Why the Toy Story films call out to something deep within us

In September 2023, 12-year-old Rossella began searching social media for depressive content that mirrored her feelings. Soon, she began spiralling deeper into the clutches of the malaise that she was desperately trying to escape. Social media algorithms kept feeding her more and more self-harm material, and five months later, she committed suicide. It was only later, when Rossella’s parents unlocked her phone, that they discovered how she maintained a secret Instagram profile called ‘Just a dead pers0n’. In the first collective action in Italy against social media companies, her parents, along with a few other families, are now suing Meta and TikTok for contributing to the adolescent’s death.

So, what does Toy Story have to do with Rossella’s death by suicide? To understand that, we need to start at the very beginning, with the birth of a small animation studio called Pixar in California.

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In 1979, George Lucas, the man behind the Star Wars films, started a computer division to develop state-of-the-art computer technology for his films. Seven years later, after the division did some revolutionary work in films like Young Sherlock Holmes and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Steve Jobs purchased it and turned it into an independent company of 40 employees called Pixar. The animation company was a success from the beginning. Its third short film, Tin Toy, became the first computer animated film to receive an Oscar in 1989. But Pixar’s real impact on the film industry would be felt only years later, when it produced the world’s first computer animated feature film. Toy Story, about toys that come alive when humans are not around, released in 1995 and was an immediate hit. It became the highest-grossing film of the year with a staggering box office collection of $400 million. Pixar’s IPO, which happened just a few days later, became the largest of the year.

Toy Story is about Sheriff Woody, a pull-string cowboy toy who is his six-year-old owner Andy’s favourite. He is threatened by Andy’s new toy—the space ranger called Buzz Lightyear—and fears he will be replaced as the favourite. The rivalry between Buzz and Woody evolve into a deep friendship when they must unite forces to escape the clutches of their evil neighbour Sid and return to Andy.  

Toy Story was revolutionary for its time, not just because of the plot which pulled at heart-strings as strongly as Andy’s favourite pull-string toy, but also in terms of the technical wizardry. Ever since Disney’s first full-length animated film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, released in 1937, animation had been painstakingly hand-drawn. Pixar went to extreme lengths to change this. It developed its own $15 million rendering software with a “render farm” of 117 computers running the whole day to get a flawless product.

“The artists also prepare design documents for every model created,” stated a paper published by Pixar on the making of Toy Story. “Each item, from the hubcaps on the cars to the mailbox in Sid’s yard, is thought out, sketched and dimensioned. The packet of model drawings is sent to a group of model builders, but when the time comes to add texture, dirt and scratches, the artists will once again be summoned. Reference photos and magazine clippings may supplement illustrations in the model packet, and pointers to movie clips might be needed to clarify what is or is not wanted in some visual effects animation. For some models, especially faces, a clay sculpture is made to be used on a magnetic field digitising table.” The result was incredible—moving shadows, the sheen on the wooden floor, the scuff marks on the toys’ surfaces—details that hand-drawn imagery could never replicate.

Over the next three decades, Woody, Buzz and the rest of the toy team went on exciting, edge-of-seat adventures captured in four hugely-popular Toy Story movies, which led to four Oscars, two theme parks and $3.3 billion in worldwide box office revenue. Just as astounding as the success of Toy Story is the story of Pixar, which produced 12 consecutive hits between 1995 and 2009, including A Bug’s Life, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Cars, Ratatouille, WALL-E and Up. 

When Pixar’s Andrew Stanton, the director of Finding Nemo and WALL-E, was asked what was the animation company’s success formula, he said it was how, before green-lighting any story, they asked one question: why should people care about it? And that, in a nutshell, is what the Toy Story franchise is about—it makes us care. All the rest—the humour, the animation, the special effects—are merely the wrapping that makes the gift look good.

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Now, back to Rossella.

The world has changed enormously since the first Toy Story, captured in the opening scene of its fifth instalment which released on June 19. In it, the cowgirl toy Jessie wants to understand why her owner Bonnie can’t make any friends. So, she climbs to the roof of their home to survey the neighbourhood and to her horror, discovers that all the local children are glued to their screens, triggering fear in the toys that their days are over. The threat of being replaced is hinted at in the first part, but it is realised in the fifth. As Jessie tells a screen: “You are forcing our kids to grow up too fast.” Children don’t play imaginary games any more. Their dolls don’t have tea parties and their cars don’t race each other. Woody’s pull-string voice has grown hoarse with disuse and Buzz’s iconic catch-phrase—“To infinity and beyond”—has become a cliché.

Screens have become an integral part of children’s daily lives. With technology, humankind has advanced, but at the cost of our humanity. According to several studies, high levels of smartphone use were associated with increased rates of depression and anxiety in teenagers, the seeds of which are sown with screen addiction in their childhood. What screens and social media deprive kids like Rossella of is a sense of connection with others. In this love-starved world, is it not what each of us needs the most?

That, I believe, is what makes Toy Story click. We can identify with Buzz’s dejection when he realises he is a toy and not an actual space ranger, with Jessie’s desire to belong to someone, with Slinky Dog’s loyalty and with Bo Peep’s courage. Most of us don’t have deep friendships like that of Woody and Buzz, so when we see it, we long for it. But above all, we can identify with Woody’s desperate need to be loved by his owner Andy, and later Bonnie. When one of the toys asks him why he wants to help Bonnie so much, he replies, “Something inside me tells me to.” Love is the purpose for which he was created, and he will always feel restless until he fulfils it. Deep calls to deep, and that’s why Toy Story whets—even if it cannot fulfil—the elemental need in us to be loved.