Tag Archives: film

Dec 28 2025

Top Ten Films & TV Shows of 2025

2025 delivered many exceptional genre films and television shows that surprised us with their quality and pushed boundaries. Many of them will be remembered for quite some time and others set the standards for existing franchises. Here are the ten best films and TV shows of 2025.

Films

10. Good Boy

Indy the dog stole the show in this inventive supernatural horror film told from the point of view of a good dog trying to protect his owner from a supernatural threat. What added to the suspense was the vulnerability of the dog and the fact that only he could sense the danger threatening his owner.

9. The Life of Chuck

2025 was a banner year for good to great Stephen King adaptations, and The Life of Chuck was the best of them as this heartfelt fantasy film explored themes dealing with loss, sadness, endings, and the wondrous joy of simple everyday things and relationships.

8. Jurassic World: Rebirth

Despite many criticisms made about the latest Jurassic World entry, it was unexpectedly thrilling and engaging. Sure, some of the plotlines were rethreads, but they were presented well and the film delivered some great dinosaur action.  

7. How to Train Your Dragon

This live-action remake of the classic DreamWorks animated film about a Viking teen and his pet dragon proved that it is possible to produce a topnotch live-action film based animated classics. This is something Disney sorely needs to study going forward with their endless remakes.

6. The Fantastic Four: First Steps

Finally, a quality film about Marvel Comics’ first family has been done. Great performances, production and special effects are the highlights of this charming film about family and facing cosmic horror. The film gets extra points just for not depicting Galactus as a giant space cloud!

5. Sinners

Michael B. Jordan is at the top of his acting game playing dual roles in Ryan Coogler’s haunting vampire film. What could have been a simple vampire tale was instead of tour de force from Coogler that explored America’s cultural and racial divide with exceptional visual storytelling.

4. Predator: Badlands

Just like last year’s Alien: Romulus reinvigorated that franchise, so too does Predator: Badlands with its own franchise about alien hunters. This time, the eponymous alien hunter is shown in a heroic light in this imaginative sci-fi action/adventure romp that fleshes out the species of the Predator as it skillfully blends with the Alien franchise.

3. Frankenstein

Guillermo Del Toro wowed audiences once again with his vivid imaginative storytelling skills. The latest adaptation of Mary Shelly’s literary masterpiece follows the essence of the book while veering off into unique directions that explore the father and son dynamic between the title character and his monstrous yet sympathetic creation.

2. Superman

Director and head of DC Studios James Gunn successfully launched the new DC Universe (DCU) with a fresh and interpretation of the Man of Steel. Superman and his colorful superhero world is rightfully depicted in a bright, hopeful light that cleverly raises questions about our current events and society. Superman is a very promising start to the DCU and we can’t wait for the latest entry.

1. TIE: Avatar: Fire and Ash/Thunderbolts*

This is a first for this blog, the two best films of 2025 were that great but so close in quality for different reasons that it was too hard to choose one above the other. So the two best films of 2025 are a tie.

Once again James Cameron proves why he is one of our greatest filmmakers with Avatar: Fire and Ash. The visuals and worldbuilding in this sci-fi epic are jaw dropping and must be seen in large screens. Some of the set pieces are too familiar but Avatar: Fire and Ash does develop many characters and kept us engaged with the plight of the moon Pandora as it faced evil human colonists.

Thunderbolts* aka The New Avengers was unexpectedly the best superhero film of 2025 thanks to heartfelt performances and chemistry among its cast and an emotional story of misfit mercenaries who become unlikely superheroes. Unlike the typical superhero romp, Thunderbolts* focused on characters and explored adult themes of mental and emotional health, loneliness, addiction and depression. We’ll be rooting for these underdogs when they return in Avengers: Doomsday.

Honorable Mentions:

28 Years Later, Bring Her Back, Bugonia, Captain America: Brave New World, Companion, The Electric State, The Gorge, The Great Flood, It Ends, The Long Walk, Predator: Killer of Killers, Primitive War, Weapons, Zootopia 2

Television

10. Paradise

This murder mystery that took place in a post-apocalyptic underground town shelter was elevated by great performances by Sterling K. Brown and James Marsden and an engrossing storyline that kept viewers guessing about what happened to the world and who murdered the U.S. president.

9. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

The third season of the only remaining Star Trek show (for now) had its problems such as its uneven tone and showcasing too much of James T. Kirk (the show is supposed to be about Captain Pike). Still, some of the episodes were true standouts that proved there were still great Star Trek episodes to be presented.

8. Marvel Zombies

Put together classic characters from the MCU and zombie horror and what do you get? A terrifically gory and fast-moving series with some outrageous zombie action that demands a second season! Hopefully there will be more than four episodes.

7. Peacemaker

While the season finale dropped the ball as it turned out to be a drawn-out coda with concert footage, the second season of Peacemaker was for the most part a captivating look exploration of the title character’s wounded psyche as he second guessed his place in the DCU.

6. Stranger Things 5

The final season of Netflix’s breakout sci-fi/horror show was a bit all over the place with multiple characters and such, but it was still a solid sendoff to our favorite young residents of Hawkins as they had their final confrontations with the extra-dimensional horrors of the Upside Down realm.

5. Daredevil: Born Again

Marvel’s premier superhero TV show had a solid comeback in this sequel to the original Netflix show. Even though Daredevil and his crime-ridden world are now firmly part of the MCU, the TV show was just as gritty and grounded as the original. Stars Charlie Cox and Vincent D’Onofrio turn in some of the best performances of their careers as they reprised their roles as Daredevil and Wilson Fisk, respectively.

4. Severance

The sophomore season of this dark psychological workplace thriller threw audiences for a loop with many unexpected plot twists and character developments. It was very easy to relate to the plight of the office worker drones forced to have their out-of-work identities and memories erased and their efforts to fight the cold company they work for.

3. Pluribus

Vince Gilligan (famous for his TV shows Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul) returned to his sci-fi roots with this quietly disturbing slow-burn TV show about a disgruntled novelist (Rhea Seehorn in one of the year’s best performances) forced to fight isolation, her inner demons, and to save humanity after an extra-terrestrial signal transforms nearly everyone into a global hive mind.

2. It: Welcome to Derry

Part sequel, part prequel to the It films from a few years ago, It: Welcome to Derry was one of the best surprises when it came to TV shows. Each episode was horrifying with macabre set pieces and featured rich character development that fleshed out Stephen King’s fictional town. In addition to the characters, the TV show also had many unexpected twists and fleshed out the expansive King multiverse in an organic manner that made us want to further explore it, no pun intended.

1. Andor

No other TV show came close to matching the artistry of Andor, which is easily the best Star Wars television show of all time and one of the best TV shows of any genre. The second and final season was a tense spy thriller set in the Star Wars universe with many brutal and heart wrenching political storylines that echoed our own civil strife as it chronicled the death of democracy and the bitter origins of the resistance to stand against tyranny. Andor also engaged audiences with thought-out character development which showcased their ambivalent nature in their fight for and against the Galactic Empire.

Honorable Mentions:

Alien: Earth, Black Mirror, Doctor Who, The Eternaut, Eyes of Wakanda, Fallout, Foundation, Gen V, The Handmaid’s Tale, The Institute, Invincible, Ironheart, The Last of Us, Murderbot, Wednesday, Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man

  

Dec 21 2025

The World Of Avatar Continues To Astound With Avatar: Fire And Ash

The latest entry in filmmaker James Cameron’s sci-fi saga, Avatar, is out now in theaters and the question is does Avatar: Fire and Ash deliver the astounding cinematic thrills? Yes, it does, though some may want something different at this point.

