Batkin, Jane. " Mirrors and Shadows: Duality, Illusion and the Divided Self in Toy Story." Toy Story: How Pixar Reinvented the Animated Feature. By Susan Smith, Noel Brown and Sam Summers. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2017. 153–166. Bloomsbury Collections. Web. 26 Sep. 2021. <http://dx.doi.org/10.5040/9781501324949.ch-010>. Downloaded from Bloomsbury Collections, www.bloomsburycollections.com, 26 September 2021, 23:05 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. 1 53 Chapter 10 M IRRORS AND SHADOWS: DUALITY, ILLUSION AND THE DIVIDED SELF IN TOY STORY J a n e B a t k i n Somewhere we have a sinister and frightful brother, our own fl esh- and- blood- counterpart, who holds and maliciously hoards everything that we would so willingly hide under the table 1 — Ann Casement Pixar’s cinema is one of friendship, family and the bonds that are created within its seemingly child- centric universe. Beneath the surface, however, lie shadows, otherness and a curious fracturing of self. Ellen Scott writes about Pixar’s ability to broach ‘dark existential themes’ with its audience; 2 i t b e c o m e s a cinema of maturity and one that is unafraid of confrontation. Such themes resonate with us, from the absence of the parent in Monsters, Inc. (Pete Docter, 2001) to the lost child in Finding Nemo (Andrew Stanton, 2003), identity crisis in Inside Out (Pete Docter, 2015) and bereavement in Up (Pete Docter, 2009). Pixar invites its audience to view the image as off ered, but also to consider what lies beyond it. Peripheral images are inferred through the slow, consid- ered pacing of their fi lms. In Toy Story (John Lasseter, 1995) shadows emerge, and the mirror refl ects what is present on the screen and what may also be hinted at beyond it; the shine and luminosity of this fi lm point to the darker recesses within it. Th e looking glass becomes a portal between the character and their murky twin, the shadow hovering somewhere in that unfamiliar world at the edge of what we know, awaiting what Casement calls ‘an erup- tion . into consciousness’. 3 Cinema is oft en viewed as a mirror in motion, off ering visions of truth and non- truth. Henry Giroux sees it as a site of ‘critique, understanding, and strug- gle’, 4 a mirror that needs examining and exploring. Cinema, like art, off ers up the image for us to consider, but we may view it in a way that questions its valid- ity, choosing to see what is hidden, both within the frame and beyond it. As 99781501324918_pi-240.indd781501324918_pi-240.indd 115353 111/8/20171/8/2017 22:49:34:49:34 PPMM 154 154 Jane Batkin John Berger explains, images conjure up an appearance of something ‘that was absent’. 5 Th e camera distorts truth and clarity, so that illusion and absence cre- ate a cinema of hidden meanings. We view what we see and also what we imag- ine we see, but only if the screen draws us into that world. Th is can be applied to Toy Story particularly well; the fi lm hints at shadows while dazzling us with its lustre. Its dark themes of fractured lives and selves refl ect society today to cre- ate a cinema that becomes relevant to a more mature audience. Th ese issues are scattered throughout the fi lm to off er meanings that may appear concealed, in that they lead to the audience needing to extrapolate and infer truths and non- truths about the characters and story. Family, oft en a stable (or at least present) existence in children’s fi lm, more worryingly represents absence in Toy Story , which is revealed through the mirroring that occurs between its worlds and characters. Examples of this, to be discussed further in this chapter, include the breakdown of Andy’s family unit (suggested through the absence of the father), and of Sid’s largely solitary existence in the house next door. Th ere are shadows looming in the looking glass and the double or doppelg ä nger lurks at the edge of the frame. Ignaz Cassar writes about the projected image in cinema and fi nds a secret, ghostly doppelg ä nger that forever haunts us, an image that we can either steer towards or away from. 6 It is the Other that occupies our peripheral vision while we consider the image before us. Marie Louise von Frantz ponders the meaning of the shadow, suggesting ‘whatever form it takes, the function of the shadow is to represent the opposite side of the ego’.7 Without the shadow or Other, we remain half- formed. Th e focus of this chapter is on the physical and