January 1, 2011

Toy Story 3 (2010)



Directed By: Lee Unkrich

Starring: Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Joan Cusack, Ned Beatty, & Don Rickles

MPAA Rating: G

My Rating: 10 /10





The Disney and Pixar collaboration has a remarkable track record, with every film they have produced being a critical and commercial success, but I always grow a little wary when I'm about to see their latest project. Eventually, they are going to make a dud...you just know they are, but it doesn't stop us from wanting their brand to remain perhaps the only still-untarnished one left in Hollywood. And, if I was a betting man, my money would have been on Toy Story 3 becoming their first disappointment. After all, how many third installments have lived up to their legacies? I could probably count all the ones that have on one hand. But, to my gleeful surprise, Toy Story 3 didn't just live up to its predecessors; it is, in fact, this already-wonderful franchise's magnum opus. Masterfully blending intelligent humor with heartwarming (and, sometimes, tear-inducing) drama, while appealing equally to both children and adults, Toy Story 3 is an utterly delightful film that is, without a doubt, one of the year's most wonderful.

Andy's toys are back...well, at least some of them are. With Andy (voiced by John Morris) growing up and preparing to go to college, many of his toys have been donated or sold, leaving only a small handful of them left to populate his room. Woody and Buzz Lightyear (Tom Hanks and Tim Allen, respectively) are still the ringleaders of the bunch, but, as Andy must decide what to do with the last few toys, the group morale is decidedly low. An unfortunate accident, however, makes the decision for him, sending the toys to a nearby daycare, run by a villainous, strawberry-scented stuffed bear named Lotso (voiced by Ned Beatty), who relegates them to the caterpillar room, where they are nearly-destroyed by children who are really too young to play with them. The toys soon realize that Lotso and his team lure new toys to the daycare and then lock them in the caterpillar room to be destroyed, so that they, themselves, won't have to play with the younger children. Now, it's up to Woody to once again save his friends from the daycare...and to find them all a new home.


Toy Story 3 takes its greatest inspiration from a most unusual source: old-fashioned noir films. Scenes where Woody is warned about Sunnyside Daycare from a rolling telephone toy (whose voice is surely inspired by Deep Throat) dissolve into a high-tension jailbreak sequence, executed well enough to make Michael Bay shake in his CGI-enhanced boots. It is next to impossible to not get absorbed in Toy Story 3's storytelling, in part because its story is so fascinating, but mainly because it is told so well. Here is a film that unfolds with honest emotion...so honest, in fact, that it can be strange to see so much feeling coming from cartoon toys. Toy Story and Toy Story 2 introduced us to the idea that life as a toy is pretty damn hard, but Toy Story 3 is where that idea comes to full fruition. The final chapter of their lives is downright tragic, but not played in such a way as to pander for tears. Instead, Toy Story 3 develops and plays out with complete fluidity and naturalness. It is perhaps a sign of Toy Story 3's screenwriters' success, as well as a sign of the sad state of Hollywood screenwriting in general, that writers should be required to look at this, an animated family film, for tips on how to build moving drama and execute bold action scenes.

The key to the successful collaboration of Disney and Pixar is their willingness to take animation to new levels, as well as their reliance on universal human emotions for the foundations of their stories. Toy Story 3 certainly continues that string of success. And, on an arguably more shallow (but, in reality, just as important) level, they know how to make truly funny films. For some reason that has flown right over my head, most studios equate family films with fart jokes and a lot of people falling down, getting punched, getting kicked in the groin, etc. Leave it to Disney and Pixar to once again prove that low-brow and tasteless humor just isn't funny. Real humor doesn't happen to characters; it comes from them, instead. And so, another year has come and gone and, with that, so has another Disney/Pixar film. Toy Story 3 really is one of their most brilliant films yet and seems like an automatic lock for every "Best Animated Feature" award this coming award season. There has been talk of it making a serious push for the coveted "Best Picture" Oscar. If it did happen to nab the prize, it would be the first animated film to do so in the history of the Oscars. I can't say whether it will win or lose, but what I can say is, from the lot of 2010 releases I've seen so far, Toy Story 3 is one of the few that deserves to win, animated or not.

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