An analysis from outside looking in, before my time at Pixar. This is from a research project related to Dr Timothy Corrigan’s ‘World Film History and Analysis, 1945-Present’.
Introduction
During the early 1940s, computer animation was an intricately complicated process led by visionaries such as John Witney Sr. He was an inventor who created most of the machines he used to make his graphical clips. Alongside the advent of more effective computer technology in the late 1950s, Witney’s work became a watershed leading to more involvement of computer graphics in film and a building of the industry overall. Now considered to be one of the fathers of computer animation, his work is most notably represented in the graphics behind the title sequence of Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo in 1983 (Youngblood). However, these were still pattern and geometrically based images. Though there had been small portions of films before Vertigo, such as Westworld directed by Michael Crichton in 1973. It is a film in which minimal computer graphics are used to represent a robot’s vision, and the graphics are extremely pixelated and undetailed (Crichton). Additionally, both cases mentioned are still only rendering two-dimensional vector-based computer graphics; there were yet to be characters with the three-dimensionally detailed special effects we see in films today. Pixar helped change that. Though it started in the computer hardware business in 1979, with its history of successful special effects in short sequences such as the Genesis Effect in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and The Stained-Glass Knight in Young Sherlock Holmes, Pixar was bought by Steve Jobs in 1986 from its parent company, Lucasfilm, and began working more deeply in the development in computer graphics itself while maintaining a leg in the hardware business for revenue with its Pixar Image Computer. After Pixar began losing sales and extensive money cuts made Jobs sell Pixar’s hardware division, there seemed to be no future left for the company; however, the company was saved after making a $26 million deal with Disney in 1991 to produce three feature length films, Toy Story, being the first, followed by Finding Nemo and Monster’s Inc (Vardanega).
Released in 1995, John Lasseter’s Toy Story, was Pixar’s first theatrical release and the first entirely 3D computer graphics feature-length film ever created (IMDb). Though it was at the forefront of computer graphics for its time, it remained limited by the technology with which it was made, such as the types of characters that were illustrated and the way in which said characters could express themselves. Thus, with the main overhaul of the film being for said technology and its complications, the writers were forced to lean more heavily on a colloquial Hero’s Journey with a Classical Hollywood Narrative included to maintain good revenue and interest in the film. However, being the first computer graphics based feature-length film, Toy Story still upheld strong historical significance in recent film history in that it led to an outpouring of others like it, stronger graphics in the film and gaming industry, and for a short time, an altering in many companies’ main revenue that allowed certain two-dimensional style animation studios more freedom in terms of issues they entailed.
Technological Limitations for Writers and Artists
While Toy Story was still in development, the story board writers had to work with an understanding of what was possible to create with the given technology, because said technology limited the amount of specific types of characters that could be represented throughout the film. Then when the artists had to animate the film, the technology also limited the way in which these characters could emotionally express themselves.
As proven by Pixar’s short, Tin Toy, in 1988, the rudimentary texturing style at the time was very matte and plastic-y. Thus, it worked very well for environments and man-made substances; however, organic objects looked odd when replicated. Following Tin Toy’s demonstration that toys themselves were an excellent way to feature a character inhabited story without relying on organic figures, Lasseter convinced the rest of his writing team to use toys as their main characters (Richards). The few clips of organic human figures we do see in Toy Story were also extremely costly due to their size in comparison to the toy characters, leading to animation tricks such as only showing the lower half of human characters as replicated in most of the mom’s scenes, when the children are all running upstairs with Andy to open his presents, and at the Pizza Planet restaurant when Buzz and Woody are searching for Andy. Additionally, Andy’s dad is not even included in the film at all because he was not essential to the storyline and thus the effort and time put into making and rendering him would not be beneficial for the film (Flanagan).
