On November 22, 1995, a small animation studio called Pixar, which had just won an Oscar for one of the first CGI short films that could be watched without realizing how low-quality they were, was about to change the world. That day, the United States met Woody, Buzz, and the rest of the toys from Toy Story, not imagining that 30 years later animation would have completely changed, CGI would be king, and Toy Story would face, without much trembling, its fifth installment. However, although they gained fame, they were not the first.
CGI before CGI
In fact, the first “movie” made entirely with computer animation can be considered The Incredible Crash Dummies, a 22-minute special aired by Fox Kids that starred some mascots that made sense in 1993 and not so much now: the dummies used in cars to crash and see the reactions on the human body, who apparently live in “Dummyland.” The 90s were something.
During the two years between The Incredible Crash Dummies and Toy Story, everyone tried to carve out a niche in this proto-computer animation, from embarrassing movies like VeggieTales to series like ReBoot that everyone has forgotten by now (which is quite logical if you see how they look today, of course). Back then, VHS tapes with small 3D pieces lasting between 20 and 30 minutes started to dominate video rental stores looking for parents who, just like now with YouTube Kids, wanted to entertain their kids by any means necessary.
One of them, which time has consumed, was announced as “the first computer-animated Christmas story,” it was The Christmas Light, a true atrocity worth watching today, on the cover of which appeared Santa Claus and a family consisting of a father, mother, and grandmother alongside a spaceship. You have to use your imagination, but its publicists did not hesitate to put a sticker to support sales: “If you liked Toy Story, you will love The Christmas Light!”. It was not the case. Nobody loved The Christmas Light.
In the special, we follow Burton Lemon, a genius elf who works as an inventor in Santa’s toy factory and becomes an evil snowman after an accident with one of his inventions. Now, Santa, another elf named Isaac, and a girl named Jennifer must stop him before he destroys Christmas for some reason. It was so bad that no one bothered to release it on DVD, and it only appeared on VHS… which looked bad even by the standards of the time. This is because it was recorded on an extended play tape and with protection so that no one could copy it, which led to a double reduction in quality. Was an extended play tape worth it for its 23 minutes? Definitely not.
Months later, Toy Story was released, and it’s worth noting what they thought they could sell as similar: characters that barely moved, made up of circles and filled with bugs and problems. Incredible. In fact, they cared so little about everything that the voices were recorded in a place with echo and microphone issues, leading the special to have extremely poor quality. To top it off… Have I mentioned that it’s a musical? On top of that, there’s a script in which Santa Claus himself behaves like a complete jerk who enslaves the elves in his prison. No, no one explains this.
A year later, The Christmas Light released a sequel, The Christmas Brigade, which this time lasted one hour and 13 minutes… and included this special as a flashback. Fortunately, this year we won’t see The Christmas Light 5: Does Toy Story 5 suddenly sound much better to all of you?