TOY STORY 3

There is only so much I can say about the franchise that has been Pixar’s best. Toy Story was great in 1995, Toy Story 2 was somehow better in 1999 and after 11 years off, this one picks up right where the sequel left off, introducing enough new characters while bringing back all those that you fell in love with long ago.

In essence, when longtime playmate Andy is set to go to college, he has to decide what to do with all the toys that have stood by him for all those years. A misunderstanding places them in the back of a garbage truck where Woody manages to get them out of the frying pan to a daycare center, not knowing that he unwittingly put the rest of the toys straight into the fire under the thumb of a dictatorial purple teddy bear. Hilarity ensues as Woody does everything he can to rescue his friends while at the same time getting back to his owner. In the end, difficult decisions are made about what is best for everyone involved; the toys as well as Andy.

Ok, I’ll say it again; THERE MIGHT BE SPOILERS AHEAD.

RATING – G

There is one scene which children might have some difficulty with. In essence, all of our protagonists end up at a junkyard on a conveyer belt heading to a giant incinerator. The main antagonist, Lotso, has a chance to save them by shutting down the conveyer and doesn’t, making a snide comment with an evil laugh.

However, this scene is short and I am of the opinion that any child would be able to weather this brief storm either in the lap of their parent or perhaps simply by holding a hand. It is entirely possible though that after watching this movie, children may not look at teddy bears the same way again…

CHILDREN – 10

The intended audience; children. Pixar has had repeated success at making movies that are very good for children and this is no exception. It is yet another extension of the common childhood fantasy that when you are gone, your toys play with each other rather than sitting around in some box waiting to be played with.

YOUNG MEN – 7
YOUNG WOMEN – 9

This movie has less to offer to the adolescent male than the adolescent female. After all, this is a movie about toys and in my experience adolescent males don’t do the best work for their credibility by doing anything associated with toys. Still, this movie has good action sequences, just like the first two, and wonderfully written dialogue that appeals to all age groups.

ADULT MEN – 9
ADULT WOMEN – 10

Like it or not, women are more sentimental than men and this movie (along with more or less every Pixar product) plays right into it. Having said that, it is still a wonderfully enjoyable movie for anyone with a heart; I do not recommend this movie for serial killers.

GORE – 8

As with the first two, there is a fair amount of “violence” that you would expect from toys fighting. Limbs get contorted into unnatural positions (not a big deal for a toy, just for a human), Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head lose parts regularly, and at one point Buzz Lightyear is reprogrammed from his lucid self into the Space Ranger that we first met 15 years ago with amusing consequences.

There is enough violence to make you believe that this is real and it’s not all that different from what people would do if they were thrust into similar situations but it’s also done in a tasteful way that accents the movie and doesn’t detract from it.

ACTING – 6
ROMANCE – 5

With all due respect to Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, and all the others that provided voices for this movie, there’s only so much you can add to an animated movie by providing the voice. Yes, some people are better than others at doing voice work but in this movie it added a small amount. In my opinion, the voice actors did the single best thing that they can do in an animated film; they didn’t distract you from the movie.

This movie didn’t have much of a romantic subplot with the exception of the Buzz Lightyear/Jessie relationship continued (and slightly furthered) from Toy Story 2. Didn’t add much, didn’t detract much, although it did give us one of the best scenes from all three movies (more on that later).

DIALOGUE – 8

Like every other Pixar movie I’ve seen, the writing is witty and good for all age groups. The vocabulary level is low enough that small children can follow what’s going on and occasionally there are snide references to more adult themes that small kids won’t understand and adults find hilarious.

SPECIAL EFFECTS/STORY – 10

The best thing I can say about the story is the writers somehow took the same characters, wrote three separate stories that have very little to do with each other. I know this is a drastic example but in the original Star Wars trilogy, the plot of the second and third movies built upon their predecessors. In the Toy Story franchise, these three stories are completely unrelated with the exception of the common characters.

Again, all I can say about the special effects is the highest praise I can say for an animated film; the effects were amazing but they still didn’t look too real. This isn’t a video game where the better the resolution the better and this isn’t an IMAX film where we have to see every single pixel in excruciating detail. As Nintendo found out with some of their titles for the Wii, sometimes slightly lower resolution with a great plot is better than the other way around.

INTANGIBLES – 10

Tom Hanks plus good animation plus good story equals great movie. Most importantly, they added one of the greatest sequences in all three movies with Buzz Lightyear. Part of the way through the movie, Buzz is reprogrammed by the evil toys and he reverts back to the Space Ranger from the original movie who thinks that he is still battling Zurg’s evil forces. When the good toys recapture him and attempt to reverse the process, they accidentally switch him to his “Spanish Mode”. In the ensuing few minutes, a salsa remix of “You’ve Got a Friend in Me” comes on and Buzz and Jessie go bonkers for each other and have a spicy dancing scene. The scene was absolutely hilarious and provided just one more example of the writer’s brilliance.

TOTAL SCORE – 102
ADJUSTED SCORE – 85/100

All in all, this is another home run by Pixar and I highly recommend it for all ages and occasions.