And it does so while playing around with narrative genre, combining elements of science fiction, Westerns and daredevil action-adventure. It also acknowledges and appreciates the haphazard mixture of toys (the variances in scale, manufacturing and material sources, and genres) that accrue in a child’s life, and how children employ them in their play.
And it recognizes and celebrates the creative play of children and the reality of their bedrooms, little microcosms swirling with meaningful commodities brought to life through the mirthful adventures of a child’s imaginings. Ordinary toys in an equally ordinary setting: a boy’s bedroom. It also effectively establishes the film’s rejection of the story world of Disney films. The pre-title sequence sets up the genre blending of the film itself, as well as the scaled-down universe of its narrative world. Reprinted with kind permission of the author, the British Film Institute and Bloomsbury Publishing.
Excerpted from 'Toy Story: A Critical Reading' © Tom Kemper (2015).
