Toy Story (1995)
Directed by John Lasseter
Led by Woody, Andy's toys live happily in his room until Andy's birthday brings Buzz Lightyear onto the scene. Afraid of losing his place in Andy's heart, Woody plots against Buzz. But when circumstances separate Buzz and Woody from their owner, the duo eventually learns to put aside their differences.
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What critics compared Toy Story to
The beginning is reminiscent of Toy Story , with an underground world of video games that come to life once the arcade closes for the night and characters who leave their game to explore other worlds.
The concept is a little like that of Toy Story : the characters in video games have existences of their own and, once the arcade is closed, they can roam around, even crossing over into other games.
With bouncy CG that's given greater depth by 3-D, director Rich Moore 's film blends the secret-lives-of-toys reality of Toy Story with the self-actualization vibe of Bolt, with the former proving far more electric than the latter.
Disney's variant on themes from Pixar's Toy Story is a mixed bag of frantic action, humorous antics and blunted satire pitched squarely at the juvenile.
Executive Producer John Lasseter is the man behind Toy Story, and it shows.
Unlocking the Pixar cheat-code for No. 1 blockbusters, Disney's "Wreck-It Ralph" features winsome voice-overs by comedians playing it kid-safe, a simplistic yet universal moral and even "Toy Story" director John Lasseter as executive producer.
What if the premise of a film like Toy Story, in which inanimate objects come to terms with the meaning of their existence, was pushed to its logical, dark-as-hell conclusion?
In the grand tradition of "Toy Story," ''Sausage Party" imagines the lives of the foodstuffs in the local supermarket aisle.
Animated movies have a long history of anthropomorphizing inanimate objects (toys in Toy Story, automobiles in Cars, plastic building bricks in The LEGO Movie , etc.).
Because, legitimately, Sausage Party is part Toy Story, part The Lego Movie, part Team America, and part Book Of Mormon, all with the sheen and vigor of Chuck Jones animation, but which, despite its influences, is still very much it's own glorious monstrosity.
In the same way Pixar's movies refuse to speak down to the youngest members of their audience, they've also never pandered to gender: Remember, the Toy Story franchise ended with Andy, the benevolent overlord of Buzz Lightyear and Woody the cowboy, bequeathing his boyhood playthings to the little girl next door.
Or, more simply put, when compared with the rich attention to humor, subtext and story featured in Finding Nemo, The Incredibles and Toy Story 3, Brave comes up short.
Although Brave is satisfying and spirited and laced with humor (haggis jokes, kilt jokes), it doesn't quite mark a return to form for Pixar following the digital house's disappointing 12th feature, Cars 2. The company's founder, Toy Story director John Lasseter, has been running his operation as well as parent company Disney's animation division, and Brave feels more like an aesthetic mix of the two camps.
But for the Pixar Animation crew it’s just another number in their unbelievable string of hits: “Toy Story” (1995), “A Bug’s Life” (1998), “Toy Story 2” (1999), “Monsters, Inc.” (2001), “Finding Nemo” (2003), “The Incredibles” (2004), “Cars” (2006), “Ratatouille” (2007), “WALL-E” (2008), “Up” (2009), “Toy Story 3” (2010), “Cars 2” (2011) . . .
Not only must Mei negotiate her hormones and control them at school, where a braces-mouthed bully reminiscent of Sid from Toy Story (1995) taunts her, but she must contend with her mother.
Before Pixar returns to the Toy Story franchise with Lightyear, Turning Red represents a reminder as to the wonderful originality they are capable of when not designing films to sell toys.
Such old-fogey objections aside, “Turning Red” represents a fresh change from traditional Pixar fare, eschewing the slightly fuddy-duddy nostalgia of “Toy Story” and “Cars” for a this-side-of-Y2K millennial mindset.
It feels wrong to see the production company of Toy Story and Monsters Inc. finally working with original ideas again and only for those movies to be subjected to the comfort of your couch.
The Toy Story pictures, for example, demonstrated a total understanding of the meaning playthings have in our lives.
Toy Story’s putting away of childish things devastated us with the bittersweetness of aging, pristinely packaged inside the odd couple act of Woody and Buzz.
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Barbie deliriously draws inspiration from a wide range of cinematic sources, with references to The Umbrellas of Cherbourg , Groundhog Day , The Matrix , Toy Story , and, most hilariously, The Godfather .
Written by Gerwig and her partner Noah Baumbach, “Barbie” boasts a joyously wry self-awareness akin to the “Lego Movies,” taps into childhood innocence a la “Toy Story,” plus goes deep weaving in actual Barbie history.
Pulling from such inspirations as “The Truman Show” and “Toy Story,” Gerwig — who co-wrote the script with Noah Baumbach — plunges her heroine into an existential crisis brought on by a dimly perceived real world that is encroaching on her plastic, reassuringly monotonous idyll.
After Mattel, they find the culprit: America Ferrara, playing a frustrated feminist whose young daughter is giving away her toys a la “Toy Story.”
This is a clever take on growing up as seen through the point of view of the doll itself, like Toy Story and The Lego Movie.
