Sorry to make you feel old, but Toy Story has officially turned 30.<\/p>\n
Released in 1995, it has been three decades since audiences first heard the opening notes of You’ve Got a Friend in Me and were introduced to the toy box of characters.<\/p>\n
The film follows pull-string cowboy doll Woody, voiced by Tom Hanks, whose place as Andy’s favourite toy is threatened with the introduction of the delusional astronaut Buzz Lightyear, voiced by Tim Allen.<\/p>\n
Toy Story took more than four years to create and made history as the world’s first computer-animated feature film.<\/p>\n
When it finally hit theatres, its success was astronomical.<\/p>\n
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Tim Allen and Tom Hanks voiced the two animated leads. (Ron Galella, Ltd.\/Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Toy Story became one of the highest grossing films of the year, making $US362 million ($557 million) at the global box office.<\/p>\n
It scored multiple Academy Award nominations, and director John Lasseter received a Special Achievement Oscar.<\/p>\n
“Toy Story was praised not just for the technical achievement but also the wonderful story that engaged viewers of every age,” says Paul Van Opdenbosch, a lecturer in animation at the Queensland University of Technology.<\/p>\n
Van Opdenbosch says without great storytelling, Toy Story “could have flopped, taking Pixar down with it”.<\/p>\n
“Toy Story proved computer-generated cinema was artistically viable, commercially powerful, and emotionally resonant, sparking a technological revolution that continues today.”<\/p>\n
Pixar springs to life<\/p>\n
Disney and Pixar were not always synonymous with each other \u2014 in fact, Pixar’s origin story began with Star Wars filmmaker George Lucas.<\/p>\n
In 1979, Lucasfilm’s Computer Division was tasked with developing state-of-the-art computer technology for the film industry.<\/p>\n
Steve Jobs would go on to purchase that same Computer Division from George Lucas in 1986 and establish the group as an independent company \u2014 Pixar.<\/p>\n
At the time, Pixar had only 40 employees, but it caught the eye of industry behemoth Disney.<\/p>\n
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Then-Pixar CEO Steve Jobs with then-Disney CEO Michael Eisner in 1997. (Reuters)<\/p>\n
The two studios began collaborating on CAPS \u2014 the Computer Animation Production System that would revolutionise the creation of traditional animated films.<\/p>\n
By the late 1980s, Pixar was honing its skills by pitching, writing and animating commercials for products such as orange juice and mouthwash.<\/p>\n
In the early 1990s, Disney and Pixar agreed to “make and distribute at least one computer-generated animated movie”.<\/p>\n
That movie would be Toy Story.<\/p>\n
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Early concept art of Buzz Lightyear. (Pixar)<\/p>\n
“We were all complete novices,” Ed Catmull told Time magazine<\/a> in 2015.<\/p>\n Catmull worked as a software engineer on the film, and later became the Disney Pixar Animation president.<\/p>\n “At that point, none of us knew what we were doing. We didn’t have any production expertise except for short films and commercials,” he said.<\/p>\n “But there was something fresh about nobody knowing what the hell we were doing.”<\/p>\n Breaking new ground<\/p>\n The computer-generated imagery (CGI) technology birthed new opportunities, but had its drawbacks.<\/p>\n The software could create perfectly geometric objects: cubes and spheres easily became wooden blocks and bouncy balls.<\/p>\n But “organic” shapes appeared to take on a plastic quality, which Pixar used to its advantage.<\/p>\n Reviews praised Toy Story’s cutting-edge technology. (Archives du 7eme Art\/Photo12 via AFP)<\/p>\n When Toy Story was released, the reviews were glowing.<\/p>\n “It’s a lovely joke that the film’s toy characters are charmingly plain [Etch A Sketch, plastic soldiers, a dog made out of a Slinky] while its behind-the-scenes technology, under the inspired direction of John Lasseter, could not be more cutting edge,” wrote the New York Times’s Janet Maslin.<\/p>\n Van Opdenbosch was 12 years old when Toy Story premiered, and says the CGI became almost invisible once he was swept up in the magic on-screen.<\/p>\n “I remember watching the film and loving the story, the fact that it was made using a completely new approach to animated filmmaking didn’t even occur to me,” he said.<\/p>\n “And like most kids after seeing the movie, I tried to catch my toys having adventures when I wasn’t looking.<\/p>\n “I didn’t realise then that I was watching a film that had sparked the very field I would eventually study, work in, and teach others to create in.”<\/p>\n You’ve got a friend in me<\/p>\n CGI animation was not the only factor that set Toy Story apart from the Disney films before it.<\/p>\n It was not a musical, and there was not a princess in sight.<\/p>\n Instead, it was a buddy film.<\/p>\n As Toy Story screenwriter Peter Docter told The Hollywood Reporter<\/a>: “It was these two characters who butt heads, who hate each other, who grow to love each other to the point of self-sacrifice”.<\/p>\n “And I think that’s a really beautiful story, and it’s one we’ve come back to several times.”<\/p>\n Woody and Buzz “falling with style”. (Pixar)<\/p>\n Docter wrote the screenplay with Andrew Stanton, and the pair would go on to receive an Academy Award nomination for Screenwriting \u2014 a first for a CGI film.<\/p>\n Stanton has previously said Pixar looked to iconic films, such as Snow White, The Wizard of Oz and Star Wars, which had staying power despite the technology becoming outdated.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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