Donaldson, Lucy Fife. " Rough and Smooth: The Everyday Textures of Toy Story." Toy Story: How Pixar Reinvented the Animated Feature. By Susan Smith, Noel Brown and Sam Summers. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2017. 73–86. Bloomsbury Collections. Web. 27 Sep. 2021. <http://dx.doi.org/10.5040/9781501324949.ch-005>. Downloaded from Bloomsbury Collections, www.bloomsburycollections.com, 27 September 2021, 03:07 UTC. Copyright © Susan Smith, Sam Summers and Noel Brown 2018. You may share this work for non-commercial purposes only, provided you give attribution to the copyright holder and the publisher, and provide a link to the Creative Commons licence. 73 Chapter 5 R OUGH AND SMOOTH: THE EVERYDAY TEXTURES OF T OY STORY Lucy Fife Donaldson As one of the fi rst fully computer- generated imagery (CGI) fi lms, it is not sur- prising that Toy Story (John Lasseter, 1995) fi gures prominently in debates about both the technical achievements of digital imaging and the anxieties con- cerning absence in digital fi lmmaking, particularly the perceived inherent lack of materiality in its processes and fi nal product. As CGI exponentially enlarges the plasticity of a fi ctional world, the inevitable emphasis on plastic surfaces within a fi lm that focuses on children’s toys seems to magnify the concerns of the latter camp, causing writers to equate its constitution with insubstanti- ality, fi nding the fi lm to be dominated by a processed smoothness that corre- sponds to the feel of CGI more generally. As Ian Garwood puts it, the concern is that ‘the infi nite manipulability of the image betrays its fatal lack of real- world robustness’. 1 Th e result is that connections between the plasticity of the tech- nology and its plastic/ in- organic look lead to the digital being conceptualized as too much surface and not enough depth, an absence or even a fl imsiness in its eff orts to form objects, characters and worlds. And yet, there are those that recognize its material possibilities, such as Giuliani Bruno who suggests there is a continuity to be found in the digital evolutions of media, ‘in the digital age, materiality can be reactivated, because it was always a virtual condition’. 2 Th omas Elsaesser and Malte Hagener emphasize the malleability of the digital as a positive, suggesting that to focus on a movement from concrete to abstract ‘is merely to paint the reverse side of its strengths’.3 Following their leads, rather than focusing on the fi lm’s CGI animation as presenting a defi cit of material- ity, this chapter is based on the idea that looking at digitally composited space expands opportunities to discuss the sensory appeal of fi lm. Michel Chion has recognized Toy Story ’s attention to surface and the material qualities of certain objects as an eff ort to revitalize interest in texture: ‘Toy Story delights through conveying the toys’ texture, which in real life we don’t notice or consider inter- esting.’ 4 I suggest that this interest in unnoticed everyday textures goes beyond the toys themselves, and is a crucial part of the fi lm’s development of a fully 99781501324918_pi-240.indd781501324918_pi-240.indd 7733 111/8/20171/8/2017 22:49:32:49:32 PPMM 74 74 Lucy Fife Donaldson formed and dense fi ctional world and of the narrative’s interest in rearranging our perspective to the scale and axes of movement inhabited by its characters. Texture and Surface Cinema of all kinds can be considered textured, the characteristics and appeal of its formal properties wrought through colour, shape, fabric, density and light. Th e resulting textures are intimately related to the nature of the fi lm world, acting both as functional parameters of that world’s consistency and as sensory contexts that inform our response to it. Surface characteristics are perhaps the most immediate to communicate the feel of a fi ctional world: a hard rough space might seem gritty or even threatening, while a smooth and soft environment can be luxurious or comforting. Th ese particularities of d é cor and setting determine dynamics of mood and atmosphere; how a space mate- rially feels informs how characters and audience respond to it. Coming from a spread of theoretical bases, work on the material qualities of cinema – its tactility and substance – has sought to emphasize its tangible properties, the diff erent ways in which cinema conjures a range of sensory experiences beyond sight and sound, the way fi lm moves us and works to immerse us in its worlds. Contemplation of texture in fi lm off ers a way to unpick the feelings evoked by the constituents of a fi lm’s form, by the qualities of its materials and how it uses them. Toy Story off ers an ideal opportunity to think about the attention to texture enabled and necessitated by digital fi lmmaking, and