The actual animation of the figures was also very finicky for the artists as it relied on inputting numbers into boxes instead of the fluid style that hand-drawn animation allowed. Current technology as represented in today’s How to Train Your Dragon 2 allows artists to interface more easily with the mesh itself allowing the illustration of minute facial expressions and body movement to deliver the emotional responses behind words. In contrast, due to a lack of easy user-interfacing with the given technology, the emotional expression embodied in Toy Story had to be demonstrated through strong voice acting. The importance of dialogue was used even to add theatrical effect to the story when it emphasized the climax; Woody begins speaking to Sid without moving his face at first, then moves it in the end for to scare Sid and prove that he is in fact alive. Additionally, the film’s emphasis on emotionally influential dialogue led to a few famous ad-libbed lines such as “You are a sad, strange little man, and you have my pity,” “I don’t think that man has ever been to medical school,” and the famous pun when Buzz throw up his detached arm in response to Woody’s pleading, “Buzz will you get up here and give me a hand” (Pixar et al.).
Thus, the forced depiction of mainly non-organic objects and lack of easy to use technology limited most of the emotional expression of the film to the voice actors’ dialogue.
Narrative Elements
Since the film itself was made entirely using 3D computer graphics, it is almost as if the entire feature length was made in special effects based on the available technology at the time. This forced the Lasseter to reel away from extravagant effects we see in current films such as the will‘o wisps in Brave and the snow in Frozen. To maintain the costs of the film while Pixar was in a very tentative time, outside of its extravagant visual style, Toy Story’s narrative was very conservative. Pixar relied heavily on making the film seem like it was any other live action film by following the Hero’s Journey with a Classical Hollywood Narrative. Though costly, it even includes a blooper reel during the credits to further promote the notion that it was like any other live-action film. It was a style that the audience loved so much that some of Pixar’s following films, such as Monster’s Inc and A Bug’s Life, followed it as well. In terms of the Hero’s Journey, Toy Story maintain the aspects of a call to adventure, departure, crisis, resolution, and the return. Buzz’s part of the movie emphasizes the Hero’s Journey entailing motifs of conflicting identity and acceptance. Woody’s role focuses on driving Buzz through his journey by way of Woody’s own struggle with identity while still promoting the underlying Classical Hollywood Narrative of going home.
Buzz’s call to action is his denoted by his initial appearance in the film and his dedication to his duties as a member of Star Command. His departure is a physical one that manifests when Woody “accidentally” pushes him out the window with the help of the toy car Rover. From there Buzz undergoes trials that force him to come to an understanding that he is not a space-ranger but in fact is a toy. The fantasy of Buzz’s being a space-ranger is maintained in his first trial before the official departure even occurs in which Woody dares him to fly around the room with his eyes-closed. Buzz successfully does so with a mix of luck and an abundance of Andy’s toys on the floor and ceiling to inadvertently help him with this trick. The second main trial continues to maintain the fantasy for Buzz, when he and Woody encounter The Claw in the vending machine at the Pizza Planet restaurant. Buzz maintains diplomatic in trying to commandeer the vending machine “ship” from the green alien squeeze toys that were also inside. Buzz’s last trial exposes the truth about his identity and leads to his crisis. While captive at Sid’s house, Buzz sees a toy advertisement of himself that highlights all his features, even specifically stating him as being “Not a Flying Toy.” Confronted by this advertisement and all the words Woody has been yelling at him throughout the movie up until now such as “You aren’t the real Buzz Lightyear…! You are a child’s plaything!” Buzz makes one last attempt to prove to himself that he can in fact fly. Accompanied by Randy Newman’s song, “I Will Go Sailing No More”, Buzz jumps off the banister towards an open window and falls onto the stairs below him, detaching his arm in the process. He finally realizes he is a toy, he cannot fly, and everything he thought to be true is all a lie. Thus, the crisis. During the crisis aspect of his Hero’s Journey, Buzz goes through multiple depressive scenes as seen by his drunkenly broken rendition as Ms. Nesbitt at Sid’s sister Hannah’s tea party, “One minute you’re defending the whole galaxy… and suddenly you find yourself suckin’ down darjeeling with Marie Antoinette and her little sisters” and his apathetic response to his morbid fate of being strapped to a rocket by Sid. Ultimately, with the raining environment now synchronously reflecting the character’s depressive nature, Buzz’s resolution occurs in his interaction with Woody as he, though trapped under a crate, tries to save Buzz from the rocket. In the ensuing dialogue, Woody asks for Buzz’s help, yet his response that mirror’s Woody’s first words to him fully denotes how truly depressed Buzz is: “No, Woody, for the first time I am thinking clearly. You were right all along. I’m not a Space Ranger. I’m just a toy. A stupid little insignificant toy.” Woody ultimately leads Buzz to his resolution by explaining his importance and that though Buzz is no longer a Space Ranger, he still has an important duty to fulfill for Andy; “Being a toy is a lot better than being a Space Ranger… [there is] a kid who thinks you are the greatest, and it’s not because you’re a Space Ranger, pal, it’s because you’re a TOY!” (6). From those words, Buzz gains a resurgence of confidence and he and Woody begin their second unsuccessful escape. This resolution aspect of The Hero’s Journey is further reflected during its return aspect when Buzz is carrying Woody in the sky towards Andy’s car and Woody exclaims, “Hey Buzz! You’re flying!” and Buzz comments in return, “This isn’t flying. This is falling… with style!” Thus, highlighting Buzz’s own acceptance as an individual that he is a toy yet an understanding that he his directing himself towards Andy’s car reflects that he still has an important place in the world (Pixar et al).
