"You've got a friend in me, you've got a friend in me..." Toy Story 3 clearly had a friend at the 83rd Academy Awards. And that friend came in the form of a little gold statue. Without a doubt, Toy Story 3 outshone all the other nominees for the Best Animated Feature Film category. I mean; do you honestly think that a movie about a kid training a dragon could beat this classic Disney film series? Get real. I think it's pretty amazing how the Toy Story movies managed to be so successful; from the very first film in 1995-all the way to the 2010 last movie in the installment. The really intriguing thing is how-how did it manage to stay at the top?
Well for one thing, the storyline definitely contributed a whole lot to the success of the series. When Toy Story came out in 1995; the concept of toys coming to life excited the general audience. This idea sparked an thought in our minds: what if toys really did come to life as soon as we weren't looking? I mean you never know... Just kidding. (Unless you actually believe that theory, then that's cool too). There wasn't a lot of movies at the time that played around with this idea, so the Toy Story creators reached a whole new level on the imagination scale.
The details in the animation also helped the film franchise gain all its fans. Toy Story was the first full computer-generated animated movie created! All the little details that the movies include really give it style. I've always liked how classic toys; such as the barn animal sound effects wheel, Etch A Sketch, play-doh and monkeys in a barrel; are shown in the flicks. It's pretty cool that the audience is able to spot board games such as Monopoly and Sorry in the movie; you have to admit it's pretty legit.
But the one thing that sets this Disney movie apart from the others is the characters. The characters just have so much depth to them; and that allows the audience to get more attached to the story. As the movies progressed, the audience was able to relate better to the characters. If we all didn't love Buzz Lightyear so much, we probably wouldn't care at the scene where he figures out that he's actually a toy. We would have been like "Ha, the loser can't fly. Big whoop. This movie sucks, when is it over..." Yeah, you guys get the picture. And of course all the characters add their own sense of humor to the story-they're honestly all quite hilarious. Whether it be Rex being silly or Ham making yet another sarcastic remark, it still gets me every time.
So if any of you claim to be too old for a Disney movie; just know that you're never too old for Toy Story. There's always something for everyone; and in our teenage years some of the pop culture references or jokes we didn't get when we were younger now start to make sense. To all the "big kids" out there, I encourage you to give these movies another chance. "...But the thing that makes Woody special, is he'll never give up on you...ever. He'll be there for you, no matter what."
