Fast forward a few decades to 2019 and the first Toy Story is still impressive for what they accomplished at the time. Though it looks a little dated, the detail made to the animation is top of the art.
With its fourth movie in the franchise, the budget was not so restricted. The first movie was given thirty million, while the fourth movie got two-hundred million. Toy Story 4 takes place with Woody, Buzz and the gang with their new child Bonnie. Woody doesn’t get as much playing time as he did with Andy and is feeling left out. While at school, Bonnie makes a new toy from a Spork, properly named Forky. When Forky gets lost on a road trip with the family, Woody and the toys have to go after him and bring him home.
The story of Toy Story 4 went through multiple drafts and wasn’t fully completed until later. John Lasseter was set to direct it, but he handed it to first-time director Josh Cooley, and told him to make it his own. In comparison to making the other movies, they had to figure out a timeline to drive the main character’s and add the character Bo Peep, while making sure it was a quality script. In terms of shot composition, lighting, framing and realistic designs, the movie is one of the best films made by Pixar. Advancing technology has allowed the company to push the envelope and excel with each film.
One impressive aspect of the movie that you will notice right away, is how the animators have managed to stay true to the classic characters while making some improvements to the animation itself. Woody and Buzz look more pristine and put together. If you zoom in on certain scenes, you can see just how much detail is put into the characters. Single threads can be seen individually on Woody’s clothes, and scratches from years of use are etched naturally on Buzzes classic suit.
Director Josh Cooley explained the process of redesigning the characters like this, “If we try to use Toy Story 2 Woody, it’s like putting a CD-ROM into a Blu-ray player. It just wouldn’t work.” Therefore with each movie, they had to rebuild the characters and make sure they kept to the original heart of them. After recreating the characters, they would add fuzz and fibers to the toys, as well as double-check previous films for visual consistency.
In the fourth movie, there is also a rainstorm, something that wasn’t possible to do in the first film. They planned to show a rainstorm in the first Toy Story but was limited by technology so compromised with a close-up of a windowsill dripping with water. However, now, with the right technology, they were able to do what they couldn’t back then; coming full-circle.
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References:
- Ashton, W. (2019, June 27). Toy Story Vs. Toy Story 4: How Pixar’s Animation Has Changed Over The Last 24 Years. Retrieved from https://www.cinemablend.com/news/2475686/toy-story-vs-toy-story-4-how-pixars-animation-has-changed-over-the-last-24-years
- Desiderio, K., & Phillips, I. (2019, June 20). How Pixar’s animation has evolved over 24 years, from ‘Toy Story’ to ‘Toy Story 4’. Retrieved from https://www.insider.com/pixars-animation-evolved-toy-story-2019-6
- Desowitz, B. (2019, May 29). ‘Toy Story 4’ Creators Tell Us Why It Took So Long to Bring Back Bo Peep. Retrieved from https://www.indiewire.com/2019/05/toy-story-4-bo-peep-return-1202145226/