Toy Story 3 (2010 review)

5 out of 5

The great thing about sequels, when they work, is that since you’ve known the characters you’re emotionally invested in their journey.  Toy Story 3 clicks so well because we’ve seen these characters grow, which is odd considering most of them are ageless plastic and all of them are computer animated.  This movie could be seen as the logical end of the franchise or a new beginning.  It’s a third instalment in a movie that happens to be as good as its predecessors, which is an even bigger rarity.

The toy’s of Andy’s room, Buzz Lightyear (voiced by Tim Allen), Woody (Tom Hanks), Mr. & Mrs. Potato Head (Don Rickles and Estelle Harris), Rex (Wallace Shawn), Hamm (John Ratzenberger), Jessie (Joan Cusack), Slinky (Blake Clark, taking over for the late Jim Varney) are confronted with a cold inevitability: Andy has grown up and is leaving for college.  Faced with a life in the attic or the horrors of the garbage dump, the toys, along with straggler Barbie (Jodi Benson), accidentally end up at a children’s day care, which is overseen by the seemingly benevolent Lotso (short for Lots-O’-Huggin’-Bear and voiced by Ned Beatty).  In reality, Lotso coldly rules the daycare with goons like an angry baby doll, a few action toys, and Ken (Michael Keaton).  Now Woody has to escape back to Andy’s house and save his friends before they’re all destroyed by the rough play of the toddlers.

All of the returning vocal regulars are fantastic.  Allen’s Buzz Lightyear is a highlight of almost every scene, and that it’s shocking that the usually mediocre Tim Allen can turn in such a delightful performance.  The movie gets him back to his original, factory-set delusional space-ranger mode quickly which may seem a bit easy, but Buzz is at his most entertaining when he thinks he is a man from outer space. Also the script manages to twist Buzz into a fairly good heavy for a few scenes.  Woody is a sturdy leader who is prone to fits of extreme agitation, and the fact he’s so likeable has a lot of to with Hanks’ performance. 

The rest of the toys are great side characters who always provide a laugh, with the stand-out being Raztenberger’s piggy-bank version of Cliff Claven who has some of the movie’s best lines (his casual claim to Barbie’s corvette after she is carelessly thrown away is pure gold).   The animation and voice acting for Barbie is hilariously expressive and makes her one of the movie’s surprisingly funniest characters.  Ken is a hoot as the clothes-loving doll that can’t quite cut it with the rough-and-tumble world of Lotso’s henchmen.  One of the movie’s best scenes is a bit between Barbie and Ken when she watches him model and it’s hilariously over-the-top silly.  As for the other new characters, Lotso is similar to the Prospector from Toy Story 2 but he makes for an interesting villain who has created a world based around his own wounded pride.  The grown-up Andy has more depth in his few scenes than the happy-go-lucky kid of the earlier movies. He feels pangs of nostalgia as he puts away his toys, and his emotional connection to them pays off excellently in the movie’s final scene.

If you watch all the Toy Story movies you can see how Pixar grew more visually elaborate as the series unfolded.  Toy Story 3 has a lot of flourish that it earns the 3D format instead of feeling like a cynical cash crab.  A recurring theme in the series is the perspective of a little toy in a big world, and there are a lot of inventive tricks to make the real world seem treacherous.  The sequence set in a garbage dump turns an incinerator into something out of the firey depths of Hell.  Probably one of the movie’s most hilarious sequences is when the toddlers in the day care start playing with the new toys and just bash and drool all over them like little insane creatures.  Speaking of insane creatures, it’s only in the movie for a few moments, but Lotso has a cymbal bashing monkey that monitors the nightly activities of the toys, and his screeching warning reaction is hilariously demented.  In fact, in all the movies the toys go through some incredibly violent actions, but it’s all really goofy and very funny because they’re stuffed and made of plastic.  Like all toys, they get smacked around a lot. 

You can go through this movie almost scene-by-scene and find something awesome and endearing or heartfelt about everything.  It is kind of astounding the track-record that Pixar animation has year after year of making quality entertainment that clicks for both adults and kids.  But it’s very simple really; these are entertaining and likable characters in excellently paced movies that look spectacular.  Toy Story 3 is another winner and a welcome return for old friends we didn’t even know we missed.