I’ll be honest with you when I have to say that it will be difficult to review these three Pixar films, as the original is one of my favorite films of all time. I’m not certain why, as I remember seeing it while I was on a vacation, and I enjoyed it immensely.

I think part of it was it was the first full-length feature animated film, and so it was a type of storytelling that I had never seen before. I had always enjoyed seeing computer animation in rock videos and short films, but most of these never attempted a story. Just like Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs brought full length 2D animation to cinema to change it forever, Toy Story would forever change films, both animated and non-animated.

Thanks to Toy Story, we have good CG films like Shrek and Ice Age, but we also have some bad things to come from this. The obvious downsides are bad CG films like some of the sequels to the aforementioned CG films, not to mention real junk like Shark Tale and Dargo. (I don’t think I’ll be reviewing those anytime soon.)

Personally, I believe Toy Story would have worked with any media that you had tried for it. The reason is the story, which takes place in a world where toys comes to life when humans are not in the room. This is easily one of the coolest premises for any films whatsoever, but it is something that only animation could achieve. At the time, the first Toy Story could make plastic come to life, but it wasn’t able to do realistic humans.

The first film is a story of jealousy as old as Cain and Abel. It begins with a boy named Andy who has a favorite toy named Woody, a cowboy doll. Woody lives a pretty good life, until a new doll named Buzz Lightyear becomes Andy’s favorite. When Woody tries to make Buzz disappear by trying to hide him, he unintentionally knocks Buzz out of the house. From there, Woody and Buzz share a buddy adventure together.

The film works because it shows a world rich in imagination, but it is as close as the world in one’s own home. There are a lot of moments where one has to suspend one’s disbelief, but other than this “toys coming alive” concept, nothing too unbelievable happens other than that.

The film also deals with real issues of human feelings. In addition to jealousy, the toys deal with the problems of neglect, disappointment, inadequacy, and the like. Each film has some variation on this. In Toy Story 2, Woody learns he is a collector’s item, and figures that he could essentially live forever if he chose to stay with other collector’s item toys. One of these toys was abandoned by her child after growing up, in one of the saddest scenes ever, honestly.

Toy Story 3 takes the idea of abandonment to the next level as Woody’s Andy is about to go to college. Of course the toys are going to be left behind, and they realize they can live a happy life in a nursery. The film then becomes a prison film complete with evil warden Lotso Huggs Bear. Seriously, this film is up there with Shawshank Redemption as it depicts the socialization of incarceration. It is downright dark.

The ending of Toy Story 3 could have been darker as it would appear that all the toys are about to die at a junkyard. Of course, they just get adopted into a new family.

I suppose what can be learned from all three Toy Story movies is that nothing good lasts forever. Life is all about adaption, and the bad doesn’t last forever if you are willing to change. I’ve heard that Tom Hanks has leaked that a Toy Story 4 is being made, which does not surprise me at all. Sadly, sequels are often made if their predecessors are hits, but they are often not needed.

Next week, I’m going to discuss some of the other Pixar films that I haven’t discussed yet.