Finally! Toy Story 3!

I somehow missed watching Toy Story 3 while it was on its movie run. Which was unfortunate because a lot of my friends who saw it say that it’s their favorite animated film of all time. A lot of people I know who saw it actually bawled their eyes out. I told myself I’d just go out and get the DVD once it is released.

While looking around for gifts during the Christmas holidays, I saw that the Toy Story 3 DVD had in fact already been released. There were two versions – one with full features and the other aptly marked as “Just movie”. “Just movie” means you just stick it in your player and once it loads, it plays the movie automatically (no menu, no special features). I figured I didn’t need any special features so I decided to get the “Just movie” version of it at half the price. The only downside was that it wasn’t the widescreen version (which means that the sides of the film are chopped off to make it fit in a traditional TV). It kinda annoyed me that there would be parts of the movie that I wouldn’t see, but it was a minor thing that didn’t truly take away from my overall enjoyment of the film.

Photo from the Toy Story 3 wikipedia page

And enjoy it, I did. Toy Story 3 is indeed a brilliant movie. It has the right combination of comedy, drama, and suspense to keep audiences, both young and old, entertained from start to finish. The trademark of any Pixar film is its ability to get viewers emotionally involved in the stories of the lead characters, and Toy Story 3 is no exception. It warms and wrenches the hearts of the audience by dealing with powerful themes such as letting go and moving on, abandonment and friendship. One of my friends even told me that months after watching Toy Story 3, she finds herself thinking about it and being so totally moved by it.

While I absolutely loved the movie, I am probably one of the few people who didn’t shed a tear watching it (I do know another friend of mine who said she absolutely loved it but didn’t cry either). Maybe it’s because I see no logical option other than Andy leaving his toys behind as he goes on to college. And maybe it’s because I know his most beloved toys including Woody, Buzz, and Jessie will always be with each other and there is no real abandonment in having them all together. Of course, only the unfeeling would not feel a tug in their hearts when Andy experiences difficulty as he lets go of Woody and when he unknowingly grants all his toys their wish as he plays with them one last time before driving off to his new life. Most people have this scene as their favorite. I on the other hand am more deeply moved by the part where the toys are about to be dropped to their deaths in an incinerator. To see the frightening desperation and futility of their attempts to survive turn into a fearful yet courageous acceptance of their demise was utterly gut-wrenching. The emotion is so raw, powerful, almost disturbing, and it makes their ultimate triumph pure and incredibly uplifting.

To lighten the intensity of the last few scenes and make sure audiences can still leave the theater with a smile on their faces, Toy Story 3 changes its tempo in the closing sequence and end-credits as it shows how the lead characters have successfully adjusted to life post-Andy, and how life has been made better for the other toys in Sunnyside Day Care.

It took more than a decade for Pixar to put in a follow-up to the first two installments, but the long wait was worth it. It may not have brought tears to my eyes, but Toy Story 3 definitely ranks up there as one of the best animated films I've ever seen.