Tonight with the Family: 28 years ago, this movie changed the history of cinema forever

Andy’s room is a mess among the toys! The toy soldiers are sent on a reconnaissance mission into the living room, and Woody Cowboy, the young boy’s lifelong best friend, is frantically waiting for their information, listening to the Playskool walkie-talkie speaker.

If the sheriff is so worried, it’s because Andy is celebrating his birthday today, and his friends seem to have come in large numbers, their arms loaded with packages. Does one of these gifts contain a new toy that can change Woody Andy’s heart? Anxiety is at its height, but the situation seems to be slowly calming down… until, without warning, the little boy’s mother suddenly pulls out the last package from the closet, revealing the colors of the sparkling tidy space.

• Tonight with the Family: The Oldest Disney

Fans of Pixar, animation and film all know this: the theatrical release of Toy Story in 1995 marks a significant date in the history of the seventh art and the fulfillment of an unprecedented challenge.

If the artists of the studio founded by John Lasseter more than 10 years ago, Steve Jobs and Ed Catmull have already signed several short films with computer-generated images and even digitally participated in the development of some key sequences of Disney classics, never. They had never shot an entire feature film exclusively in CGI before.

In this respect, Woody and Buzz’s first big screen adventure represents a true turning point in the animation industry and the start of a remarkable journey for Pixar’s digital craftsmen.

Aside from its major historical significance, Toy Story is above all a masterful film that – 28 years after its release, despite pioneering a sector where works often age very quickly – still holds up wonderfully visually.

But his greatest strength comes mainly from his pitch, which is highly effective, as simple and profound as if born from the imagination of a child talking toys. This unmistakable story works like clockwork, thanks to the special alchemy of its two main characters: Cowboy Woody and Ranger Buzz Lightyear, who form one of the most enjoyable duos in the history of animation.

For all these reasons and thousands more, Toy Story is an urgent need to (re)discover with family or friends.

What will you like…

• Woody and Buzz, of course, but also all of Andy’s other toys, from Mr. Potato Head to Zig-Zag through Bayonne and Rex.

• The film features French voices, starting with the voices of Jean-Philippe Poimartin and Richard Darbois, who play the two main characters.

What could be bothering them…

• Bad boy Sid, a young lad who doesn’t exactly have the same attention span as Andy does for our gaming friends.

• Sid’s mutant toys, horribly altered by the latter’s care, are pretty scary at first, even if they end up being a big help to Woody and Buzz.

(Re)discover all the hidden details of ‘Toy Story’…