#99. Toy Story

Year: 1995

Director: John Lasseter

Synopsis: Woody, a young boy's favorite pull-string cowboy doll, faces extreme jealously when a cutting-age spaceman, Buzz Lightyear, begins to take his place at the top of the toy box.

Coming in at number 99 on our countdown is Disney's Toy Story, a film which not only toyed with the idea of a computer animated film, but challenged the industry to look to infinity, and beyond. As the pioneer to the Pixar dynasty, Toy Story went into the record books as the first feature film to be visually created entirely in CGI.


Toy Story begins as any toy centered film should, on the floor of a child's bedroom. We quickly meet Andy, a young boy with an inspired imagination. His bedroom has been transformed into a wild west scenario in which we find the dastardly Mr. Potato Head robbing the town bank. Things look grim for the helpless townsfolk until a heroic cowboy named Woody (Tom Hanks) steps onto the scene. With a well placed, "Reach for the sky", Andy's favorite toy successfully puts the villain in his place. After a job well done, Andy runs downstairs to see his mom. As he exits the room, the toys slowly begin to come to life. Rumor has it that a birthday party is on the horizon, an event that will forever change toy town. The following 90 minutes provide a comedic adventure packed with pure Disney magic.

While Toy Story is tells a very entertaining story, we can each take away some valuable lessons from this film.

First, jealousy can get the best of you. In this story, our hero Woody comes down with an egregious case of envy when the spaceman toy of every child's dream, Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen) begins to steal his spotlight. Fully equipped with a space-age laser blaster and a retractable set of wings, Buzz becomes the newest apple of Andy's eye as Woody shamefully hides his pull-string. As jealousy overtakes our faithful sheriff, things become progressively worse and worse until he finds himself desperately trying to escape the nightmarish neighbor's house. Only by embracing the toy that threatens his relevance does Woody finally find the means to overcome his conflict and reunite with the boy he loves.

Second, we learn that our role in life does not have to define us. For the majority of the film, Buzz neglects to acknowledge that he is indeed a toy. Instead, he carries about as Buzz Lightyear of Star Command, an astronaut desperately trying to return to space in order to complete his mission. Woody does his best to explain that Buzz is a toy by proclaiming, "YOU ARE A TOY! You are not the real Buzz Lightyear! You are a child's play thing!", but Buzz calmly replies, "you are a strange, sad little man." However, in the midst of trying to escape from the neighbor's torturous house, Buzz happens to come across a television commercial for the Buzz Lightyear doll. Reality begins to set in as our protagonist sees the words "Not a flying toy" flash across the bottom of the screen. In sorrow and disbelief, Buzz attempts to soar to freedom through an open window, but Randy Newman's voice takes its cue as Buzz plummets to the hard floor below. After a harsh fall and an identity crisis as "Mrs. Nezbit", Buzz comes to his senses and accepts his role as a toy, a toy who is loved by a little boy who needs him. Buzz resolves his internal conflict and joins forces with Woody to make a daring escape, followed by an even more daring pursuit of their loving owner.

Most importantly, we learn to remain children at heart. I truly enjoyed Toy Story just as much at age twenty three as I did at age seven when the film first came to theaters. This film pulls at our hearts strings while reminding us of the days when our imaginations dared to soar. Watching Toy Story makes me think of all the good ole days when I would lose myself for hours on end with nothing but a few matchbox cars and my imagination. Basically, there just aren't many films that can reach this sort of emotional level with audiences across the board, but Toy Story is certainly one of them. AFI Film #99 gets two thumbs way up.