Toy Story (1995)

First-time feature director John Lasseter brings a sure hand to a tale that takes us back to a time when playthings seemed as real to us as other people, and a beloved teddy bear, doll, or stuffed dog was almost as important a fixture in our world as our parents or siblings.

For young Andy (John Morris), the sun rises and sets on his lanky Sheriff Woody doll. And Andy is just as important to Woody (Tom Hanks), who presides in Andy’s absence over the inhabitants of Andy’s room, which include an acerbic Mr. Potato Head (Don Rickles), an unassumingly loyal Slinky Dog (Jim Varney), an anxiety-ridden T-Rex (Wallace Shawn), and a sweet Bo-Peep doll (Annie Potts).

But the status quo is upset by the arrival of a flashy new toy: Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen), space ranger, who impresses the other toys with his nifty features and threatens Woody’s place as Andy’s favorite — and, in an inspired stroke, doesn’t realize he’s a toy.

Woody’s jealousy and pettiness toward Buzz lead to a series of increasingly serious consequences, including getting lost and finally falling into the hands of a future juvenile delinquent named Sid (Erik von Detten) whose sadistic tendencies make him a hazard to any toy he gets his hands on.

Of course Woody must work through his resentment and redeem himself, Buzz must face the truth about himself, the two must learn to accept and respect one another, and Sid must be taught a lesson as well. The joy, though, lies in the grace and deftness with which all these elements are brought together, in the neatly crafted plot and the rightness of the characterizations.

It’s also a joy just to watch the film, to take in the exactness of every detail of the toys, down to the translucent green tags of extra plastic on the toy soldiers and the back-and-forth undulations of Slinky Dog’s steel-spring body. Behind this must surely lie untold hours of Pixar animators just sitting around playing with toys — and, judging from the results, enjoying it as much as Andy himself, whose spirit of imagination and playfulness is matched by the filmmakers’ own.