Avatar: Fire and Ash takes place right after the  previous film, Avatar: The Way of Water, and deals with the aftermath of that film’s events.  For anyone who hasn’t seen these films, they take place on the moon Pandora which is inhabited by tribes of tall, blue-skinned beings called the Na’vi who are deeply in tuned with nature because of their ability to use appendages to form neural links with Pandoran lifeforms. They worship an entity called Eywa who makes up the collective consciousness of Pandora and interconnects with nature. Their existence is threatened by human colonists from a dying Earth who do not hesitated to exploit the moon’s natural resources and treat the Na’vi as inferior creatures. The films focus on Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), a human paraplegic former soldier whose consciousness inhabits the body of an artificially grown Na’vi known as an avatar. Sully rebelled against his fellow humans and eventually starts a family with his partner Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña), but they have to stay on guard from vengeful humans who want to bring Sully to justice. Sully is being hunted by another avatar, Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang), his former commander who is obsessed with capturing Sully. What is unusual here is that the actual Quaritch was killed in the first film and the Quaritch avatar is inhabited by implanted memories from Quaritch.

At the start of Avatar: Fire and Ash, the Sully Family is deep in mourning over the death of the eldest son (Jamie Flatters) who was killed by human forces in the previous film. One of the members of the family is Miles “Spider” Socorro (Jack Champion), a human teenager who embraces the Na’vi way of life and rejects his father who happens to be Quaritch. Sully fears that Spider cannot remain with the family in their sanctuary and transports Spider to a human colony made up of human scientists who also rebelled against their fellow colonists. As the Sullys are transported by a tribe of Na’vi called Windtraders who use giant aerial jellyfish-like creatures for transportation, the tribe is attacked by a rogue Na’vi tribe called the Mangkwan. This particular tribe has rejected Eywa, embraces violence, and are very hostile to the other Na’vi. Their leader is Varang (Oona Chaplin), who is nihilistically vicious and forms an alliance with Qauritch and the human colonists to hunt Sully in exchange for human weapons.

What complicates matters for the characters is that Quaritch is also obsessed with finding his son and repairing his relationship with him, which is odd since the actual Quaritch died in the first Avatar film. Meanwhile, the Sullys have another adopted child called Kiri (Sigourney Weaver) who is the child of yet another avatar, Grace Augustine.  The identity of Kiri’s father is unknown and Grace cannot answer this because she died in the first film. Kiri has an uncanny ability to connect with Pandora’s life forces and her actions in saving Spider drive the film’s narrative. In Pandora, humans cannot breathe the air and at one point in the film, Spider’s breathing unit breaks down and he starts to suffocate. Kiri is able to save him by implanting a mycelium symbiote into Spider that lets him breathe Pandora’s air.

After the humans learn about this they task Quaritch to hunt down Spider so he could be studied to see how this ability to breath Pandora’s air could be replicated for the rest of humanity. Sully fears this because he knows this event would be disastrous for the Na’vi. Adding to his woes are dealing with the bitter hatred and bigotry Neytiri has towards humans even Spider himself, and with the plight of his remaining son Lo’ak (Britain Dalton), who is wracked with guilt over his brother’s death and tries to measure up to Sully, while forging his own destiny.

As anyone can tell, unlike the earlier films, the plot for Avatar: Fire and Ash is more complex and filled with developed character nuances. A common complaint about the films is that they are essentially simplistic sci-fi versions of Dances With Wolves or Ferngully. Most people did not care, as seen by the huge box office numbers of the films. They came to theaters for the sheer spectacle of the immense and intricate details that James Cameron infused into the films. One of the main reasons that the films tend to take so long to produce is because of the revolutionary special effects, 3D technology and dense worldbuilding that are the Avatar films’ best assets. Just like the other films, Avatar: Fire and Ash has to be seen on large screens not on phones and other digital devices.

With that said as spectacular and jaw dropping the third Avatar film is, one can’t help wish that Cameron did not play it so safe with familiar beats. Sure, the action and the visuals are incomparable and the film gets a lot of credit for developing the characters especially Quaritch who once was a one-note military villain but is now slowly becoming an anti-hero and adopting the Na’vi way. But many of the story beats in the other films are repeated in Avatar: Fire and Ash, just done on a larger scale, such as bondings with the whale-like tulkuns and flying banshees, the final confrontation between the Na’vi, Pandora’s fauna and the human soldiers and whalers or having Sully’s children continually captured and rescued. However, these plot elements were well done, and there are intriguing new developments like the introduction of the villainous Na’vi and Kiri’s connection to Eywa, it’s just that with a runtime of over three hours, more should have been done to develop the overall story. It’s regrettable that with such a rich world to explore, Cameron did not introduce new biomes such as deserts or polar regions. Also, with all the talk about Earth dying, this begs a visit or a look at the planet. The closest we’ve seen of Earth was a deleted scene that originally opened the first Avatar. At least he did introduce antagonistic Na’vi with their own separate worldviews and by the way, Varang is one great villain and her obsession with human weapons added a new angle for the Na’vi. Hopefully, she’ll return in the sequels and that the other lingering storylines get resolved. These include the emotional journeys of Jake, Neytiri (who gets a lot of great material in this film), Kiri, Lo’ak, Spider, and Quaritch.

