Here's Pixar's first full length CGI animated film, as well as the first one of all time(If I'm not mistaken)...
A cowboy doll named Woody(Tom Hanks) gets replaced by a space ranger action figure named Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen). A jealous Woody pulls off a scheme that goes to far and leads up to him and Buzz being lost toys. Our two characters must get back to their owners house before they move and escape from a psychopathic neighborhood kid who loves to destroy toys.
Our characters in this film are all lovable, funny and are voiced by many great actors. Woody and Buzz are a great and funny duo and just by watching the first half of the film you wouldn't think for a second that they would be friends in the end. As a matter of fact, I love that Woody is the first favorite toy that easily gets jealous of Buzz and I love that Buzz is while not only the new favorite toy but actually thinks he's a real space ranger, that's a great chemistry and conflict between the two characters and the voice acting from Tom Hanks and Tim Allen isn't just funny but also fits these characters very well. As for the supporting toys, they're all memorable, funny and lovable as our leads. You got the toy dinosaur Rex voiced by Wallace Shawn, Slinky the slinky dog voiced by Jim Varney(Aka Ernest), Ham the Piggy bank voiced by John Ratzenberger, Little Bo Peep voiced by Annie Potts, The Sergeant of the tiny green soldier toys voiced R. Lee Ermey and my favorite character Mr.Potato Head voiced by Don Rickles. Even our human characters epically Andy and Sid, while being likable are also identifiable. Andy represents the kid in all of us who loves to play with toys, while Sid resembles our destructive nature when we play with our toys. Oh and the designs for Sid's mutant toys are cool, creepy and awesome.
For being the first full length computer animated film, it still holds up. The animation is still cool, it's very colorful, the characters really look like that they're alive and there are even some animated techniques that still hold up as something incredible. The only things that don't hold up are the humans (Let's be honest they too look like toys) and Sid's Dog, that's it. The films humor never gets old and is still funny to this day, oh and I love the films movie references. The songs sung by Randy Newman are catchy and blends in with every scene in the film and of course who can forget the films theme song "You Got A Friend In Me"? The film also carries some good depressing and sad moments as well as a great climax.
I guess the only thing left to talk about is, did the film rip off the Muppet film "The Christmas Toy". Come on lets be honest was the concept of Toys coming to life when no one's around really was invented by this special, I've seen many old cartoons and stories with that concept. In fact, Pixar got their idea from their short film "Tin Toy" and "Knick Knack" and even a little bit from their project before they became Pixar "The Brave Little Toaster". Yeah "The Christmas Toy" does go through replacement by another Toy but once again I think that concept has been done before and the story about replacement in this film is done different compared to "The Christmas Toy". The only concept that really stood out was being replaced by a Space Toy that actually thinks that toy is the real thing. Maybe an idea was probably hatched from that part of the special but to me I find that subplot to be done totally different such as the space toy is a robot and Buzz is a space ranger and comparing both plots, I feel Toy Story did the plot better and a lot different than the special. Maybe the creators got some inspiration from this special but so does many other films and I'm sure the special got inspiration from other films and stories as well. For example, a toy tiger that comes to life, I think we've seen that in "Winnie The Pooh". While giving my opinions on this controversy, I find the whole controversy pointless now since Disney owns the rights to the Muppets and on top of it the film is released as part of Disney as well.
With the controversy aside, it's still an important film made in film history, it still holds up as a computer animated classic, it's still memorable and on top of it, I think it's Pixar's best work.
RATING 5/5
I guess the only thing left to talk about is, did the film rip off the Muppet film "The Christmas Toy". Come on lets be honest was the concept of Toys coming to life when no one's around really was invented by this special, I've seen many old cartoons and stories with that concept. In fact, Pixar got their idea from their short film "Tin Toy" and "Knick Knack" and even a little bit from their project before they became Pixar "The Brave Little Toaster". Yeah "The Christmas Toy" does go through replacement by another Toy but once again I think that concept has been done before and the story about replacement in this film is done different compared to "The Christmas Toy". The only concept that really stood out was being replaced by a Space Toy that actually thinks that toy is the real thing. Maybe an idea was probably hatched from that part of the special but to me I find that subplot to be done totally different such as the space toy is a robot and Buzz is a space ranger and comparing both plots, I feel Toy Story did the plot better and a lot different than the special. Maybe the creators got some inspiration from this special but so does many other films and I'm sure the special got inspiration from other films and stories as well. For example, a toy tiger that comes to life, I think we've seen that in "Winnie The Pooh". While giving my opinions on this controversy, I find the whole controversy pointless now since Disney owns the rights to the Muppets and on top of it the film is released as part of Disney as well.
With the controversy aside, it's still an important film made in film history, it still holds up as a computer animated classic, it's still memorable and on top of it, I think it's Pixar's best work.
RATING 5/5
No comments:
Post a Comment