Toy Story 3

Director: Lee Unkrich

Screenplay: Michael Arndt & John Lasseter

Stars: Tom Hanks (Woody), Tim Allen (Buzz Lightyear), Joan Cusack (Jessie), Ned Beatty (Lotso), Don Rickles (Mr. Potato Head), Michael Keaton (Ken), Wallace Shawn (Rex), John Ratzenberger (Hamm), Estelle Harris (Mrs. Potato Head), John Morris (Andy), Jodi Benson (Barbie), Emily Hahn (Bonnie), Laurie Metcalf (Andy’s Mom), Blake Clark (Slinky Dog), Teddy Newton (Chatter Telephone)

MPAA Rating: G

Year of Release: 2010

Country: U.S.

Toy Story 3, the tenth film from Pixar, is a fitting capstone to the pioneering computer animation studio’s first decade and a half of feature film production, which is virtually unrivaled in cinema history in terms of consistent quality of output. John Lasseter and his team of writers, directors, and animators have shown again and again that the marriage of technology and good storytelling are the cornerstones of great filmmaking, and each of their films is a unique reminder of how the best children’s entertainment cuts through age barriers by evoking the kind of emotion, imagination, and sense of adventure that is universally understandable. Toy Story 3 follows in that tradition, particularly in the way it brings full-circle its story about how the wonders of childhood and the realities of growing up don’t have to cancel each other out, but are rather mutually rewarding facets of life.

Like all the best sequels, Toy Story 3 builds upon and deepens the characters, relationships, and themes that fueled the previous entries in the series (1995’s Toy Story and 1999’s Toy Story 2) while also making its own unique mark. In this case, credited screenwriters Michael Arndt (Little Miss Sunshine) and John Lasseter (the Pixar honcho who co-wrote and directed the first film) borrow facets from the previous two films and stitch them together with a series of clever new story elements and characters to create something that feels new and fresh, yet also comfortably familiar. It helps that all of the voice talent that created the characters are back, with the exception of Jim Varney, the voice of Slinky Dog, who passed away in 2000 (his duties are ably taken over by veteran stand-up comic and character actor Blake Clark). Thus, it is easy to slide right back into the unfolding narrative, despite the fact that more than a decade has passed since Toy Story 2.

That passage of time, however, turns out to be one of the film’s greatest assets, as Arndt and Lasseter use it as the story’s emotional and thematic core. After all, it has been 15 years now since young Andy (voiced by John Morris) was a rambunctious tyke playing with his toys, and when Toy Story 3 opens, he is mere days from going to college. All of his childhood playthings, including the floppy cowboy Woody (Tom Hanks), the spaceman Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen), the cowgirl Jessie (Joan Cusack), Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head (Don Rickles and Estelle Harris), the plastic piggy bank Hamm (John Ratzenberger), and the anxious dinosaur Rex (Wallace Shawn), have been relegated to a toy chest that is rarely, if ever, opened. With Andy about to leave, the toys are hoping, at best, that they will be safely stored away in the attic, but the threat of demise in the form of being “thrown away” is imminent, which reminds us of the darker elements of the original Toy Story and the frightening nightmare sequence in Toy Story 2 when Woody dreamed of being discarded, all of which underscores the series’ powerful undercurrents of life and death.

As it turns out, the toys are accidentally donated to Sunnyside, a daycare center where everyone except Woody embraces the impending joys of being played with day in and day out (after years of neglect in the dark of the toy chest, they can’t wait to fulfill their roles again). Woody, whose dedication to Andy is endearing, but also indicative of his stubbornness, insists that they are Andy’s toys and they must get back, but he ends up being the only one to leave. Meanwhile, the other toys are all too easily seduced by the warm welcome of the other daycare center toys, whose leader, a pink, plushy teddy bear named Lots-o’ Huggin’ Bear (Ned Beatty, doing his best Hal Holbrook impersonation), uses grandfatherly hospitality to mask something dark and bitter and cruelly manipulative. They soon find to their horror that they have been relegated to the room for toddlers, who treat the toys with a brutal lack of care that leaves them battered, beaten, and marked all over with everything from pens to temper paint.

Thus, it is eventually up to Woody to return and help them concoct a plan to escape the fortress-like daycare center, which humorously and effectively calls to mind the taut suspense of war thrillers like The Great Escape (1967) and the intricacies of Mission: Impossible-style espionage. Of course, one of the hallmarks of the Toy Story series has been its sly and clever incorporation of familiar cinematic motifs, but always in a way that feels thrilling and original, rather than derivative, which Toy Story 3 does with great aplomb, especially when it draws us into a fiery climax at a waste incinerator that produces more genuine suspense and tension than all the other summer movies combined (the fact that the film makes you fear for the lives of these toys is testament to its narrative power and emotional pull).

Ultimately, Toy Story 3 works not because of any individual scene or particular character, but rather because it fits so neatly with the previous films and provides such a moving coda for these characters we have grown to know and love. While the first Toy Story was more of a buddy movie and the second one was about finding your place in the world, Toy Story 3 is most of all about togetherness, with the toys truly pulling together as a makeshift family. Moreso than in the previous movies, the “secondary” toys like Rex and Hamm and the Potato Heads feel like more central characters, rather than comical supporting cast members, which makes the film’s moments of danger and the threats of being separated all the more vital. For all the sound and fury of its action sequences, which are technical tours de force in their own right, the film is at its best in the quiet moments that bring it to its close, which find a perfectly pitched means of melding past, present, and future that will tug at the heartstrings of anyone who knows the bittersweet joys of growing up and leaving childhood behind without losing the magic, innocence, and imagination that goes with it.

