Toy Story (1995) – Review by Andrea Carnevali

Toy Story

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This is a masterpiece. Not just in the Pixar catalogue, not just in animation, but in film history.

There is no better excuse to re-watch this film than the release of its fifth instalment this weekend.

But also, once in a while, it’s good to be reminded of why this is such an enduring classic. And while at it, let me just tell you that I love the first two sequels just as much… in fact, I think number 3 is possibly even better (but we’ll argue about that some other time).

It’s a bit like going back to your comfort food, or your favourite music, or a book you love.

There is a certain warm, cuddly reassurance in knowing that you’ll be in safe hands, that everything will be great once again and that there is no way you will find this ever disappointing: it’s a feeling I only have with a handful of films, and this is certainly among the best.

So basically, let me save you time.

You can stop reading this ‘review’ right now, because I’m only going to repeat myself over and over: this is a masterpiece.

And not just a masterpiece in the Disney canon, or the Pixar catalogue or in animation in general, but in film history.

Woody and Buzz are so much in the public consciousness today that it feels like they’ve been around since the beginning of time, not to mention the line ‘to infinity and beyond’ and the song ‘You’ve got a friend in me’, a sort of mantra in our house.

‘Classic’ is such a boring word and it doesn’t necessarily encapsulate the love I feel for this film.

Back in 1995, Toy Story was absolutely groundbreaking: the very first computer-animated feature to hit the big screen.

31 years later, technology has moved a long way, of course, but the reason why the film works just as well today is because it never really drew attention to its visuals.

The story, the characters and their emotions are at the centre of everything.

Woody, Buzz, Mr Potato Head, Slinky and all the others in the gang are so perfectly conceived and realised, they’re so expressive and so lovable that you forget you’re watching something made by a computer within the first few seconds.

Having Tom Hanks and Tim Allen leading the perfect voice cast (including Wallace Shawn, Jim Varney, John Ratzenberger, Don Rickles, and Annie Potts, among others) surely helps a lot.

If I really have to be annoying and nitpicking, I shall probably say that I was never a massive fan of the ‘humans’ in the film and I think they should have found a way to keep them out of the screen, or maybe just show their legs as they do in those Tom & Jerry cartoons, but in the big scheme of things, this is just a small detail which matters very little in the end, so I will shut up and carry on gushing over the film.

It’s easy to forget how clever that simple concept of toys being alive when we are not watching actually is.

It seems so obvious today, and yes, I know it had been done before by the Pixar people in the Oscar-winning short Tin Toy (which was in fact the original inspiration for Toy Story), but that doesn’t make it any less inspired an idea.

To me this also marked the point when animation started to be cool for adults too.

We grown-ups got something out of it that kids didn’t, and yet we both found things to laugh at (and amazingly, it was often the same things too!).

So many others tried to copy this formula for years and failed miserably.

Watching it again, I’m struck by how little the film is actually about toys. Underneath all the jokes and adventures lies an incredibly adult fear: the fear of being replaced.

Woody isn’t jealous because Buzz is shinier; he’s terrified that he no longer matters. Thirty years later, in a world obsessed with staying relevant, being younger, faster and newer, that insecurity feels even more universal than it did in 1995.

I have probably seen this film dozens of times, and I still love it. I still laugh at the jokes, I still get excited at the action (as tense as any of the Indiana Jones films) and I still get moved by those characters (though this is nothing compared to the tears I poured out watching the third one).

It is probably my favourite animated film and pretty much up there with my favourite films ever, and if you don’t agree with me… well, you’re just wrong, and you ‘won’t have a friend in me’.

Andrea Carnevali is a Bafta winning film maker who lives in Chiswick, and a co-creator of the Chiswick In Film festival.