To Infinity and Beyond! - My contribution to the Disney For 'Em W/O

You are reading a contribution to the Disney ~*~ When You Wish Upon A Star Write-Off!
Emily Rose, the young daughter (15 months old) of fellow Epinion member:
ImAmes (http://imames.epinions.com/user-imames) is battling Retniblastoma (a
form of cancer, which is found in the eye). Special thanks to hosts: Lisa_J
(http://npreciouscare.epinions.com/user-lisa_j) and Opalman
(http://www.epinions.com/user-opalman).
Also, special thanks to Shurie (http://explore.epinions.com/user-shurie) for
the Write-Off Page/Link host. Please visit:
http://epiniontools.isparkl.com/epinions/write_off_participants.asp?id=1 for
rapid access to all entrants.

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Just to add to the message above, this is also dedicated to Hard to Please, who recently passed away last week and was a good friend of many fellow Epinioners. Mark, if you're up there, this review's for you!

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I have always loved anything that has come from Disney: the cartoons, animated features, Disneyland, toys.....the list is endless. So when I heard about the Disney For 'Em W/O, I was all for it!

The only problem was......I did not know what to write about! There are just too many things that have come out from Disney that it was hard to single one out for this writeoff. Since I had always intended to write a review for Toy Story, I decided to write my review of this movie for this writeoff.

Toy Story happens to be one of my favorite Disney animated movies of all time. The dialog, the animation, the story, the characters....everything about this movie was amazing!

However, before I praise what was great about this movie, I will start this review off by describing the plot.

We enter Andy's room. Andy is a normal boy, who has an immense love for his toys. Like most kids, he has a favorite toy. His favorite toy is Woody, a pull-up string cowboy he has had for what seems to be his whole life.

However, there is one thing Andy does not know about his toys. His toys actually come to life and have intelligence. So whenever Andy leaves his toys, the toys "wake up".

We soon start to depict the important characters of the movie. First, there is Woody (voiced by Tom Hanks). Woody is looked up to as the leader of Andy's toys and is respected by the other toys, since he's Andy's favorite toy.

There is also Slinky Dog (voiced by the late Jim Varney). He is the wise one of the bunch and is Woody's best friend. He loves to play checkers, and is there to back up Woody whenever possible.

There is also Mr. Potatohead (voiced by Don Rickles). He is the joker among the toys, always causing laughter with his various antics (e.g. taking off his mouth to kiss his own a*s). He can also be a grouch. He frequently whines about his facial parts being knocked about everywhere.

Hamm, the piggy bank (voiced by John Ratzenberger), is Poatatohead's best friend. There is not much to be said about him, except that he can be quite a grouch as well.

Rex, the tyrannosaurus rex (voiced by Wallace Shawn), is the "worrier" of the group. He worries about anything and this annoys all the toys.

Bo Peep (voiced by Annie Potts) is the sweet and innocent one. She blatantly loves Woody, while Woody also loves her (although it isn't as obvious).

There are other toys like an electronic spelling computer, an 'Etch pad, "little green army men" figurines, a "Rock" action figure......the list goes on and on!

Anyhow, let's get back to the plot. We start off in Andy's room and find out that its Andy's birthday party, which has had to be moved a week earlier, since they are moving the next week when Andy has his birthday.

Woody has to break the news to the toys and the toys are shocked, especially Rex, who thinks a "mean" dinosaur will be one of Andy's birthday presents.

Woody decides to send the "little green army men" to spy on Andy opening his presents. To pass the news back to the other toys, they use walkie-talkies.

The toys witness Andy unwrapping his presents. There seems to be no toy that seems to threat anyone's position in Andy's room.

But wait....

Andy's mom pulls a toy out of a closet and no one knows what it is.

So when the toys "freeze" when Andy returns to the room, Andy knocks Woody off his "spot" on Andy's bed.

Once Andy is gone, the toys wonder who replaced Woody's spot. We soon find out that the name of the new toy is Buzz Lightyear. The other toys are soon fascinated by the number of gadgets Buzz has (a laser, wings, a special helmet). Buzz, however, does not think he's a toy, but thinks he's the real Buzz Lightyear and that his "spaceship" has crashlanded on Andy's bed (or in Buzz's words, this strange planet).

Woody soon becomes jealous and asks Buzz to fly to prove that he's a space ranger. Buzz does "fly", with the help of other objects in the room, and the toys' respect towards Buzz increases even more. Woody, who calls Buzz's flying move "falling with style", gets even more envious of this new toy and the rivalry between the two toys increase.

To make things worse for Woody, Buzz becomes everyone's new favorite toy, which only increases Woody's anger towards Buzz. Everyone also takes part in fixing Buzz's spaceship, which also irates Woody.

So in a jealous rage, Woody decides to knock Buzz through a gap behind a table in Andy's room, but instead, knocks Buzz out of the window. The toys witness this, and they think Woody has "murdered" Buzz.

This is not true. Andy's family go to Pizza Planet. Andy, who wants to take a toy along with him, decides to take Woody, since he can't find Buzz. While in the car, Andy's family stop over at a gas station to refuel the car.

And out of nowhere, comes Buzz. While Woody is happy about seeing Buzz again, Buzz has other ideas and knocks Woody out of the car and tries to beat him up.

While they are beating each other up, Andy's family drives off. Buzz is ignorant of the fact that they've gone, while Woody is upset. They end up arguing, until a Pizza Planet van comes in to "save the day".

So off the two go to Pizza Planet (Buzz thinks it's a spaceship). Once they arrive at Pizza Planet, Buzz thinks they're at a spacestation. While Woody is trying to find Andy, Buzz runs into a "spaceship", which is in fact one of those claw-grabbing toy games. However, things are made worse for the two toys when Sid, Andy's next door neighbor, manages to get the two toys out of the "spaceship".

While Buzz does not know anything about Sid, Woody knows exactly everything about Sid. Sid is a "toy killer". Woody tells Buzz that "once they're in the house, they won't be coming out".

Woody is terrified and fears that he'll never get back to Andy's house, considering the fact Buzz is oblivious about the fact that he's Andy's toy.

Woody and Buzz do try to get out of the house. However, during one of the runaway attempts, Buzz finds out that he's a toy via a telivision advertisement. Buzz is shocked and becomes extremely unhappy about the fact he is a toy.

Will the two toys be able to get out of Sid's house? Will they return to Andy?

I'll leave it there. You'll have to watch the movie in order to find out what happened.

Now that I have finished with the plot, I can now talk about what I liked about the movie. First, the animation. This movie is revolutionary in computer graphic animation, since this is the first full-length computer graphic animation feature from Disney. Simply amazing, and was responsible for starting up more of these computer graphic animated features (e.g. Antz, A Bug's Life, Toy Story 2, Shrek).

I also loved the story. The story is excellently portrayed, containing moments of dramatic tension, comedy and sadness for the toys. This is great for a children's movie and allows a child's imagination to run wild, which is good for any child (just make sure the kids do not really think that toys come to life!).

I liked the voices used as well, particularly those of Allen and Rickles. Allen does well to portray the stubborn Buzz Lightyear, while Rickles does very well to portray the grumpy and sarcastic Potatohead.

The list of pros for this movie is endless and I will bore you guys if I continue to go on about the pros of this movie. This movie is highly recommended to anyone who has ever loved toys!

Thanks for reading the review and I hope you enjoyed it!

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Before I forget, please read the works of these other great writers who helped participate in this writeoff.

aawehr
adjensen
AEOakley
ahlstromomy
AinsleyJo
AliventiAsylum
AmyLEnsor
a_r_egerton
ariel10575
AshleyA
bceaglesfan
BearySweet
beecharmer
bops_mom
Candice923
CANS4US
Charlenep
Char.mike
cindymairi
CJsMommy
Copernicus
crazyglue
cripper
Cusnwalter
DearLadyB
Debbietipton
donnamr
drlolipop
dtolick
Ed.Williamson
Ellie41799
Euphscott
Eskimo101
fallyn96
flamepillar
Fostrmom2mny
gaelkm
gollygumdrops
Granniemose
hjs33
ImAmes
Jag2112
JBduckling
jdhauer
Jennifer_Gibbons
Jeremy1456
jro26
jo.com
Julie42
kalt
kamel622
karmiausnic
kidhendrix
kiljoi
KimzStuffz
Klueger
KMINER
krashlite2
lauren_m
LEDOMAINE
Lorace
Lisa_J ~*~ Hostess
lisaw1215
lizf
Maddi
mariahan
marsha32
MaryTara
Melissasrn
minamarie
MizSass
mkp51
mom2daniel
Mom2TyZick
mrsditmer
mzemel
nanct
Neenkena
NEGUSR
nifer
Nwinston
Opalman ~*~ Host
opinionated3
pedantic
Phineaskc
prairiegirl16
rngpie
remnjava
roxymarie
sbennick
sblaydes
serc
Shanny21
Shelxland
Shurie ~*~ Web Page Host:http://epiniontools.isparkl.com/epinions
SMITHSWOODSIDE
sumo_rhino
Sunkah
Suzer
SweetCeCe
THOM413
three_ster
tiasmom
tomgray
vania
VBFC
viper1963
wifemommyteach
wifeofvolsfan
Writerip
29th_Candidate
77chelle

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ImAmes, if you do get to read this, my prayers are with you and Emily. I hope she can get better.

Mark (Hard_to_Please), we really miss you, buddy. I wish I could have done more for you.