The Film: Toy Story 2 (1999)

The Moment: The Toy Story sequel filmmakers have a little fun with the audience – and spoof several sci-fi movies at once – in an opening that sees Buzz Lightyear playing the hero as he battles Zurg’s robot forces and invades his fortress.

Between the 2001 nod and the fact that the “source of Zurg’s power” is a literal battery, the sequence is just plain thrilling – and then, in a gag worthy of early M Night Shyamalan, Buzz is blasted apart by his nemesis, only to be revealed as a video game character being ineptly controlled by Rex the dinosaur.

In Their Own Words: According to John Lasseter, “We were inspired to do the titles from Superman, plus the fact that a flying logo is the cheesiest thing you can do in computer animation, and those were the first chrome flying logos Pixar ever did.

“We always wanted to start with this idea, because we wanted to take the audience a little off-guard. Everyone’s expecting Toy Story – Andy’s room – and we wanted to start it like the projectionist just put up reel five of Armageddon…”