Movie Night: Toy Story

15 years ago, during a lunch, some animation co-workers and I went to see the movie, Toy Story. It simply blew our minds away. Went back to our office that afternoon both overwhelmingly inspired and extremely confused. "How did they do that?" and "How are WE going to achieve that in our show?" After many discussions and head scratching...we just hearty-breakingly concluded that we couldn't... at least not on our budget. But, we did have money to buy Toy Story merchandise!



Once we picked up the set and poked and prodded every well crafted button and pull string, it hit us. John Lasseter is a GENIUS! He made the toys exactly like the movie. That just continues the movie experience well beyond the 75 minutes in the theatre. Brilliant!

Years later, Woody, Buzz, and even the alien had been sitting on my shelf collecting dust (as in the movies). (We also have Mr. Potato head.. but, that doesn't really count as it was more a generic toy and wasn't exclusive to the movie franchise.) Fortunately, they had passed a few garage sales in recent times. Never had the heart to sell them or give them away since they were such high quality. Decided it would be nice to just pass them along to my kid.

That day has come. Seems like good timing.. since well, I have a kid now. And Toy Story 3 just came out.

Tonight I wanted to try something. I wanted to see if Persephanie is old enough to go to a theatre and sit though an entire movie without any bathroom breaks, talk, run around, cry, and more importantly to see if a movie can just hold a 3 year old's attention for over an hour in the dark. In our own home theater, lights were out and the volume was up. It worked.



The delight on their eyes was priceless when we brought out the toys immediately after the show. Shelving them for so many years paid off.

I'm pretty sure Woody and Buzz are really happy now.