{"id":10620,"date":"2026-06-16T13:52:27","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T10:52:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/?p=10620"},"modified":"2026-06-16T16:00:59","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T12:30:59","slug":"why-the-original-toy-story-is-the-best-toy-story-movie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/2026\/06\/16\/why-the-original-toy-story-is-the-best-toy-story-movie\/","title":{"rendered":"Why The Original Toy Story Is The Best Toy Story Movie"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Given it\u2019s a franchise boasting multiple sequels with \u201cmasterpiece\u201d status, it somehow feels like a hot take to say that the original Toy Story<\/em> is still the best of the bunch. With Toy Story 2<\/em>\u2019s epic scope and Toy Story 3<\/em>‘s emotional gut punches (I\u2019ve still not recovered from the furnace sequence) it\u2019s easy to forget just how sharp, witty, emotional and genuinely subversive the OG Pixar adventure is.<\/p>\n

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\"Toy<\/div>\n

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I was an eight-year-old boy when Toy Story<\/em> was released in 1995, obsessed with two things: movies and toys. At this particular time I was obsessed with my Mighty Morphin\u2019 Power Rangers which, like Buzz Lightyear, boasted blinking laser lights, sound effects and impressive wingspans. So it\u2019s safe to say I was the ideal<\/em> demographic for this particular movie. Toy Story<\/em>\u2019s central conceit \u2013 originally conceived by Pixar co-founder John Lasseter \u2013 was a beautifully simple and relatable one for most children: what do your toys get up to when you leave the room?<\/p>\n

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While Woody has softened through the sequels, in the original he\u2019s actually pretty mean<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Even as a child, I was aware that Toy Story<\/em> was a \u2018big deal\u2019 because of how different it looked to any other animated film. This was the dawn of 3D computer animation. Despite having won an Academy Award for their computer animated short Tin Toy<\/em> in 1989, the idea of animating an entire feature film in this style felt like a big risk, particularly given the popularity of the \u201crenaissance\u201d-era Disney movies of the early \u201890s \u2013 all megahits that were beautifully rendered in the classic 2D style animation. In comparison, the computer animation in Toy Story<\/em> has dated a little (particularly the human characters, who look like they\u2019ve wandered in from a PlayStation cutscene) but it feels crucial to this particular story. Toy Story<\/em> wouldn\u2019t have worked if it looked like The Lion King<\/em> or Aladdin<\/em>. This was a world of man-made plastic toys. It needed to feel artificial, yet tangible.<\/p>\n

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\"Toy<\/div>\n

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The opening sequence demonstrates this perfectly as it introduces us to Andy and his toys, which are all familiar real-world products \u2013 a slinky, an Etch-a-Sketch, a piggy bank, a Mr. Potato Head. We see a typical, recognisable scenario from a classic western play out, in which a criminal stages a \u201cstick-up\u201d in a city bank, but told through inanimate toys that are controlled and voiced by a human child. We\u2019re not in a magical storybook fairytale like Beauty And The Beast<\/em>, but a tangible, three-dimensional world. Here, we can see the shine of the plastic action figures, the lens flare from the sun beaming through Andy\u2019s window and the reflections on Buzz Lightyear\u2019s retractable helmet. Unlike Aladdin and Jasmine on their magic carpet, Buzz Lightyear doesn\u2019t fly \u2013 he simply falls with style<\/em> as he bounces and collides with other everyday items in Andy\u2019s room. There\u2019s a realism behind the magic.<\/p>\n

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Toy Story<\/em> wasn\u2019t just a risk because of the new, experimental technology behind it, but also due to its buddy comedy format with two somewhat unconventional main characters: a deluded toy who thinks he\u2019s a real space ranger and a bitter, jealous cowboy who\u2019s desperate to get rid of him. Woody and Buzz Lightyear aren\u2019t your classic Disney heroes. While Woody has softened throughout the sequels, in the original he\u2019s actually pretty mean,<\/em> driven by bitterness, jealousy, cynicism and his desire to be the boss. The script \u2013 co-penned by Joss Whedon, king of quippy, cynical, self-aware dialogue \u2013 contains a lot of sharp buddy-movie take-downs (\u201cThe word you\u2019re looking for is space ranger<\/em>.\u201d \u201cThe word I\u2019m looking for I can\u2019t say, because there\u2019s pre-school toys present!\u201d<\/em>). Early drafts of the film actually made Woody even meaner before Disney advised Pixar to soften his edges. Even so, there\u2019s something unnerving about watching our hero maniacally drive a remote-control car towards his rival with the intention of knocking him off a ledge and getting them out of the picture. Of course, it helps that Woody is played by the most likeable man in Hollywood. Tom Hanks brings a magic and warmth to Woody, even when angrily screaming \u201cYOU ARE A TOY!<\/em>\u201d at a blissfully oblivious Buzz Lightyear.<\/p>\n

