Okay, maybe I didn't blubber like I did at the end of Marley and Me but I did get emotional when the movie was getting close to an end. Now, I know these characters will always be with us in one form or another but to me the only place they really exist is on the screen and seeing the final adventure of Woody, Buzz and the gang was a bitter sweet moment.
I think everyone has a history with these movies. Now, I wasn't that young when the first one came out and, actually, I sort of missed it when it was first released. I thought it was neat that they had made a totally computer animated movie but it didn't strike me as being any good. I was wrong, of course, and when I did see it a few years later (as I was getting ready to see Toy Story 2) I really regretted not seeing the first one when it was in the theater. And the second one, well, it was just masterful. I can't even think about Jessie's song without feeling it in my gut. I think the movies tap into a fear everyone has, the fear of being abandoned and that scene, that song, that moment is just a perfect way to showing what that feeling is like.
I was excited when I heard they were making a Toy Story 3 but I kept wondering how they could top 2. If we never had another Toy Story movie I think the way 2 ended would have been easy to accept. Andy was going to grow up but he'd have his pals with him until he did, we could fill in the blanks but I could easily see Andy giving his toys to his kids to play with and that would have been fine. I knew the third one was going to be good but could it have be as perfect as 2? Well, I got good news and bad news.
The good news is, Toy Story 3 is just about as good a movie as you'll ever see, the bad news is it doesn't reach the same perfection as Toy Story 2 but that's okay, not too many movies did. (Wall-e is the only Pixar movie better than Toy Story 2)
I loved where they took the story, Andy is going away to college and he needs to either take his toys with him, throw them out or put them in the attic. A misunderstanding with him mother puts the toys on the fast track to the trash but they manage to escape and are very angry at Andy for throwing them away so they jump in a box going to a day care center for a donation, that's when the movie really takes off. The jokes come pretty quickly and, like all other movies, some are meant for kids, some for adults. I mean, really, how many kids are going to understand that they're basically watching a Prison break movie? The new toys, including a metro-sexual Ken doll, are a welcome addition to the Toy Story group. I personally like the triceratops Trixie, she didn't have many lines but she few did were very funny and made me laugh.
Okay, I'm about to get into spoiler territory here to be warned. I want to talk about a scene near the end of the movie. So, if you don't want to know about it stop reading . . . right. . . now!
There's a very powerful scene near the very end and had me wondering how the kids were taking it and also making me admire the guts that Pixar has in trusting it's audience. Near the end all the toys are being pulled a pile of trash into a massive incinerator. They've exhausted all their options, there isn't anything else they can do to save themselves. Jessie looks at Buzz and yells, "what are we going to do?"
Buzz looks at her, then reaches his hand out for her to hold. Soon all the toys are holding hands with each other accepting their fate, there isn't anything else they can do, they are going to die and they've decided to die together. These seems to go on forever until they're finally rescued.
I think that scene is not only one of the best in the Toy Story movies but probably one of the best Pixar has ever done and I have to give the creators credit for going there, it took a lot of guts I'm sure.
I wouldn't mind seeing another Toy Story movie but they'll have to work really hard to come up with a better way to end the series. I still think that if Toy Story 3 never came about the ending in Toy Story 2 was good enough of a ending for our characters but, that said, the ending of three, and hopefully the franchise, couldn't have been better.