James Cameron has been coy lately over whether or not there will be more films in the Avatar franchise. About a quarter of the fourth film has already been shot, but he and Disney are waiting for the box office results to determine if Jake Sully and the Na’vis’ story should continue. This story must be allowed to come to its natural conclusion as Avatar: Fire and Ash left many questions and threads unresolved.

Putting aside the nitpicks about Avatar: Fire and Ash it has to be stressed that this is a great film and better than most of what is being released. The film is very engaging and well executed. It is so easy to get involved with the characters’ stories to the point that we care about what happens to them and get uneasy wondering if they will actually die.  As mentioned before, the film has to be seen on large screens in 3D and the story is done well enough to merit going out of one’s way to see this in theaters and marvel at Cameron’s rich vision.

José Soto

Dec 6 2025

The Impact Of Netflix Buying Warner Bros.

In the biggest cinematic and media earthquake since the Walt Disney Company acquired 21st Century Fox and many of its assets, Netflix announced that it will purchase Warner Bros. for $82.7 billion. This is one of the most important events to happen with film, TV, videos, comics, and other media and it will have long-lasting repercussions throughout the media industry.

Up for Sale

Warner Bros. had been up for sale for some time and several major companies expressed interest in buying it, especially Paramount Skydance. Many expected Paramount to purchase Warner Bros. given their public and aggressive efforts to purchase the company but in the end the streaming giant Netflix beat out Paramount and will acquire the film and HBO segments of Warner Bros. as it chose not to purchase the cable TV channels that were part of Warner Bros. Discovery. This acquisition will give Netflix access and ownership to an impressive film and television library and major IPs, including DC, Looney Tunes, Hanna-Barbera, The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, The Matrix, Game of Thrones, Mad Max and more.

Many have watched the bidding war with caution and were concerned with a possible ownership by Paramount, mostly because its CEO, David Ellison, has openly expressed fealty to the Trump Administration to the point that a Rush Hour 4 has been greenlit simply because Trump expressed interest in such a film. This meant that the government has influence on what media entertainment gets released, which leads to First Amendment questions. Imagine if Paramount bought Netflix and the government had a hand in deciding the direction of DC films, TV or comics. A film like Superman, which openly criticized America’s current immigration policies, would never be allowed by Ellison. On the other hand, the purchase by Netflix has opened up another can of worms that has the film industry reeling because of the implications.

Streaming Influence

One possibility of the purchase is that it could lead to the death of cinemas since the majority, if not all, Warner Bros. films could be released straight to streaming. This would create a domino effect with other film studios copying the release model, which would hasten the demise of the theater-going experience.

This has been a growing problem in recent years that was accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic which caused many film and TV studios to lean heavily on streaming to provide content to consumers. Netflix has upended the conventional model of film releases where films normally had theatrical lives of a few months before being available on digital or for streaming. This has conditioned viewers to skip going to theaters and just wait for a film to appear on a streaming app a short while after its release. Now it is becoming the norm that films would be released on streaming weeks after a theatrical release and even the same day the film premieres in theaters. Many have speculated that Superman might have had a larger box office haul if it was not announced roughly a month after its initial film release that it would be available for home viewing. While short theatrical runs is convenient and deceptively cheaper for consumers (the idea that they will see the film for free on streaming is silly since they still have to pay for the service), this practice is a major issue with theaters with lost revenue and content.

