Toy Story 3

[Edgy MD]

A cowboy, a spaceman, and a bunch of other toys that have appeared together in some other films return to the screen as they grapple with their fates and examine their core values in preparing for the child they've raised together to go off to college.

Tengo mis pensamientos.

[metirish]

Looking forward to seeing it , will let it cool for a few weeks then take the kid.

[Willets Point]

I'm thinking this may be a good first movie theater experience for our little one. Like metirish, I'll wait a few weeks and look for a matinee.

[soupcan]

The reviews I've read have been glowing and 2 of my kids saw it over the weekend (sans moi) and they both gave it a very enthusiastic thumbs up.

I really want to see it having thoroughly enjoyed 1 & 2.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Willets Point wrote: I'm thinking this may be a good first movie theater experience for our little one. Like metirish, I'll wait a few weeks and look for a matinee.

SPOILER ALERT
I have to say, there is a very harrowing scene, where (spoiler alert) the toys are about to be incinerated and they resign themselves to their impending deaths. You'll have to judge (as best you can) how much your child might be upset by something like that.

[Willets Point]

Hard to say. He made me stop "Monsters, Inc" because Sully riding a sled down the Himalayas was too scary, but seemed indifferent to Nemo's mother being eaten in "Finding Nemo."

[Frayed Knot]

I'm not going, but mainly because I missed #s 1 & 2 so I'm afraid I'd be lost and not able to follow the plot.

[metirish]

We have 1 & 2 on DVR , never tire of watching them.

[Willets Point]

Ha!

[Edgy MD]

OK, well, if you've seen the first two, you'll know what you're getting. And if you're Frayed Knot, well, you'll get what you're getting.

Set about decade after Toy Story 2, installment three has Andy's toys neglected as he's grown through his teen years and is only days away from leaving for college. Like a dysfunctional family, they still derive no greater pleasure than his attention, only nobody can quite remember the last time he gave them any. They've resigned themselves to exile in the attic with the consolation that at least they'll have each other, and maybe Woody might get brought along to the dorm room for sentimental purposes. (It's a small victory that Woody seems fine with, but I ask myself, would the horrors in human development that he'll witness there be worth it?)

Anyhow, arguments break out as to whether the gang should try to manipulate themselves into the box going to be donated to a local day care center, or accept the attic. When they come within a hair of being thrown in the garbage, they run for the relative sanctity of Day Care.

New themes develop about growth and acceptance and family and loyalty and what's left when your faith is shaken, and it's all wonderfully rendered. The only thing I can throw out there is that a lot of the plot devices from the prior installments return, though I won't point them out because maybe you're quite dull and won't see them coming.

But you know, sequels tend to take plot elements and amp them up, and any heart comes as a clumsy afterthought. This one leaves the plot elements at the same level, but starts with the heart. And in fact, you get the idea that they kept this franchise on ice for over a decade because they wouldn't bring it back until they had a meaningful reason to.

Do you like gay jokes? Because, for a G-Rated movie from Didney, this film has more than a few gay jokes.

[Edgy MD]

Two votes? Thought more of us had seen this bebe.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

I forget where I read this (Wired mag?) but Dizney was set on a threequel whether it was good or shit and would have been perfectly happy with the latter result as long as people went (which they would) so it was up to the Pixar peeps to rescue it, and they junked the entire Diz concept on day 1.

That's nice because Lunchpail (and me) is crazy about TS 1 and 2. 2 is probably better! and we'll be excited to see 3.

[Willets Point]

I was disgruntled when Pixar became part of the Disney Empire, but I'm impressed and amazed at how they've managed to maintain creative control and continue to put out excellent movies.

[Edgy MD]

I know. It's almost like every day they have staffers whose job it is to keep Disney out of the room.

"OK, we'll take Tim Fucking Allen. And you have to concede these five points. Now get the fuck out of here."

We didn't get anywhere with Cars, though.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Whatever you think of Tim Allen, he was born to be Buzz Lightyear.

Cars seems to me to the most Diznified of the Pixar flix, it just reeks of trying to appeal to various segments of a target audience and a crassly grabbing licensing $$. A shame because I think a Pixar movie about talking cars could have been awesome.

[Edgy MD]

On Allen, absolutely. That's why I think they must be brilliant. Their concession to diznifying the movie is to take on this guy who is a stamped and branded Disney commodity, when they in fact have the perfect role for him. Make out like it's a painful consession, then... psyche! Now we don't have to have the Britney Spears song!

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Turns out Lunchpail saw this with his grandmother this week. His review? Scary. Wanna see it again? No.

[Edgy MD]

What a jerk!

[metirish]

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Turns out Lunchpail saw this with his grandmother this week. His review? Scary. Wanna see it again? No.

Just got back from New Roc City, I can totally see how Lunchpail would think it was scary. Lorcan was fine watching it but did ask to sit in my lap when things started getting intense , and I was kind of surprised with how intense it was , throughly enjoyed it though, an excellent movie, stay for the closing credits and you will be rewarded.

[Vic Sage]

i liked it more than little vic did.

I think its a heartbreaking rumination on growing up, even mortality, that is more for adults than children. Can a kid really relate to the scene where the toys realize they're going into the fire and hold hands for comfort? Mine didn't. He preferred TS2. But i found it profoundly moving moment, as was the final scene of Andy playing with his toys one last time, with the little girl, before heading off to college (i.e., adulthood).

Sure, there are some similar narrative beats to TS1 and 2, but they serve a different end, and so i viewed them as rearranged pieces to make a slightly different puzzle, and i don't fault it.

[metirish]

Vic Sage wrote: i liked it more than little vic did. I think its a heartbreaking rumination on growing up, even mortality, that is more for adults than children. Can a kid really relate to the scene where the toys realize they're going into the fire and hold hands for comfort? Mine didn't. He preferred TS2. But i found it profoundly moving moment, as was the final scene of Andy playing with his toys one last time, with the little girl, before heading off to college (i.e., adulthood). Sure, there are some similar narrative beats to TS1 and 2, but they serve a different end, and so i viewed them as rearranged pieces to make a slightly different puzzle, and i don't fault it.

Yeah , it had some great moments , the fire scene , Woody the last to hold hands, as if he finally realized this is it , he'd tried everything to keep them altogether but if need be then they would meet their end here together......that scene with Andy and the girl, the way Woody had manipulated it.......nary a dry eye in the house.

[dgwphotography]

Mrs. DGW and the girls saw it today - the Mrs. and our oldest said they bawled their eyes out...

[Guest The Second Spitter]

Saw it tonight. Fantastic not as good as The Incredibles or even Wall-E imo, but it held its own. Do yourself a favour and watch it in 3D. The visuals were stunning -- you forget it's an animated movie.

That said, people who vote on IMDb are idiots - how is this the 6th best movie of all-time?

[Guest sharpie]

Saw it tonight and liked it but must disagree with Second Spitter in one respect: the 3-D aspect, other than the opening scene, was superfluous. At one point I took off the glasses and found it looked brighter and better except for the occasional fuzzy background. Agree with SS about the idiots at IMDB. It isn't the 6th best movie of all time or even the 60th though it probably does make it above 600th.

[Willets Point]

Finally saw this today with little Pedro. Very moving, creepy at parts, and just as excellent as it's predecessors.