Film Review: Toy Story 3

Director: Lee Unkrich

Screenwriter: John Lasseter & Andrew Stanton (story), Michael Arndt (screenplay)

Main Cast: Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Joan Cusack, Ned Beatty, Don Rickles, Wallace Shawn, Michael Keaton, John Ratzenberger, Estelle Harris, Blake Clark

Runtime: 103 minutes

Certificate: U (UK)

Brief Summary: The toys are mistakenly delivered to a day-care center instead of the attic right before Andy leaves for college, and it's up to Woody to convince the other toys that they weren't abandoned and to return home.

(source:IMDB).

It's been nearly 10 years since we last caught up with Woody, Buzz et al and the gang have grown up a lot since then, much like their beloved owner, Andy, and, most importantly, their original audience. The creators are cleverly aware of their main audience, the young adults who grew up with the first two films and can shamelessly indulge in the nostalgia of the final movie in the trilogy. Andy's journey almost parallels those viewers who have equally moved on to college (university) and/or left home for good. (Although... it may just be me, but when I went to university, there was no need to strip my room completely bare and sell all the contents, especially as I was back within mere months for Christmas). I watched through misty eyes as the toys came to terms with the notion of moving on and parting from those they know and love, and recognised it as my own journey from the past few years, both leaving home for university, and then leaving university itself.

Poignancy aside, Toy Story 3 could easily sit alongside The Shawshank Redemption and The Great Escape as one of the best prison escape films of all time. The action is executed BRILLIANTLY, and includes a perfect mix of hilarious and heartbreaking scenes, keeping audiences of all ages entertained. The new characters are excellent, my personal favourite being Ken (voiced by Keaton), a true metrosexual and portrays his relationship with Barbie the way that everyone secretly believed it would be. On the other hand, Big Baby will give me nightmares for years to come. In that sense, Toy Story 3 definitely deals with slightly heavy themes, but children are still able to understand and perhaps even relate to.

The animation is, as expected, beautiful, to the very detail of the texture of the toys and I think is best demonstrated with the scene with Mr 'Tortilla Wrap' Head. A special nod must be given to the Pixar short which plays before TS3 starts. I've always enjoyed Pixar Shorts (and would highly advise others to purchase the Pixar Shorts dvd) but Day & Night has been my favourite by far.

There are lots of subtle references to the first film which ties up the last in the trilogy nicely. We see Andy driving and are reminded of when he helped his Mum fill up the car outside Pizza Planet all those years ago. The final shot of the film is of white clouds against a blue sky, exactly the same as Andy's wallpaper - the very first shot of the first Toy Story film. And did anyone notice the music playing through the end credits? A Spanish version of Randy Newman's 'You've Got A Friend In Me'.


Whilst the final act is still as hilarious as the rest of the film (mainly attributed to Buzz Espanol) but the furnace sequence is both devastating and heartfelt, when all characters join hands marking true friendship. The finale can be described as nothing more than tear-inducing and is an emotional end to a 15-yaer long series.



My rating: 5/5