Toy Story – Blu-ray Review

The Film:

Toy Story is such a groundbreaking film, it’s really hard to assess the reasons why, even 15 years since its theatrical release. In 1995, Walt Disney’s animated films were at a new age pinnacle, the so-called “Disney Renaissance” . Just a few years prior, Beauty and the Beast was the first and only animated film nominated for Best Picture (until 2009′s Up). Aladdin and Lion King followed and were classics in their own right, then this thing called a Pixar film was released using new technology, and that’s when animation changed forever.

But why? I would hope that animators today would decide upon the animation style based on what is needed for the story, but due to 1995′s debut from this up-start studio called Pixar, proudly owned by Disney, animation studios saw that this new style of computer animation along with the film’s box office success, looked like a recipe to copy. They did, and here we all are today. That’s the game-changer aspect. Toy Story changed animation, for better or for worse. But the real reason Toy Story worked then and holds up today, is how Pixar handled the Disney formula.

The story is layered and timeless. The premise of what do toys do when we aren’t around, mixed with the brilliant use of how kids handle new toys over old ones, are just timeless. Handled with nuances and subtlety, the story is a rare blend perfection that adults along with the kids can enjoy, yet the morals and themes are elements adults can appreciate in letting their kids be around. The film is funny, but unlike other studios, doesn’t hinge its idea on the jokes themselves. This has been Walt’s idea from Snow White on, and something that is strictly Disney, and here is this Pixar studio doing just that.  From this release on, based on the story is what made traditional cell animated films seem stuffy, yet many have failed to realize that it wasn’t the animation, but the beautiful story in Toy Story. But success can be seen on a surface level, and from that point on, traditionally animated features fared less than stellar compared to future Pixar and computer animated films.

It’s curious to note, in hindsight, how revolutionary Toy Story was in 1995, yet how far in the intervening years, that technology has changed. Something like Sleeping Beauty in pure animation sense, is timeless, but revisiting Toy Story after the continued stellar work in growing in the medium of computer animation, how primitive the film looks. Take note not on how the toys are, but how the humans and the dog are. This should not hurt the film, with its superb story like I’ve mentioned a paragraph ago, but could the primitive early use of computer animation hurt Toy Story for future generations? We have never really cited any of the previous cell animated films from Disney as films of a by-gone era, in terms of animation. They’re just timeless and classic in story and animation terms, yet with Toy Story, I can fully see the current advances in computer animation, hurting it for future fans. The debate of cell animation versus computer animation seems like a dead issue, yet this could be the match that start the fire again.

It’s a little footnote, but in 15 years Toy Story just isn’t just a great film, it’s a game-changing masterpiece, a name recognized product, that is more than a sum of its origins. If anything, it’s a modern Disney classic; a stunning computer animated film that was the first, yet the one we compare all since too.

The Blu-ray:

Audio/Video: Disney has been the most consistent studio in releasing superb high-def discs, and they also have been releasing their Pixar films at a regular pace. This is just another stellar Blu-ray from them. The video is just great. The colors are still bold and bright, definition is crystal clear, and while computer animation has grown since 1995, this is just as good as it looked in 1995 (if not better). Fans will be jumping with joy. The audio is a DTS track; loud, powerful, clear, all great. The surround activity is nicely done, creating a fully realized audio environment. The only issue I noticed was the film is too bass heavy. It’s a borderline distraction. It will all depend on the sub-woofer you have in your own home theater, but I found the bass to be obnoxious in the low end.

Disney has nicely separated the new extras from the old on the menu screen.The two previous DVD edition have been cherry-picked through their extras in being ported over to this high-def release. Fans be advised.

(New extras; all in HD)

Toy Story 3 Sneak Peek-”The Story”: Runs two minutes and clues us into, without spoiling, the story to the new film. It really is just EPK, but we don’t mind, do we?

Paths to Pixar: Artists: A short and sweet interview piece with some Pixar animators as they chat about the medium and how they got involved. Pretty nice, if you’re an animation fan.

Buzz Lightyear Mission Logs: Blast Off: This works as an all-new short, that is essentially like a PSA with Buzz, Hamm, and Rex introducing kids to NASA. Neat.

Studio Stories: This is an all-new animated short that retells stories the Pixar team has had in their decade long work. Funny, cute, yet not really Toy Story related.

Black Friday: This excellent little piece tells of a possible Toy Story idea that was scrapped in favor of the film we’re all familiar with. Really neat piece.

Buzz Takes Manhattan: Lasseter talks about Buzz’s Macy’s Day Balloon for a bit.

Those are the new extras, and then the disc is filled with most of the two previous DVD’s extras, including the great Commentary, Deleted Scenes, and plenty of Making-of material. These are all great, but I wanted to focus my review on the new, since I assume you’ve owned the previous versions already.

This Special Edition also includes the DVD copy with the new extras in SD on Disc 2, making this a nice combo package for families and fans.

Conclusion: What else can we say? Toy Story is great, a timeless film. Disney has done another great job on the film’s first high-def release. A must own.

The Film: Rating:

The Blu-ray: Rating: