Toy Story: A Critical Reading

(Paperback)

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The first computer-generated animated feature film, Toy Story (1995) sustains a dynamic vitality that proved instantly appealing to audiences of all ages. Like the great Pop Artists, Pixar Studios affirmed the energy of modern commercial popular culture and, in doing so, created a distinctive alternative to the usual Disney formula.

Tom Kemper traces the film's genesis, production history and reception to demonstrate how its postmodern mishmash of pop culture icons and references represented a fascinating departure from Disney's fine arts style and fairytale naturalism. By foregrounding the way in which Toy Story flipped the conventional relationship between films and their ancillary merchandising by taking consumer products as its very subject, Kemper provides an illuminating, revisionist exploration of this groundbreaking classic.

Reviews

I've read plenty of the BFI's excellent Film Classic series, but Tom Kemper's take on Toy Story is up there among the very best. -- The Crack
One of the many praiseworthy things about the BFI's Film Classics series is that it has not shafted animation... Toy Story inspired so many [animated films] as to be genre-defining, so it is often easy to lose sight of what made the film stand out on its first release twenty years ago. With Toy Story: A Critical Reading, Kemper has given the film the in-depth analysis it deserves. -- Toronto Film Review
Tom Kemper's new critical monograph on Toy Story stands out from its fellows in the British Film Institute's Film Classics series not only in its choice of subject a beloved and massively successful children's film, as opposed to the established classics or "cutting-edge" modern films typically featured in the series but in the sophistication and persuasiveness of its argument. Kemper offers a wealth of insight on this foundational film in the Pixar canon, contextualizes it within the history of animated films and the pictorial arts, and highlights the film's surrealist touches. Most importantly, it accomplishes what any good single-film monograph should do: make you want to go out and watch (or re-watch) the film immediately. -- Toronto International Film Festival * David Davison *

Author Bio

Tom Kemper is Lecturer at the School of Cinematic Arts, University of Southern California and Teacher at the Crossroads School for Arts and Sciences, USA. He is the author of Hidden Talent: The Emergence of Hollywood Agents (2009).