Captain Conroy's Pixar 40th Anniversary Marathon: Week 1

Written by Captain Conroy

Hello everyone and at the time of writing this, Happy New Year 2026! I know I said my next review would be of The Archie Show, but a great circumstance has warranted holding that review back for the moment.

For those who know me well, or even if you don’t know me well – I am a massive fan of the Pixar side of Disney and I have loved all of their movies to date. Yes – Cars 2 included which is an incredibly hot take and I know. LOL. However, as of this year 2026 – Pixar turns 40 and to celebrate this milestone – I have decided to look back on all of their feature length movies and make this journal as I go to keep mini reviews. Some it’s been a while – some not so long – may my mind change on some of these? That’s what I invite you to join me along in order to see. And naturally we have to start with the one that kicked it off for them. The one that started it all for feature length animated movies!

For Pixar!

There we go, Toy Story – which at this time has already turned 30 and now the studio that made it turns 40, go figure. So, does this movie hold up well? Let’s find out:

The story revolves around Woody, a much beloved and well cared for cowboy doll owned by Andy, along with several other toys, and is even the favourite amongst them. But things quickly change once Andy gets a Buzz Lightyear action figure for his birthday. Naturally jealousy gets the better of Woody and this quickly turns into a deadly game of survival after a jealous stunt leads to him and Buzz getting into the hands of Sid Phillips – Andy’s neighbour who is his polar opposite.

The story holds up incredibly well and teaches a very timeless message about how jealousy will get you nowhere and how you’ll be much better off working together than apart. United we stand divided we fall as the old saying goes. The story is well paced, and was clearly well planned as we see when there are plenty of moments the thing could be resolved in five minutes but the plot has other ideas. It certainly keeps you on your toes and I love this as like the late great Stan Lee once said in a video I saw “It’s always great to find ways for your hero to get into trouble, because if everything works well for him, there’s no excitement, no interest.”

The animation? Well, I won’t lie there are definitely plenty of aspects where it looks like a product of its time, but yet I still find that the animation in itself still manages to look good and it was easy to see how revolutionary this animation was for its time. Even now I find it don’t look half bad. Even watching it on a HD TV in this day and age it certainly doesn’t look terrible. But of course as time goes on it’s easy to see how the animation progressively gets better – but this level of progression is not to be sneezed at.

I mean look at that, they had already managed to look this good by this point in time compared to their earlier works is so impressive. However, it was only going to get better from here :D

The cast of characters is certainly a memorable one and come on, after this movie was done, you wanted a Buzz Lightyear or a Woody for Christmas. Admit it. Woody is the leader of Andy’s toys who is by nature a very good leader until jealousy takes its hold over him and I love his character arc as he gets better and grows to be friends with Buzz after feeling envious of him. Buzz himself is also great and has a great arc himself going from thinking he’s the real Buzz Lightyear to going a little bit crazy after his realisation to fully accepting his lot in life as a toy.

The other toys each have loveable individual personalities too like Mr. Potato Head is the cynical one, Slinky is the loyal one, Rex the timid one, Bo Peep the loving one and so forth. This movie and the sequels following takes full advantage with its characters and making them all sorts of shapes, sizes, creatures and giving them all sorts of play features. I mean that’s not far off from toys in real life is it not?

But even for the characters who are not toys, they say a hero can only be as good as his villain and Sid certainly gives the impression of a loathsome villain we love to hate. There’s so much to him like all those explosives and dangerous things he uses when he “plays” with his toys. It does make you wonder a lot about him like do his parents know he buys these things? And of course Andy’s the lovable guy who treats his toys properly and you do feel sorry for him when he’s missing Buzz and Woody and you feel good for him once they’re reunited.

In conclusion, Toy Story was great way to get Pixar’s feature length movie making career off the ground and it’s a timeless classic that will definitely be enjoyed for years to come. The story is great, the animation is good for its time and its cast of characters is frankly legendary. All these factors had the making of cinematic history and Pixar would only go on to keep bringing us so many good movies more afterwards. I have only glowing praise for this movie and the next movie we’ll look at.

(Record scratch) “Hang on a minute! You missed a movie!”

Don’t worry, I’ll get to good ol’ A Bug’s Life, but while I am going in chronological order – I’m doing it in terms of franchise rather than the order each Pixar film was released. So all the Toy Stories first, then A Bug’s Life, then the next franchise etc. But yes – as I’ll cover with A Bug’s Life when I review that, that film certainly showed that Pixar could make lightning strike twice. But could the toys make lightning strike twice? The simple answer to that is yes they could.