As depicted in previous quotes, throughout the film, Woody acts as the driving force behind Buzz’s Hero’s Journey while acting as the voice of reason highlighting Buzz’s own internal conflict throughout the film. He also denotes the strong influence of the Classical Hollywood Narrative represented in the piece. Regarding the Hero’s Journey, Woody physically is the reason that Buzz departs Andy’s house in the first place: he pushes Buzz out the window. Additionally, Woody is the one planting the seeds, regarding Buzz’s existence as a toy, into Buzz’s brain at the beginning that push Buzz through his Hero’s Journey trials. During each trial leading up to his crisis, though Buzz successfully continues his belief of being a space ranger through most of them, Woody is there with a firm rebuttal of words stating factually that Buzz is in fact just a toy. Additionally, an important notion to understand is that each time Woody influences Buzz, Woody is doing so due to his own internal conflict: he feels he is being replaced as Andy’s favorite toy. This leads to the exposure of the Classical Hollywood Narrative. Initially, Woody’s internal struggle is fighting Buzz to be the best toy, yet as the story progresses his need to get back home to Andy to even be his toy in the first place takes precedence. For example; at the gas station, Woody’s main worry is that Andy lost him and how to get back to him, and at the restaurant, his main focus is to enter Andy’s sister’s stroller to get home. However, once they both become captured residents of Sid’s house, Woody’s internal struggle of identity necessitates both their cooperation to get back home, so it develops and slowly resolves into Woody learning to accept Buzz as a companion. Ultimately, this transition and aspect of the Classical Hollywood Narrative is highlighted during Buzz’s crisis. While accepting his own conflict and fate as being the lesser toy, Woody finally admits that he “can’t do this without [Buzz]…” and that Woody “need[s] [Buzz’s] help,” This is further demonstrated by his response to Buzz’s dejected remark. Woody continues with “Why, sure you can, Buzz. You can get me out of here and … we’ll make a break for Andy’s house,” cementing their cooperation and the exhibition of the Classical Hollywood Narrative of going home (Pixar et al).
Thus, though the movie portrays Woody to be the initial main character, it uses Buzz as the story’s backbone with his Hero’s Journey and Woody as the driving force of that journey due to his own internal conflicts and ultimately to depict the Classical Hollywood Narrative.
Historical Significance
Just as Disney’s Snow White was the first full feature length animation, in 1995 Lasseter’s Toy Story became the first feature length computer animation (Vardanega). This was a momentous achievement not only because it the first of its kind, but also because it led to an outpouring of other feature computer animation features like it, leading to stronger graphics in the film and gaming industry, and, for a short time, and allowed certain two-dimensional studios more freedom in regards to the content of their work.
