ALL THINGS MUST PASS: a review of "Toy Story 3"

“TOY STORY 3” Directed by Lee Unkrich
A Pixar Animation Studios Film
*** ½ (three and a half stars)

Dear readers, we have now officially reached the mid point of our movie going year. Unfortunately, I have to say that the cinematic selections presented to all of us, as a whole, have been desperately lacking. My announcement tends to be a somewhat standard complaint I have concerning each movie year as I am consistently unable to understand why the films of the very best quality tend to be released between November and December. Qualifications for Oscar season notwithstanding, it is unfathomable as to why cinematic greatness cannot be spread around more than it typically is. 2010 is sadly no exception to the norm and in fact, this summer’s offerings have been painfully weak. The terrible glut of remakes, empty sequels, and uninspired material, entirely devoid of originality, enthusiasm and creativity has been disheartening, to say the least.

Of course, there have been a number of films released this year that I have enjoyed and endorsed whole-heartedly but it is saying something when the very best live action feature length selection I have seen this year was found on free television! Furthermore, I am equally astonished that the most humane films of the year so far have both been computer generated animated features. The first was the extraordinary “How To Train Your Dragon,” and the second is “Toy Story 3,” the latest gift from the wizards at Pixar Animation Studios. This joyfully presented feature is another rare sequel that (mostly) gets everything so right and continues to extend its universe in so many surprising, touching and extremely challenging ways that I was again amazed that these artists have been able to accomplish and repeat this level of greatness.

The film opens on a note of delicate bittersweetness as young toy owner Andy is now 17 years old and days away from leaving home to head off for college. The beloved toys of his childhood, including Woody (Tom Hanks) and Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen), remain in his room but for quite some time have lain dormant in Andy’s toy chest, due to the inactivity that occurs when children perform the inevitable task of growing older. With Andy’s imminent departure, it is, of course, time to perform some house cleaning. Andy’s Mom has prepared a series of boxes and garbage bags, all designed for Andy to figure out which of his belongings will be stored in the attic, donated to a nearby day care or thrown into the garbage to be lost forever—a decision which undoubtedly causes all of the toys tremendous anxiety. Despite the loss of Wheezy the penguin and Little Bo Peep to previous family yard sales, faithful-to-the-end Woody reasons that Andy would definitely intend to keep them all in the attic, to potentially be played with again when he has his own children. Yet, this is a sentiment the remaining toys, including Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head (Don Rickles and Estelle Harris), Cowgirl Jessie (Joan Cusack), Hamm the piggy bank (John Ratzenberger) and Rex (Wallace Shawn), are not as emotionally secure to believe.

Through a series of jointly hilarious and nail biting events, Woody is destined to accompany Andy to college while the rest are indeed destined to exist in the attic—but, somehow, end up in a garbage bag by the curb for trash pick-up! Woody’s rescue attempt succeeds but ultimately derails the toy crew from Andy’s home and leads them to be donated to the Sunnyside Day Care center, where the possibility of being played with by the preschoolers of the Butterfly Room once again fills their plastic spirits. Yet, upon meeting the duplicitous strawberry scented toy bear kingpin Lotso (voiced by Ned Beatty) and his disturbing baby doll henchman, our toy heroes quickly discover that life at Sunnyside is a dark and dangerous affair as they have all been relegated to the Caterpillar Room, home to toddlers whose developmentally destructive play leaves them all run through the ringer. The nights are even worse under Lotso’s tyrannical rule, as the toys are placed in caged toy bins and unruly toys are dispatched to the covered playground sandbox. The toys quickly decide to plot their escape and return to Andy, a task made even more difficult under the watchful and ever present security eye of the cymbal-bashing monkey!

With the very best films I have reviewed for you, to reveal much more about the hows and whys of the plot would be unfair and would ruin the consistent delight on display. The emotional drama of “Toy Story 3” is set up immediately and executed with the genius of storytelling and technological skill that we have come to expect from a Pixar feature. But, somehow, by the film’s mid point, I was not completely sold. While there is nothing in “Toy Story 3” that would constitute an outright creative stumble, I do have to admit that there were a few quibbles I had with the film that decidedly began to slightly hinder the experience, and produce a bit of seat shifting during its somewhat padded midsection.

The escape sequence, while beautifully fashioned like a classic slapstick heist picture, does indeed go on a bit too long, with its multi-part sections and wide array of characters who all demand a certain level of screen time. The satirical romance between Barbie (voiced by Jodi Benson)and Ken (voiced by Michael Keaton) also feels a bit over-stuffed, which makes some of the humor lose its initial bite. Most of all, and very surprisingly, I was not expecting the film to contain a level of pop culture jokes that is more than typical of a Pixar feature. While not wall-to-wall by any means, the amount was enough where at times, “Toy Story 3” felt a little less like a Pixar motion picture but perhaps one that was created and released through the Dreamworks Animation studios, the creative team that has released the lucrative and pop-culture driven “Shrek” series.

