Toy Story

“Oh no! Not my Sheep! Somebody doo something!”

“The claw, it moves! It chooses who will go and who will stay!”

You’re mocking me, aren’t you?

Here’s an extract from a letter I wrote in January 1997:

I broke the habit of a lifetime just before Christmas and actually bought a Disney video. Before you start to think that I have gone completely insane, it’s Toy Story. Have you seen it? Go watch it. I’m dead serious. It’s absolutely brilliant. It would be a cliché to say that I’ve never seen anything like it, but I’ll have to resort to cliché: I’ve never seen anything like it. I watched it about five times (truly) in the first two days, and I was still laughing at things I was noticing for the first time. I’ve already spotted references to Alien, The Wizard of Oz, Star Trek; and a sly one to The Exorcist (which is still banned on video in this country) which might be accidental. I’m willing to bet there are more which I haven’t seen yet. Any children’s film which works in a joke about Picasso in the first five minutes is seriously different. And Tom Hanks must be worth at least some of the money that they pay him.

Ah, VHS video… never did we dream that it would go the way of the phonograph in less than a decade.

My opinion on the film now is much the same. I just hope Toy Story 3 will be up to the impeccable standards of the first two.

This was a one of a kind when it first came out, I was mesmerized by it. The movie itself is a great as the technology that brought it to us!!

Speaking of VHS , I have (had) the movie on VHS ; I wanted to watch it one day with my son, and it swtched from color to b&w every 10 or so seconds!! I never thought about converting my VHS collection to DVD , but I guess I’ll start thinking about it!

I watched this again not too long ago, and managed to catch a poke at Freud ("what's his problem?" "lazer envy") among other witty lil' things.

 berry clever.

I forgot one more thing! Buzz’s nervous breakdown is the best scene in any kids’ movie. Seriously.