Is it really fourteen years since I sat in a packed Odeon one Friday evening and watched Toy Story for the first time? 1995. The year of the OJ Simpson trial, the year John Major was re-appointed as Conservative leader, the year of the Kobe earthquake and Oklahoma bombing. That’s a long time ago! I must have seen Toy Story fifty plus times since then as it’s a firm favourite of the children in the house but I haven’t seen it in a cinema in that time and to see it on the big screen again, 3D or no, is a big treat.
Unlike me it hasn’t aged at all, it’s exactly as I remember it to be, and while computer animated movies have moved on Toy Story was still the first big one and with Tom Hanks and Tim Allen as Woody and Buzz Lightyear respectively it arguably saw a combination of vocal talent in an animated movie that’s yet to be matched.
I won’t reprise the plot here as you should know that by now but I will say that to see the film in 3D wasn’t as entirely overwhelming as some of the more up to date 3D animations. It was good, don’t get me wrong, but the 3D came into its own in the outdoor scenes and there aren’t too many of those in the film as much of it takes place inside Andy’s house or other indoor locations. Toy Story 2 is also getting the 3D treatment and I suspect the 3D will be more noticeable in that so I’m particularly keen to see the opening computer game scene with Zurg and the robots on the planet surface. The big finish of Toy Story, however, is almost entirely outdoors so did really benefit from the 3D plus there are a few moments during the film where I thought they might have tweaked the sound as some of the bangs are room-shuddering.
This film is more than a visual and audio feast as the scene where Buzz discovers that he’s really a toy rather than a real Space Ranger (sorry folks but it’s true!) accompanied by Randy Newman’s “I will go sailing no more” took me by surprise with its emotion although children will understand his disappointment adults will have the ability to feel it more keenly. Genius.
Back in 1995 it was a full cinema, though there were only about ten children there with the rest being adults, but yesterday there were only about thirty people in the whole cinema. So Come on folks! Put your neophilia to one side and go see this classic for what may be the last time in the cinema and if it’s “before your time” then I think you’ll thrill to it. Yesterday there were children and teenagers there who’d obviously never seen it before as they were laughing out loud when the jokes and gags took them by surprise for the very first time.
The Good: The movie, the songs and the voices.
The Bad and Ugly: The Odeon for showing 20 minutes of adverts even before the trailers started and then showing the Christmas Carol trailer which scared half of the children in there.
