Toy Story 3 - 2010

Toy Story 3 being my first animated film to blog about presents a dilemma.  How do I add the cast.  Obviously they are all just the voices, so I guess I will just list the main characters and the actor/actress will be assumed that is is their voice rather than me typing it after each person.

Now that I have that out of the way, you have Tom Hanks as Woody, Tim Allen as Buzz Lightyear, Joan Cusak as Jessie, Ned Beatty as Lotso, Don Rickles as Mr. Potato Head, Wallace Shawn as Rex, John Ratzenberger as Hamm, Estelle Harris as Mrs. Potato Head, John Morris as Andy, Laurie Metcalf  as Andy's mom, and Blake Clark as Slinky Dog

I think I might have mentioned in my very first blog, that this was the only Best Picture nominee in 2010 that I actually saw in the theater.  Which I think is a perfect segue to the list of nominees for Best Picture in 2010.

• Black Swan
• The Fighter
• Inception
• The Kids Are All Right
• The King's Speech
• 127 Hours
• The Social Network
• True Grit
• Winter's Bone

Toy Story 3 did not win and frankly I can't imagine an animated film winning Best Picture, which probably is not fair, but I don't think that the Academy will ever take the animated film as seriously as others when it comes to Best Picture.  After all it won for Best Animated Feature Film after all, so I wonder sometimes if that is a factor.

I have seen Inception and The Kids Are All Right and if I had to pick between the three, I would vote for Toy Story 3 hands down.  It was that good of a movie.  I doubt it was better than The King's Speech so I won't go as far as saying it should have won, but I would rate it as a great movie.

Anyone who has kids has most likely seen this movie and one common mantra I hear about these animated movies is that they aren't just for kids.  There is always adult humor, that goes right over the kids heads and the stories are not only kid friendly, but speak to the adults as well.

Toy Story 3 is probably the best example of the Toy Story franchise that speak to the parents.  Andy is all grown up and is going off to college.  All parents deal with this issue.  Maybe not college, but there little ones growing up and moving on.  While I did not shed a tear during the movie, I can say I came close once or twice. 

The toys also go through a bit of soul searching as well.  The theme of children growing up and not needing their toys is continued from Toy Story 2, but this time it isn't just the threat of new toys.  The gang has not been played with in years and have to deal with being tossed out or making the trip to the attic.  It is eerie how it parallels death and getting older.  I kept on thinking of the attic as the old folks home and the garbage as death.  I don't know if that is what the film maker was getting at, but that is what struck me.

Mixed in to this you have to have some sort of struggle with evil.  That evil is represented by Lotso.  A toy that was replaced by his owner after he was lost.  Being replaced causes Lotso to snap.  He turns the daycare he eventually ends up at into his own little pyramid.  He puts the new toys in the younger rooms, where the kids are more destructive and don't play well with their toys, all the while those on the inside end up in the Butterfly Room with the older kids, who are much better with the toys.  In some ways it reminded me of those prison movies where certain people figured out the system and curried favor with the guards etc to make their time a little bit easier.

As usual the gang ends up victorious and the movie ends with a bittersweet moment of the toys being passed on to a new owner, who has an imagination similar to Andy's.  It is nice to see that they all ended up together, even Woody.  Woody did look like he was destined for college, because Andy originally separated all his toys for the attic, but put Woody in his college box.

If you haven't seen the movie this may give something away, but there was one scene in the movie that almost made a very big mistake with me.  This scene was near the end when all of the toys were at the dump and heading for the incinerator.  It appeared that they were not going to make it and the toys all held hands, accepting their fate.  This is where I came close to crying.  Imaging that a 40 year old man crying about toys of all things.  Well I gave it away in the last paragraph that they were not burned.

Which is a good thing for Disney, Pixar and my soon to be two year old son.  If they would have torched those toys, I would have boycotted all things Disney and Pixar and my two year old would have missed out on Disney World and many an animated film to come.  So, I am glad they didn't lose their minds, because I like Disney World, I can't wait to take my youngest son.  It would be a shame to deprive him of that, but I would have.