SCORE- 10/10

Synopsis (Objective)- Andy, now 17 years old, is packing his belongings and setting out for college. He puts all his toys in a black garbage bag, minus one: Woody. But not Buzz. Woody still decides to stick together with his friends and convince them that Andy still loves all of them equally. They end up at a Children’s Daycare where the boss is a pink teddy bear by the name of Lotso who convinces them that that is the best place for a toy and they should be nothing but optimistic about it. Woody doesn’t see it that way and escapes to later find out that Lotso and his Yes Men actually abuse other toys and so he sets out to break back in to rescue his companions.

Synopsis (Subjective)- Andy is getting fucking old. He was too old for toys even when he was 8. He is done with toys and moving on to beer and women…oh, and college. His mom accidentally throws them out which doesn’t really make a difference anyway, because they were still going to be stored in the attic for decades where they would live in misery. Woody feels guilty that he was picked as the only one to go to college with Andy where he would watch him get blowjob after blowjob and wonder what the fuck happened to that perfect little boy. So the toys end up in a Daycare where we meet a purple Teddy Bear by the name of Lotso, and we already know he is going to be trouble. We are right. So Woody tries to save his friends and the rest is history.

BC- When I first heard about Toy Story 3, I simply said ‘why’? That is the same ‘why’ I asked when first hearing of a sequel to Batman Begins. How could it get any better? It can and it did. Toy Story 3 was like The Return of the King of the Toy Story Trilogy. It had everything the first two movies had but with a sense of maturity that is only made possible by the first two movies themselves; not taking away anything from them. But, maturity is what I desire in an animated movie. Let’s face it, kids experience animated movies and can’t understand the real conflicts, but adults can. They see past the toys and the cuteness and see what adults themselves (the writers, directors, etc.) have created: A world where, because of its infinite fiction, there are no boundaries, which can ultimately lead to pretentiousness put in to the wrong hands (French New Wave) nor is there even mortality. If they chose to rip Woody into little itty bitty pieces, well you could just sew him back up. It is about the soul of these characters. Them being toys is only something that is done for entertainment. That is their shell and that shell is much more entertaining then the human one. Adults are somewhat or fully conscious about this and they remain interested because that toy could be anything…Their dog, kids, best friend or even themselves. 

Anyway, I feel that Toy Story 3 is on the same level of The Lion King and Ratatouille. All movies that are entertaining, philosophical, dark, lighthearted, humorous and have endings that can tear right through you.

Toy Story 3 is written by Michael Arndt, who won the Oscar for writing the oh-so-witty yet very deep, Little Miss Sunshine. He uses similar techniques in Toy Story 3 that he used in Little Miss Sunshine that apparently work really well if you have any sense of emotion. He likes showing a character’s isolation from the world and their contrast with other characters. You want to slap some of his characters silly sometimes but tend to forgive them at the end just because they were so damn well written (i.e. Paul Dano’s character, Wayne in Little Miss Sunshine).

All in all, Toy Story 3 had EVERYTHING you could possibly ask for in an animated movie. There was not a dull scene for me in the entire movie. And the end…well, let’s just say that I consider that to be one of the most depressing, yet, ‘had to happen’ scenes I have ever seen. Watch it and be blown away.

p.s. I am not kidding when I say that I feel very sorry for people who can’t see how an animated movie can be so effective. They are amongst us and they sadden me more than the people who think just because a movie or a movie’s character is based off of a comic book that it is not worthy of an Oscar (The Dark Knight). Pure bullshit.