Infinity & Beyond: A 19 year old obsession.
19 years ago this Christmas marks a very special time in my life. 19 years ago I went to the now demolished Lincoln Mall cinema in St.Catharines with my uncle and I saw 'Toy Story' for the first time. I know a year from now will be 20 years and much more an auspicious occasion but it's on my mind now so I'm going to write about it.
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| Famous Players Logo in '95 |
Now my uncle, and later my father on subsequent trips to the theatre (to see Toy Story again) originally wanted to see the movie I'm sure because they had read about the technology involved in making it and how it was the first fully computer animated feature film. I wanted to see it because I was a kid and looked funny.
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| Three people who made Toy Story possible: Ed Catmull,Steve Jobs, and John Lasseter. |
Computer animation had been used in animated features before with some success, In some uses it was kind of gimmicky (think the cavern in Aladdin) in others it added greatly to the scene (think the ballroom scene in Beauty and the Beast and the use of camera angles). Toy Story was truly an amazing achievement. So much so the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science presented directory John Lasseter with a special achievement Oscar because there was no real category at the time fit to honour Toy Story, Lasseter, and all the people at Pixar.
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| John Lasseter receiving his Oscar with Woody and Buzz. |
Aside from the technical achievement of Toy Story it was just a good movie. I honestly believe if the first computer animated feature length film was say Madagascar nobody would still be talking about what a breakthrough it was. The story and execution were both brilliant. We all know the story but I'm going to briefly rehash it anyway. In the opening credits we see a little boy Andy playing with his favourite toy, a cowboy doll named Woody played under the Randy Newman song 'You've got a friend in me'. While the song has grown on me I feel the Randy Newman songs in general could have been left out. The songs from time to time feel out of place and like they were included simply because Disney was making musicals at the time and told Pixar we need music. After opening credits we see Andy gathering his toys and playing out an elaborate scene with his toys where Woody must save Little Bo Peep's sheep from the evil grasp of One Eyed Bart (a clever gag where Mr. Potato Head has lost an eye). Andy is then called away by his mother (more on this later) and we learn today is his birthday party. As the door closes and the humans are out of site the toys come to life and the real fun begins.
Woody arises and is shocked that the birthday party is today. He seems worried and calls for a meeting of this toys. During this time we see some funny interactions and what every day life may be for the toys. We see some raw sexual tension between Woody and Bo, we see that podium duty isn't a fun assignment, and my personal favorite it we see that it's not always fun being a toy. Mr Potatoe Head is upset that Andy's 1 year old sister has pulled out his parts and strewn them across the room to which he says "Ages 3 and up it says it on my box".
During the toys meeting they discuss current events like preparing for the upcoming family move and finding a moving buddy, Mr Spells plastic corrosion awareness meeting (which was apparently quite informative) and then Woody drops the bomb and mentions that Andy's birthday party has been moved up as a result of the families impending move. The other toys panic. It seems that toys are very insecure in there position in hierarchy of Andy's room. Which always makes me think is there a time in Andy's life that Woody wasn't the favourite? Was there a time when Andy was a toddler that Potato Head was the favourite? And does he harbour resentment towards Woody? Back to the story.
Woody in an effort to appease his worrying constituents agrees to send the "troops" to set up a recon post downstairs to see what Andy gets for his birthday. The troops are of course the classic green army men and the leader of the men is voiced by the same actor who was the drill sergeant in Full Metal Jacket which is priceless now that I know that. The troops proceed through the house with a Little Tykes baby monitor and set up shop in a planter overseeing the birthday party reporting back the presents Andy receives to the toys upstairs. To the toys relief Andy gets things like Battleship, a lunchbox and bed sheets (who invited that kid ?) for his birthday. The party is ending and the troops are packing up when Andy's mom pulls a surprise present from the closet....and it's a big one!
Buzz remains calm and collected and begins to talk to his wrist while Woody freaks out, after all he is a lost toy. Buzz proceeds to tell Woody not to panic and at that point Woody has had it. He lays it out, "You are a TOY", Woody says and proceeds to call him a child's play thing. This leads to my favourite line of the whole move. "You are a sad strange little man, and you have my pity", Buzz says as he flashed the live long and prosper hand signal from Star Trek.
As Buzz is walking away Woody notices a Pizza Planet Delivery truck (which has since appeared in nearly every Pixar movie along with John Ratzenberger). The truck looks to be a old Toyota with some missing letters on the tailgate cleverly spelling "YO". Woody has a plan to be reunited with Andy but knows he cannot show his face back in Andy's room without Andy. So he convinces Buzz to come with him by telling him he's found transport to the spaceport where he will be able to find transport back to his home.
