The scene analyzes Woody and Buzz arriving at Pizza Planet where Buzz believes the animatronic guards are real and finds a claw machine shaped like a rocket. Inside, Buzz discovers a group of "Little Green Men" toys who have formed a cult around the claw. Sid then claws Buzz out and hands both toys to Sid. The scene uses bright colors to evoke the space theme and chaos as Woody's plans go wrong, putting himself and Buzz in danger.

1. Film analysed- Toy Story (1995)
Scene analysis
The scene I am analysing is the scene at the Pizza Planet pizzeria and arcade, as it is among a string
of scenes that sets up the plot of the movie. It starts with the Pizza Planet that Woody and Buzz are
in arriving at the pizzeria after Woody decides to use it as a means to get back to his owner, Andy,
who is spending an evening there. Buzz, who is still convinced he is a real space ranger at this point,
intends to find a spaceship back to Star Command. He notices animatronic guards in the entrance,
naturally assuming them to be real, then finds Woody in the back of the truck with a soda cup and a
burger box and assumes that Woody had thought of that idea. They sneak into the pizzeria in said
items and Woody leads Buzz under cover to find Andy. However, Buzz, still searching for a spaceship,
finds a claw machine in the shape of a rocket and rushes in, much to the annoyance of Woody. Upon
entering the claw machine, Buzz discovers a group of “Little Green Men” toys who have formed a
cult based on the claw in the machine. Woody soon finds Buzz in the claw machine and tries to help
him escape, but are soon found by Sid Philips, Andy’s neighbour and a bully of toys. When Sid claws
out one of the LGMs, he sees Buzz and then claws him. Woody attempts to pull Buzz back to get him
out of the back of the machine, but the LGMs pull them both away from the hatch believing Buzz to
have been “chosen”, effectively handing both toys to the hands of Sid.
Use of colour is a very notable part of this scene. The pizzeria has darkened walls with stars painted
on them and brightly coloured lights for the scenery and the arcade machines. These colours, mostly
yellows, greens and blues, clearly evoke the space and sci-fi theming of the pizzeria, as well as
pointing out the young audience it is targeted towards. It also creates a chaotic atmosphere, which
suits the idea of Woody’s intentions not going to plan and eventually putting both himself and Buzz
in real danger. Perspective of the toys also plays an important role in this scene, as the toys are
significantly smaller than the children in the pizzeria. Buzz’s thoughts of being a space ranger are
significantly enhanced by the space theme of the pizzeria. The LGMs also have a unique perspective,
as they have all formed a cult based around the claw in the claw machine they are in.
Theme analysis
Among several themes present in this film, I shall analyse one of the more obvious examples:
character development. Throughout the film, several characters change over the course of the
runtime, some change slowly while others change comparably quickly. The two main protagonists of
the film, Woody the cowboy doll and Buzz Lightyear the spaceman action figure, have some of the
more notable character developments. Woody is very quick to become enviable of Buzz when his
comrades become more interested in the latter, but this envy is increased when Buzz becomes
Andy’s new favourite toy. This drives him to, when Andy goes to Pizza Planet, try to trap Buzz under
the table, but this backfires significantly when he falls out the window and follows Woody to a petrol
station, giving Woody’s actions further consequences after both he and Buzz are left behind at the
petrol station and eventually find themselves in Sid’s clutches. Woody, through this experience,
begins to trust Buzz gradually as the film progresses, eventually complementing him on how cool
Buzz is when he feels down about not being a real space ranger, showing that Woody has clearly
learned from his actions. Buzz also has character development. Upon introduction he is convinced
that he is a genuine space ranger as opposed to a toy, which causes both humorous and unpleasant
situations, ranging from misconception to plans not going to plan. However, while in Sid’s house, he
sees an advert for Buzz Lightyear action figures and soon finds himself in denial and misery, but soon
recovers after Woody complements him and they both become good friends with each other.

