Well, with the release of the fourth movie in the Toy Story franchise, I figured it would be a good time to take a look at the first three Toy Story movies, a little Toy Story marathon if you will. The first movie was released in 1995, it was a massively important movie for its time, being the first entirely Computer Generated animated feature, the first biggest hit for Pixar, and remains not only a staple of animation history, but a staple of Disney/Pixar's line-up. Everybody loved it, and still does if the upcoming sequel is anything to go by. So... Why is this not one of my favourite movies?
Well, let's start with the plot. When a little boy named Andy gets a hot new Buzz Lightyear toy for his birthday, his original favourite toy, a cowboy doll named Woody, becomes jealous and accidentally pushes Buzz out of a window. Andy then takes woody to an arcade-restaurant but Buzz catches up with him and knocks him out of the car. The two must try and get back home, but are caught by a sadistic kid named Sid, who takes pleasure in blowing up and dismembering toys. Now the two must work through their problems, which includes Buzz going through a depressive identity crisis, and escape from Sid's house before Andy and his Mom begin their move. Objectively speaking, plotwise the movie is solid. It leaves me with few questions, and has no sloppy transitions. For example, at Sid's house, Buzz and Woody try to escape and sneak past Sid's dog. Woody ends up making a noise that alerts the dog and chases them into separate rooms where Buzz seas a TV advertisement for his own toy, which causes him to attempt to fly out of a window, where he ends up falling and losing his arm, causing him to become depressed.
The plot works well and flows nicely with the movie, but honestly, I don't like jealousy plots. I really don't like these plots. I get that they are identifiable and relatable, but honestly, there are other plots I'd rather see than characters being petty. Which is why I much prefer the other aspects of the plot a lot more. Buzz's character arc is an interesting idea that is executed well. I really like the concept of Sid's toys and what they would be like if toys were alive, and I like the stuff with Woody and Buzz trying to get back home. I do like a lot of the plot, but I really hate jealousy plots.
That is however, only one aspect of the movie, how are the characters? As we spend most of the movie with Woody and Buzz, it is understandable that they get the most on screen character in the movie. As much as I think jealousy plots make for annoying plots, they do often make for good characters because, again they are relatable. A lot of us have been jealous of another person in our lives, and Woody's reasoning is understandable. Buzz is one to stick with the plan, but will sacrifice himself to let Woody succeed. In the end it is nice to see both of them willing to give the other the leg up in the end, which makes it nicer when they sit together at the end of the movie.
Side characters are also pretty good, Bo Peep is flirtatious, Potato Head is a bit of a cynic, and Andy is your typical kid character. I think the one character everyone remembers the most though is Sid, and I can see why. I think other critics summarized his character nicely, he is kind of that part of us that took pleasure in throwing our toys around, the part of us that liked to see things get destroyed in a microwave or blender, the part of us that would grow up into pyromaniacs, or maybe that is just me. The point is, Sid is relatable to many kids because at one point, we all liked to see our toys explode, maybe on the TV screen, or maybe in real life. I think having an assortment of characters that are relatable to not only children but also adults does help this movie a lot, and does help in making it stay a timeless classic.
But then we have the animation, and it is really dated by the standards of today. Lots of textures look plasticy, and lighting doesn't always look right. That being said, the textures on the toys usually look great, character animation is pretty good and the colour palette is colourful and varied. To call this movie out for it's dated textures would be like calling out a movie like TRON for its dated effects. It is not an invalid argument, but it ignores the importance of these movies. Both TRON and Toy Story were huge steps forward for CG animation, but even taking that aspect away, both movies still look fine as well. I'd say Toy Story looks better than TRON does though, you know with the thirteen (13) year difference between the two. Toy Story does have dated textures, but they are few and far between enough to not be distracting from otherwise good animation.
Overall, I really do want to love this movie. I would love for it to be one of my all-time favourite movies in general, but I hate jealousy plots. However taking that out of the picture, the rest of the plot was engaging, the characters were relatable, the animation holds up decently well today, and the movie has some good jokes in it. I am tempted to call this a High Recommendation solely for it's importance to animation, as it is difficult to imagine where theatrical animation would be without Toy Story. However, my problems with the movie do make me hesitant, and knowing how far CG animation has come in twenty-four (24) years does play some part in that too. That being said, I do say this is a must see for any animation fan, but then again, you probably have already seen it. I think a good compromise is to give it a Recommendation rating, only slightly shy of being a High Recommendation.
With that all said and done, next week I'll be taking a look at Toy Story 2.
No comments:
Post a Comment