By Gabrielle Pantera

Toy Story, the film changed animation, now on Blu-ray

HOLLYWOOD, CA (Gosh!TV) 4/3/2010 – “For me, it’s the story that holds the audience, not the technology and not the look of the film,” says Toy Story producer Lasseter. “In making a sequel to Toy Story, we were able to concentrate on the story since the main characters and the world already existed, We didn’t want to retell the same story with the same people like so many sequels do. We wanted to build upon the foundation and create a new adventure that would be equal to the first.”

As a consequence of a costly his divorce with his wife/editor on Star Wars, George Lucas sold ILM’s computer animation studio to Steve Jobs. He’d been kicked out of his own company Apple (he later returned)  and was looking for something interesting to do. For Thanksgiving 1995, Pixar released its first feature animation film, Toy Story. It became an instant classic and the biggest film of the year with a gross of $360 million dollars. Jobs had made a very wise investment. However, it took foresight to believe computer animation would be big.

In Toy Story, the toys that live in Andy’s room are worried what change to their group Andy’s birthday party may bring. Their fears are realized when a new toy, Buzz Lightyear, joins them. Buzz doesn’t know he’s a toy. His mission is to save everyone from the evil emperor Zurg. Cowboy toy Woody is jealous as he realizes that his status as favorite is threatened. When Woody and Buzz fall out the window, they must work together to try to get home.

In Toy Story 2, Woody and Buzz have become friends and all seems well with the toys in Andy’s room. That is, until, Woody is stolen by greedy toy collector Al of Al’s Toy World. Buzz and other toys go to the rescue, But does Woody want to be rescued? Will he go home or go with Al’s other toys.

“With Toy Story 2 we concentrated on making a good story,” says producer John Lasseter. “Yes, the technology has advanced phenomenally since we finished the first film. The advancements that we made on A Bug’s Life were huge. But moviegoers are going to want to see the world that these toys inhabit from the first film. The film has a lot of depth and a lot of texture, which I think is going to please and surprise Toy Story fans. ”

Toy Story set the standard for computer animation. Today, of course, computer animation is the norm. Toy Story and Toy Story 2 are beautiful films to delight the entire family.

Toy Story & Toy Story 2

Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment

Blu-ray release: March 23rd, 2010

$39.99