2. Some minor characters have character development as well. This is most obvious with Mr Potato-
Head, who is envious of Woody’s popularity with Andy, so is quick to judge Woody when he
accidentally pushes Buzz out the window. He remains distrusting of Woody throughout the film even
when he actually intends on helping Buzz at the climax of the film. However he does learn that
Woody has changed upon seeing him on R.C. with Buzz, so begins to trust him at the right time.
Auteur analysis
Toy Story was directed by John Lasseter. While he did not invent computer animation, Lasseter
helped bring it to the forefront of the media. Because Toy Story was the first fully CGI animated film,
this was John Lasseter’s directorial debut on the big screen.
As with many auteurs, there are many features that appear consistently in his films. The most
famous example is the “A113” motif prominent in most Lasseter directed pieces, as well as several
instances beyond Pixar. In this case, it is the vehicle registration of Andy’s mother’s car. Another
feature in Lasseter productions is call-backs to previous or upcoming works, like the red Luxo lamp
and yellow ball with blue stripe and a red star in Andy’s room referencing Lasseter’s 1986 short film
“Luxo Jr.” The ball in particular is used very frequently in Lasseter productions, as well as other Pixar
production. Others include a “Pizza Planet” truck and the “Dinoco” fuel company, trends that both
started with Toy Story and the latter of which is more exclusive to Lasseter.
He also works with much of the same staff for his films. For his early works, Gary Rydstrom managed
the sound and Lee Unkrich managed the editorial department while Andrew Stanton worked as a
story artist and helped Lasseter with writing the plots for the films. Many voice actors repeat their
appearances in his films, with John Ratzenberger being the most famous example. Joe Ranft is
another recurring voice actor and even Andrew Stanton and John Lasseter himself are involved,
though Lasseter often reserves himself for cameos.
Genre analysis
Toy Story is animated, as well as the first feature-length CGI animated film. While it is a major
milestone in computer animation, it still follows many of the tropes of animation to give audiences
in the mid-1990s some common ground to work with. One of such tropes is the use of comedy,
which has been prominent in western animation since its early days. This is prominent in the use of
both verbal comedy and the visual comedy that is most prominent in animation. Examples that
combines the two usually involve the character of Mr Potato-Head, a constructible toy with
interchangeable body parts. A running gag involving this character is an object hitting him and
sending his pieces scattering. A notable pun involving him is when, during the meeting involving
moving buddies, he asks “Do we have to hold hands?” while holding one of his arm pieces.
Another trope that commonly appears in animated films is adventure. This is usually spurred on by
an external force, sometimes beyond the main character(s)’ control. In this case, Woody and Buzz
Lightyear find themselves lost after falling out of the car at a petrol station and while they eventually
make it to their owner’s destination, they are then picked up by Sid, a neighbourhood bully who
tortures toys for his amusement. This, coupled with the fact that their owner is moving house within
a few days, raises the urgency to make it back to him. This also adds to the stakes of the films; as
well as not making it home before the move, there is also a real danger of death in the hands of Sid.
These stakes give a reason for the adventure, as well as making the audience want to see the lead
characters achieve their goal.

3. There is also the obvious matter of anthropomorphic objects or animals that do not usually walk or
talk, which is has been a very common feature in animation since its early days, as the thought of
inanimate objects coming to life and speaking fascinated people around the time animation was
becoming mainstream and is a trend that has stuck as a common animation concept to this day. In
the case of Toy Story, toys come to life whenever humans are not present in the room.
Context
Pixar had been active for 20 years prior to the release of Toy Story, starting off as the New York
Institute for Technology Computer Graphics Lab before being handed over to Lucasfilms in the early
1980s and establishing as an independent studio in 1986. Within the next 9 years they would release
a series of short computer animated films and start development on Toy Story in 1993.
Since then, computers have become significantly more powerful, allowing for more complex
texturing on characters and sets. Computer animation has also become the mainstay in the film
industry, with most animated feature films using CGI while traditional animation is reserved for
more artistic films.
There is also a scene involving the two main characters becoming airborne due to one of them being
taped to a firework. This was more tolerable in the mid-1990s than it is in the present day because
the events of 9/11 are still a fresh memory for many. This event killed the disaster movie trend in
Hollywood and while explosives are still commonplace they are not in family films, especially when
an explosive is somehow integral to the body of a character, as is the case here.