As the Toy Story movies go on, the adventures keep getting bigger and this movie alone shows a prime example of that. The story features Woody being left behind after suffering a little damage to his arm and after rescuing a fellow toy from a yard sale – he ends up in the hands of a collector who needs him to complete a valuable collection to sell to a toy museum in Japan – so it’s up to Buzz and the others to save him and later along the way, at least two of his new friends – we’ll get to that.

The story to this movie was just so well done to say that they had it rewritten in one weekend after a bad first draft. The stakes are higher than the last movie as the toys have a time limit to find Woody and given the climax takes place in an airport, they have many obstacles to overcome. You really feel for the heroes and are so glad when they triumph. My particular favourite scene when Woody and Buzz ride on Bullseye the horse to go and save Jessie – that scene was so well done and I love it every time I watch it. I also love the many call-backs to the first movie too – like Buzz showing the same kind of devotion to Woody that he had once showed him. So well done and showing him really come full circle.

Remember what I said about the progression from Pixar’s earliest works to the first Toy Story movie? Well…

Once again it didn’t take them long did it? There is a clear visual difference between these two movies and it does not fail to disappoint. They manage to make everything in this movie look so good. The scene with the elevator? Good! The way they animate speed during the chase scenes? Good! The airport baggage loading? Good! The latter in particular was so impressive they managed to pull this off as CGI was still in its infancy by this time but yet they made it look as good as it did. It often makes me wonder if the staff at Pixar were actually allowed to go behind the scenes of an airport and see how it was all done.

The animation was just so good in this movie and how everything looked better from the humans, to textures and even effects and it only kept getting better from here.

Oh boy the characters! We have all of our loveable memorable faces from the first movie making a triumphant return (even if some have bigger roles than others) But for those who have the starring roles, it’s so good to see them all again. And especially Buzz and Woody, I love seeing how well Buzz’s character development settles from the last movie and even play the role reversal. Woody even goes through an arc himself from trying to get back to Andy, to feeling conflicted, to nearly throwing away what a good life he has and then realising just how foolish he was being. Especially having Buzz remind him that he is a toy just like how Woody had to tell Buzz he was a toy in the first movie.

But then we get our new faces too. There’s Jessie – who has a really deep backstory about being loved and then thrown out to being kept in storage to which she became very afraid of – especially once Woody broke the news that he is currently under ownership. I guess this is foreshadowing for how well Pixar would pull off panic attack scenes in later movies. Bullseye is so lovable, especially with his dog like antics despite being a horse and Stinky Pete? Man that guy was mean! But he’s definitely a fine example of a twist villain and has a perfect motive. He doesn’t want to be owned by a kid again, he wants to go to the museum and will not let anyone stand in his way. Plus Kelsey Grammer’s performance doesn’t hurt either. Definitely one of Pixar’s best villains.

And remember when Zurg is mentioned in the first movie? Well, we see him here and boy is he awesome?! He essentially is played like a Darth Vader parody, especially having to say to Buzz that he is his father (how cute! LOL) His character design and voice are awesome and I love him every time I watch this. And Al? Oh boy this guy. Let’s just say we all love seeing him get his just do when he delivers that sad Al’s Toy Barn commercial later on. However we can only make out so much about him and I love the speculation that surrounds him that for some reason or other, he wasn’t allowed toys as a kid and makes up for it in his adult years. And oh boy will he stop at nothing, especially if these toys can make him a quick buck-buck-buck.

Toy Story 2 should be considered a great lesson to us all. A lesson on how to make a great sequel to our already great stories. The story is nothing short of fantastic, the visuals are an improvement (although that’s not to knock the first movie) and are amazing and the characters both old and new make for a very memorable cast. I just feel like this movie did everything right and if I was to find anything wrong with it – I think it would just be nitpicking. It’s definitely high on a list of great sequels and is certainly one of Pixar’s finest.

So, that’s it for this one and join me next week as I review both Toy Story 3 and 4. And at least I won’t have to worry about much more as I’ll come full circle and…

We’re getting a fifth one?! Huh?! O.K, I kid – it’s old news now but given it’s this year – I best bone up when it comes out. To which funnily enough another Pixar movie (Hoppers) is also coming out earlier this year. I suppose once I’ve watched that I’ll have to cover it too. Anyways, see you later dudes.

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