Toy Story

In 1979, George Lucas founded The Graphics Group, which made up one third of the Computer Division of Lucasfilm. They began working on film sequences in 1982 and were sold to Steve Jobs for $5 million and became a computer hardware company. Their core product was the Pixar Image Computer, which was sold to government agencies and the medical community. But, employee John Lasseter started creating short demonstration animations, which led the company to produce commercials for other companies. In 1990, it sold the hardware division and grew its relationship with the Disney Animation Studio, resulting in a $26 million deal the next year to produce three feature films. The first of which was Toy Story. With a screenplay written by Joss Whedon, Andrew Stanton, Joel Cohen and Alec Sokolow, it starred Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, John Ratzenberger, Jim Varney and Wallace Shawn. It made over $300 million and is considered one of the best animated films ever made, winning, among others, the Los Angeles Critics Association Awards for Best Animation, an ASCAP Film and Television Music Award, eight Annie Awards and the Best Animated film for the Kansas City Film Critics Circle.

Woody (Hanks) is the unofficial leader of a group of toys belonging to a boy named Andy (John Morris). Woody, an old cowboy doll with a string, receives competition when Andy gets a new toy for his birthday. Buzz Lightyear of Star Command (Allen), who thinks he’s really a spaceman, has leadership qualities that make Woody jealous. When Buzz is accidentally lost, the other toys think Woody masterminded the disappearance. Eventually, the duo have a confrontation that forces them to join together.

This isn’t your average buddy comedy adventure. Sure we’ve got the usual tropes associated with these types of films. Woody and Buzz learn to get along and whatnot. We’ve seen the characterization done in many other films before. This one stands out among all the rest not only because the characters are sentient toys, but that one stopped being the favorite in favor of the other, who doesn’t realize his delusions until three quarters of the way through the film. The best part is, both characters are extremely relatable. No one likes getting shoved aside in favor of someone else and at the same time, we’ve all been the new guy. (I’m still the new guy in my office right now.) And facing a revelation that what you’ve thought to be completely true all your life isn’t true at all completely wrecks people. I’m convinced there was more than fake tea in that teacup.

This film also has no true villain. People can mark Sid as evil, but he’s just a young boy who’s taking his destructive fantasies out on toys. And he doesn’t realize they’re sentient until the end. He doesn’t know that he’s in the wrong.

Say what you will about him, but I actually enjoy most Randy Newman songs (most). And to me, “I Will Go Sailing No More” is the best song on the soundtrack. It really captures what Buzz is feeling about having realized his entire existence has been a lie.

Even after 19 years, the animation still looks great for the most part. The humans and dog still look like they belong in the uncanny valley though. But for being the first feature-length computer-animated film, a few things were going to be off. It only got better from there. #5. 

Firefly/Serenity

Above: Serenity
Right to Left: Jayne, River, Simon, Mal, Inara, Zoe, Wash, Kaylee, Book

After Joss Whedon passed Buffy the Vampire Slayer off to Marti Nixon, he started working on a series that would be famous for getting canceled in 14 episodes. Within three years, Firefly would gain such a gigantic following that the cast returned to film Serenity, a movie intended to give the series some closure. There have also been tie-in novels and comic books and was found to be “The World’s Best Space Sci-Fi Ever” according to a 2005 poll New Scientist Magazine. In 2009, it was a winner of the first annual Hulu awards in the category “Shows We’d Bring Back,” and in 2012, Entertainment Weekly listed it at #11 in the “25 Best Cult TV Shows from the past 25 years.”

The series, set in 2517, is a space western that follows the crew of the Firefly-class spaceship, Serenity as they make their way on the outskirts of society. Earth is referred to “Earth-that-was” and it is established in the film that before the series began, Earth was unable to support the growing population and humanity emigrated to a new star system.

After a failed war for independence, Mal Reynolds (Nathan Fillion) and Zoe Washburn (Gina Torres) attempt to live on Serenity beyond control of the government, known as The Alliance. Their crew consists of the pilot and Zoe’s husband, Hoban “Wash” Washburn (Alan Tudyk), the Companion Inara Serra (Morena Baccarin), the mercenary Jayne Cobb (Adam Baldwin), and the mechanic Kaywinnet Lee “Kaylee” Frye (Jewel Staite). During the first episode, they take aboard the fugitives Simon Tam (Sean Maher) and his sister River (Summer Glau) and Shepherd Derrial Book (Ron Glass). The outlying areas of space are also inhabited by the cannibalistic Reavers, savage and animalistic nomadic humans.

Before the start of the series, Simon broke River out of a government institution where was experimented on, developing schizophrenia and telepathy.

Favorite episode: Our Mrs. Reynolds.

In the film, an Alliance agent, The Operative (Chiwetel Ejiofor), is charged with finding and killing River. Meanwhile, the crew of Serenity are robbing a bank on a planet that is attacked by the Reavers. They escape, but Simon decides to leave with River at the next port.

When they get there, River attacks the patrons of a bar with flawless martial arts, but Simon is able to stop her with a safe word. The two come back to Serenity and Mal learns from Mr. Universe (David Krumholtz) that she was being fed subliminal messaging by a commercial, noting that she whispered “Miranda” before attacking.

The crew hides out on the mining colony of Haven, which Bok calls home. Mal gets a call from Inara, who offers him work. He meets her and is confronted by the Operative. He and Inara are able to escape and the crew eventually discovers that Miranda is a remote uninhabitable planet located beyond Reaver territory. They head back to Haven and discover the Operative has killed everyone, including Book. They decide to go to Miranda, where they find cities with mummified corpses and discover a recording that explains that the Reavers were created by the Alliance.

