Pixar Review 6: Toy Story

Image Courtesy: Buena Vista Pictures Distribution

This is review 6 of my Pixar Review series, and the 1st review of a feature-length Pixar film in this series. I'm reviewing the 1995 award-winning animated buddy comedy movie Toy Story. This G-rated movie talks about what your toys do when you aren't around. It involves a gang of toys owned by a boy named Andy Davis. His toys are Woody, a cowboy sheriff voiced by Tom Hanks, Buzz Lightyear, a spaceman voiced by Tim Allen, and the rest of the gang, such as an RC car named RC, Mr. Potato Head, and Rex the Dino.

The storline is about Buzz and Woody's newfound rivalry-turned-friendship, alongside getting back to their owner in a timeless adventure unlike any other.

Andy's family is moving in a week, so they decide to throw his birthday party earlier. Woody is surprised to hear the news, and reminded the other toys that "no one is gonna be replaced". He sends out a bunch of soldiers with a baby monitor, complete with Playskool logo! The soldiers saw and reported every present to the upstairs gang, until Rex shook a table and dropped the speaker. We as the viewer see a spaceship in shadow, which turns out to be the box that Buzz Lightyear is in. 

A night after Buzz was brought into Andy's toy gang, Woody almost killed the new guy, so Andy could take him to Pizza Planet. This was because he thought Buzz was replacing him. Buzz runs off after Woody goes in the minivan with Andy and his mom. They finally meet up at a gas station that's also another common Pixar element, Dinoco. Buzz says that revenge isn't promoted on his planet, but they aren't on that planet, so they beat each other up, complete with toy beeping and buzzing sounds. 

Woody then sees a spaceship on a Pizza Planet delivery truck, and shows Buzz it. Buzz takes the shotgun seat of the truck ("the cockpit"), while Woody takes the trunk, covered by a trunk roof ("the cargo area")

They then sneak inside as a cup and a burger container, looking for Andy. Of course, Buzz finds a Spaceship, which is a claw machine filled with little green alien men, known as LGM's. Unfortunately, a toy torturing tween boy named Sid Phillips, who was seen destroying a Combat Carl before in a scene, was there, and got an LGM on 1 turn, and Buzz and Woody on another (double prizes).

Buzz and Woody hide from Sid's dog, Scud, because Woody accidentally woke him up, since his voicebox pullstring was stuck in the railing of the stairs. After that confrontation, Buzz sees a commercial for himself that says that he is a toy, and he still doesn't believe it. But he tries to fly out the window, while the tear-jerking "I Will Go Sailing No More" plays. Another Easter egg I saw in this scene was when Buzz was flying; his backside said "©DISNEY" on it.

Andy's toys still hate Woody due to what he did to Buzz. Woody wanted to go back by using Christmas lights as a way to tightrope walk back to Andy's house, but they didn't accept it.

After Woody tells Buzz that he's the coolest toy he's ever seen, Buzz helps Woody out by pushing the milk crate he's stuck in. The creepy "cannibal" toys that actually fixed Buzz were along with a plan that Woody created to get back with the other toys, which involved them coming to life in front of Sid, which they said was "breaking a few rules." 

After this big scare, Woody and Buzz drove RC, whose batteries died, so he lit the rocket, and Flew along with RC in his hand. RC was thrown back into the moving truck. Woody and Buzz flew out of the rocket before it went boom, and memorably glid threw the sky, in order to go to the minivan that Andy, his mom, and his sister Molly, were in. Fun little Easter Egg time! The minivan license plate says A113, an inside joke in animation, a reference to Room A113 at CalArts, where almost all of the well known animators have studied, and Hakuna Matata from the Lion King was playing in the minivan as well. Pixar referencing a Walt Disney Animation Studios film? That is really funny, since in the 2000s, they would become sister studios. But I digress. The film ends on Christmas, where Andy gets a puppy!

The animation is so impressive for 1995, and it still holds up to this day. The music by Randy Newman, a relative of Alfred Newman, the composer of the 20th Century Fox fanfare, is a timeless classic. The only bad thing about the print I watched on Disney+ is the fact that the Disney logo fading into the sky wallpaper has been replaced by the 2006-2023 Disney logo and the 1995-present Pixar logo.

But all in all, this is a movie that should be treasured for many years to come, since it is the first fully computer animated feature film, and as such, should be preserved for eternity.

Rating 10/10 Fantastic!