TO INFINITY AND BEYOND

Why the Toy Story films call out to something deep within us

- ANJULY MATHAI

In September 2023, 12-year-old Rossella began searching social media for depressive content that mirrored her feelings. Soon, she began spiralling deeper into the clutches of the malaise that she was desperately trying to escape. Social media algorithms kept feeding her more and more self-harm material, and five months later, she committed suicide. It was only later, when Rossella's parents unlocked her phone, that they discovered how she maintained a secret Instagram profile called 'Just a dead person. In the first collective action in Italy against social media companies, her parents, along with a few other families, are now suing Meta and TikTok for contributing to the adolescent's death.

So, what does Toy Story have to do with Rossella's death by suicide? To understand that, we need to start at the very beginning, with the birth of a small animation studio called Pixar in California.

In 1979, George Lucas, the man behind the Star Wars films, started a computer division to develop stateof-the-art computer technology for his films. Seven years later, after the division did some revolutionary work in films like Young Sherlock Holmes and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Steve Jobs purchased it and turned it into an independent company of 40 employees called Pixar. The animation company was a success from the beginning. Its third short film, Tin Toy, became the first computer animated film to receive an Oscar in 1989. But Pixar's real impact on the film industry would be felt only years later, when it produced the world's first computer animated feature film. Toy Story, about toys that come alive when humans are not around, released in 1995 and was an immediate hit. It became the highest-grossing film of the year with a staggering box office collection of $400 million. Pixar's IPO, which happened just a few days later, became the largest of the year.