Third Time's a Charm

Pixar has done it again. Toy Story 3 is another outstanding film, continuing the particularly hot streak I think the studio has had going with Up and WALL-E.

The most clever thing about this newest sequel is that, while they could have chosen to simply freeze this computer-generated world in time and rejoin it right where things last left off, they chose to acknowledge the passage of time in the real world by having the story pick up after more than a decade has gone by. Just as the kids who saw the first two Toy Story films have grown up, so has Andy, the owner of Woody, Buzz, and the rest of the gang. He's heading off to college, and our heroes have to come to terms with a possible life in storage in the attic, or being given away, or maybe just being thrown in the garbage. It's really serious subject matter for what you might expect to be such a light film, and never once does it feel like the movie shies away from presenting the tale with complete emotional truth, even knowing there will be plenty of young kids in the audience.

Of course, just because things get occasionally dark doesn't mean the movie doesn't bring the funny too. There are plenty of smart jokes in the film, and loads of nostalgia too, by way of the new toys that appear. After the movie was over, my friends and I were swapping stories... "my family had a phone just like that!" ... "my sister totally had a creepy fat baby like that!" Not to mention the most jaw-dropping and inspired use of the "Barrel of Monkeys" I could possibly imagine.

The voice work is top notch. Along with all the returning cast from the earlier movies, Ned Beatty does great work as the main villain of the piece, and Michael Keaton is fantastic as Ken (of "Barbie and..." fame). And in a sweet bit of continuity, the now-going-to-college Andy is voiced by the same person who, as a boy, provided Andy's voice in the first two films.

The animation in this film is really the best yet in any Pixar film. There are several amazing sequences with more action on the screen than the eye can possibly take in all at once. The humans are far less stylized than they were in previous films, and yet still completely credible. In particular, the work on one of the young children (Bonnie) is outstanding; she feels like a real kid.

The conclusion of the film packs a powerful emotional punch. I'd say it doesn't quite measure up to that amazing opening of Up, but it's still strong enough to easily place this film as the best of the Toy Story series, in my opinion. I rate it an A.