Another supposed plus for Netflix subscribers is that the service will have an even more exhaustive library of content, but now with prestige content. One problem for the streaming company was that recently it did not have easy access to popular content as film and TV companies created their own streaming services. Netflix has been criticized for having a glut of inferior films and TV shows that are just placed on the streaming app with little promotion. It’s true that Netflix has many quality and popular TV and films like Stranger Things, Wednesday, Squid Game, The Witcher, Black Mirror, and KPop Demon Hunters, with the glut of content dumped on the platform a lot of quality product has gotten lost in the overwhelming mixture. How will prestige films and TV shows from HBO and Warner Bros. stand out from the low-budget dreck flooding Netflix’s landing page?

One possibility is that Warner Bros. and HBO could have their own pages or remain as separate streaming services as we see now with Hulu, which is owned by Disney but is its own streaming service that subscribers of Disney+ could access by purchasing a bundle service. This would allow Netflix to have its own prestige platform to stream high-end quality products that stand out in the crowded streaming service.

But do not be surprised when the monthly subscription rate for Netflix increases dramatically to help pay for the $82 billion purchase. Expect to pay up to $50 and more monthly in a few years.

Impact on DC & Other Popular IP

Now the big question genre fans have is what impact will the purchase have on DC Studios and the DC Universe (DCU) and other popular genre IP? For now nothing. There are contracts that have to be honored so projects in production should be safe, so no worries about Man of Tomorrow, Clayface, or Supergirl. However, the head of DC Studios, James Gunn, might get pressured to favor some popular characters like Batman over obscure ones that he favors such as Booster Gold. Let’s hope that Netflix executives learned a lesson from Disney and Marvel Studios, where in the early 2020s the Disney executives forced the film studio to quickly churn out a lot of TV shows and films to fill out content on Disney+ and to announce projects before they were ready. What happened was that a lot of mediocre films and TV shows were released which damaged the reputation of Marvel Studios’ films and TV shows and led to the recent reduced box office haul for some of their films. Sure, Marvel Studios is taking steps to course correct, but they’re still recovering from this misstep.

Getting back to DCU and all things DC, it’s possible Netflix may force Gunn to step up the output of DC films and TV shows since again Netflix wants a return for their investment. Thankfully, The Batman, Part II is about to enter production, which may keep the streaming company off Gunn’s back. On the other, the company might pressure him to make a decision on the DCU version of Batman soon, and casting some of the more popular DC characters in order to greenlight productions already. Despite rumors about Gunn leaving DC Studios, which were rampant when Paramount was actively looking to purchase Warner Bros., it has been reported that Gunn will stay put. Even though there hasn’t been a lot of DCU projects released to date, Superman, Peacemaker and Creature Commandos have been well received and Netflix is not foolish enough to scrap the DCU and go through the trouble to launch another reboot at this time.

One thing to consider is that while the more obscure DC characters may not get the big-screen treatment, they could wind up as straight-to-streaming projects that could be a proving ground for the characters. The main thing is to just let Gunn alone to produce quality product and all should be fine. In fact, this should be the case for all of the film and TV projects.

While it’s very possible that Netflix will greenlight a lot of DC animated films there won’t be a revival of the Snyderverse. After the dismal failure of the Rebel Moon films, Netflix has been moving away from filmmaker Zack Snyder and it is doubtful that the company will approve a revival of his brand of DC films. The slimmest of hope for diehard Snyderverse bros is that some kind of Elseworlds animated film will be made.

Oh yes, expect Stranger Things and DC to have a crossover in the comics, along with comic books featuring Harry Potter and other popular Warner Bros. IP.

As for other IPs like Mad Max, It and related Stephen King works, and Harry Potter, there has not been any word yet about them. But it’s expected that Netflix will take full advantage of their newly acquired IP. Announced projects like the reboot of Harry Potter, more TV shows based on Game of Thrones, and the second season of It: Welcome to Derry will proceed as scheduled and if HBO is kept as a separate streaming platform those prestige projects will stream there first before migrating to Netflix years later. Will we ever see shelved projects like Batgirl or genre TV shows that were removed from HBO Max such as Westworld or Raised By Wolves? It’s anyone’s guess, but consider this: these projects were removed to save on paying residuals or for tax write offs by Warner Bros. Without these burdens and with the need to put out recognizable content, it is possible that these projects may have a second life on Netflix.

