'Toy Story' turns 25: how Pixar turned animated cinema upside down

Text by: Lina Taghy

4 min

Toy Story turns 25 this Sunday, August 9. The first film produced entirely in computer graphics, this classic from Pixar studios has turned the world of animation cinema upside down. For the occasion, a virtual festival is organized from this day and throughout August on the Disney + platform. After a quarter of a century of films for young and old, the American giant Pixar, now under Disney control, continues its momentum.

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It was the adventures of Buzz and Woody, the living toys of Toy Story  that propelled the studio to the fore in 1995. At the time, Pixar Animations Studios made the bet of producing a fully animated feature film. animated by computers, and no longer by cartoonists: it will be the first in the history of cinema. The critical reception is mixed, yet the film is a success: 48 million admissions and nearly 362 million dollars of receipts in the world.

After Toy-Story, Pixar went on to make a series of productions that would meet with worldwide success: 1001 Pattes in 1998, Monstres et Cie  in 2001, Le Monde de Némo  in 2003, The Incredibles  in 2004, WALL-E  in 2008, Up there  in 2009, and most recently Coco  in 2017 and Toy Story 4  in 2019.

With a total of twenty-two feature films, Pixar has reached nearly 850 million admissions worldwide and won nineteen Oscars.

An innovative studio

Originally, the studio was initially a simple service for the company of George Lucas, the creator of Star Wars . In 1986, Steve Jobs bought the service and founded Pixar with Edwin Catmull and John Lasseter.

After Toy Story , Pixar is making its mark on the international animation film scene. For Lucie Merijeau, teacher-researcher in cinema history and specialized in animation cinema, the success comes from the script of the works: Pixar has renewed the narration and the representations of the characters. Much more than for their technological innovations, Pixar films are read through the prism of their staging.

"  All the feature films released by Pixar will dig a trail of films that are both films that borrow more from the independent current, and which nevertheless borrow from the 'blockbuster' mentality  in terms of marketing, since this this is run by Disney,  ”explains the specialist.

Pixar films quickly became popular with critics, who analyzed them as cinema films, and no longer as simple cartoons. For Lucie Merijeau, Pixar has given cultural legitimacy to a whole section of animation cinema.

But Pixar does not revolutionize the production model. Closely followed by Disney since its inception, the studio was bought by the giant in 2006 for $ 7.4 billion. “  After the buyout, toy sales all over the world brought in millions of dollars. In many ways, Pixar has completely infiltrated the global cultural landscape.  “, Emphasizes Lucie Merijeau.

► Also to listen: our Culture Rendezvous on 5/26/2019 dedicated to Toy Story 4

Movies for everyone

“  They came to a point where, in cinema in general and in animation in particular, we were in 'postmodern aesthetics' . So there are a lot of references to "pop culture" which can be hooks for spectators. They created an internal mythology from film to film, which creates a kind of collusion with the audience. And at the same time, the spectator who is not aware of all this will  miss out but will still be able to like the film ”, explains Lucie Merijeau.

Pixar's success is also played out in the many possible interpretations. The films bring together children and adults, as in the film Wall-E  which tells the story of a small robot, but which also reads like a great love film, even science fiction bordering on the pamphlet ecological.

The complex characters developed by Pixar allow deeper scenarios, according to Lucie Merijeau, who recalls that Toy Story  tells us about a single-parent family, or even mourning, a theme that comes up regularly in the studio's productions. “  They are complex narratives and objects that allow one to understand the world, or help to see situations that viewers may experience. They can identify themselves,  ”explains the teacher-researcher.

The studio has nevertheless seen a decline in recent years: the commercial failure of the film The Voyage of Arlo  in 2015, the resignation of John Lasseter, boss of Pixar and director of Toy Story , accused of sexual harassment in 2018 , or even the closing of cinemas last spring, at the time of the release of En Avant , the studio's latest production.

With Disney +, Disney's streaming platform , the studio offers new original content, such as short films that focus on contemporary and more mature themes. Enough to continue the experimentation while the virtual festival dedicated to Pixar on this Disney + platform will begin on Sunday, and will last throughout August.

► Also to listen: our Media Chronicle of 04/4/2020 dedicated to Disney +

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