Toy Story 3 Review
If you’ve seen my twitter post on the right you’ll know that I went to see Toy Story 3 at the weekend. More specifically I took my 3 year old to the cinema for the first time. He spent the first 30 minutes with his mouth open staring at the size of the screen. I even went against all my better principles and bought him popcorn so he pretty much stayed still throughout.
So is it a fitting end to the trilogy? (I’ll try and keep as spoiler free as I can)
‘I guess so’ is the short answer.
It’s certainly a lot darker. Whereas the first two were fun and exciting this one feels a lot heavier going. For a start there are genuine moments of peril and hopelessness, when everything is truly lost and they can only await their inevitable fate, the audience being right there with them. Over the last 15 years we’ve grown to love and empathise with these toys, and to see them facing the end with no hope of reprieve is pretty uncomfortable to watch.
Consequently the laughs aren’t as ‘bellyful’ as previous adventures. Sure there’s tons of laughs. Ken (voiced by Michael Keaton) is a work of genius and easily the funniest character in the film. But on the other hand there’s toys that aren’t funny in the slightest and possibly a little bit too ‘evil’. Lotso and Big Baby spring to mind. Buzz even spends half the film being a bit too menacing, so much so that you like him that little bit less; and that’s not a good thing. Any laughs during the middle of the film are drowned out by the whole situation our protagonists are in. It’s kinda like seeing someone slipping on a banana skip at a prisoner-of-war camp.
Plus a few characters really scared my boy, the cymbal clapping monkey for one. It’s supposed to be dark and sinister and it clearly ticks both boxes. If you take a young child to the pictures be prepared for that scene, it’s about two thirds of the way through. Toy Story isn’t supposed to be scary or sad. It’s supposed to be fun and exciting like the second one was; you’re not supposed to watch it with a face like a depressed beagle.
Emotion throughout the film is second to none. You feel exactly what Pixar want you to feel, and the ending will hit you from nowhere. I will be the first to say I had tears rolling down my cheek by the time the credits rolled. It’s for this reason alone that Pixar are the ultimate masters at what they do.
Hell, who else can make a grown man cry over some cartoon toys?
But it’s just the whole tone of the film that brought it down slightly for me. As I said above the emotion was really strong, but it was so strong it was difficult to watch at times.
Perhaps Pixar are getting a bit heavy for themselves? What with Up and now this. Let’s hope Cars 2 and Monsters Inc. 2 go back to the fun and excitement we used to enjoy.
Having said all this it’s still an absolute must see movie. You have to see this film, even if it’s just to get closure. The ending is just so beautifully fitting you will definitely come away happy. It’s a masterly crafted movie and yet again you can see the love and attention to detail poured into every scene.
By the way, the opening short is called ‘Night and Day‘. Still the same awesome quality and story as we’ve come to expect with absolutely no dialogue whatsoever, who says you can’t keep it simple and still be enjoyable.
