November 22nd is the 15th anniversary of the release of the animated feature film that re-wrote the book on how these critters are created. When Toy Story was released, back in 1995, it was the first feature-length film entirely rendered with computer graphic technology. But that was not the amazing part that made people stand up and take notice. The fact that it was innovative wasn’t a shocker, although it certainly was innovative. The fact that it was beautiful to watch also didn’t surprise, even though there is no denying that it was a visual feast. What really knocked everyone’s socks off was that not only was it a first, and artistically skillful, but in addition to those things it also was a great story with fantastic voice acting and superb dialogue.
Toy Story set the standard for feature-length animation several notches higher than it had ever been before
. And this fun, wonderful film was rewarded for its efforts. It was the highest-grossing U.S. domestic film of 1995. It is also distinguished as being the only Pixar movie with sequels, and one of the very few of any kind of movie whose sequels are at least as good, if not even better, than the original.