Toy Story 3

I can still remember the first time I saw Toy Story.  I recall laughing a lot, and having lots of admiration for how ingenious the whole thing was.  For some reason, I never got around to Toy Story 2 until maybe three years ago.  Once I did, I really enjoyed it too - the humor was smart, the characters were well-drawn (in more ways than one...get it??) and the new chapter took the series in a welcome direction.

Now along comes Toy Story 3, and the whole gang is back...except for the loss of a few characters, as explained by Sheriff Woody at the beginning of the movie.  When I heard that this one was coming along, I thought - where else could the story possibly take these toys?  I didn't doubt that it would be good (though my brother Ben worries about every new Pixar release...and he may be right to do so with Cars 2), but I just had no idea what to expect.

Well, what we get is a colorful, bright, and breezy tale of belonging and friendship.  It's packaged as a lot of things - a buddy movie, a prison break movie, and a comedy.  Thankfully it hits all these notes with great balance and the superb craftsmanship we've come to take for granted from Pixar.

I will forgo providing an outline of the plot, and just list some of the things I liked a lot about this entry in the series:

 - I highly enjoyed any scene involving Ken.  The movie gets lots of mileage out of mocking Ken's ambiguous orientation, and Michael Keaton really makes the role a lot of fun.  Whoever thought of him as the voice of Ken deserves a shiny nickel, cause I would never have put those two together.  My favorite line, I think, is when Ken tells Buzz, "You don't talk to Lotso until we say you can talk to..." only to have Lotso interrupt him by coming in.  A host of other moments could be mentioned.

- I really enjoyed the quality of the animation.  Any serious fan of this movie has to watch it on Blu-ray to appreciate all of the color, texture, and gloss that went into the artwork.  This is nothing new from Pixar, but I think they may have topped themselves with this one.  Just look at this:

 "The door has a rainbow on it!!"

-  I didn't recognize at first, but this is a movie that rewards multiple viewings.  Over the holidays I got the chance to watch this movie about 4 times, and I got new things out of every viewing.  I love the little details embedded in the screenplay.  It is these little touches that get big laughs for me - like when Buzz quickly flips his helmet on when little kids come bursting in the room to play, or when Rex drops a piece of popcorn from his mouth.  Blink, and you'll miss stuff like that.

- I admired the craft of the narrative this time as well.  Like I said, I had no idea where the writers would take this one.  Yet the themes are well-developed, and there is real emotion at the end when characters part ways.

- I liked the new characters that came along, like Mr. Pricklepants, a doll named Dolly, and Chuckles.  I could have done without Big Baby though.  Bonnie is also a wonderful addition that really ties the emotional narrative together.

Those things and more make Toy Story 3 very entertaining and, for me, more rewarding as time passes.  I think I like it better with each new viewing.  However, I think it falls just a tad short of the first two in some very very minor ways.  Again, these are minor complaints/observations.  Minor - got that?

- Some of the scenes seem like they are kinda shoe-horned in there just to get an easy laugh.  The best way to describe this is by comparing it with other of today's animated films.  Sometimes these films throw in a scene that is sure to gain a big laugh from lots of kids, like some joke about someone's butt, say.  It doesn't really grow organically from the story, and it seems a bit cheap.  There may be, like two of those in this whole movie, which is infinitely better than some of the mindless eye candy that's out there - but sometimes it just feels that way with this one, like maybe it is a little...hyper?  Spanish Buzz comes to mind, but it is still pretty funny.

- I wish that some of the characters were better used in this one.  Slink doesn't really do that much, and sometimes Mr. Potato Head's jokes don't really land.  It even seems like Buzz has been relegated to secondhand status.  However, the fact that we're talking about character development in an animated film is quite remarkable.

So, on the whole a very worthwhile movie experience.  In fact, a lot of recent 'Best-of 2010' lists place Toy Story 3 at or near the top.  I would put it up there too, but not quite at the top.


Three-and-a-half stars out of four.