Running Head: WHY ARE THE TOY STORY MOVIES MORE POPULAR THAN OTHER

PIXAR MOVIES?

Why are the Toy Story Movies more popular than other Pixar movies?
Austin Harmon
Comp 1

Why is Toy story so much more popular or more well-known than other pixar movies?
One of the very first movies ever produced by pixar was Toy Story. Less popular movies,
produced later on such as Up and Monsters University. These movies popularity may be
determined on the age of the film, type of characters and plot points. The movies were produced
by other people as well. This might have affected the movies popularity.
Toy story 3 was the last and most recent toy story film produced. The very first toy story
film was produced over ten years ago. When Toy story 1 was released their target audience were

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WHY ARE THE TOY STORY MOVIES MORE POPULAR THAN OTHER PIXAR MOVIES?

roughly 5-10 years old. That specific target audience had to wait over ten years to get the third
movie that had much anticipation over the years. More people have had time to watch the first
two movies as well. Creating a much larger fan base for the toy story franchise. Compared to
other movies such as Up, which was released in 2009. Up`s fan base will be much smaller than
Toy story`s fan base. Monsters University has had plenty of time to collect a large fan base, but
it has just not happened. Monsters inc came out in 2001. This would still be enough time for
people to watch the film many times. Many people might have not liked the monsters film
franchise because of the use of monsters. This could have caused children`s to have night terrors
filled with monsters. The point of Monsters inc. in the movie is to scare children and use their
screams for scream energy. They would have a door that would lead from the monster world to
the human world. The monsters would simply walk through their door in the monster world and
it would lead to a child`s closet in the human world. The producers of monsters inc. instilled this
image of monsters coming from the child`s closet into every child`s head that watched this
movie. The main plot of the movie involves a child coming into the monster realm. The monsters
were not adorable either. Some monsters had very large teeth and roared very loud. Some had
multiple heads and some breathe fire. The monsters were not the slightest of nice looking.
Parents would not want their children to watch the monster franchise movies in fear of their child
having night terrors. This would cause the popularity of the monster movies to go down, having
the target audience be children. If the target audience were a little older then maybe the parents
would allow it. But since the parents control what the children watch and do not watch. The
viewer rating and popularity would decrease, along with sales.
The characters in all the movies are fictional, but some people can relate to some more
than others. All of the animated pixar films can have anything become life like and talk, or have
humanly features.

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The main characters in Toy story 3 are all toys that have the ability to come to life. When
Andy, the main characters human comes near the toys they go to sleep. They all have their
own personality and lives. When children play with their own toys they imagine the toys coming
life. The children relate to this aspect really well. Toys in the movie all have different purposes in
their own world. These purposes or jobs were given to them by Andy, their human boy. When the
toys come to life they follow those same guidelines that Andy gave to them. Children believe
that this really happens so they really relate to this movie. When they play with their own toy`s
they imagine that they come to life when they leave the room. Children love watching this movie
just for that one aspect. That one aspect increases the popularity of the franchise substantially.
The toys in the movie for the most part are all classic toys. The cowboy for the main character, a
teddy bear as the villain and many more classic toys. These toys arent just in the movie for a
cameo. No, these toys are there for full time characters. There are army men, etcha-sketches, a
dog that is a slinky in the middle and a dog head and butt on each end. The dogs actual name is
slinky. A Piggy bank, Mr. and Mrs. Potato head, the list could go on and on. Another factor that
brings in more popularity is that these toys have been around for ages. These toys were around
when the parents were kids so it brings in the parents to watch the movie too. The parents are
very fascinated at the fact that pixar put these classic toy sin a modern film. Other films do not
have as much hook as the toy story franchise does. The Monsters university characters are all
monsters, with only a few sightings of humans. The monsters are very colorful but have many
scary features. The Monsters pose a friendly side in the movie, if you can understand what is
happening. The children in the movie may be scared but the point of them being scared is for a
good cause. The target audience are young children ages 5- 10. This target audience will not
understand that the children are getting scared for good. The children watching will in turn get

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WHY ARE THE TOY STORY MOVIES MORE POPULAR THAN OTHER PIXAR MOVIES?

scared. The parents will not want their kids to watch this in the slight fact of a repercussion of
night terrors and the kids becoming scared in general. The popularity of the monsters university
franchise will decrease dramatically when the parents stop letting their children view the
monsters movies. Decreasing the popularity of the movies substantially. If the child likes
monsters then there will be some similarity. The monsters are colorful but scary. The movie Up is
about an older man flying his house to South America. The movie starts out with a summary of
the main characters life. His life is very happy and full of joy until his wife miscarries their child
and dies of old age. The way these scenes are constructed they are very hard to understand unless
you are older or more mature. The target audience are children. These children will have
trouble figuring out what these scenes mean lose interest fast. The main character has a little boy
go with him to South America. This little boy is about the same age of the target audience. This
is an attempt at trying to hook the audience back. The boy is also in boy scouts which some of
the audience might be in as well. The little boy and the main character travel to south America
and make some friends. Animal friends, a very large ostrich looking bird and a dog. Everybody
loves Animals, this another attempt at getting the audience being hooked back on track. Toy
Story does a swell job of using characters everybody can relate too. The classic toys and use of
family life in the entire toy story franchise movies. The other movies discussed do not do a good
job of hooking the audience.
The music in movies can make the audience feel different ways. Mood can make or break
a movie. Toy Story has one signature song, it`s called youve got a friend in me. This song has
been in all the Toy story movies. In every big or meaningful scene, this song plays. The audience
has this emotional tie to this song because people have grown up with this song. People that were
kids when the very first movie came out are older now and that song brings back memories.
Symbolism brings many memories of when the kids were younger. The kids have waiting 10

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some years for this movie to come out. The popularity of the toy story 3 movie trumps all other
pixar movies. The Monsters University movie had a movie about 5 years ago. The longer the
time the movie has been out the more time it has to become popular.
The Toy story franchise has had the most popular movies of all time. Pixar films pulls in
the most money with the Toy story films. Concluding Toy story is the most popular pixar movie
of all time.

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Reference page
Unkrich. L (Director), Anderson. D (Producer), Stanton. A (Writer), Lasseter. J (Writer),
Unkrich L (Writer), Arndt. M (Writer), (2004), Toy Story 3 (DVD), USA: Walt Disney
Pictures
Scanlon. D (Director), Rae. K (Producer), Scanlon. D (Writer), Gerson. D (Writer), Baird. R
(Writer), (2013), Monsters University (DVD), USA: Walt Disney
Docter. P (Director), Rivera. J (Producer), Docter. P (Writer), Peterson. B (Writer), (2009), Up
(DVD), USA: Walt Disney
Palik. K (Author), (2007), To Infinity and Beyond, Chronicle books, main library