symbolic mirrors in Toy Story and the duality and fracturing that occurs within objects and characters (and objects with character) to create duality and shadows. I discuss the notion of what the shadow infers and apply it to the characters of Andy and Sid and to Buzz and Woody. I also explore the idea of the image hovering on the edge of a character’s, and our, vision; that dark spot at the corner of one’s view, which is almost there, almost not. Presence becomes absence and absence becomes presence as we engage with these ideas. Are these half- formed characters real or imagined? Signifi cantly, what do the refl ective surfaces reveal about Toy Story ’s world, and what does the shadow really represent? Mirrors, Refl ections and Objects James Clarke writes that in Pixar’s fi lms ‘the images have space to linger’. 8 Th is is particularly interesting when we apply it to Toy Story . Andy’s world is estab- lished pensively, representing both home and bedroom as central to the story, and the computer- generated (CG) world as a pioneering space, where surfaces refl ect and bounce off each other. When we are introduced to this world, it is through the shiny objects that are at its core; the playthings that form the narra- tive, against a backdrop of summer sky walls and polished fl oors. Th e radiance 99781501324918_pi-240.indd781501324918_pi-240.indd 115454 111/8/20171/8/2017 22:49:34:49:34 PPMM 1 55 Mirrors and Shadows 155 of Pixar’s visual style and the sheen of its cinema were inspired by the American painter Maxfi eld Parrish, renowned for his use of an extreme cobalt blue, and Clarke comments that the studio was ‘grappling with visual realism in a way that Renaissance painters had done’.9 Pixar’s Toy Story celebrates a medium that is pioneering through its sharpness and shine, a ‘newness’ that demonstrates its innovative stamp on animation. Future Pixar features would seek to embrace a more organic, natural feel to their textures, striving for grit and grain rather than glaze, but Toy Story is unashamedly luminous, producing refl ections and refractions that invite and hold our gaze. Clarke’s comment about lingering images plays on the mind. It dwells on the screen presence of physical things that are imbued with a sense of the ‘real’. Th ere is a feeling, in Toy Story , of a place that represents solidity and truth and yet there is a dreamlike pace to the fi lm that is accentuated through the care- ful reveal of events, such as Andy’s birthday party, or the pausing for breath of Woody and Buzz as they ponder their own fates. Lingering images grow darker as we watch Scud the dog’s quiet but palpable fear of the sleeping man in Sid’s house. If there is something haunting about this scene that stays with us, it is the hint of unseen violence inferred from Scud’s encounter, the question of what is seen and what might exist beyond the lens. Th is slow, deliberate pace invites a sense of belief and investment from the audience, and also exemplifi es the deep maturity of Pixar’s work. Th e actual mirror (be it helmet visor, window or wing mirror) is signifi cant in Toy Story . It off ers interpretations of truths and secrets and at times questions both the toyness and the reality of objects. When Molly spies Buzz and Woody fl ying in the wing mirror of her mother’s car, she squeals with delight: the toys are alive. However, the image is fl eeting and broken; toys cannot live. Clinton Lanier et al., however, suggest that the key to the fi lm is how it maintains the human/ toy relationship through Woody and Buzz who, rather than being toys, are fi ctional characters; thus what is being anthropomorphized is not the object itself, but what it represents. Th ese toys therefore exist ‘as independent ontological beings’ with their own identities. 10 Buzz and Woody become real to Molly because they are fi ctional characters, rather than ‘dead’ objects. Th e mirror reveals a secret truth and acts as a portal for Molly to mentally enter the ‘real’ world of toys. Th e stability of this world is repeatedly and crucially challenged through the use of these mirrors. Th ey reveal cracks within identities and these ultimately allow shadows to enter, introducing darker themes and characters. Sigmund Freud oft en refl ected on the uncanny (unheimlich ) and the homely (heimlich ), believing that the domestic, in particular, leads towards ‘the notion of some- thing removed from the eyes of strangers, hidden, secret’.