Technically speaking, Toy Story was undoubtedly going to lead to others like it as it was the first of a three-movie deal between Pixar and Disney for Pixar to create computer graphics based feature films. However, because it, along with the other two in the deal, Finding Nemo and Monsters Inc was so successful, Pixar continued its computer graphics film streak with features such as The Incredibles in 2004, Cars in 2006, and Ratatouille in 2007. Additionally, just like when 3D came out for live-action films, to compete in terms of technological interesting films, other companies also began making their own computer graphics based films. Most notably, DreamWorks, BlueSky, and Walt Disney Animation Studios pumped out creations such as Shrek in 2001, Ice Age in 2002, and Chicken Little in 2005 (IMDb).
Most films today, computer graphics and live action ones, heavily benefit from the technological advancements from these early films. For example, Toy Story was Pixar’s film; however, it was financially supported due to Disney Animation’s deal. Disney in turn utilized this technology and in its first animated feature film, Dinosaur in 2000 when it tried to integrate it properly with live-action. It had a wide impact on the film industry due to its use of green-screen to incorporate the dinosaurs into the taped environment. Though there had been previous uses of the green screen to mix live-action with live-action in weather casting and live-action with 2D such as in Who Framed Roger Rabbit, this was the first exhibition of a mixing between the two mediums. Gaming was also influenced as computer graphics entered the film industry (Cornel1801). Just as in Vertigo where the main aspect of computer graphics was rendered two-dimensionally due to the graphics involved being too heavy for the current machinery in the first game that included 3D graphics, Battlezone which was released by Atari in 1980 was a leading marketer for the 3D industry. However, it was the advanced kind of computer graphics like in ToyStory; instead, its 3D elements were vector based, meaning restricted solely to geometry shapes and did not include any additional shading and coloring of features (Classikgames). Around the time of the graphics that led to Toy Story, games followed suite with the first few games that popularized the use of 3D polygons in games: Virtua Racing and Virtua Fighter in the mid 1990s (Myke). Along with the film industry, the gaming industry continues to purse higher graphics. Now the extent of the influence of computer graphics in the gaming industry can easily be noted by many current games’ main selling point being “real-life graphics”; that is, graphics that are extremely life-like.
Additionally, this surge in technological advancements also allowed certain industries a more contextual freedom. As many of the initial computer graphics films in the early 2000s were churned out with their technological “wow-factor” being their main selling point; certain 2D departments had more freedom in terms of content, because they were no longer relied on as heavily as being the main source of revenue. One main studio that did this was Walt Disney’s Research and Animation Studio in Orlando, Florida. In 2002, it broke from the conventional 2D film Disney pattern and released Lilo & Stitch, one of its first major hit 2D films that did not have fairytale origins and was not set somewhere in Europe. Alongside this release, this studio also churned out more unconventional works such as Atlantis: The Lost Empire in 2001, Brother Bear in 2003. However, this epoch of revolutionary 2D content was short lived. In January of 2004, the studio closed due to Disney’s need to technologically compete with others in the developing computer graphics race (Drees). As the race continues, most of the 2D graphics has become relegated to television and experimental graphic design styles with only few recent western films, such as The Princess and the Frog in 2009, being made in a traditional style (IMDb).
Thus, Toy Story stands as a significant benchmark denoting the new era of computer graphics taking over the film and gaming industry, while altering some studios to make room for this new developing industry.
Conclusion
Though its development came about at a rough time for Pixar financially, with about thirty years of graphics development before its creation, Toy Story was well prepped for becoming an influential marker in the graphics community. Though it was the first film of its kind, Toy Story skillfully worked around its limitations by imbuing the emotional acting of the film in the voice-acting instead of the actual mesh itself and falling back on conventional storylines, the Hero’s Journey and a Classical Hollywood Narrative, so that the main focus of the film would be the revolutionary technology. As such, it is quite appropriate that it had such a strong effect on many aspects of the graphics community, most specifically: its influencing multiple other companies to join the graphics industry leading to numerous other films like it, and its leading to stronger graphics in the film and gaming industry due to it itself being a conglomerate of multiple different techniques pioneered at the time and being a proper exhibition of what graphics are actually capable of doing. Though it does also mark a transition from traditional 2D to a more technologically based 3D style in regards to studios and the industry as a whole, the traditional style still exists as a style for shorter sequences can be used such as in advertising, short clips, and children television shows.
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