Since I was about seven I have been a fan of Toy Story as a whole. I guess it's because of how memorable each of the characters are, the whole idea behind the movies or how down-to-earth yet fantastical the story is.
The original Toy Story struck the perfect fulcrum between a childrens' movie and an engaging storyline and idea, where toys have a secret life of their own behind our backs and it still stands out as one of the best animated films even to this day.
Toy Story 2 was still a good movie, I just feel something wasn't quite right; it was less memorable than the first, some parts were a bit played up for laughs and it felt slightly "wallbanger" during the second half. I'm not doing this to discredit TS2, as there was still a great cinematic experience underneath the few flaws.
Ten years pass, without much of a furore; Pixar release hits and misses and I feel that at least half of them didn't have that Pixar charm. Monsters Inc., Finding Nemo and The Incredibles did, and were also fantastic. Oh, and Wall-E, I loved the underlying "rebirth of civilisation" theme.
Late 2009/early 2010, the entire world is shocked as the announcement of Toy Story 3 is made. The months running up to the release date felt more and more tense the nearer toward the deadline we were; was it going to be good? How would they make a sequel to the second? Are they aware that the fanbase would gladly gnaw off their own genitals just for a work-in-progress preview?
We reach the debut and theaters are selling out as literal tonnes of Pixar-fan crowd foyers, box offices are selling tickets to multiple parties at a time. Surely panic such as thus is mere hype and rose-tinted spectacles?
Nope. No freaking way was anyone expecting such a perfect final part.
It would only make sense to have the three-quel (deeply apologise for use of that word) set itself ten years after the second. Andy is now 17 and doesn't have time to play with his toys anymore. He is also going to college in less than a week, so he has three options;
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Store his toys in the attic
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Send them to the trash heap
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Donate them to a daycare center
He takes a mere second to decide, then tosses everyone inside a binbag except for Woody, as he wants to take him to college. He is about to take them up to the attic, when he offers to assist his little sister and leaves the bag in the middle of the hall. His mother assumes that it is just trash and takes it out to the curb, where the toys make a narrow escape from being crushed in a garbage truck. They think that since they were left out on the curb that Andy just doesn't care any more, so proceed to climb inside the box bound for the daycare centre where most of the movie takes place. It them turns out that it isn't all it's cracked up to be so decide to try and break out; a deceptively difficult task made no easier by the daycare toys' reluctance to let them leave so early. I'll stop typing out the synopsis to the movie here so I don't spoil anything too big.
The ending is fitting closure to the series; I won't spoil anything, but I will say that it is not only a great ending for me but a perfect send-off of one of the film industries' most influential series to date. And I couldn't have asked for more. I'll miss it, but I know they don't need to make another one, as this is more than enough, and I'm glad to have witnessed it before I inevitably die in some sort of incredible, amazing and mass-destructive explosion (at least I hope so. :3).
10 out of 10 as if you couldn't already figure it out, but does it really need a score?
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