Movie Review: “Toy Story 3″
24 Jun
During the past fifteen years, Pixar Animation Studios changed the way we view animation films. With each film they released, the bar was raised in terms of storytelling. After ten films, they have yet to fail critically or financially. This summer, Pixar released Lee Unkrich’s Toy Story 3 with much anticipation from fans of the Toy Story series. Like many threequels in the past, they have the tendency to fail to live up to the expectations from the public. Was Toy Story 3 able to successfully tell a great story and end the series on a high-note? Make the jump to find out!
Toy Story 3 begins when Andy (now 17 years old) prepares to depart for college and begin a new chapter in his life. Woody, Buzz and the rest of Andy’s toys find themselves in a predicament to stay loyal to Andy or move on to greener pastures. After a series of unusual events, the gang ends up at a day care that is run by a strawberry-scented teddy bear called Lots-O’-Huggin’ Bear. At first, Andy’s toys were excited to be played with again, but their enthusiasm quickly gives way to horror as they discover the true nature of the establishment. They decide that they must band together once again in one final, crazy scheme to escape their confines and return home to Andy in time.
One of the greatest feats in Toy Story 3 is the voice cast. The original cast from the past two films was able to provide the same caliber of quality to bring the second sequel to life. Tom Hanks as Woody and Tim Allen as Buzz Lightyear maintain the same charm and chemistry on screen that the audience comes to expect from them. The new additions to the cast like Ned Beatty as Lots-O’-Huggin’ Bear and Michael Keaton as Ken successfully brought in a fresh experience to an already interesting story. However, some of the supporting cast like Timothy Dalton (the voice of Mr. Pricklepants) was not fully utilized on screen even though most of the performances were spectacular.
The story in this film is nothing short from amazing. While the beginning of the film didn’t have an emotional hook like Pixar’s last two films (Wall-E and Up), the director instead chose to go with an action scene that was grand in scale and for the most part it worked in the film’s benefit. The story is filled with great emotions and fears that we all can easily relate to. The prison break segment in the film was done very well and brought an intense layer into the film. There are two certain scenes during the last fifteen minutes of the film that deals with many aspects of life like acceptance and maturity that was pretty powerful and is almost impossible to not have it tug on your heartstrings.
Even the Pixar short in front of Toy Story 3 called Night & Day was well-made and humorous. The 3D in this film didn’t particularly enhance what was being told, but it didn’t distract from it either. Lee Unkrich and the Pixar staff were able to successfully give the film series a good and proper ending with the ending in Toy Story 3. It’s clear that Pixar put a lot of dedication into this film. It’s probably because without the success of the first two films, Pixar wouldn’t be what it is today. The ending in Toy Story 3 can also easily parallel to Pixar Animation Studios as they also start a new chapter in their lives. While this summer so far has had a rocky start in terms of blockbusters, Toy Story 3 is able to bring the summer film season back into the spotlight as it lives up to the traditional Pixar quality that we all know and love.
Tags: June 2010, Lee Unkrich, Movie Review, Tim Allen, Tom Hanks, Toy Story 3
Couldn’t agree with you more! Nice work! Absolutely loved this film. I gave it a 10/10. I like how you sum it up!
Great review. This just proves how good Pixar are – they rarely put a foot wrong and with the Toy Story series they just seem to get better.
This was my favorite of the series and probably had more exciting action in it than a typical Hollywood summer blockbuster. My kids are still talking about it weeks later.
Nice write-up! I have to see this movie this week. Even though I hate sequels, this looks like one that doesn’t kill the franchise…
Th 3D only benefitted Night & Day, it had a negligible effect on Toy Story 3.
Night and Day was quite possibly my favorite of all the Pixar shorts.
I really genuinely loved TS3. It is quite possibly my favorite movie of 2010.
Pixar just gets me, they feel like they make their films so personally just for you.
I feel like the black sheep in the blogosphere haha. I liked it and everything, but I don’t even think it’ll end up in my Top 10.
At this rate it isn’t really an achievement to make it into my Top Ten of the year. There have been so few films worthy of even discussing, but this I can say unless I’m completely blown away between now and December will solidly stay in my top five.
Agree wholeheartedly with you on this Dan, I cried so much but Pixar flix always do tug my heartstrings!
Points for noticing this: “…some of the supporting cast like Timothy Dalton (the voice of Mr. Pricklepants) was not fully utilized on screen even though most of the performances were spectacular.” In fact, I just started my tribute to TS3/Pixar and that’s probably my only criticism as I love Mr. Dalton. It’s a shame too since his voice is just so spectacular.
I had to imdb that to find out who it was. Shame there wasn’t more of him.