FEATURE FRIDAY | TOY STORY
Welcome to another installment of Feature Friday, in which we share with you some of our favorite Movies & TV shows! When we first were dating one of the things we bonded over was chatting about some of our favorite shows. We’ve found that is the same for a lot of our couples too! So, every now and then, we will showcase a different movie or show and share some of the reasons why we recommend it and the things that we really like about it. So be sure to tune in, check out some of our favorites, and maybe even turn it into a date night with your fiance! Make dinner or order in and tune in to watch one of our favorites.
This week: Toy Story.
The first completely CGI feature film is significant for a lot of reasons. It has a special place in our heart, because its DVD was the first thing Pat bought with his Disney Cast Member discount in 2006, as he was starting the job where we eventually met. Years later, every Disney CM received a copy of Toy Story 3 as an appreciation gift (and to celebrate the spectacular amount of money the company made from its release).
But beyond sentimental and historical value, there’s no denying one major fact about Toy Story: It’s really really good. A lot of “firsts” don’t hold up well over time. Pong is still pretty fun, but it’s not exactly engrossing, just as an example. The great thing about it is the thing that a lot of people appreciate about certain video games or comic books – this was a story that could only have been told in this medium. If it was live-action with some CGI included, you’ve got “Small Soldiers” levels of creepiness. If it was entirely hand-animated, you don’t get the true toy-like quality of the toys. This was an idea made for CGI, and it feels like CGI was made for this idea.
For a movie that was not originally created by Disney (Pixar wasn’t technically owned by Disney until the late 2000s, but they did produce movies for their distribution), the characters have become Disney icons. Any trip to any park in the world, you’re going to see Woody and Buzz and probably a toy soldier or two. Any Disney video game (including the Disney Magic Kingdoms app that we’re both hopelessly addicted to) has the same crew, and frequently even more of the gang. For a new generation that has only known CGI as the standard in movie animation, Woody and Buzz are every bit the icons that Mickey and Donald are, even if our two-year-old nephew is a little afraid of in-park Woody’s giant head.
It spawned two excellent sequels and it gave us the studio that has, arguably, the best track record in the last two decades. If Toy Story hadn’t worked, would we have WALL-E, Up, or The Incredibles? If you have kids, you’ve watched it a million times by now. If you’re at least 25 years old, you’ve watched it a million times by now. If you’ve never seen it, you’ve got some catching up to do. Report back after the millionth watch and let us know what you thought!
And, remember, when the road looks rough ahead and you’re miles and miles from your nice warm bed, you just remember what your old pal said, yeah: “You’ve got a friend in me.”
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