Next is a funny scene which kind of bothers me. Woody wants to get in the back of the truck as to not be noticed. Buzz says "negative", he wants to go in the "cockpit" because it's safer. Of course Woody goes in the back and he gets shaken around and appears to get hurt while Buzz goes up in the front and actually buckles himself in. He BUCKLES himself in! What are the rules exactly as to not being noticed by humans? He's right next to the delivery driver and he's buckling himself in, happy as a clam and tapping his hands. I don't get the rules.
So the two arrive at Pizza Planet, which Disney should seriously consider marketing as a real restaurant because it is awesome. The green slime dispenser alone would make it worth it but the real special treat for adults at a Pizza Planet would be the Whack-a-Alien game which looks an awful lot like the alien from 'Alien' and 'Aliens'. So Buzz and Woody are running around Pizza Planet and Woody sees the stroller and is waiting to hop in the basket when Buzz gets distracted by what he thinks is a space ship to get him home. So he jumps in the door and Woody is forced to follow him missing his chance to hop in the basket.
What the space ship is in reality has to be the worst claw game ever! Seriously have you ever played one of those claw games? Those claws could barely pickup a piece of cotton let alone a heavy Buzz Lightyear by the helmet. If Chuck E Cheese had claw machines like that they would be bankrupt quicker then you could say supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. Anyway the two toys are in the machine alone with a bunch of the green alien squeeze toys awaiting the decision of the claw.
The person controlling the claw at the moment Andy's neighbour Sid. Sid notices the Buzz Lightyear and immediately targets him and pulls out Buzz and Woody who has grabbed onto his leg. Sid takes Buzz and Woody back to his house. Sid was seen earlier in the movie and he's portrayed as sort of the villain who tortures toys. I don't think Sid is a bad kid. He's a kid, and a fairly creative and cool one at that. He's a kid with a toolbox! That's cool. So I get that the toys think he tortures other toys but I don't see it that way. I see him as having fun with what he has. He building toys and creating things with what he has, this is how he plays doctor. His parents couldn't afford to get him a Buzz Lightyear and a lot of other nice toys. Like come on his dad is passed out and probably loaded in the next room. He may be troubled but us certainly not evil.
Sid brings the toys into his room where they meet some of his misfit toys and meanwhile Andy has arrived home and is very concerned that he has now lost both Woody and Buzz and the toys are performing a search and rescue operation to find Buzz below Andy's window, The search involves lowering a barrel of monkeys out of the window and of course they run out of monkeys which always makes me laugh,
Somehow Buzz and Woody survive the night and when morning arrives we see Sid "torturing" Woody burning his head with a magnifying glass and the sun when he gets called out of his room for every child's fave nutritious breakfast a pop tart (telling you Sids not the problem). After Sid leaves Woody notices the door has been left open and he and Buzz run for it. While on the way down the stairs the meet up with Sid's dog skud who chases them and the two are forced to split up. Woody takes refuge in a closet that seems to be filled with old Christmas lights and Buzz hides in a room where as I mentioned Sid's dad appears to be passed out drunk watching TV. While in the room a commercial catches Buzz' attention. It's a commercial for him, He see's hundred of him on the shelf of an Al's toy barn and it becomes abundantly clear to him that he is "not a flying toy". Still in disbelief Buzz leaves the room and see's an open window on the other side of a stairwell. He climbs up the railing and jumps off the edge. For a moment you think he may make it, but then he falls and you see an utterly dejected Buzz with his arm detached at the bottom of the stairs when Sid's sister, Hannah picks him up and brings him to her room.
In the next scene you see Buzz at a tea party with Hannah and her dolls (which Sid has removed the heads from). Woody at this point has found his way from the closet and noticed Buzz and creates a distraction to get Hannah to leave the room. Buzz now clearly knows he's a toy and has lost it. Woody is unable to convince Buzz to come with him, He seems perfectly content to be Mrs. Nesbitt and sip tea with Marie Antoinette and her little sisters. Woody takes Buzz' arm and slaps him across the face with it in order to talk some sense into him. He gets Buzz to make his way out of the room but he bursts into hysterics. Woody meanwhile has noticed Sid's bedroom window which faces Andy's bedroom is open and runs towards it. He calls to the toys from across the way and tosses over some Christmas lights so they can make there way back to Andy's room. Potato Head doesn't believe Buzz is with Woody however. Woody try's to convince them using Buzz' arm and faking his voice but somethings a little screwy. Woody accidentally shows the other toys the severed arm and they are right back to calling him a murderer, They drop the Christmas lights and shut the window.
