Great animation: Toy Story

Toy Story is an incredible movie, it is sometimes easy to forget that this was an animation movie, released in 1995. Made by Pixar, it was Pixar's first feature film and was released by Walt Disney Pictures and Buena Vista Distribution in the US, and was the first computer animated film to be released. The movie grossed over $350 million worldwide, which is an incredible amount, given that the budget was $30 million. It was a major advance in the history of animation in movies, and resulted in much better animation in movies after that. The voices of the different characters were done by stars, with Tom Hanks and Tim Allen playing the major roles. For this movie, John Lasseter received an Academy Special Achievement Award in 1996 "for the development and inspired application of techniques that have made possible the first feature-length computer-animated film."
In 2007, the film was ranked #99 on the American Film Institute's 10th Anniversary Edition of the 100 greatest American films of all time, the only computer animated film on the list, as a mark of its stature. After the immense advancements in this movie, animation became much more common-place. The movie also stuck a deep chord with kids, and is exceedingly popular with kids of all ages.



The story is about toys in the room of a 9 year old buy, Andy, who lives with his mother and sister, Molly. He has a set of toys, in which the cowboy toy, Woody is his favorite. Woody is apprehensive since it is Andy's birthday and he is wondering as to what Andy will get as a present. A new toy will create problems in terms of the new toy becoming Andy's favorite. And that is exactly what happens, with Andy's mom giving him a surprise in terms of Buzz Lightyear, a spaceman (inspired by the real life Buzz Ladrin). Woody gets jealous as Buzz becomes Andy's favorite toy. Buzz himself does not know that he is a toy, believing himself to be real, and on a mission.
The other toys gravitate towards Buzz because of his flashy style and attitude, making Woody even more jealous. This has its repercussions when Andy has to select one toy for a trip, and Woody tried to hide Buzz, instead knocking him out of the window. The other toys turn on Woody at that time, but Andy comes and takes Woody (since he is unable to find Buzz). In the car, though, Woody finds that Andy had hung onto the car, and they fight and are left behind. And then follows a series of adventures as they try to find their way, meeting Andy's next door kid (a kid who experiments with and destroys toys), Buzz realizes on watching an advertisement that he is only a toy and gets depressed, escape a dog bent on catching them, and then they eventually make friends with each other,