Of course, there are a lot of hurdles for Netflix such as government approval so it will be at least two years before we see any impact. For now, the company indicated they will leave things alone, and supposedly commit to theatrical releases for Warner Bros. films, which would be to their and everyone’s benefit.

Nov 30 2025

Adapt Stephen King’s Dark Tower Saga!

Given the success of the recent live-action adaptation of author Stephen King’s literary works. It is time to consider bringing his magnum opus, the Dark Tower Saga, to life on screen or TV.

Adapting the Dark Tower Saga has been attempted several times over the years at different film studios with topnotch filmmakers attached to such projects such as J.J. Abrams and Ron Howard. However, those efforts did not succeed until the film The Dark Tower, which came out in 2017. The film was directed by Nikolaj Arcel with Ron Howard co-producing and starred Idris Elba as the lead characer Roland Deschain and Matthew McConaughey as the Man in Black. It was intended to be the first part of a multi-epic saga that would expand into television as well as more films. Well that was the intention, as most King fans know the film was poorly received and did not do well in its release. So plans for any followups quietly faded away.

There are many reasons why The Dark Tower failed to click with audiences and critics but it mostly had to do with the truncated script that loosely adapted elements from the first Dark Tower book, The Gunslinger, and the third book, The Waste Lands. Being that the books are quite expansive with imagery and scenes that can be hard to adapt, it was inevitable that the screenwriters condensed the story and threw out many elements, characters and story beats that in the end displeased everyone. Simply put the film lacked the epic scale of the books, was hard to understand, and was largely unfaithful to the Dark Tower Saga.

Since the failure of the film, Amazon acquired the rights and tried to produce a new adaptation of the books without success. It’s really a shame because the rich storyline about a mythical gunslinger trying to save the multiverse as he travels through many worlds, including ours, is too good of a saga to pass up.

Recently, many dense properties that were thought to be too difficult to adapt like Dune, The Lord of the Rings, Foundation and even King’s mammoth novel It have been successfully adapted. What happened was that the right screenwriters, directors, producers and actors were able to create memorable adaptations of the sci-fi/fantasy epics. So there is precedent for creating great adaptations that are either faithful to the books or can successfully adapt the essence of those books.

As of now, the latest filmmaker attached to a potential film adaptation is Mike Flanagan. He has received praise for his directing of other Stephen King works Gerald’s Game, The Life of Chuck, and Doctor Sleep, and for his original horror TV series Midnight Mass. Flanagan intends to develop a television series based on the Dark Tower Saga and honestly, this is the best way to go given the sprawling nature of the books. One thing to consider about adapting the books is that they are multiuniversal and feature characters and elements from other King books such as The Stand, It, Insomnia and ‘Salem’s Lot. Right now, Flanagan has the television rights to the books but if he wants to include characters from It for instance, then the TV show would have to be produced by Warner Bros. since they own the rights to It and other King works (which are referenced in the TV show It: Welcome to Derry). Flanagan would face similar headaches with other King books whose rights are held by other studios.

It’s only a matter of time before the right person(s) come along and are able to craft a faithful adaptation of the Dark Tower Saga. The question is when will this happen. Perhaps soon if It: Welcome to Derry continues to impress audiences and critics as it wraps up its first season. Then film and TV studios wanting to put out the next Stephen King epic can seriously consider the adventures of Roland Deschain and his epic quest to find the Dark Tower and save creation.

Nov 22 2025

Toy Story: The Animated Masterpiece That Changed Animated Films

Thirty years ago, Toy Story was released in theaters by Pixar, which at that time was its own independent company owned by Steve Jobs. The animated masterpiece instantly caught everyone’s attention with its revolutionary 3D animation that changed animated films forever.

3D or computer animation existed before Toy Story, of course, but the film about toys that come to life whenever their owners are not around, was the first feature-length film to exclusively use this kind of animation. The use of computers in animated films had been going on for years since the 1980s and 1990s. Disney used computers on a wider scale with its traditional animated classics like Aladdin and Beauty and the Beast, but those films were still two-dimensional and by the mid-90s that kind of animation had reached its peak in what could be done with it as an art form. The world of animation was ripe for new approaches.

