James Proclaims!

1995’s Toy Story was a game-changing movie in many respects. The first feature length computer-animated movie, the first feature length release from Pixar, and of course the first movie in a franchise which has, to date, spawned three sequels and a spin-off on the silver screen, as well as a number of animated shorts and TV specials. But, despite the high bar that Pixar has established for the majority of its output and the critical acclaim attributed to all of the Toy Story movies, it would still be a brave person to suggest that there is anything in Pixar’s output that is better than their debut.

Indeed, although the computer animation was the element that many fixated on back in 1995, when no-one had seen anything like it before, it would be fair to say that Toy Story would have been a good movie had it been produced using more traditional forms of animation, which is possibly why it still holds up in spite of the animation perhaps looking a little dated in comparison with many of today’s offerings.

To be fair it does still look pretty good even today, and the voice cast is nothing short of stellar, but it’s the writing that lifts this head and shoulders above most movies (animated or not)

Score for Christmasishness

There is only one reference to Christmas, which happens right at the end of the movie, after the denouement of the main story. It’s more explicit than many a movie that has made the cut for my Christmas countdown, and, lest we forget, this is a movie about anthropomorphic toys, which is already pretty Christmassy by anyone’s standards.