“You are a sad, strange little man, and you have my pity.”

Toy Story is Pixar’s first animated feature-length film, an animation studio run by Disney, which brings us this incredibly unique concept of a bunch of toys that, when humans aren’t around, come to life. Andy, the main toy owner of the film, gets a new space ranger toy by the name of Buzz Lightyear for his birthday, which happens to be the brand new popular toy around. Because of this, Woody, a toy cowboy, starts to freak out just like the other toys because he’s worried he will eventually be forgotten by his owner forever.

I have to, of course, start off this review by saying that the importance of this movie cannot be emphasized enough. Being the first feature-length 3D animated film ever released, it of course changed the entire game pretty much forever, where 3D animation is pretty much the mainstream nowadays when it comes to the most popular of animated movies. Yeah, it might not look as good as some of the newer films from this medium nowadays, but it surprisingly still holds up quite well, to be honest.

With it being the first 3D animated movie, Pixar honestly could have had every excuse to simply drop the ball in the story department, but thankfully, they didn’t at all. Toy Story is such a compelling movie, not only because it tells a compelling story, but because it tells one that not only can resonate with kids, but also with adults. The main themes of it are all about friendship, innocence, and, most importantly, self-acceptance. I have to be honest, I went into my rewatch of this movie really just expecting a huge nostalgia fest, and yes, I did get that, but I got so much more out of it than I thought I was going to.

There is also simply no other movie that feels the same way that the original Toy Story does. Maybe it’s the older-looking animation, maybe it’s the story, who knows, but this film has always given me that warm and fuzzy feeling, as cheesy as that sounds, that makes it infinitely rewatchable. I’m honestly shocked by how long it took me to finally watch this movie again, as it has honestly probably been close to a decade at this point. It’s also one of those films that, right after watching it, I have the urge to watch again, which doesn’t come too often for me, even for some of my favorites.

Woody and Buzz are some of the most compelling characters that not only Pixar, but Disney has ever put into a film. Woody is this character that is honestly kind of frustrating at the start, but the more you get to know him, especially once Buzz comes into the picture, the more you start to understand him and resonate with the way he feels. His fear of being forgotten and, well, just uncared for anymore, I think, is something that everyone can connect with. Buzz Lightyear, on the other hand, is the complete opposite. It’s weird because he has a lot more charm to him than Woody has, but because you resonate with Woody so much more, you don’t really root for him. Over the course of the runtime, however, his character becomes just as compelling as Woody’s, where the main themes that he brings to the film are those of self-acceptance.

Woody and Buzz also have fantastic chemistry with one another, which is obviously helped by some great voice performances by both Tom Hanks and Tim Allen. Their character banter can quite often be really hilarious, especially in the early phases of the film, because Buzz believes that he is an actual space ranger, so Woody finds him delusional, which, of course, he is. Even aside from them, the dialogue is so clever and fun in ways that you wouldn’t expect from a G-rated animated film.

The last thing that I will talk about, which I had honestly kind of forgotten about when it comes to Toy Story, is how good the music is. Of course, no one could ever forget “You’ve Got a Friend in Me,” but even the other songs that play throughout are perfect because they were literally made for this movie. The lyrics of the music all correlate exactly with whatever is going on onscreen, and make for some pretty emotionally-driven stuff. The standout is definitely the main song with Buzz, once he has a big character development moment.

I don’t know, Toy Story is just one of those films that will never age, even if its animation is just a little bit dated, because it is so much more than being the first 3D animated movie would lead you to believe.