Mal goes to see Mr. Universe, but expects a trap and lures a fleet of Reaver ships to Mr. Universe’s planet where the Operative is waiting. In the battle, The Operative’s ship is destroyed, but jettisons an escape pod. Serenity crash lands and Wash is killed by the pursuing Reavers. Mr. Universe is dead, but Mal learns of a backup transmitter.

The crew makes a stand aginst the Reavers so Mal can send the message. Zoe, Kaylee, and Simon are wounded and River retrieves his medical bag before closing the blast doors between them.

Mal is able to incapacitate the Operative and forces him to watch the recording. He returns and finds that River has taken care of all the Reavers. As Alliance troops rush in, the Operative recognizes his defeat and orders them to treat the wounded.

The film ends as the Operative vows to try and clear the crew’s names, Inara returns to the crew, Simon and Kaylee consummate a relationship, and River becomes the new copilot.

I included the series along with the film because one cannot be spoken of without the other. The story arc of River and the character arc of Mal that are begun in Firefly come to their complete and whole fruition in Serenity.

Had Firefly and Serenity not been written and run by Whedon, the series would not have just been taken off the air, but it would have faded into complete obscurity, known only in archives as a series that tried to be a grand space adventure with bland characters. On the other hand, Whedon made the series into a look at what would happen if space travel were a normal occurrence and how the average Joe were just trying to make his way in that universe. Firefly was a perfect example of a Type B series, where the episodes revolve around just what’s going on in their lives at the time, but still experiences continuity because that’s how life works.

These characters were completely believable and realistic too. They’re written in a way that shows that everyone has a reason for what they do. And they have reason for those reasons. They might not be good reasons, but that’s how people are. Take Jayne.

Out of Gas shows that he was just a hired gun meant to track down Mal and joined him that the money was better. And he’s constantly after more money, such as when he tries to collect the reward for Simon and River in Ariel. But the pilot shows him turning a considerable sum when asked to turn on Mal and when Mal almost spaces him in Ariel for doing what he did in that episode, he asks him to make up a reason instead of the actual reason. These pieces show just what kind of person Jayne is: a loyal mercenary. He had no real ties to the other mercenaries hired to take down Mal and had no qualms about turning on them. But now, he’s part of a crew that watches each other’s backs. He may be quite verbal not liking them, but he’s not going to turn on them, no matter what he says about money not being enough. What about Simon and River though? He tries to turn them in for a reward, but when Mal makes it clear that they are part of the crew, he doesn’t want them to know what he did. He immediately considers them a part of the crew as well. He also genuinely loves his biological family, sending money home for his ill brother.

And that’s just one character. If I were to do this for every character, this review would never end. (Granted, the paragraphs for River’s feet and Serenity would be a little shorter.)

However, I did mention Mal’s character arc. It’s interesting, makes sense and, once again, is believable. After the Battle of Serenity Valley, Mal lost belief in anything and throughout the series, he really does struggle to find something, or anything to believe in. There are small, little things, like how he believes in doing the right thing despite it later coming back to bite him, like in The Train Job and War Stories. But it’s thanks to The Operative and Simon’s undying brotherly love for River that by the end of Serenity he finds not one, but two things to believe in: personal liberty, as seen in how he is willing to sacrifice himself for it, and love (not a romantic type of love, but a sort of agape unconditional love) as seen in the final conversation with River at the end of Serenity. Like I said, the arc makes sense and is believable because war does affect people in many different ways and personal growth is often a very slow process.

That process is also why River doesn’t become the highly competent weapon she was programed to be until Serenity hits. At the start of the series, she’s highly disturbed and schizophrenic. While she does display some signs of telepathy in War Stories and Objects in Space, she doesn’t truly become what she is until the film. This is also believable because the effects and signs of mental tampering aren’t always immediately evident and can take quite a long time to develop. If she went from a complete blathering mess in the pilot to someone fully capable of reading minds, using any weapon, and taking anybody out by Bushwhacked, it would be cool, yes, but it wouldn’t be realistic. The telepathy does start to come into play in Safe, but by then, it’s completely established that something’s amiss and it’s only the first steps of the arc moving forward. The viewer and River have only some idea of what’s going on and the other characters are confused. War Stories furthers this, she uses the gun without looking perfectly, and again, she doesn’t completely understand what’s going on, and everyone else is confused. After everyone completely realizes she’s telepathic, she’s taken on that run in the beginning of Serenity, but it’s still not completely established about everything she’s capable of until the film is over.

While Firefly didn’t go on long enough for there to be any serious problems, Serenity did have one minor thing that bugged me. The Reavers get clear screen time. I have no problem with the film establishing their true backstory. Everything had a beginning. And using the darkness to obscure them while their swarming is perfect. My gripe is with the beginning of the film. Everything is fine with the obscure angles and not really seeing their faces, but after it’s all said and done, one pops up and you get a very clear shot of what a Reaver fully looks like before Mal shoots it. After Bushwhacked displayed the aftermath of an attack, giving one a full on shot just ruins the shroud of mystery. It might have been better had it not been Reavers at the beginning of the film. Having them at the end also furthers just how powerful River is. Again, thanks to Bushwhacked, we get an idea of what they do. And River took an entire swarm down by herself. That part is done well, since the Reavers aren’t in clear or perfectly lighted shots.

I’ve probably missed a lot of things about what made Firefly and Serenity great. There’s just too much to write about and plenty of other and better writers have made their mark on what’s so great about this series. It’s greatly enjoyable and did have an effect on me as an author and what makes great characters.