During the toys meeting they discuss current events like preparing for the upcoming family move and finding a moving buddy, Mr Spells plastic corrosion awareness meeting (which was apparently quite informative) and then Woody drops the bomb and mentions that Andy's birthday party has been moved up as a result of the families impending move. The other toys panic. It seems that toys are very insecure in there position in hierarchy of Andy's room. Which always makes me think is there a time in Andy's life that Woody wasn't the favourite? Was there a time when Andy was a toddler that Potato Head was the favourite? And does he harbour resentment towards Woody? Back to the story.
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| Buzz Lightyear fresh from the box. |
Andy comes storming into the room with his friends as the toys have just all gotten back to there places and in haste wipes Woody off the bed to make room for his new toy. The children are quickly called away for cake and ice cream leaving the new toy on the bed and Woody on the floor. A common theme from the 1960's of space anything replacing cowboys anything.
The toys all gather around to meet the new toy who seems to be just a little bit different. Buzz Lightyear (brilliantly portrayed by Tim Allen) does not think he is a toy (but then why does he freeze like the other toys?). Buzz actually thinks he is a Space Ranger marooned on a strange planet which leads to a funny exchange about the origins of the other toys (I'm from Playschool). Buzz gets buy in from all the other toys after an elaborate series of events makes the other toys think he can fly. Woody sees through it all and says correctly that he wasn't flying he was merely falling with style.
We then see a musical montage with another annoying Randy Newman song played over top in which Woody's world is being torn upside down. The once cowboy adorned bedroom is being replaced by space themed decor, the drawings of Woody have been covered by new drawings of Buzz. Some strange things are happening to Woody.
We then see the mother toys continuing to bond with Buzz and helping him with the repairs on his space ship (box) and then in a slightly emotional hit we see that Andy has inscribed his name on the bottom of Buzz' (in permanent ink) and the inscription on Woody's feet is beginning to ware off.
Things are starting to heat up in Andy's room and Woody's jealousy is beginning to heat up. Andy's mom has come into the room and announced that she's tired from all the packing and as treat they would all be going to Pizza Planet for dinner and Andy can only bring one toy. Woody wants to be that one toy. While on top of the desk he accidentally rolls a toy behind the desk and notices a bunch of other toys back there gathering dust. He comes up with a plot to know Buzz behind the desk but instead knocks Buzz out the window. The toys cry bloody murder and say that Woody pushed him out intentionally, but it was in fact an accident. In earlier drafts of the script Woody was portrayed as being a lot meaner. In fact in earlier drafts he was so unlikable Disney threatened to shut down production but a quick rewrite by the entire team at Pixar changed there mind. Andy after not being able to find Buzz (because he fell out the window) reluctantly takes Woody with him to Pizza Planet. Buzz, who has taken refuge in the shrubs sees them leaving and runs and finds his way into the car.
Andy's mom stops the car at the local Dinoco Gas Station (the design of which is simply brilliant) and the whole family strangely needs to get out of the car to pump and pay for gas. Woody know comes to life and is terrified about what will happen to him when he gets back to the room (toy lynching?). Buzz out of nowhere jumps Woody and two fall out of the car. A fight ensues in which Buzz definitely seems to be getting the better of Woody. During the fight we see Andy and his mom get back in the car and drive away leaving Woody and Buzz at the gas station.
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| "You are a sad strange little man, and you have my pity." -Buzz |
Buzz remains calm and collected and begins to talk to his wrist while Woody freaks out, after all he is a lost toy. Buzz proceeds to tell Woody not to panic and at that point Woody has had it. He lays it out, "You are a TOY", Woody says and proceeds to call him a child's play thing. This leads to my favourite line of the whole move. "You are a sad strange little man, and you have my pity", Buzz says as he flashed the live long and prosper hand signal from Star Trek.
As Buzz is walking away Woody notices a Pizza Planet Delivery truck (which has since appeared in nearly every Pixar movie along with John Ratzenberger). The truck looks to be a old Toyota with some missing letters on the tailgate cleverly spelling "YO". Woody has a plan to be reunited with Andy but knows he cannot show his face back in Andy's room without Andy. So he convinces Buzz to come with him by telling him he's found transport to the spaceport where he will be able to find transport back to his home.
Next is a funny scene which kind of bothers me. Woody wants to get in the back of the truck as to not be noticed. Buzz says "negative", he wants to go in the "cockpit" because it's safer. Of course Woody goes in the back and he gets shaken around and appears to get hurt while Buzz goes up in the front and actually buckles himself in. He BUCKLES himself in! What are the rules exactly as to not being noticed by humans? He's right next to the delivery driver and he's buckling himself in, happy as a clam and tapping his hands. I don't get the rules.