This is never more apparent than when the toy, depicted as a human, despite still being an inanimate object being played with by a child (this “Toy Story”-like notion might have worked better if animated), repeats its idyllic life over and over, in which women hold all the positions of power – and their governance has surely led to equal rights and happiness for all.
Anna's traveling companions are an earnest rustic named Kristoff, who cuts and sells ice for a living (his business has taken a hit from the local climate change); Kristoff's mute but savvy reindeer, Sven; and a funny little snowman, Olaf, whose habit of detaching and reassembling his body parts recalls Mr. Potato Head from Pixar's "Toy Story" trilogy.
Frozen is really about a powerful subtext, just like Toy Story is really about figuring out who you are, and Toy Story 2 is really about the existential crisis of choosing who you want to be, and Toy Story 3 is about reminding people what Toy Story 2 was about (yeah, I said it).
Meanwhile Pixar stepped in and stole the company’s animated show with “Up,” “Cars,” “Toy Story” and “Wall-E,” to name a few.
And if you prefer the hand-drawn animation of latter-day Disney releases like “Aladdin” to Pixar ’toons like “Toy Story,” you might be beguiled by the visuals.
The year after The Lion King, Pixar released the first CGI-animated feature, Toy Story, launching a string of 11 consecutive box-office smashes and artistic triumphs, including such masterpieces as Finding Nemo, WALL·E, Up and Toy Story 3. Disney floundered for a decade until the company bought Pixar; and Pixar creative guru John Lasseter took creative control of both groups, with the mission of reviving the invaluable brand of Disney Animation.
More annoying, Despicable Me borrows left and right from other, better animated/kids films, lifting ideas from The Grinch, Meet the Robinsons, The Incredibles, A Series of Unfortunate Events and Toy Story (the minions are nothing more than a carbon copy of the alien squeeze toys in that film).
Resembling the underground factory in Metropolis, it's manned by yellow, phallic, sometimes monocular humanoids not unlike the one-eyed blue B.O.B. in Monsters vs. Aliens, or the three-eyed Pizza Planet aliens from the Toy Story movies.
In truth, it’s not the best title from a marketing perspective, since it doesn’t tell you anything about the movie, certainly not in comparison to, say, “Toy Story,” “The Princess and the Frog” or “Finding Nemo.”
Small, yellow, capsule-shaped and coverall wearing, these minions scurry about doing all manner of work for Gru, whom they adore the same way the aliens in the "Toy Story" trilogy worship the all-powerful Claw.
Consider "Toy Story", "Antz", "A Bug's Life", or "SharkTale" (which ironically started life with a more story-oriented name, "Shark-Slayer").
Robots combines the visionary alternate world-building of Monsters, Inc. , the flair for gadgetry and gimmickry of an old Fleishers cartoon, and most sneakily of all, the toybox nostalgia of the Toy Story movies , with cleverly worked-in toy and game references — “Operation,” Slinky, Wheelo — that will have adults grinning with recognition.
In the end, the film comes off as more of a low rent "Toy Story" mixed with "Monster's Inc.".
As far as I'm concerned, as beautiful as it to look at, "Robots" lacks the warmth of the "Toy Story" movies, the hipness of the "Shrek" films, the heart of "Monsters, Inc.," and the sheer fun and excitement of "The Incredibles."
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The picture looks good, it has some yuks, and there are even early hints of an Idiocracy-style satire of a lowbrow culture — the most popular show on TV, Where Are My Pants?, is a PG version of Ow! My Balls! — but the overlong Lego Movie collapses in the third act, finally becoming an overt commercial for the toys while getting existential in a way that unfavorably parallels the Toy Story movies.
It’s not the second coming of Toy Story , although it does echo Toy Story in notable ways.
Taking inspiration from a grab bag of pop culture detritus — The Matrix and Toy Story among the key influencers — The Lego Movie follows ordinary Joe protagonist Emmet (Chris Pratt), a cheerful chap whose daily routine includes stretching, watching a dopey TV show called Where’s My Pants? and trundling off to work singing his favourite song: EVERTHING IS AWESOME .
On one hand, “Toy Story” had long since cornered the sincere ode-to-childhood-playthings approach, while the “Transformers” and “G.I.
You’ve seen this all before — it’s Toy Story meets The Matrix — just not done in Legos.
Other than filling up toy aisles with cars sporting cute eyes, the Cars movies haven’t been as noteworthy or artistically successful as others on Pixar ’s slate — not as ingeniously heartfelt as the Toy Story trilogy nor as enjoyably rambunctious as, say, Monsters, Inc.
Now, the Toy Story trilogy got pretty grim and philosophical too — but the Toy Story trilogy also included humor (remember humor?) and established a convincing reality for its characters, the rules of which were scrupulously followed.
The first one (released in 2006) is considered the one major black mark in the animation studio’s killer run from 1995’s Toy Story to 2010’s Toy Story 3 , and 2011’s Cars 2 is the only Pixar film with a “rotten” score on Rotten Tomatoes.
In comparison to other Pixar sequels, “Cars 3” lacks the narrative ambitions and genuine heart of the “Toy Story” follow-ups and, to a slightly lesser extent, “Finding Dory” but it is still an improvement on such sorry sights as “Cars 2” and “Monsters University.”