To Infinity and Beyond - a look back at Toy Story 1 and 2

 

This weekend, Toy Story 3 opens in theaters and I'm soooo excited (like many others my age) to go see it soon!

I thought for this week's Flashback Friday we'd take a look back to the first 2 films in this trilogy.

The original Toy Story movie came out at Thanksgiving 1995 (and did you know that Joss Whedon was one of the writers?) and I was 11 years old, in the 6th grade.

This was the first major Disney/Pixar film and I remember how groundbreaking the animation was for the time - prior to this, there weren't really any good well done computer animation films out there. It also had a great voice cast too, with Tom Hanks and Tim Allen providing the voices for main character Woody and Buzz, with ensemble cast of other familiar voices (including Jim Varney aka Ernest, Wallace Shawn, Annie Potts, and Pixar regular John Ratzenberger).

The movie was widely popular and spawned off an animated Buzz Lightyear Star Command tv show. At various Disney theme parks they included a Buzz Lightyear ride, where you ride around through various scenes and shoot handheld lazor cannons at various objects to gain as many points as you can.

There was also the Toy Story video game that was released in spring 1996. I had it for the Sega Genesis and thanks to a cheat code that was published in Disney Adventures magazine, I was able to finally beat it over time. Now the first few levels were pretty easy to figure out - in most scenes you played as Woody and you could swing from objects via the pull cord in your back - but some of the later levels were pretty hard. I remember there was one where you race around inside the Claw Machine, on a timer, and have to find a certain number of the alien toys. The levels in Sid's house and backyard were some of the more harder ones, as they involved solving puzzles and creating contraptions to work your way around the level. The last level you get to race RC Car down the street and try and make it into Andy's moving van - this one took a lot of practice! It was a fun game though... now I'm half tempted to go hook up my Sega Genesis and give it another play!

In 1996 a sequel was planned, but originally it was to go straight to video until Disney looked at it and saw how great the imagery was.

In Thanksgiving of 1999 Toy Story 2 was released.

I remember it was chaos trying to get tickets to go see it that opening weekend - all the shows were sold out and you had to buy tickets way in advance - we tried to go opening day, but ended up getting tickets for a Saturday or Sunday afternoon show.

In this one, the story focuses more on Woody and his past and we were introduced to plenty of new characters with more great voice actors - we had Cowgirl Jessie voiced by Joan Cusack, Barbie voiced by The Little Mermaid (and local area native) Jodi Benson, as well as characters played by Wayne Knight and Kelsey Grammer.

Honestly, I thought this one was just as good as the previous one!

I was a sophomore in high school by this time and my sister was 6 and a half. She was too little to take to the movies when the first Toy Story came out, but we had that one on VHS and she would watch it over and over, so she was excited to see the 2nd one on the big screen.

She LOVED Cowgirl Jessie and really wanted one for her birthday the following April. Only problem was... it was near impossible to find one! We looked in every store, called around - hardly anyone carried them and the ones that did were out of them for awhile and didn't know if they'd get more in. This was before everyone bought stuff online regularly too so that wasn't really an option either. We went to Walt Disney World that summer though and frantically searched through all the stores at Pleasure Island for this doll. We got lucky and finally found one! She talked too which was a bonus!

10 and a half years later, Toy Story 3 is here!

What I love about the premise of this one, is that instead of just continuing where the 2nd one left off, it actually does take place 10 years later, as Andy is going off to college and there really isn't a point for his old toys to still be kept in the house, so they get donated together to a nursery or preschool and have to adjust to their new environment, all the new kids, and all the new toys that already live there.

The great thing about these movies is that both kids and adults alike can enjoy them! Most of the toys featured are timeless and like all Pixar movies, they were in adult humor as well so the parents are just as entertained.

 

Did you see the first 2 Toy Story movies? Do you plan on seeing the 3rd installment?