to consider the expressive work of CGI. Texture necessitates a focus on the fi ne detail, as well as precision about the specifi c qualities and consistency of the material that makes up the composi- tion as a whole. As a critical concept it places attention on the hitherto over- looked, the minute choices that shape the fabrication and feel of fi lm. Th rough a concern with texture, the surface of objects and environment become impor- tant to locating these detailed choices. As Victoria Kelley observes, although diminished in all sorts of ways, surfaces are worthy of our attention: Despite the fact that surface is frequently belittled or ignored in language and in discourse, in material practice surface layers are oft en given special attention, coated with substances or treated with processes that alter their appearance, including their colour and their feel (glaze on ceramics, varnish on wood, cosmetics on human skin) and that are two- dimensional applica- tions upon three- dimensional objects. Th us the material complexity of the surface, as well as its assiduous formation, invites investigation.5 Th e material complexity Kelley describes here is important to my focus on the dramatic achievements of Toy Story . Surface prompts touch in the sense that this is the site of our tangible exchanges, whether through actual 99781501324918_pi-240.indd781501324918_pi-240.indd 7744 111/8/20171/8/2017 22:49:32:49:32 PPMM 75 Th e Everyday Textures of Toy Story 75 contact with an object or visually predicting its feel. Looking across the surface – a haptic contact whereby the eyes function like a hand brushing over an object – has become an important way of understanding the tactile appeal of cinema.6 Although my account of Toy Story ’s textures is not framed through an understanding of a purely haptic relationship with the image, this does have the benefi t of drawing attention to surfaces and maintaining their importance to our understanding of the feeling of form. Moreover, the ‘special attention’ and ‘assiduous formation’ connected to the complexities of surface signal the importance of the eff ort that goes into the making of objects and surfaces. Smoothness and Plasticity It certainly seems appropriate that the primary focus of attention to Toy Story ’s material qualities would concern its plastic surfaces. Th ere is a clear correspon- dence between medium and material recognized by fi lmmakers and scholars alike,7 the plastic qualities of CGI making it the ideal vehicle for a fi lm that features plastic objects as its main characters. Th rough this embedded respon- siveness to surface, the fi lm explores the complexities of plastic as a mate- rial: the plastic of Mr. Potato Head is hard and rigid, causing his component parts to clatter to the fl oor whenever he is knocked, while the moulded surface of the squeaky claw- worshipping aliens is soft and yielding. Th is rendering of a smooth and shiny tactile world prompts responses like that of William Schaff er who observes ‘Toy Story as a whole resonates with the feel of plastic’.8 A s n o t e d by Vivian Sobchack through her observation that the ‘tactile, kinetic, redolent, resonant, and sometimes even taste- full descriptions of the fi lm experience’9 are more frequently found in popular accounts of cinema and not academic ones, Toy Story is a fi lm noted in reviews for its careful production of touch- able surfaces: ‘A Tyrannosaurus rex doll is so glossy and tactile you feel as if you could reach and stroke its hard, shiny head.’ 10 Th e touchability highlighted by Glieberman’s review here was important to the fi lm’s makers too. Th omas Schumacher, former President of Walt Disney Feature Animation, connects this tactility to the believability and integrity of its fi ctional world: ‘the sense that you can reach out and hold what you see on the screen – is very signifi cant to the appeal of the fi lm. If you tried to make it look like real life, you would fail, because it will never look like real life, but it can be touchable life.’ 11 Echoing these ideas, Jennifer M. Barker sees the fi lm as an example of a Hollywood blockbuster ‘whose critical success owes much to the human need for touch and texture’, going on to suggest a signifi cant connection between the appear- ance of its surfaces and the qualities of the fi ction, whereby ‘nostalgic charm and its kid- appeal are inseparable from its tactile allure’. 12 While the tactile correspondences between medium and material are seen to buoy up engagement with Toy Story ’s fi ctional world through consistencies 99781501324918_pi-240.indd781501324918_pi-240.indd 7755 111/8/20171/8/2017 22:49:32:49:32 PPMM 76 76 Lucy Fife Donaldson of nostalgic appeal, they are also registered as somewhat less than, insuffi cient in complexity or depth.