FILM NUMBER 39 – Toy Story 3
A sequel 11 years in the making bringing a 15 year Journey to the end, today is the final part in Pixar Animation Studio’s landmark debut series, one of the most anticipated films of the year – Toy Story 3. The films premise concerns the gang of Toys dealing with their owner’s lack of interest; Andy is now 18 and about to go off to college. Andy has been slowly getting rid of his toys for years leaving only a very select few of his favorites behind which conveniently are also the fan favorites as well, I’m talking about Buzz Lightyear, Woody, Slinky, Pig, Rex, Mr and Mrs Potato Head, Jessie and Bullseye, oh and those weird three eyed alien things. So being bugged by his mother to sort all his shit out Andy opts out of taking his porn and weed to college and instead decides to bring Woody with him and put the rest of the other guys in the attic instead of donating them to charity. In a nice mix up of events all the toys and a Barbie accidently end up in a children’s daycare center where they meet a ton of new toys, including a Ken doll and the leader of the bunch an old cuddle bear named Lotso.
Woody pleads with the rest of the toys to escape with him and make it back in time to Andy’s house before he leaves for college They have three days to get back but the rest of the toys think they have a pretty sweet deal at the day care center, they haven’t been played with in years and the prospects of some human interaction are quite appealing. Lotso introduces the toys to the room they will be living in which appears nice and Woody stowaways in a child’s backpack. Woody makes it to a new house and gets help from the toys there to find a route back to Andy’s, mean while the Toys back at the day care center finally realize that they are the punchbags to the young kids who have no idea how to treat toys and just enjoy smashing, throwing and slobbering all over them. When the Toy’s try to switch rooms they find out that leader Lotso is very malevolent and bitter from being abandoned years ago by his owner. He decides to lock up the Toys imprisoning them in toy boxes and putting a giant baby doll on patrol watch.
Woody gets word of his friends peril and goes to rescue them, this results in a daring long escape sequence where the toys are almost incinerated at a trash dump, before miraculously being saved, making it back it time to Andy’s to realize that they belong with a new child that will play with them. I rush through the plot, it isn’t as complex as the first two films but it is logical and sensible, it moves at pace that we know and expect from Pixar, allowing enough character development and story to come though without overloading it. If I am to cut the story to its bare bones it really is a rehash of the second film, it’s all a big mission for the toys to rescue each other and get back to their owner. Where I feel the film differs though is that it offers a logical conclusion to the lives of these characters and that isn’t to say that we get to see these lives come to an end but we do get to see a large chapter closed. It’s similar to the end of the Matrix in that we are pretty sure at the end that the characters will go on the same path with their new owner as they did with Andy.
Toy Story 3 has too many positives to even think of it as a failure, even with this notion I would say that it was the weakest of the 3 and I don’t think that is a bad thing. I mean who really says that a trilogy has to end with a giant epic conclusion; all we really want is a tidy ending for the characters that we have become attached with. In this film Pixar have paid attention to so many small details that have all worked perfectly; it seems as if every element was picked for the maximum effect. Every voice is perfect, the old favorites such as John Ratzenberger as Hamm, Don Rickles and Estelle Harris as mr and Mrs Potato Head, Wallace Shaun as Rex and of course Tom Hanks and Tim Allen as Woody and Buzz are great and entertaining to hear again. There are also some great new additions; Michael Keaton as Ken is wonderful, all the right enthusiasm and the cheesy pitch that we would expect from a Ken Doll. Ned Beaty is well cast as the evil Lotso bear, you can sense something strange about him from the start but it is subtle enough to dismiss. It is also a true testament to the integrity of Pixar that they don’t rely on these voices to sell the film, their Dreamworks counterparts always seem far too enthusiastic to highlight the expensive voice actors that they managed to get. Pixar pick the right voice for the right character and it always works very effectively, never feels out of place and is generally quite memorable.
The quality of animation has also reached entirely new heights; I saw the film in 3-d and whilst I can’t say that it is necessary to view in this format at all I did feel like the 3-d added a great depth of field to the shots. Another huge plus with the film was the amazing camera movement, yes granted there is no camera but every shot moves so perfectly allowing every action scene to be observed fully by the viewer leaving no moments of unsynchronized awe (something most normal films are still unable to handle). Pixar have this great skill of being able to emulate the perfect shot and movement for a scene, a big example being the dance scene during the closing credits, every close up and pan is spot on. Randy Newman’s music creates a wonderful backdrop to throughout, he has obviously re-recorded some tracks and he throws more emotion in than ever before.
It’s funny I always expected myself to be very excited about this film but as soon as I saw the first trailer my interest was lost. I knew the film was on its way and I wasn’t excited until the lights went down and the short film “Night and Day” began, I relised that I was almost sad to watch these characters go. This feeling is prominent throughout the film, when is it ok to hang on to something when do have to finally give something away? It’s a heavy issue that hits deep and watching the film I felt like Andy I’m glad to see these characters journey come to an end because one more venture with them would definitely be one too many. Pixar are very successful about making you feel like a child again whilst delivering a nice heavy message that puts you into a huge state of personal reflection, people could talk for hours about why their films manage to resonate with such a large audience but in the end it probably just comes down to the fact that they are full of so much heart.
They believe in putting on a good show and so far this year I’d say no one does it better.
9 out of 10
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