1st July, 2010

JOY NICHOLAS

Toy Story 3 (G)

In a word: (The long) Goodbye

There are a few once-a-year events that my family looks forward to with great anticipation: Christmas and Easter (of course), birthdays (naturally), and...the arrival of Pixar’s latest movie. Our DVD collection is filled with Pixar hits from years past, and they are all favourites that we watch over and over. When the first previews of the next Pixar production come out, we watch with wide eyes and then discuss over dinner whether or not we’ll be the first in line to see it.

THEY"RE BACK: Woody, Buzz and friends return for the third installment of Toy Story. PICTURE: ©Disney/Pixar. All Rights Reserved. "Don’t get me wrong: I still highly recommend seeing Toy Story 3, especially if you’re looking for family-friendly fare. It’s just that when you consider the originality of previous Pixar flicks...this film falls a bit short."

When we found out that this year’s Pixar movie was yet another installment of Toy Story, there were mixed feelings around the dinner table.  My older daughters were excited – they loved the first two – while my husband, who was hoping for something more original along the lines of Ratatouille, Up or Wall-e, was a bit disappointed. I was the neutral party, just happy to go see a family-friendly movie that we would all, at least to some degree, enjoy.

In that regard, I was definitely not disappointed. No one was. There are plenty of laughs as the toys - characters we’ve come to know - deal with the prospect of Andy (voiced by John Morris) leaving for university and wondering what will become of them, being shipped off to a day care centre, then performing a jailbreak to return to their boy. Barbie (Jodi Benson) and Ken (Michael Keaton) have a hilarious side-story, and Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen) discovers new layers of his personality. 

There are plenty of opportunities for tears as well. For me, they started about five minutes into the film, with a video playback of Andy playing with the toys as he gets older. And during the last ten minutes, everyone in the theatre shed at least a few tears – some of us (hand raised) more than others. 

It’s just that most of what happens along the way that feels drawn-out and somewhat contrived. The writers found a way to rehash the old rivalry between Buzz and Woody (voiced again by Tom Hanks), and the fears of abandonment and uselessness that we saw in Toy Story 2 are also explored again, to rather tiresome ends. Jessie even says, “This is just like what happened to me before.” Yeah. My point exactly.   

Don’t get me wrong: I still highly recommend seeing Toy Story 3, especially if you’re looking for family-friendly fare. It’s just that when you consider the originality of previous Pixar flicks – for instance, a family of superheroes struggling to be “normal,” a rat with dreams of culinary greatness that even humans will recognise and appreciate, an old guy who decides to take his house to Venezuela with the aid of several thousand helium balloons and a lost Wilderness Explorer – this film falls a bit short.   

But do watch it. Watch it to remember the old friends and playmates you had growing up whether human, toy, or animal – the ones that, for one reason or another, you had to say good-bye to and find a way to move on. Watch it to celebrate those moments of your own little ones’ childhoods that are passing all too quickly, and their vivid imaginations. Watch it to be entertained with good, clean fun. Just don’t watch it expecting Pixar’s typical creative genius.

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