Toy Story 3 DVD + Blu-Ray + Digital Copy 4-Disc Combo Pack

Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
Audio	English DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 surround French Dolby Digital EX 5.1 surround Spanish Dolby Digital EX 5.1 surround
Subtitles	English, French, Spanish
Supplements	DVD/Blu-Ray Supplements Day & Night short film “Toys!” featurette Buzz Lightyear Mission Logs: The Science of Adventure NASA animation documentary “Paths to Pixar: Editorial” featurette “The Gang’s All Here” featurette “A Toy’s Eye View: Creating A Whole New Land” featurette “Studio Stories” featurettes: “Where’s Gordon?,” “Cereal Bar,” and “Clean Start” Blu-Ray Exclusive Supplements Toy Story Trivia Dash game Cine-Explore illustrated commentary by director Lee Unkrich and producer Darla K. Anderson. Beyond the Toybox commentary by story supervisor Jason Katz, supervising technical director Guido Quaroni, production designer Bob Pauley, and supervising animators Bobby Podesta and Michael Venturini. “Beginnings: Setting A Story In Motion” featurette “Bonnie’s Playtime: A Story Roundtable” featurette “Roundin’ Up a Western Opening” featurette “Life of a Shot” featurette “Goodbye Andy” featurette “Accidental Toymakers” featurette “Making of Day & Night” featurette Promo clips TV commercials Theatrical trailers Poster gallery
Distributor	Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment
SRP	$45.99
Release Date	November 2, 2010

VIDEO & AUDIO
Not a whole lot to say here since the audio and video on this Blu-Ray are about as good as I’ve ever seen--not that that should come as any surprise to anyone who has watched any of Disney/Pixar’s other high-def discs. The 1080p/AVC-encoded image is a direct digital port and has a beautiful sense of depth and texture to it; it is interesting to compare just how far the technologies have come in rendering photorealistic detail since the first movie in 1995. Colors are gorgeous and contrast is spot-on, which is not surprising given that they used the entire BD-50 for the movie and saved the supplements for a second Blu-Ray disc. The DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 surround soundtrack is likewise top-notch, with great directionality and sonic detail, especially in the hectic scenes at the day care center and during the “Great Escape.”
SUPPLEMENTS
The supplements in this four-disc set are spread across both the DVD and a second Blu-Ray disc. On the DVD we get Day & Night, the sweet and clever short film by director Teddy Newton that played before Toy Story 3 during its theatrical run. Several of the featurettes explore the production of the film itself: “Toys!” is an interesting featurette that look at the process of coming up with so many new toys for the third installment, while “Paths to Pixar: Editorial” features interviews with past and present Pixar editors and “The Gang’s All Here” focuses on both the returning and new voice talent. As with the discs for Toy Story and Toy Story 2, there is an episode of Buzz Lightyear Mission Logs: The Science of Adventure, an educational co-production with NASA in which Buzz visits the International Space Station and explores research in zero gravity. “A Toy’s Eye View: Creating a Whole New Land” offers a sneak peak at the new Toy Story-themed playland at Hong Kong Disneyland, and we also get three more Studio Stories, the recurring series of animated anecdotes about working at Pixar. The Blu-Ray disc offers a significant array of additional supplements, starting with the Cine-Explore viewing option, which includes screen-specific commentary by director Lee Unkrich and producer Darla K. Anderson that is accompanied by a picture-in-picture display that allows us to see storyboards, concept art, behind-the-scenes footage, and the like. For even more information about the technical side of things, there is alternate audio commentary called “Beyond the Toybox” that features story supervisor Jason Katz, supervising technical director Guido Quaroni, production designer Bob Pauley, and supervising animators Bobby Podesta and Michael Venturini. There are also a half-dozen additional making-of featurettes, most of which run six to eight minutes in length. “Roundin’ Up a Western Opening” explores the development of the movie’s opening scene, which was originally intended to be an homage to Sergio Leone, while “Life of a Shot” gives us quick snippets from more than 20 of the artists and technicians who contributed to the film’s opening. In “Bonnie’s Playtime: A Story Roundtable,” Unkrich sits down for a roundtable discussion with the three story artists who helped to create this crucial scene, which was one of the most difficult for the filmmakers. And, speaking of writing, screenwriter Michael Arndt offers an intriguing and concise summary of how to write a Pixar film in “Beginnings: Setting a Story in Motion” by comparing the similar narrative structures and thematic elements in the opening sequences from Toy Story, Finding Nemo, and The Incredibles. “Goodbye Andy” explores the character design, acting, and animation in the film’s final scene, and “Accidental Toymakers” introduces us to the toy company that makes the real-life versions of Buzz, Woody, and the others. Finally, there is a brief making-of featurette about Day & Night and a new BD-Live-powered game called Toy Story Trivia Dash. There is also a sizable section on the disc labeled “Publicity” that includes commercials, promotional making-of videos, character intros, a poster gallery, and several theatrical trailers.

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Overall Rating: (4)