So the two arrive at Pizza Planet, which Disney should seriously consider marketing as a real restaurant because it is awesome. The green slime dispenser alone would make it worth it but the real special treat for adults at a Pizza Planet would be the Whack-a-Alien game which looks an awful lot like the alien from 'Alien' and 'Aliens'. So Buzz and Woody are running around Pizza Planet and Woody sees the stroller and is waiting to hop in the basket when Buzz gets distracted by what he thinks is a space ship to get him home. So he jumps in the door and Woody is forced to follow him missing his chance to hop in the basket.
What the space ship is in reality has to be the worst claw game ever! Seriously have you ever played one of those claw games? Those claws could barely pickup a piece of cotton let alone a heavy Buzz Lightyear by the helmet. If Chuck E Cheese had claw machines like that they would be bankrupt quicker then you could say supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. Anyway the two toys are in the machine alone with a bunch of the green alien squeeze toys awaiting the decision of the claw.
The person controlling the claw at the moment Andy's neighbour Sid. Sid notices the Buzz Lightyear and immediately targets him and pulls out Buzz and Woody who has grabbed onto his leg. Sid takes Buzz and Woody back to his house. Sid was seen earlier in the movie and he's portrayed as sort of the villain who tortures toys. I don't think Sid is a bad kid. He's a kid, and a fairly creative and cool one at that. He's a kid with a toolbox! That's cool. So I get that the toys think he tortures other toys but I don't see it that way. I see him as having fun with what he has. He building toys and creating things with what he has, this is how he plays doctor. His parents couldn't afford to get him a Buzz Lightyear and a lot of other nice toys. Like come on his dad is passed out and probably loaded in the next room. He may be troubled but us certainly not evil.
Sid brings the toys into his room where they meet some of his misfit toys and meanwhile Andy has arrived home and is very concerned that he has now lost both Woody and Buzz and the toys are performing a search and rescue operation to find Buzz below Andy's window, The search involves lowering a barrel of monkeys out of the window and of course they run out of monkeys which always makes me laugh,
Somehow Buzz and Woody survive the night and when morning arrives we see Sid "torturing" Woody burning his head with a magnifying glass and the sun when he gets called out of his room for every child's fave nutritious breakfast a pop tart (telling you Sids not the problem). After Sid leaves Woody notices the door has been left open and he and Buzz run for it. While on the way down the stairs the meet up with Sid's dog skud who chases them and the two are forced to split up. Woody takes refuge in a closet that seems to be filled with old Christmas lights and Buzz hides in a room where as I mentioned Sid's dad appears to be passed out drunk watching TV. While in the room a commercial catches Buzz' attention. It's a commercial for him, He see's hundred of him on the shelf of an Al's toy barn and it becomes abundantly clear to him that he is "not a flying toy". Still in disbelief Buzz leaves the room and see's an open window on the other side of a stairwell. He climbs up the railing and jumps off the edge. For a moment you think he may make it, but then he falls and you see an utterly dejected Buzz with his arm detached at the bottom of the stairs when Sid's sister, Hannah picks him up and brings him to her room.
In the next scene you see Buzz at a tea party with Hannah and her dolls (which Sid has removed the heads from). Woody at this point has found his way from the closet and noticed Buzz and creates a distraction to get Hannah to leave the room. Buzz now clearly knows he's a toy and has lost it. Woody is unable to convince Buzz to come with him, He seems perfectly content to be Mrs. Nesbitt and sip tea with Marie Antoinette and her little sisters. Woody takes Buzz' arm and slaps him across the face with it in order to talk some sense into him. He gets Buzz to make his way out of the room but he bursts into hysterics. Woody meanwhile has noticed Sid's bedroom window which faces Andy's bedroom is open and runs towards it. He calls to the toys from across the way and tosses over some Christmas lights so they can make there way back to Andy's room. Potato Head doesn't believe Buzz is with Woody however. Woody try's to convince them using Buzz' arm and faking his voice but somethings a little screwy. Woody accidentally shows the other toys the severed arm and they are right back to calling him a murderer, They drop the Christmas lights and shut the window.
