The first computer-generated animated feature film, Toy Story (1995) sustains a dynamic vitality that appeals to audiences of all ages. This lively study explores how its depiction of a glimmering commercial world both deconstructs and affirms modern popular culture and in doing so provides a distinctive alternative to the usual Disney formula.
The first computer-generated animated feature film, Toy Story (1995) sustains a dynamic vitality that proved instantly appealing to audiences of all ages. Like the great Pop Artists, Pixar Studios affirmed the energy of modern commercial popular culture and, in doing so, created a distinctive alternative to the usual Disney formula.
Tom Kemper traces the film's genesis, production history and reception to demonstrate how its postmodern mishmash of pop culture icons and references represented a fascinating departure from Disney's fine arts style and fairytale naturalism. By foregrounding the way in which Toy Story flipped the conventional relationship between films and their ancillary merchandising by taking consumer products as its very subject, Kemper provides an illuminating, revisionist exploration of this groundbreaking classic.
Tom Kemper's new critical monograph on Toy Story stands out from its fellows in the British Film Institute's Film Classics series not only in its choice of subject - a beloved and massively successful children's film, as opposed to the established classics or "cutting-edge" modern films typically featured in the series - but in the sophistication and persuasiveness of its argument. Kemper offers a wealth of insight on this foundational film in the Pixar canon, contextualizes it within the history of animated films and the pictorial arts, and highlights the film's surrealist touches. Most importantly, it accomplishes what any good single-film monograph should do: make you want to go out and watch (or re-watch) the film immediately.
