Woody, a traditional pull-string talking cowboy, has long enjoyed a place of honor as the favorite among six-year-old Andy's menagerie of toys. Quick to calm their anxieties about being replaced by newer arrivals, Woody finds his own confidence shaken, and his status as top toy in jeopardy, upon the arrival of Buzz Lightyear, simply the coolest space action figure ever made. Woody plots to get rid of Buzz, but things backfire and he finds himself lost in the outside world with Buzz as his only companion. Joining forces to find their way home, the two rivals set out on an adventure that lands them in the clutches of Sid, a sadistic neighborhood kid who is notorious for dismembering and reassembling mutant toys in his bedroom. As guests of Sid and his dog, Scud, the two fugitive toys forge a genuine friendship and learn that only through mutual trust and respect do they have any chance of survival.
cast
Annie Potts as Bo Peep (voice) Don Rickles as Mr. Potato Head (voice) John Ratzenberger as Hamm (voice) Tim Allen as Buzz Lightyear Tom Hanks as Woody (voice)
quote
[Preparing for the toy mutiny]
Woody: Wind the frog.
For years one of the more interesting aspects of the annual tournees of animation was to see the developments in computer animation. An early example--early meaning 1986--from Pixar was "Luxo, Jr." in which metal lamps behaved in human ways. Pixar started life in 1979 as a division of Lucasfilm but became an independent company in 1986. The Luxo lamps were ideal for early attempts at computer animation since they were articulated collections of rigid pieces. Certainly in computer animation rigid body movement is easier to describe to a program than is the movement of something soft and pliable. In fact, Pixar has done a lot of showing toys and other inanimate objects coming to life since if they come off too rigid it can look like part of the characterization. With that in mind it is not difficult to understand why their first feature film is a story in which toys are the main characters and humans play a relatively small role and are not the center of attention. Different animation techniques have different advantages, but TOY STORY is certainly a milestone in computer animation. Pixar still has to prove that their animation techniques are more versatile than Will Vinton's clay animation or the Puppetoons of the 1940s and 1950s. In fact, their style is very like the results of Puppetoon animation. There is nothing wrong with what they do here, but they need to be thinking about how to get more variety in their themes, particularly if they want to be more than hi-tech Puppetoons.
