Friday, January 7, 2011

Recent Rewatch - Toy Story 3

I watched Toy Story 3 right around the time it hit theaters.  It was my second movie of the night and I did not start watching it until fairly late, so I thought part of the reason I was not impressed might have been due to tiredness.  This is partially true because I definitely felt more engaged during the second viewing and I know I laughed more particularly in response to a tortilla-faced Mr. Potato Head and a Spanish-speaking Buzz.  I will even agree to experiencing a few heart-warming feelings when the toys accept meeting their end together and when Andy leaves behind the toys responsible for so many childhood memories as he enters adulthood.  It's a bittersweet acknowledgement of their importance to him and the inevitability of growing up. I can appreciate the final moments of the film and believe the growing up experience to be relatable to the masses.

At the same time, I have to say TS3 is no Up!, it's no Beauty and the Beast, no Lion King, it may not even be as good as the first Toy Story or How to Train Your Dragon for that matter.  My point is I do not believe Toy Story 3 is the greatest animated film of all time.  It was a good ending to a great story, but it did not have the emotional depth that Up! gave us in the form Carl and Ellie's love story, their disappointments and greatest moments that defined a love one could never get over even through death.  Nor does it provide a heroine as beautiful and intelligent as Belle or a grief and shame as deep as Simba's.  When animation provides a story with great emotional intelligence and beauty it deserves all the praise one can heap upon it.  I get that some people felt this deeply about Toy Story 3, I just wasn't one of them.

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