Archive Episode - Toy Story (John Lasseter, 1995) (with Lucy Fife Donaldson)

Toy Story (John Lasseter, 1995).

The Fantasy/Animation podcast takes listeners on a journey through the intersection between fantasy cinema and the medium of animation. Available via Apple Podcasts, Spotify and many of your favourite podcast hosting platforms!

For this second archive episode, Chris and Alex revisit Episode 138 of the podcast that gave listeners their first taste of Pixar’s Toy Story (1995-) franchise thanks to this look at the 1995 original. The discussion of Pixar’s debut feature featured as its special guest Lucy Fife Donaldson, who is now Professor of Film Studies at the University of St Andrews and whose work focuses on film and television style, audiovisual design and 'below-the-line' labour, performance and the body. Topics in this episode included a closer look at the textures, surfaces, and scuff marks of Toy Story and its peripheral detail rendered in pristine computer graphics; worldhood and the toys’ own journey through digital space; play and plasticity; and the stylistic potential of registers of miniaturisation and magnification.

**Fantasy/Animation theme tune composed by Francisca Araujo**

**As featured on Feedspot’s 25 Best London Education Podcasts**

**As featured on MillionPodcast’s Best 10 UK Animation Podcasts and Best 60 Movie Podcasts in the UK**

Suggested Readings

  • Barker, Jennifer M. 2009. The Tactile Eye: Touch and the Cinematic Experience. Berkeley: University of California Press.

  • Bruno, Giuliana. 2014. Surface: Matters of Aesthetics, Materiality, and Media. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

  • Donaldson, Lucy Fife. 2018. “Rough and Smooth: The Everyday Textures of Toy Story.” In Toy Story: How Pixar Reinvented the Animated Feature (Animation: Key Films/Filmmakers series), ed. Noel Brown, Susan Smith, and Sam Summers, 73-86. London: Bloomsbury.

  • Garwood, Ian. 2015. The Sense of Film Narration. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

  • Holliday, Christopher. 2018. The Computer-Animated Film: Industry, Style and Genre. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

  • Sobchack, Vivian. 2004. Carnal Thoughts: Embodiment and Moving Image Culture. Berkeley: University of California Press.

PODCASTChristopher Holliday and Alexander SergeantFILM STYLE, TEXTURE, DIGITAL, COMPUTER-ANIMATED FILMS, AESTHETICS, HOLLYWOODComment