Why Adult Audiences Love the Toy Story Films

Celebrating the all-ages appeal of Pixar’s classic series on the 25th anniversary of Toy Story 2

Credit: Pixar/Disney

Warning: Contains spoilers

When Toy Story 3 (2010) was released, my mother said something that has stayed with me ever since: To fully appreciate every nuance of the film, you need to have experienced children growing up and leaving home. That’s a huge compliment to the multi-layered, multi-audience appeal of what appears, on the surface, to be a film aimed at children. Of course, the Toy Story films are great for children but like the greatest family films — The Wizard of Oz (1939), Bambi (1941), Mary Poppins (1964), The Railway Children (1970), and E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982), for instance — they can be appreciated on an entirely different level as adults.

With Toy Story 2 (1999) presently celebrating its 25th anniversary, and with the 30th and 15th anniversaries of the first and third films almost upon us next year, now seems an ideal time to delve into just what makes these animated adventures resonate with grown-ups. The first three films are all outstanding, and a case could be made for each of these masterpieces being the best in the series. The fourth film is a not strictly necessary afterthought; not terrible, but I won’t be discussing it in this article.

I hardly need to mention that each film is technically brilliant, especially since their groundbreaking computer animation changed the industry. Imaginative direction from John Lasseter (the first two films) and Lee Unkrich (the third film) vividly bring to life the respective screenplays of Joss Whedon, Joel Coen, Andrew Stanton, and Alec Sokolow (the first), Andrew Stanton, Rita Hsiao, Doug Chamberlin, and Chris Webb (the second), and Michael Arndt (the third). Then there are first-rate vocal performances from Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Annie Potts, Joan Cusack, Don Rickles, John Ratzenberger, Wallace Shawn, and many others, as well as Randy Newman’s lovely music. In short, the Toy Story films are an embarrassment of riches. But what gives them such remarkable, multi-generational, to-infinity-and-beyond appeal? Here are five possible factors.