Toy Story.

The toy story franchise, with it's four movies, is a very successful chain of movies. One of the reasons for this, in my opinion, is the way that a whole generation of people, my generation, aged with Andy and we watched his toys come to life and his life unfold. 

Because the audience was aging at the same time as the boy in the movies, we all developed a connection with him and his toys and could understand what was going on in his life. Andy is not the main character in Toy Story, but it's this connection between character and audience that has enhanced the love everyone has for the characters of the toys, and has kept the Toy Story franchise so successful. 

When Toy Story first appeared, it was already a success before this connection was made though, as the toys themselves, told and exciting and loveable story that captured the audiences attention with relatively unseen animation techniques, as 3D animation had only just started to appear. The idea that our toys could come to life while we were out was something many children found incredible and the toys really cared about their owner. When Andy finally went off to college, around the same time that myself and other people my age went off to uni, the idea of him donating or giving away his toys resonated within us as many of us have outgrown our toys and passed our favourite toys onto someone else. 

In my opinion, the attention to detail with connecting Andy to an entire generation has set the Toy Story franchise firmly into the hearts of the world, as the audience has watched him age throughout the movies and become very attached to the characters.