Review: Toy Story 3

The third movie of the Toy Story franchise had me worried when I first heard about it. Pixar had been so emphatically against any future sequels that I feared being forced into this one would result in an inferior movie that would be nothing more than a waste of time and money.

I was happily mistaken. Toy Story 3 had all the heart and excitement of its predecessors.

For the first time, we see a toy as the antagonist thoughout the movie. The Prospector was a great antagonist to be sure, but we don't see his true colors until very late into the second film. The toy store owner was clearly the primary adversary. But in this movie, human villainy is virtually non-existent. The franchise stops being about people who treat toys badly (Sid and Al) and moves to toy against toy. This gives a new dynamic to the motivations. Both Sid and Al could almost be excused with "Well, they didn't know that toys have feelings." Now, it's not so cut and dry.

This also presents the opportunity to show off some very complex ideas for a kids' movie. How easy it is for good toys (or people) to be driven to do bad things when they choose a strong leader with bad motives; the danger of "just following orders."

The story also pulls hard at the heartstrings. We see the pain of toys who are no longer played with, have lot friends to charity/trash/garage sales. Uncertain what the future holds for them, and their friendship.

Some aspects were a little cheesy, and could come off as rehashing rather than saluting the previous installments, but this was minimal, and for me didn't distract from the story.

Props, Pixar. Another fine film.