Toy Story
1995
Dir: John Lasseter (Toy Story 2, A Bug's Life)
In a blog that boasts reviews of some of the best movies ever made, from canonical documentaries to fabulous foreign fare, I believe it is time to appreciate the artistic contributions of computer animation.
Like many of you once did as children, I often wondered if my toys came to life when I left the room. It is this simple observation of what inhabits a child's imagination that makes Toy Story a wonderfully gentle and rewarding cinematic experience. I have nothing inventive or insightful to say about a film so many have already seen, but I just wanted to give it "mad ups." ...Plus it looks great in HD.
Dir: John Lasseter (Toy Story 2, A Bug's Life)
In a blog that boasts reviews of some of the best movies ever made, from canonical documentaries to fabulous foreign fare, I believe it is time to appreciate the artistic contributions of computer animation.
Like many of you once did as children, I often wondered if my toys came to life when I left the room. It is this simple observation of what inhabits a child's imagination that makes Toy Story a wonderfully gentle and rewarding cinematic experience. I have nothing inventive or insightful to say about a film so many have already seen, but I just wanted to give it "mad ups." ...Plus it looks great in HD.
posted by ronvon2 at 8/29/2005 01:27:00 AM 
2 Comments:
Good to see you notice the presence of brilliant movies on this blog.
Like Rapid Fire!
MAP
Here Here, to celebrating computer animation.
This is not Marcus P. -- It's Me Michelle S., I forgot my password
Anyway I agree that Toy Story is a wonderfully nostalgic and whimsical tale about the uncanny nature of dolls infused with the life spirit that children are so good at infusing into them. . . yet there are also formal and cinematic reasons to love tbis film.
The original Toy Story exploits traditional cinematic conventions to get us to identify with the characters not just as toys -- but as real characters. For ex: when a group of toy soldiers are deployed for a recon. mission we get camera angles from their perspective when they gaze up at a houseplant that is suddenly transformed into giant amazon-esque fauna. I assert that part of what makes the film so unbearably 'cute' are these conventions that force us to take on the perspective of the characters. Even more amazing is that these film conventions are totally fabricated within a computer-generated environment.
regards
M
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