Perhaps after so effectively challenging audiences, as well as themselves, and attaining new artistic heights that raised the bar for all other American animated features through “Ratatouille” (2007), “Wall-E” (2008) and “Up” (2009), it would not be unfair to wonder if the Pixar creative team decided to simply return to the well and just create a feature that was purely entertaining. In fact, it would be highly understandable because they have more than earned the luxury. That said, for all of its artistry and entertainment contained throughout with its extremely funny, brisk, breezy and light pace, I couldn’t help myself but to wonder if “Toy Story 3” was possibly a bit too light for its own good.

But then, the toys arrive at a landfill…

Before I go any further with the third installment, I wanted to return for a moment to the second installment of this wonderful series. I feel that the moment when Pixar truly arrived and announced itself as a creative entity willing to not only go the extra mile in visual presentation but in storytelling conception was during the sorrowful sequence where Cowgirl Jessie recounts the tale of how she was loved and discarded by her former owner. As I sat watching that film for the very first time, witnessing Jessie’s evolution and ultimate pain set to that melancholy Sarah MacLachlan selection, I began to feel myself choking up at this toy’s dilemma, a feeling which I then began to laugh at myself because I was so emotionally wrapped up in the odyssey of this plastic object. After a time, I realized how the journey of these toys have been utilized to mirror the human condition itself, and how could I not feel sad for Jessie as we have all experienced the pleasures and heartbreaks of loving and losing that love.

For “Toy Story 3,” the Pixar filmmakers have effectively tended to the seeds planted in that earlier sequence by essentially creating a film about our collective life cycle, with aging and mortality, at the core. All of the characters, from toy to human, are experiencing the painful steps to the next phases of their lives. Andy’s Mom faces her first-born leaving her home. Andy’s is on the precipice of adulthood, effectively leaving childhood passions behind. And then, there are the toys, not ready to stop playing and being played with. What is the Sunnyside Day Care Center to the toys but a mirror of the human elderly communities’ view of a retirement village perhaps? It is a final resting place before the final resting place, and the anxiety produced in these sequences in palpable.

As I have previously stated, the final third of “Toy Story 3” begins at the sight of a landfill and it is at this point where all of the themes of this entire series come to a head and produces a sequence of stunning and unquestionable peril for our heroes. That lightness that was beginning to almost undermine this experience is washed away immediately during this uncompromisingly harrowing, and profound sequence. Without going into any details, the existential crisis at the heart of the series, for the toys and human characters for that matter, is placed center stage, forcing us all to take a few moments to ponder our collective existence and inevitable outcomes and the effect is daring, intense and sobering. I have to applaud the filmmakers for allowing themselves to go to this place, almost providing the audience a sense of pause to question, ponder, and fully take in the fragile nature of our collective existence.

And then, with a sprinkle of magic that is Pixar's trademark, the film rebounds into more light-footed comic action and then, effortlessly segues into a final sequence featuring Andy, that brings the film and series as a whole, full circle with a bittersweetness that dangles ever so tenderly into heartbreak. There were many audible adult sniffles and sobs in the audience I saw it with and I am certain that "Toy Story 3" will leave many more adults dabbing at their eyes and the adults to be will likely do the same in the future.

The filmmakers, artists and storytellers of Pixar have consistently expanded the notion and possibilities of what "children's entertainment" can be and they have achieved this feat once again with "Toy Story 3." I urge you to not let my very slight reservations towards this new chapter deter you from reuniting with Woody, Buzz and the entire "Toy Story" gang or to even allow you to feel that the overall quality has been diminished. This is a reunion well worth having.

For all of the fantastical adventures and high comedy these toys endure, it is their humanity that shines brightest through all three feature films. Their familial bonds and collective sense of loyalty, duty and love for each other, as well as Andy, gives the "Toy Story" series a sense of wonderment that is rare in modern Hollywood. The series, in my mind, has even reached a new and higher philosophical level as "Toy Story 3" quite possibly asks of us to ponder if these inanimate objects actually do possess spirits and souls simply because we have loved them and have intertwined our lives with them.

"Toy Story 3" is yet another masterful achievement from Pixar's astonishingly high level of film releases and frankly, it should serve as a lesson to all of the live action filmmakers glutting our theaters with one sub par feature after another.

If you are going to bother making a sequel, then THIS is how you do it!!