A crushed Woody turns back to Buzz convinced this whole thing is his fault sees him being crowded by the misfit toys and try's to come to his aid. He then notices that the toys aren't harming him they were fixing him. They had reattached his harm. Woody suddenly realises these toys are not evil at all. Sid suddenly barges into the room and the toys go limp. A package he has been waiting for has finally arrived and he is visibly excited, In the package is "The Big One", which is essentially a large firecracker rocket. Sid has the idea that he wants to put a space man into orbit and duct tapes the rocket to Buzz. Suddenly it starts to rain and the launch is delayed. Sid puts his toolbox on the milk crate under which Woody was hiding and starts a countdown clock for the next morning when he plans to launch Buzz. Now when I first watched this movie 'Home Improvement' was one of my favourite shows. I remember instantly noticing that the toolbox was a Binford toolbox and it still to this day makes me laugh. Woody who is still stuck under the crate convinces Buzz that being a toy isn't all that bad and that being something special to Andy is something worth living for. Buzz then pushes the toolbox off the crate in an effort to free Woody and reunite them both with Andy. In doing so however he wakes up Sid who takes him outside for that launch.Now Woody must come up with a plan to get past Scud and outside to save Buzz. He gathers to mutant misfit toys together and that is just what they do. What ensues is an elaborate escape that allows the toys into the backyard and passed Scud (the windup frog is one brave toy). The toys scatter all around the backyard and Woody places himself right in Sid's path. Sid stumbles across him and announces his intention to BBQ him, places a match in his empty gun holster (which is an interesting point) and throws him on the near by grill. Sid is just about to light 'The Big One' when we hear Woody's voice box, but no one has pulled his pull string. Sid is puzzled and moves towards Woody and we hear his voice box again. This is where it sort of comes off the rails because there seems to be no following of any rules going on. Woody voice box is saying things directly to Sid about being nice to his toys and how they don't like being tortured. Then all of a sudden Woody comes to full blow life and he moves and speaks directly to Sid while his other toys are coming out of the sand box and hitting him in the legs. Sid is terrified and runs away, The toys have won and they begin to celebrate when Buzz and Woody notice the moving van next door pulling away so they rush to catch it.
The two rush after the truck but Skud has begun to chase them. Woody has managed to grab on to the strap and make his way into the back of the van while Skud is ragdolling Buzz, Woody begins to root through the moving boxes and the other toys are surprised to see him. Woody finds what he was looking RC a remote control car. Woody pushes RC out of the moving van and begins to drive him towards Buzz. The other toys believe Woody to be continuing with his murderous rampage and push him out the back of the moving van.
RC know what there doing and the two go back to get Buzz. They get Buzz from the clutches of Skud and they head back to the moving van. En route back to the van the batteries in RC die. After a moment of despair the two realise that Buzz still has a rocket on his back and Woody has a match in his holster (how convenient). There all ecstatic that they have a way to get back to the van when a car drives over them and puts out the match. Never has happiness turned to sadness so quickly. Woody then however notices the sun shinning through Buzz`visor and burning him Woody then uses Buzz' visor to light the wick and the three are on there way back to the van (another convenient plot device). The rocket blast towards the van and Woody lets go of RC and he end up in the moving van. Woody points out that Buzz missed the van but Buzz points out he`s not aiming for the moving van but for the vehicle Andy`s mom is driving directly in front of it. Then it happens Woody remembers that rockets explode!. Buzz then says he has it covered and cuts the rocket off by opening his wing. His WINGS? What are these things razor blade wings? Or does Sid just buy horrible duct tape. We then see Buzz actually fly (how?) in to the van and they conveniently land right next to Andy (where they were all along).
Fast forward a couple months and the toys are all settled into the new house at Christmas time. The troops are downstairs reporting the Christmas presents. What present could Andy get that's worse then Buzz? A PUPPY! Fin.
You know when I started this I really had no idea it would take this long. So I'm going to just quickly throw out some quick takes.
- Andy has no dad. How old is Molly at the beginning of this movie? 6 months maybe? So dad has bailed quite recently and at the end of the movie they move into a much bigger and nicer house. Way to go single mom.
- Woody has no gun. Could have been very easy to make that a plot device.
- If Woody is as old a toy as he's later explained to be that hat would have been long gone.
- Mattel didn't want Barbie to be portrayed in a silly movie about toys. They sure changed there tune for the sequel.
- Tom Hanks and Tim Allen were huge stars when this movie came out. Hanks was fresh off an Oscar win and Allen had the second biggest show on TV (after Seinfeld) and they weren't used to market the film. Further more I never really think of the actors while I'm watching the movie. Thank god Pixar didn't make the Disney mistake of making them look like the actor. You never really think of the characters just as extensions of the actor. Dreamworks movies suffer from this. In Shrek example you feel like Donkey is just doing Eddie Murphy's stand up routine.
