple story with a wonderful set-up of two characters in competition with one another which leads to solid comedy, a screenplay oozing with creativity and heart with an animation style never seen before, what could this film possibly do more?

Disney magic. It's that feeling of wonderment that you get that brings you right back to being a child again and this film is littered with them. I dare not spoil the thrilling ending, but I wanted to jump on my feet and cheer for these characters, even though this film is almost 25 years old and I was watching it on my original VHS copy.

Toy Story is one of the greatest animated films ever made and I look forward to the day where I can introduce this movie to my kids.