Friday 9 July 2010

You are a toy

The first two Toy Story films have been called The Godfather Parts I and II of animation. But that's just nonsense. Toy Story is much better than The Godfather. It's amazing what Pixar can do. Many animator's try to emulate them, thinking that they only have to make a dog or a fish talk. What Pixar do is almost intangible - they expertly craft charm into their creations, they go the extra mile to make the animation real. It's in the eyes, the faces, the movement. The amount of time these people spend staring at a computer to get a cowboy's eyebrow to move just right is staggering. If the end result wasn't so wonderful they'd have given up to find some sunlight. Real creativity and love goes into their films, they don't bow to focus groups or trends (a film about an old man attaching balloons to his house?), they make films that others follow.

Obviously the normal film requirements apply too - script, acting, score. In each of these Toy Story excels. By itself the first film has one of the purest film plots around - enemies become friends, evil is defeated, the heroes make it home. I was surprised to learn that, this being the first CGI feature film, it was made back in 1995. 1995? That's fifteen years ago (I can do maths), I was six years old when this was released. In other words, a long time ago. In all this time it has barely been surpassed. They did it perfectly the first time. Amazing, really. If it had gone badly the whole thing might not have taken off. Toy Story provided the base for every computer animated film to come, something to aspire and live up to. The creators said that they were 'too young to realise what they were going wasn't possible', they were just having as much fun with it as they could. And the good news is, after all these years, the third film is receiving equal adoration. You see, much better than The Godfather.

1 comment:

  1. I adore this series! Great review of it. When this series came out I was 11 so I distinctly remember all the hype and excitement. It was fabulous! Toy Story 3 is amazing... Seriously? At the end I was trying so hard not to just weep openly. When they were all holding hands at the end? Oh my goodness... It is so touching.

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