Toy Story 3 – Theatrical Review

Distributor: Walt Disney

UK Release Date: 19th July 2010

Certificate: U

Running Time: 108 Minutes

Director: Lee Unkrich

Starring: Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Michael Keaton, Joan Cusack

A Perfect End, To A Perfect Beginning.

Most of us, well my friends grew up with Toy Story pimping out the first in a long line of computer generated films, you could say their success kicked off the trend and as we approach nearly ten years on since the first film, Woody, Buzz and company return for what could possibly be their final outing and oh what an adventure Lee Unkrich has given us.

As the years between films have progressed, so has time for our beloved Cast, Molly is no longer a baby and Andy is driving and ready to become a man, off to college.  It’s all change not just for the family but for the toys as well.  As Woody and Buzz prepare them for a lifetime in the Attic a mishap sees the toys end up in day care, it seems all hunky dory but those pre-schoolers will tear the likes of T-Rex, Mr and Mrs Potato head and the rest in two if given half the chance.  Imprisoned by a rather unlikely enemy it’s up to Woody to tell Buzz and the others of the terrible mishap that put them in the position they’re in, they have to get back to Andy before he leaves for college.

That’s the theme of this film, family, the ties that bind.  The situation they find themselves in, all have one root solution, working together and seeing things through as a team, as a family unit.

The Team, Reunited!

From start to finish Toy Story 3 will tug at your scrotum and tease you into shedding a tear not just with the nostalgic value of the very emotional opening that shows how Andy respected his toys and cherished every second of the time with them but the moments where the toys faced down adversity and almost certain doom even in the face of defeat.

The scrotum tugging never stopped and after a while I began to like it, I was certainly petrified that at one point I may lose it and begin to sob like a little baby, not like big baby, that’s one scary baby doll but like a little baby… had they killed the family dog who is now so old it can barely muster up five strides before keeling over, then I would have been gushing and there may have been a met office warning for flash floods, thankfully the aged mutt was there for comedy value alone.

Needless to say, I loved every second and even if you’re new to the franchise there’s a toy for everyone, new and old.  The Book Worm? I had one of those but here in the UK they were called Glow Worms, you couldn’t read books with them, the rigid plastic was so thick, your glow worm gave off a rather feint eerie sickly green glow. How I wish that they’d used the Book Worm more.

I just hope one day we’ll get to see more from the world of Toy Story but then again with such a fitting and tear inducing end, could Lee Unkrich really take us back to the realm of the toys?

Go and see it, it’ll make you smile, laugh, cry and a little nostalgic all in under two hours.  The only other thing to do that in that time scale was Twilight… no… no… that just made me feel a little sick.

There won’t be another film like this for a long time, well not until the brain matter over at Pixar bring us new realms to traverse and new characters to care for.

I so want to see it again and this will be a day one purchase for me on Bluray.

Although one thing to add… Crime and Punishment in Pixar movies is a bloody harsh thing, that’s all I can say.  When our villain finally finds his feet by films end, you gotta feel a little sorry for him.  That’s no way to spend eternity.