Toy Story – Family Movie Matinee

Toy Story – Family Movie Matinee

Toy Story, a 1995 Pixar animation film is a comedy- adventure directed by John Lasseter and released by Walt Disney Pictures.  Toy Story was the first of it’s kind in two distinct areas: first feature-length computer-animated film and the first film produced by Pixar.

Toy Story follows a group of humanistic toys who pretend to be lifeless whenever humans are present.  The main focus of Toy Story is the relationship between Woody, a pull-string cowboy doll and Buzz Lightyear, an astronaut action figure.

Toy Story was written by an all-star group of writers: John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton, Joel Cohen, Alec Sokolow, and Joss Whedon.  It also features the musical talent of Randy Newman.

“Pixar, which produced short animated films to promote their computers, was approached by Disney to produce a computer-animated feature after the success of the short Tin Toy (1988), which is told from a small toy’s perspective. Lasseter, Stanton, and Pete Docter wrote early story treatments which were thrown out by Disney, who pushed for a more edgy film. After disastrous story reels, production was halted and the script was re-written, better reflecting the tone and theme Pixar desired: that “toys deeply want children to play with them, and that this desire drives their hopes, fears, and actions.” The studio, then consisting of a relatively small number of employees, produced the film under minor financial constraints.

The top-grossing film on its opening weekend, Toy Story went on to earn over $361 million worldwide. Reviews were entirely positive, praising both the animation’s technical innovation and the screenplay’s wit and sophistication, and it is now widely considered by many critics to be one of the best animated films ever made. In addition to home media releases and theatrical re-releases, Toy Story-inspired material has run the gamut from toys, video games, theme park attractions, spin-offs, merchandise, and two sequels—Toy Story 2 (1999) and Toy Story 3 (2010)—both of which received massive commercial success and critical acclaim. Toy Story was inducted into the National Film Registry as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” in 2005, its first year of eligibility.” from Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toy_Story