Enter John Lasseter, the creative genius behind Pixar. Working with a team of innovative artists and computer technicians, Lasseter experimented with 3D animated film shorts that caught the eyes of many film studios, especially Disney. Some of the films like Tin Toy, Knick Knack and Luxo, Jr. stood out with the pioneering use of 3D animation. In fact, Tin Toy won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film, the first 3D-animated film to do so. As Pixar created and released these shorts, they prepared themselves to produce a full-length animated film, which turned out to be Toy Story. At this time, Disney was eager to work with Lasseter and proposed that he create a feature-length film that Disney would distribute, to which Pixar agreed.

At first, Pixar’s first animated film was supposed to be a sequel to Tin Toy and would have featured the title character and his dummy companiion trying to find their way into the hands of children. But Disney was not happy with the script and after much retooling, the Tin Toy characters were replaced with the original creations Woody the cowboy doll and Buzz Lightyear the high-tech electronic doll. They had clashing personalities which generated genuine laughs, but had to work together to find their way to their child owner.

Turning Toy Story into an animated buddy film with two completely different characters sparring with each other then becoming great friends was an inspired decision. This development injected a lot of heart and humor into the script and gave the two lead characters distinct personalities that most viewers could relate to. For instance, Woody was the leader of the toys owned by the child, Andy. His status is threatened with the arrival of Buzz Lightyear, the new hot toy on the block that quickly becomes Andy’s favorite toy. Woody is jealous and resentful towards Buzz as he lost his status and his actions cause both he and Buzz to be lost and the two have to find a way back to Andy’s home. What also helped tremendously was the casting of vocal actors Tom Hanks and Tim Allen to play Woody and Buzz. Both actors had great vocal chemistry with each other and comedic timing that rivaled many classic comedy duos.

The film featured many other memorable characters voiced by great actors that embedded the toys with a lot of personalities. Take for instance the legendary comedian Don Rickles who played Mr. Potato Head or R. Lee Ermey as Sargeant, the no-nonsense military leader of the tiny green plastic army men. Seeing many classic and real-world toys appearing in the film was a hysterical and brought back many memories for adults and joy to children. A large part of the film’s appeal was that both adults and children could equally enjoy it, and this became one of Pixar’s strongest selling points with their future films.

Toy Story was an instant hit and a bonafide classic when it was released in theaters on November 22, 1995 as it caught the imagination of viewers. While the computer animation was a distinct selling point, what made the film so beloved was its script, direction and characters who are still relevant to this day. There is even a Toy Story 5 that will be released next year. That is fortunate because while the 3D animation was revolutionary for its time, some of the animation does look a bit dated, especially when it came to depictions of humans.

Of course, the success of Toy Story inspired many film studios to rush out with their own computer animated films to varying degrees of success. Some like Dreamworks and Illumination produced their own classic films but few could capture the magic and whimsy of Toy Story. Still, regardless of quality, the early computer animated films crowded out traditional 2D-animated films and even Disney jumped on the bandwagon with their own 3D-animated films. But it would take Disney some time to create their own films that rivaled Pixar’s in terms of quality. Unfortunately, the success of Toy Story spelled the end of traditional 2D-animated films, at least with American films. The last traditional animated film that Disney released was The Princes and the Frog in 2009. It’s true that there are many advantages with 3D animation, but it is a mistake to completely discard two-dimensional animation. What these studios have failed to realized is that the success of Toy Story and other quality Pixar films, including the Toy Story sequels, was not solely due to its animated technique but because of the story and characters. Hopefully one day, a visionary creator at a major studio will be able to produce a quality two-dimensional animated feature length film that will be successful.

Much like Snow White and the Seven Dwarves was revolutionary in its day and changed films by introducing the concept of full-length animated films, so did Toy Story. It is not an exaggeration to say that Toy Story revolutionized animated films when it premiered 30 years ago as we are still feeling the impact of the classic film that is just as enjoyable as when it was released 30 years ago.