1010. Toy Story (1995)

Starring: Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Don Rickles

Director: John Lasseter

Running Time: 83 mins

Toy Story is an American film about a group of a young boy’s toys, where one cowboy feels his position as favourite toy threatened by the arrival of a Buzz Lightyear spaceman figure, leading to complications in their toy world.

Well, the main thing about this film is that it is an absolute landmark in the history of cinema, as genesis for the computer-animated genre that has gone on to be so successful. However, it’s still a brilliantly witty comedy with an exciting story and fun action that makes it a perfect Pixar film, for both kids and adults.

Much like Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs, which launched the animation genre as a whole, Toy Story is the original CGI feature film, being the first to be fully composed of computer animation. Its importance is therefore incredible, because in the last 20 years, the genre has become one of the most successful of all time, largely thanks to the excellent work at Pixar in making this film happen.

And even though it’s 20 years old, and animation has moved on, the quality of the visuals here is still brilliant, especially when you take the fact that it was made in 1995 into account. It’s got a very swift look to it, showing the success of the animators, whilst it’s full of vibrant colours that make it appealing to kids and mirror the story of this group of various toys.

Away from its cinematic importance, however, this is still a brilliant film. It’s short, snappy and easy-going to watch, and it has an absolutely fantastic sense of fun that will thrill you from start to finish.

The comedy is also consistently hilarious, with that unique Pixar blend of family-friendly and intelligent humour turning it into a properly funny flick for absolutely anyone to watch, perhaps even more so for the adults, who will understand and appreciate the subtle comedy throughout, as well as some of the deeper, more dramatic themes of the film.

That seems like a bit of an overstatement, and this is definitely not Pixar’s most emotional and thought-provoking film. However, it plays on childhood nostalgia very well, as well as looking at growing up and moving on as major ideas, making the story as interesting as entertaining to watch.

Overall, this gets an 8.1, due to its incredibly important impact on filmmaking, but also because it’s a really funny and entertaining family-friendly film with top-quality humour and intelligent and exciting story lines.