Very few movies bring out the child in me like Toy Story or Toy Story 2. What kid did not wonder if his/her toys came to life when left alone? When Toy Story came out, yes, the animation was groundbreaking, but it was also about the story of unbreakable friendship. This theme carried through Toy Story two and I figured it would carry through Toy Story 3 as well. Pixar raised the level of story telling, not just in animation but in film making. Their string of hits feels unprecedented for a studio, or for any part of movie making. And it all began with a group of toys belonging to a young boy with a wild imagination. When I first heard Toy Story was adding a third chapter, I was a little bit concerned because it had been so long and I did not want to watch my favorite toys in something not worthy of them. When the first trailer came out, all of my worries were eased, just by seeing Woody, Buzz and the gang on screen again. I went in to the film having no doubts about how good it would be and in the process realized doubting Pixar was just stupid!
Our favorite toys are in some trouble as Andy, their owner, is heading off to college and they have no idea what comes next. They have not been played with for years and fear they are headed for the trash. Woody tries to calm their fears by telling them they will go to the attic and there they can live together and play together until Andy has kids and maybe, just maybe, they will be played with again. After a bag mix up, the toys end up in a daycare and at first it looks like the perfect place for them. However, Woody refuses to stay and finds away to escape, only to end up in the backpack of a young girl. At the daycare, our favorite gang of toys, meet a few new toys including Ken, of Barbie and Ken fame. Quickly, though, the daycare turns from dream to nightmare when our toys are placed with kids who have no business playing with toys. Buzz goes out to investigate and stumbles onto a conspiracy of toys. It turns out the Lotsa Hugs Teddy Bear runs his toy rooms like a prison and our gang of toys are prisoners. The bad gang of toys reprogram Buzz to help them enforce the prison rules and all looks hopeless for our toys. Meanwhile, Woody meets some new toys, and hears a horror story about the daycare center and realizes he needs to save his friends, more than he needs to get back home to go to college with Andy. From here Toy Story 3 transitions into a combination of film noir, prison break movie and absurdist comedy.
Somehow Toy Story 3 managed to bring tears to my eyes in two different ways. For the first 90 minutes, it is one of the funniest, most clever Pixar movies and then, just when you think it is too funny to make you feel emotional, it gets you at your core. I was so relieved that it was so funny because it meant I would not have water works the way I did during Wall-E and UP. But the second the toys think they have reached the end of their corporeal journey and join together, I started to tear up and then, in the final scene, I just lost it completely. Pixar truly has done it again. They tell a genuinely great story in an interesting fashion all while making it look excellent. Woody's movements are still jerky and hilarious, but they look more clean. Buzz's big wide, vacant eyes are just as great as I remember and everyone else is the same way. Of the new characters, Big Baby looks scary as hell and being a walking talking baby toy does not help my fear of creepy moving dolls!
However, I do not want to give off the impression that Toy Story 3 is just this silly frivolity that manufactures tears in the end. Toy Story 3 is a movie that crosses genres with such ease that you would think Tarantino had something to do with it. The movie opens with this epic Western/Sci-Fi action sequence with exploding train tracks, a dinosaur, force fields and Woody and Buzz saving the day, maybe. From there the movie gives us all of these great film styles and mixes them together to really please anyone. If you want a goofy comedy, you get Spanish Buzz Lightyear, which as funny as it is in the trailer, it is a million times funnier in the actual movie. if you want ridiculous over-the-top comedy, there is a bit involving Mr. Potato Head, a tortilla and a pickle that will just slay you. But then, there are these great action sequences and these great moments of pensive thought and this gorgeously dark sequence involving voice over narration from a clown toy while we see a flashback. There is a car who talks like he stepped out of a 1940 noir film and the extended, very thrilling prison break scene that somehow manages to combine all of those elements in a 10 minute span.
I remember loving Toy Story 2 because, in essence, Woody gave up eternal life to go back to his life with Andy. Toy Story 3 has a sort of similar theme, but in a different way. For 3 movies we watched these toys stay together, get each other out of trouble and bond in very real ways, but the overarching idea was that they were Andy's toys. They belonged to him and he was what kept them together. In this movie, the toys realize, what I feel like we have known all along: They are what keeps them together. It is the friendships they forged through years of being together that makes them all what they are. Woody needs Buzz, and Mr. Potato Head needs Piggy Bank and so on. The characters may be the last to realize that and it may take a near death experience to realize it, but the moment they all get it really makes the wait worth it.
Toy Story 3 is hilarious, genuinely touching, thrilling, action packed and thought provoking all within a two hour time frame. It is another notch for Pixar to hang their very high flag on. It gives us what we love about the characters and adds to the world Pixar first created that began this remarkable run. It features amazing voice acting (especially Michael Keaton as Ken) and is just a great time for everyone. I laughed a lot and I also cried heavy heavy tears and the tears were there the second viewing as well. I did not bother with 3D, but when a movie resonates this much, it is not about the spectacle, it is about the heart and Toy Story, thankfully, wears its heart on its sleeve. I cannot imagine this movie will be anywhere but my top 5 for the year when the year comes to an end.
Final Grade: A+
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