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\"Toy<\/div>\n

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The film\u2019s subversive energy peaks as Woody and Buzz find themselves stuck in the bedroom of Sid, the terrifying psychopathic kid next door with a penchant for torturing toys. As a burgeoning horror movie obsessive, it\u2019s no wonder I loved Toy Story<\/em> as a child. It remains the darkest and scariest movie in the franchise. Even that<\/em> furnace sequence in 3<\/em> or the creepy antique store sequence in 4<\/em> don\u2019t compare to the genuine terror of Sid\u2019s room, in which creepy toys who have been mutilated and Frankenstein-ed back together emerge from the darkness and menacingly crawl towards our heroes like something out of The Conjuring<\/em>.<\/p>\n

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In fact, this is a film filled with references to horror cinema. The carpet in Sid\u2019s house matches the carpet in Stanley Kubrick\u2019s The Shining<\/em>, and surely it\u2019s no coincidence that 1988\u2019s Child\u2019s Play<\/em> \u2013 the original Chucky, made seven years earlier \u2013 is about a boy called Andy whose best friend is a talking toy.<\/p>\n

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Buzz discovers that being a child\u2019s favourite toy is even more fulfilling than being a space ranger.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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There\u2019s psychological horror in the mix, too, when Buzz leaps from the top of Sid\u2019s stairs in an attempt to fly \u2013 only to physically and mentally crash down to Earth, losing an arm and descending into an existential crisis. This is the best Buzz Lightyear movie of the franchise, journeying from confident spaceman, to complete meltdown (\u201cI am Mrs. Nesbitt!\u201d), to eventual acceptance of self-worth, played with genuine pathos by Tim Allen. While Buzz feels somewhat relegated to a comedic secondary character in the sequels, this is just as much Buzz\u2019s story as it is Woody\u2019s.<\/p>\n

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After a heart-stopping climax \u2013 as Woody and Buzz escape Sid\u2019s clutches and \u2018fall with style\u2019 back into Andy\u2019s car \u2013 they settle their differences and accept each other, and themselves. Woody realises this town is<\/em> big enough for the two of them, and Buzz discovers that maybe being a child\u2019s favourite toy is even more fulfilling than being a space ranger. Ultimately, as Randy Newman\u2019s iconic theme for the film, \u2018You\u2019ve Got A Friend In Me\u2019, suggests, Toy Story<\/em> is a story about friendship, told with nuance, maturity and even a little bit of darkness.<\/p>\n

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\"Toy<\/div>\n

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The risks taken in storytelling, characters and technology paid off. Toy Story<\/em> was a juggernaut success and established Pixar\u2019s signature knack for tackling bold, tough subject matter in a smart, accessible way for kids and adults alike. Without its huge success, we wouldn\u2019t have such unique, strange and boundary pushing animated gems as Up<\/em>, Inside Out<\/em> and indeed, the Toy Story<\/em> sequels. Thanks to Toy Story,<\/em> there are no limits to where mainstream animated storytelling can go. To infinity and beyond.<\/p>\n

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Toy Story is streaming now on Disney+<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Given it\u2019s a franchise boasting multiple sequels with \u201cmasterpiece\u201d status, it somehow feels like a hot take to say that the original Toy Story is still the best of the bunch. With Toy Story 2\u2019s epic scope and Toy Story 3‘s emotional gut punches (I\u2019ve still not recovered from the furnace sequence) it\u2019s easy to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10621,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"Default","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10620","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-47"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10620","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10620"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10620\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10622,"href":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10620\/revisions\/10622"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}