Four writers are credited on imdb, though to me it almost seemed like this was the work of a much larger creative team, as with the Simpsons, because of the generosity of jokes, as if the whole surface was embroidered. The voice acting is also really excellent.
However, half way through I was sitting there thinking, OMG, this is going to be the most unpopular opinion ever, but I think this film is irredeemably flawed. And then, what do you know, the flaws were to some extent overcome in later scenes.
The premise of the Toy Story series is that these creatures look like People, but they are Objects: immortal infinitely abusable slaves whose only redemption rests in submitting to the whims of those they love, and who have total power over them, but do not know they are sentient. Now, that is a horrific premise, which can literally only end in degradation. Kant wrote about this two hundred years ago - a sentient being is an end in itself not an object. The only relief is effected by submission and happy coincidences. It is to the credit of the series that this premise is not flinched from.
So you can't help but think 'what happens to toys when their owners outgrow them?' Three choices - landfill (does consciousness endure as the plastic is crushed?) - the limbo of storage - and being passed on to new children. The third seems the most satisfactory all round, but is treated very problematically, and the plot seems to lurch into crude propertarian propaganda. The Owner can dispose of them in any way he sees fit, and it is a sin for property to rebel, even in a harmless way. And when the toys are owned in common, they are treated even worse: it's like the tragedy of the commons at preschool. I know people might not agree but I think this sequence in the film is explicitly right wing propaganda: 'you must not seek communal solutions'. It doesn't help that Woody's bland plastic face, as he urges them to submit to being thrown in the trash because it is what the Owner wants, looks like certain politicians whom I shall not name.
Anyway the message is softened in later developments (the problem isn't common ownership, it's that the toys aren't age-appropriate... this is like a Guardian-reader wrestling the script out of the hands of a libertarian... now I'm imagining them fighting in the writers' room, each one pushing the other away from the single laptop, typing a few lines before the other one rugby-tackles them).
Oh, yeah, and there is some stuff about religion in there too: the evil baddy crowing 'Toys are just plastic, we're all just trash waiting to be thrown away'... 'Where is your
But, you know, I am writing about this because it is interesting, and this is definitely a top quality film. It raises philosophical issues, at a more sophisticated level than Inception, while being more fun too.
