Pixar’s latest masterpiece, Toy Story 3,
came out on DVD last week and I really would recommend you grab
yourself a copy of it. The last in the trilogy, this movie ties up the
franchise neatly and fittingly in a tear jerking finale no one will want
to miss.
The story centres around the lives of a group of toys who live with their owner, Andy (no relation). Now, ten years have passed since Toy Story 2; Andy has grown up and is now off to college. Naturally the toys have become seldom used and now take residence in Andy’s toy chest, never to see the light of day again.
Persistently, the toys attempt to get Andy to play with them, but they fail and are grouped together into a trash bag and hauled into the attic, with the exception of Woody who gets special treatment and is placed in the box headed to college. However, the toys don’t make it to the attic, Andy’s meddling mother mistakes them for trash and leaves them on the kerb for collection. I wish we still did that here, all these wheelie bins are doing my head in. But that is a rant for another day...
The story centres around the lives of a group of toys who live with their owner, Andy (no relation). Now, ten years have passed since Toy Story 2; Andy has grown up and is now off to college. Naturally the toys have become seldom used and now take residence in Andy’s toy chest, never to see the light of day again.
Persistently, the toys attempt to get Andy to play with them, but they fail and are grouped together into a trash bag and hauled into the attic, with the exception of Woody who gets special treatment and is placed in the box headed to college. However, the toys don’t make it to the attic, Andy’s meddling mother mistakes them for trash and leaves them on the kerb for collection. I wish we still did that here, all these wheelie bins are doing my head in. But that is a rant for another day...
Anyway,
the toys manage to escape the garbage truck of doom and make a break
for the garage where they find a donation box to the nearby daycare
centre: Sunnyside. The toys decide that being donated to a daycare
centre is a lot more fun than being churned up by a garbage truck so
they head off to Sunnyside much to the dismay of Woody who can’t get
them to believe him that they were meant to be going into the attic.
Watch out, spoilers ahead...
So
yes, they head to Sunnyside which appears to be a lovely place of fun
and games. Once there they are met with the daycare toys and their
leader, Lots-O Huggin’ Bear. Lots-O is an old pink bear toy who smells
like strawberries. He was abandoned and replaced by his owner, which
leaves him as bitter as a lemon wrapped in spinach served with black
coffee. Lots-O seems to be a great host, but he tricks the toys into
being ‘played with’ by the ruthless younger kids. Sheriff Woody who has
already made an escape by this point is forced to return to rescue them
in true Woody fashion.
The
movie retains its charm from the previous two, and it does so mainly
with the characters involved, both old and new. A lot of characters have
been left out of this one, due to Andy getting rid of them at some
point or another in the ten years it’s been since Jesse and Bullseye
arrived in the bedroom . Wheezy is gone now, as is RC car and Bo Peep.
All that remain are Woody, Buzz, Slinky, Rex, Hamm, Jesse, Bullseye, the
three eyed aliens from Pizza Planet and Mr and Mrs Potato Head.
Incidentally, how did Andy go a decade without getting rid of Mrs Potato
Head? Well, whatever.
All
of the characters have their original voice actors, with the exception
of Slinky who has the experienced Blake Clark replacing the late Jim
Varney who sadly died a year after the second movie was released. Tom
Hanks is back to play Woody, Tim Allen plays Buzz, Joan Cusack is the
rootin' tootin' Jesse and of course John Ratzenburger is Hamm aka Evil
Dr Porkchop!
Of
the new characters Lots-O is cast brilliantly with Ned Beatty bringing a
deep south New Orleans accent to the character making him appear to be
trustworthy to all, the audience knows he's a baddie but that voice is
just so inviting! The great casting continues: Michael Keaton is in this
movie! He plays Ken, who falls madly in love with, yes you guessed it,
Barbie. Timothy Dalton plays Mr Pricklepants, Whoopi Goldberg lends her
voice to Stretch the octopus, Jeff Garlin is Buttercup, and Kristen
Schaal plays Trixie the triceratops. Even Totoro makes an appearance,
obviously no voice acting needed there.
The
writers at Pixar have a way of creating the best characters in not just
animation, but in cinema. Even if these characters already exist (i.e.
Ken, Etch-A-Sketch et al), they give them life in a way that only they
can. I think their greatest strength though, is appealing to both the
kids in the audience and their parents at the same time. And none of
their movies have done this quite as much as Toy Story has done.
The
movie is a lot darker than its predecessors ever were, a lot more grown
up. But this is a good thing. Whereas the first movies were about being
friends forever, Toy Story 3 is about saying goodbye. And I defy
you not to feel sad about it! The final scene of the movie in which
Andy drives away into the horizon leaving his best friends with a new
owner wraps up the trilogy perfectly and will hit home to children and
adults alike.
There
aren’t any new songs in this picture either, none sang by the toys at
least. Randy Newman’s ‘You got a friend in me’ is heard at the beginning
but there are no new ones, so you might be disappointed if that’s what
you came to see, or hear as the case may be. Instead they have been
replaced by a lot darker forms of storytelling. Take the climatic escape
scene where the gang end up in the trash-processing plant; they fall
into the incinerator and pretty much accept their untimely demise,
holding hands and waiting for death. Ahem. ‘You got a friend in me, de
do do do do de dum’
But for all its differences this manages to stay true to the Toy Story formula,
it’s genuinely funny, very well written and has some of the best
animation of the modern age. The first scene in the whole movie where
Woody, Buzz and Jesse are set on foiling Mr and Mrs Potato Head’s
devious scheme on a railroad is just brilliant and deserves an Oscar!
Also it has loads of puns…which I like!
I must admit when I saw that Lasseter didn’t direct this one I had my doubts about it. The first Toy Story was
his gem and he needed to rescue the second instalment from straight to
DVD hell. So when I saw that Lee Unkrich was directing it I was worried.
But there was no need, having worked on the previous two and having
Lasseter as executive producer, Unkrich ends up directing a fittingly
different movie than the other two whilst still keeping it familiar
enough not to alienate its audience.
All
in all this movie is one of the best of 2010. I’m giving it 5 stars as I
think it deserves it. I did enjoy the first two more than this one, but
there is nothing about this instalment that I would change. Nothing at
all. Okay, I'd bring Wheezy back, but that's all!
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