In that sense, the film is very efficient, an adjective I use to praise the film even if it likely sounds like a bit of an insult. We don’t spend time at Sunnyside Daycare because the lessons learned there are necessary to the conclusion, but rather we spend time there because it reinforces key themes and has plenty of ways in which story points can be logically worked into the action. And so there’s not really any sense of discovery for the audience: while characters learn (or, more accurately, relearn) certain lessons, the film’s narrative is simply a sequence of barriers to a conclusion that the writers clearly started with. By comparison, Toy Story 3 opens with an extended montage which tells you that this is the answer to that hypothetical question (established in the heartbreaking “When She Loved Me” sequence), an entire film about what happens when Andy goes off to college and has to decide what to do with his childhood toys, and that never changes throughout the film. However, with Toy Story 3 it is very clear from the beginning that this film is designed to reach this conclusion: while Toy Story 2 started as a basic inversion of the first film (in that Buzz was searching for Woody rather than the other way around), it evolved into an investigation of what would happen when Andy grows up, and what life waits for a toy once their owner goes off to college or has a family of their own. Considering how emotional I was when the movie came to a close, and considering how much fun I had with the adventure in the middle of the film, this was a journey I’m very glad to have taken, and I would agree with Todd VanDerWerff that the way the film is organized is fantastic at emphasizing the emotional climax (more on Todd’s argument in the conclusion). I had some enjoyable Twitter conversations about the film upon returning from the cinema, and what I’ve discovered is that I don’t necessarily think I’m criticizing Pixar for designing Toy Story 3 as they did. Whereas there are moments in this film which are more powerful than those which came before, and Pixar continues to separate itself from the pack by tapping into the audience’s emotional connection with this franchise in a fashion which has eluded Dreamworks with Shrek, Toy Story 3 is the first in the trilogy to feel repetitive, albeit in a purposeful fashion designed to emphasize key themes from the second film which become more complex in the context of the third.Ĭonsidering this is Pixar, they pick the right themes and execute them to perfection when the time comes to bring the series to its cinematic close, but there is a lack of discovery within the film’s adventure, establishing it as an extremely engaging rumination more than a revelation – what will follow is my attempt to explain why I’m not head over heels in love with the film as a whole even after being head over heels in love with its conclusion. Toy Story 3 is a solid sequel to the second film, and a wonderful conclusion to the cinematic trilogy, but I personally feel as if it is the least successful (relatively speaking, of course) of the three films when separated from our nostalgia and the emotional resonance the series has accrued over time. Not only is this a Pixar film, but it’s a Pixar film which deliberately taps into my childhood nostalgia: I was 9 when Toy Story was released, and 13 when Toy Story 2 hit theatres, so this is arriving at a time when that sort of nostalgia is both most welcome and most intellectually stimulating (as I’m considering culture and the media I consume in a much more critical fashion than I was back then). It’s not often I write about movies in this neck of the woods, but it’s hard not to use Cultural Learnings as an outlet for my thoughts about Toy Story 3.
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