So last night I caught a showing of the much anticipated and much delayed (for Brits) Toy Story 3.
Normally, this kind of movie isn’t my thing. But I grew up with the first two Toy Story films and loved them as a kid. This was something I had to see. And overall, I’m satisfied.
The first thing you notice about Toy Story 3 is the much improved visuals. Animation has come a long way in the 10 years since Toy Story 2, and it shows. Pixar know this too. The movie opens with a wonderfully animated fight between Woody and Mr. Potato Head, involving trains, cars, lasers, force fields, spaceships and Rex. This is complimented by the return of the original cast who do a superb job with the voice acting, creating a wonderful aesthetic movie with nice action scenes. The 3D was done very well and refrained from being gimmicky in any way. However, in my perennial criticism of 3D, it didn’t add much to the visuals other than some polish and you won’t lose out much if you opt for the 2D version.
The plot in itself is an emotional story about the toys degenerating relationship with a growing Andy, who is leaving for college. The toys struggle with the possibility of no longer being loved, being put in the attic or, worse, thrown out. They eventually find a new home in the daycare centre known as Sunnyside. But the toys are quickly disillusioned by Sunnyside and attempt a jailbreak back home to Andy.
The plot is mixed with emotional moments involving heartbreak, rejection, loyalty, and uncertain futures. All are delivered well and create an emotionally enthralling movie put into perspective by plenty of cheesy humour, which will be enjoyed by many but made me cringe with embarrassment many times on Pixar’s behalf.
I personally found Toy Story 3 to be a film of two halves: before the jailbreak and the jailbreak attempt itself. The first half was enjoyable. It set 
up the situation well and created a lot of emotional responses. Then suddenly the movie jumped into the jailbreak without any planning, and emotion was set aside for action. While the action scenes were nice, I felt the whole thing changed direction a bit too often and as such the jailbreak went on a lot longer than it had to. I would have much preferred a shorter jailbreak made up for by being able to actually witness the planning, investigation and preparation (which all went on between the scenes, bar the minimum amount of exposition needed). It made things feel rushed, then lagging. Toy Story 3′s strength came in its ability to create empathy in the viewer, and I felt this was discarded for much of the second half.
New viewers may also suffer as the movie relies heavily on the previous two films for context and character development. You will not understand the characters if you haven’t seen Toy Story 1 & 2, as no one other than the new antagonist is really developed. This will obviously have a huge impact on your ability to empathise. But, honestly, how many people will be watching this that haven’t seen the first two? I don’t mind this from Pixar. It allows them to deal with the situation at hand rather than spending film time dolling out exposition that most viewers will already be aware of.
As for the ending, it was an emotionally powerful, not too predictable, and fitting end that answers an important question about the whole franchise: what happens to the toys when Andy grows up? I felt it slipped into cliché at points, though, which was disappointing for a movie that was original until that point. But they were not too heavily relied upon, and as a family film I guess it can be forgiven.
Overall, Toy Story 3 brings life to an old franchise. It’s an emotionally powerful movie that I felt meandered from its potential somewhat. But it is still an enjoyable and memorable film that all fans of the original films should see, even if they are now detached from the appeal of family fun.
