Toy Story

Over Thanksgiving break, I decided to pop this classic into my VHS player (yeah, I still have one), and I had some interesting observations.

I know I made a post a while ago about this movie being the demise of Disney animation. I still believe this to be the case. However, it was only a matter of time before this technology took hold, and I think Toy Story was the perfect tale to make this transition.

The plot of the movie is simple - a new toy, Buzz Lightyear, complete with karate chop action, a "laser," deployable wings, and high-tech sound effects, arrives in Andy's collection. Buzz quickly outsources Woody, an old-fashioned cowboy doll with a pullstring-activated soundbox, as Andy's favorite toy. Woody is completely against the change - he goes so far as to push Buzz out of Andy's window in order to reestablish himself as Alpha Toy.

Woody represents the old ways of entertainment by means of representing spaghetti westerns and his simple design. Buzz, on the other hand, is the embodiment of the ADD-ridden childhood class of the 90's. He operates through facades like his "laser" - which Woody attacks as a "little light that blinks" - his technologically advanced-looking space armor, and even the box he comes in, a futuristic spaceship.

So what does this mean? Woody doesn't reject Buzz (they even become friendly at the end of the film): he rejects what Buzz stands for, even through the end of the movie. That which Buzz represents is change. The film opens and ends with the soldiers spying on Andy's family opening gifts; symbols of the threat of catastrophic change to the toys by means of new, more preferred toys.

To tie it all together, Toy Story in itself pronounces the death of the production of animated films (I know I'm gonna catch shit for this because of that Princess and the Frog movie that's coming out, but there's reasons for that film's production that I just won't get into right now), and the conscious transition to 3-D animation that will calm said ADD generation more effectively through Woody's denial of and resistance to change. It isn't a coincidence that the movie is about toys. Toys are the go-to material object for parents seeking to appease their children.

Toy Story is more than a combination of plot and characters. It is a statement of the compelling need to change from old to new.