Toy Story

Walt Disney Pictures and Pixar Animation Studios join forces on an entertaining computer-generated, hyperrealist animation feature (1995) that’s also in effect a toy catalog. Given all the details in this G-rated picture about plucked-out eyes and severed limbs, the assumption appears to be that toy characters aren’t real enough to be disturbing, though they certainly tend to be more lifelike here than the humans. (There’s even a stirring climax when an assortment of mutilated and grafted-together mutant toys threaten to take revenge on the sadistic human boy who created thema moment recalling The Island of Dr. Moreau and Freaks.) The main toy characters here are a cowboy and a space cadet, though there’s the usual Disney-style collection of secondary roles. The voices of some of the toys are delivered by Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Don Rickles, Wallace Shawn, and Jim Varney; directed by John Lasseter from a screenplay by Joss Whedon, Andrew Stanton, Joel Cohen, and Alec Sokolow. 80 min. (JR)

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