Everybody has seen Toy Story right? You take that as a given. A simple fact of life. You are never in a conversation, ready to reference this classic and think to yourself “Oh what if they don’t get my joke.” Well you’re wrong. There are people out there who haven’t seen it yet. There are people out there who have no intention of ever seeing it. And I’m not talking about non-english speakers or your six year old niece. (Although six is old enough. Any older and you should really call child services on her parents.)
No there is a grown, native English speaker in your life right now who hasn’t seen Toy Story. Find them, tie them to a chair, place this screen in front of them, and if you have to, tape their eyelids open because I’m about to drop some knowledge.
Three days from now Toy Story, which came out in 1995, will be twenty years old. Placing in squarely in the childhood of every member of the so-called millennial generation. I myself was nine years old when I saw it in theaters with my parents. It was our first experience with a cultural touchstone that didn’t involve a sing along. We talked about it at recess, gathering around the lunch tables. Our juice boxes replacing the water cooler. And fittingly it was the first feature-length film made by the technology that will define our generation, the computer. More on that thought in a minute, but first back to a personal comment I made before. I told you that I went and saw it in theaters…..with my parents. Toy Story isn’t just an important memory for millennials but for their parents as well. Two generations with definitive personal memories of this film. This on it’s own merit makes a viewing worth the time. This however, is not the only point in the movies favor.
In addition to sentimentality there are the technical aspects that are due your respect. As I stated earlier Toy Story was the first full length feature that was entirely computer generated. It took three years for another to be given a US release (one Brazilian film, Cassiopia, was released in the interim). Toy Story laid the groundwork for movies such as Shrek, Finding Nemo, and Beowulf. Two of this years biggest hits, the Lego Movie and Frozen, are direct descendants of the achievements made in the production of Toy Story. In addition to its impact on future film endeavors the concepts and techniques eventually matriculated to the video game cut scenes that are so common in the industry today.
But even putting aside the aforementioned reasons to watch this film, you should watch it because its really freaking good. The jokes work well for both adults and children with reference humor that avoids being dated by appealing to the universal aspects of childhood and growing up. It is also one of the best examples of an odd couple buddy comedy around. The story is moving; dealing with themes of displacement, change, and obsolescence. Things that we all face at some point in our lives. Worried you won’t enjoy it. The movie has a 100% fresh rating on rotten tomatoes. 100% of it’s reviews are positive. It’s hard to argue with math.
I mean come on. It’s Toy Story. Aren’t you tired of people looking at you and saying “How have you not seen that?”