Title: Toy Story 3
Release Date: June 18, 2010
Director: Lee Unkrich
Production Company: Walt Disney Pictures | Pixar Animation Studios
Summary/Review:
At it’s heart, this movie is a love letter to the generation who watched Toy Story as children and were now young adults going out on their own. I was not part of this generation but nevertheless also found this movie ostensibly for children to be one of the best reflections on mortality in a movie. I took my then 3-year-old to see Toy Story 3, the first time I watched a new movie in this series as a parent. The toys’ experience in this movie is also analogous to the feeling of being a parent who is no longer needed as the child grows up.
Now that I’ve covered the sweetness and light, I should also note that Toy Story 3 can be straight up terrifying. Lotso and his henchmen running a daycare as a prison camp is intense. Big Baby and the monkey are super freaky. And it is nightmarish when the toys appear to face imminent destruction in an incinerator. It’s best to NOT watch this with young children.
The final scene when Andy gives his toys to Bonnie and plays with them one last time is perfection. I find it impossible not to cry. I also appreciate that Andy is sensitive, sentimental, and good with young children, qualities rarely seen in movie depictions of teenage boys. Toy Story is a perfect movie and Toy Story 3 is almost as good, with the perfect ending.
Or is it?
Rating: ****
Panorama of the Mountains 