Why Pixar’s groundbreaking 1995 animation is regarded as one of the ‘best movies of all time’
Which movies are the “best of all time” will always be subjective, no matter how many fans or critics swear their choices are the best. While one person’s No. 1 film may be The Shawshank Redemption, another could have 2001: A Space Odyssey. However, despite the various lists with different No. 1 films, there are, in fact, films that are seen over and over again. They may be ranked differently on each list, but The Godfather, Citizen Kane, Star Wars, Jaws... they’re all there, somewhere. And so is Toy Story.
Before the release of the 1995 film, it was rare for an animation to make it on a “best movies of all time” list unless it was specifically related to “best animations of all time.” Ranked No. 71 on Timeout’s “Best Movies of All Time” list, it sits at No. 99 on the American Film Institute’s (AFI) “100 Years... 100 Movies” list. IMDb has it at 78, while Rotten Tomatoes has the film -- with a perfect 100% certified fresh score -- at 17. Despite a plot centered on sentient toys, Toy Story is beloved by kids and adults alike.
“We wanted to tell a good story, first and foremost, because we knew that’s what audiences like - a good story and characters,” Toy Story director John Lasseter told the BBC in 2001.
“We didn’t want to do what was being done in animation, so we chose the buddy picture as the form,” he said. “One of the things I love about the buddy picture is that, by nature, the stories are about characters that grow.”
The film starred Oscar- and Emmy-winning actors, as well as fan favorites, including Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Jim Varney, Don Rickles, Wallace Shawn, John Ratzenberger, and Annie Potts.
The groundbreaking film was the first-ever feature film made entirely with 3D computer-generated imagery (CGI). But because the CGI available at the time made objects look more like plastic, Pixar created its own program, which eventually became known as RenderMan. This was able to “calculate every bounce of light, every shadow, and every reflection with real physics.” In other words, it made the toys, people, and everything in the film look realistic.
It’s spawned three sequels, and each subsequent film is arguably better than its predecessor. Toy Story 5, coming out this year, is already being hailed as the most anticipated film of the summer, thanks in large part to characters that, as Lasseter put it, “grow.”
“When you can have a character that the audience likes from the beginning, but then you put them in a situation where they grow - I think that gives it a lot of heart,” he said. “And that’s where a lot of the enduring appeal is.”
This story was originally published April 15, 2026 at 3:00 AM.