"To Infinity and Beyond!" A Toy Story Retrospective: Introduction.

In 1986, computer science icons Ed Catmull and Alvy Ray Smith co-founded the newly independent Pixar Animation Studios. Once employees working under the banner of George Lucas, the innovators and top of the field technicians broke many boundaries, pioneering the now ubiquitous practice of computer generated effects, ushering in a new wave of creative freedom and experimentation.

But their ambitions went far beyond stained glass knights or terraformed planets, as under the backing of Apple founder and tech giant Steve Jobs, and with the creativity of budding animator and director John Lasseter, they hoped to take what they learned, and create what would become the first full-length computer animated film.

Getting their practice in before that fateful day, a number of newly recruited animators and storytellers (some of which included Pixar royalty like Andrew Stanton, Joe Ranft, Pete Docter, and many more) tried their hand at commercial advertisements, and their own short films that included Knick Knack and Red's Dream. The most influential of them came to be Lasseter's Tin Toy, in which a living wind up drummer toy attempts to escape from a very messy baby.

But that never quite fulfilled their original dream. Until one day, in the midst of producing a half-hour Tin Toy Christmas special, the studio was finally given the green light to realize their dream. Expanding to an 80 minute plot, the film would now become the iconic Toy Story. Under the guidance of the original animation innovators at Disney, it was a match made in Heaven, as the team set out to fulfill their life's goal.

At least, after they ironed out all the kinks. Disney Studio chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg consistently pushed the studio to supply the film with more "edge," pushing for more sarcastic, adult-leaning humor and story beats, which they obliged, until the day of the infamous "Black Friday" reel when they screened a rough cut to Disney executives.

Utterly joyless and mean-spirited, as well as making the now beloved Woody into an antagonistic tyrant, it's no surprise that the team at Pixar were embarrassed by what they were showing. And you know what's funny? That after breathing down the necks of the new storytellers, and steering it away from being THEIR movie, Katzenberg showed no irony asking how this movie could be so terrible.

Making a complete 180 afterwards, the team worked like mad to retool the film into an acceptable state, which they did, and eventually reaped the benefits when the finished film turned out to be a huge smash hit. In fact, one may say that the Toy Story movies are the pinnacle and definitive representation of Pixar's perfectionism and stamp of quality as a filmmaking force.

Even for the film's sequels, the few described as arguably surpassing their predecessor, they were so committed to perfection, many of the animating staff worked to psychological collapse to rework almost all of Toy Story 2.
NINE MONTHS BEFORE ITS RELEASE!

As such, it's no surprise that they'll be returning to the well once again this June, as Toy Story 4 takes its bow. I, like many, do question the point of this film coming to existence, especially given that Toy Story 3 felt like a perfect cap-off to the series. But at the same time, I've always felt this series continues to get better with every new entry, and I see no immediate reason to assume this won't continue the trend, especially given what a reportedly emotional closer it'll be to the series.

And in preparation of Pixar's latest film, and by all accounts their last sequel for a good long while, I'll be taking a look at every prior entry in the series, followed by my thoughts on the main event itself. It all begins tomorrow, and will see a new entry every Friday culminating in Toy Story 4's release, so be sure to join me.

"Reach for the Sky!"