Analysis of the opening scene of Toy Story

Toy Story was created by Walt Disney which is a popular institution that generally makes children movies/ animation movies. I decided to analyse this because we are aiming to create a two minute moving image in which a girl wakes up to find her toys have come alive around her.

The opening scene of Toy Story is the picture of the Walt Disney Pictures logo which is recognised among all young ages, as very popular. It is then initially aimed at children as its mass audience. It gives us a clue straight away to the type of film it is, because Disney tends to present films mainly animated. The orchestra music is quite upbeat and is typical music Walt Disney productions play as it is quite exciting for children.

As the logo disappears, the camera then zooms outwards to get a mid shot of the surroundings. There isn’t a defiant establishing shot as it leads you guessing as to where you could be. For example, the light blue background with the white clouds, leads you to believe it could possibly be the sky.

The camera then moves down to eye level, and makes it easier to establish where about you are. The blue and white wallpaper suggests that it could be either a baby or a young child’s room, primarily a boy because people generally associate the colour blue with boys. A mid close up shot is used to show you the cardboard box with the writing Saloon which looks like it has been written on by a child.

The camera then moves onto the same level and again uses a mid shot to show the primary picture, but also its surroundings. The painted cardboard boxes and the picture stuck onto the middle box shows us this is a children’s room. The music from the last picture to this one, then turns low tempo and creates suspense as there are no signs to what is going on.

Here you hear a child’s voice putting on a toys voice, and a close up shot of the toy. The music has then dyed out. We then establish that we are in a young child’s room. The next few shots are more of the dolls together, and camera shots are used for example, long shots to show the full length and width of the toys, and the types of different ones there are. They use eye level shots, so that we are on the same level as the toys, and therefore, as an audience feel more involved.

A low angle shot is used here for the first time in the film since the opening shot. This suggests that woody is the more ‘powerful’ toy or the one that is favoured by the young child or the one that the other toys feel are more in charge. However, he is the last toy to be introduced to the audience, which could suggest he could be the least favourite toy among the others, or the least played with and that he his acting as the bad guy. The next few shots used are a high angle shot which shows the toys looking up as if towards woody which suggests his power status. An over the shoulder shot is used from over Woody’s shoulder as a ‘play’ conversation takes place with the boy(Andy), acting as Woody’s voice.

An extreme close up shot is used here as Woody’s face slowly zooms out of the camera. This is normally used to show emotions of the eyes and then the whole face, however, where this is an animation film, the toys can’t express their emotions freely. It highlights the crafted features of Woody and shows its facial expressions. The first thing you notice is its huge eyes and immediately attracts you to him and the screen. The next few shots used are, over the shoulder shots but ‘cutting’ is also used as the conversation goes from woody, to the other toys then back again. This makes it more realistic and you can see how Andy makes the other toys react.

This is the last shot of the opening scene, which then runs into the credits while the film is carrying on. It shows who the executive producer is and the director and so forth. It doesn’t really give a lot away, however, the fact that out of all the toys it could have, they decided to choose woody, which suggest that he has an importance within the film, and is a major character. The hand and toy ear also, could possibly show that woody ended up knocking hem of the toy potato head.

The costumes used on the toys are typical for the character and are the obvious ideology that the audience would associate with the characters. For example, Woody you can straight away define as being a cowboy because, of the waistcoat, the stripes on his shirt and scarf and they have used the cow boy hat. For Bo peep, we associate her with a cane and a bonnet and a big dress, which in the film she is idealised as.

Peace out Abby:) x