I've read plenty of the BFI's excellent Film Classic series, but Tom Kemper's take on Toy Story is up there among the very best.
The Crack One of the many praiseworthy things about the BFI's Film Classics series is that it has not shafted animation... Toy Story inspired so many [animated films] as to be genre-defining, so it is ... Read moreoften easy to lose sight of what made the film stand out on its first release twenty years ago. With Toy Story: A Critical Reading, Kemper has given the film the in-depth analysis it deserves.
Toronto Film Review Tom Kemper's new critical monograph on Toy Story stands out from its fellows in the British Film Institute's Film Classics series not only in its choice of subject — a beloved and massively successful children's film, as opposed to the established classics or "cutting-edge" modern films typically featured in the series — but in the sophistication and persuasiveness of its argument. Kemper offers a wealth of insight on this foundational film in the Pixar canon, contextualizes it within the history of animated films and the pictorial arts, and highlights the film's surrealist touches. Most importantly, it accomplishes what any good single-film monograph should do: make you want to go out and watch (or re-watch) the film immediately.
Toronto International Film Festival
David Davison
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