November 23–30, 1995

movies

Toy Story

Toy Story just may be a landmark in computer animation.

by Vance Lehmkuhl

Directed by John Lasseter
A Walt Disney Pictures Release

I thoroughly expected Toy Story to be eye candy — tasty, tangy, easily consumed, tooth-rottingly sweet, and without a speck of nutritive value. But as it turns out, candy is the wrong metaphor: this movie is, in the best sense of the word, a toy. The difference is that toys stick around to be played with over and over. And unlike candy, toys bring with them a different reality.

It's the play of realities that makes the movie so delicious at first: the easy joke that the toys move and talk to each other only when kids can't see them is quickly supplanted by a reality clash between toys. Woody, a cowboy doll and the de facto leader of the toys in Andy's room, goes head-to-head with the newest toy, Buzz Lightyear, who sincerely thinks he's a tiny spaceman shipwrecked on this planet. His belief in himself is so hilariously solid that for a while we're not absolutely sure he's wrong.

By the time that metaphysical question is sorted out, the action — and this really is an Action Movie — has taken off and we're bombarded with jokes, character developments, plot twists and mythological resonances, all at light speed and at the same time. Buzz and Woody become separated from Andy and must find their way back home before the family moves the next day.

An obvious potential flaw here is the gimmickry of computer animation. Even with live-action sequences, TRON suffered from the abstract coldness, and gratuitous use, of computer-generated sections. In a feature which is entirely computer-animated (this being the first), style could easily trounce substance.

But this is where the notion of movie-as-toy becomes real. The team from Pixar Animation Studios has such amazing fun with the possibilities of their new medium that the joy of it is truly intoxicating. Director John Lasseter and his co-screenwriters have actually used the expanded palette of computer animation to deepen, rather than abstract, our engagement with the characters and the story.

One example is frequent Point-of-View shots — scenes of a room spinning around or flying past as a toy is thrown through the air or flung down a bannister. In this case something that in regular animation would be ridiculously expensive (redrawing all the details of the room from ever-changing angles) is easy here. The money's already been spent to create the room, why not use it? More importantly, POV shots reinforce the subjective reality of the toys and thus the overall reality of the world depicted.

Additionally, the computer-animated faces of Woody and Buzz (voiced by Tom Hanks and Tim Allen, respectively) have exaggerated ranges of expression which outdo even the best of the traditionally-animated Disney classics — something I'd thought could never be done with computers. The two leads in this buddy movie become at least as real to us as, say, Mel Gibson and Danny Glover in one of their live-action escapades.

Another element which helps mitigate the slick, sterile surface of cyber-animation is the musical score of Randy Newman. Randy's three songs, delivered in his loose, weary voice, go a long way toward humanizing the toys, and his orchestral score underpinning the action makes a warm counterpoint to the hyperkinetic, snazzy visuals. The quasi-maudlin "I Will Go Sailing No More" (as Buzz realizes he can't really fly) would undoubtedly sink the movie into bathos in the hands of anyone who didn't have such hardcore cynicism backing him up.

As you'd expect, there are hundreds of tiny details which zip by too quickly for kids but which provide constant humor for adults. Some of my favorites are the "Virtual Realty" sign out on the lawn, the heavy-metal "MEGADORK" poster and the arcade game "Whack-A-Alien." And in refreshing contrast to Disney's last couple features, there's a healthy irreverence about "sky gods" in Toy Story. Inside the arcade's "Crane" game, for example, toys worship "The Claw," who descends and Chooses those Worthy enough to go on to a Better Place. Even without such jokes the movie would be worthwhile for us grown-ups, but they point up the fun the animators are having with the reality they're creating.

Nothing's perfect, though, right? The problem of conveying weight and inertia through computer graphics does show up in the movements of the neighbor's dog, and the computerized kids sometimes jar the stylistic reality. Also, the male-o-centricity is overwhelming: there's only one female toy, Bo Peep, and her longest, most important scene is one of about three seconds where she kisses Woody. But even I, unrepentant feminist that I am, couldn't find time to worry about that — they're little boys' toys, fer chrissake, and it's a buddy movie! Whaddaya want?

The press kit, including a promotional CD-ROM and 68-page booklet, goes overboard to hype Toy Story as a landmark cartoon, but in spite of all that, it just may be true. I think we may look back on this movie as the first to move computer animation beyond gimmick to genre, and if ever there were a product ready for complete Virtual Reality treatment, it's this one (they've already built the sets)! So even if you think cartoons are just for kids, or you don't like toys, you may have to go see Toy Story just to taste the future of our culture. If nothing else, it looks like we're in for a hell of a lot of fun.