Tin Toy (1988)
Tin Toy Review
Tin Toy is Pixar’s fourth film and the first to win the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film. It is about a toy being harassed by a human baby. It is very intriguing for its different and refreshing depiction of babies as destructive monsters. It is also very entertaining and quite endearing. Its longer running time allowed for more plot, laughs and great three-act structure. And I love how it evidently influenced the Toy Story franchise especially in its depiction of babies and the frightened to death toys hiding away from them which is the funniest and most memorable sequence here in my opinion.
But it fails on technical grounds. It is not as polished nor as overall good as ‘Luxo Jr.’ and its animation is inferior because it used a lot of the characters and background the computers of the day were not yet ready for which is why the toys look superb whereas the background and especially the baby look very dated. However, in that baby’s dated design, you have a creepiness factor to it which can be said to be a good thing. And aside from animation, I strongly disliked the absence of any score whatsoever, but at least the sound effects are terrific.
Overall, Tin Toy has its problems especially the technical aspects with somewhat dated animation and an unfortunate lack of score, but the plot is great, the characters are terrific and it is a lot of fun to watch with at times hilarious results.
