Toy Story 3 Review!

The only cliché that can be associated with Pixar films is that they're miles ahead of the rest of the year. Toy Story 3 not only continues the trend, but offers something more than what was expected, and the expectations were pretty high. The film focuses on our favorite toys and what happens when Andy outgrows them to move on to college. Through mistake and free will, they end up at Sunnyside, a daycare facility where they meet hundreds of new toys, including the strawberry scented Lotso-Huggin Bear.

As Woody (Tom Hanks) sets off to reunite with Andy, the toys start to learn that things may not be quite so sunny at Sunnyside. A lesser studio like Dreamworks would take advantage of this for strictly comedic reasons, but Pixar adds some edgy realism to the place and the people there. As the film progresses it takes on the structure of a prison break thriller, and an amazing one at that. In terms of quality, there's The Shawshank Redemption, and then there's Toy Story 3. The action elements of the final act feel a lot more fluid and necessary than those from WALL-E and Up. It's nice to know that whatever few mistakes Pixar has made, they are learning from them.

The production aspect of the film is easily better than that of the first two. The world the toys inhabit feels 100% real at all times, and so do the toys. The design of the characters is so nice that after this film, I want to go out and find all the toys from the movies and keep them as collectibles. They probably wouldn't like me keeping them in a glass case for the rest of their lives, but at least they'll have each other. Randy Newman returns to score the film, and after two other exemplary works, he still hasn't lost his skill. It keeps the film's whimsical nature in check along with the darker elements of this installment.

While the film has its lighter moments, most of which dealing with Buzz (Tim Allen) and Jessie's (Joan Cusack) romantic relationship, it's still far darker than the films that came before it, and that adds so much more weight to the climactic sequence of the film. Unlike many other Pixar films, this one has the characters that we already love facing the prospect of a grisly unfortunate death. Lotso (Ned Beatty) could've turned out exactly like Stinky Pete from the second film, but they give him such an amazing background that really makes you feel for the monster. He may be cute and cuddly on the outside, but Lotso is one of the best, most intimidating villains of all time.

All the voice work from the original cast (Hanks, Allen, Cusack, Don Rickles, Estelle Harris, etc.) is phenomenal as always, but with the slew of new characters, we've got more great voices to add to the heap. Whoopie Goldberg, Bud Luckey, Timothy Dalton, Jeff Garlin, and many others do some great work in minor roles, but the big scene stealer of this film is Michael Keaton as Ken. He's just one of those characters who you can envision being so feministic, and when he finally comes around he surprises you with being even more girly than that.

Director Lee Unkrich and writer Micharl Arndt (Little Miss Sunshine) bring together the final episode of the series with an epic quality to it all. There may be a few predictable throw away jokes ("I don't think those were linkin logs"), but for the most part, the audience was laughing throughout. All of the loose strings are pulled together in the end, and when the climactic scene gets right towards the end, it's probably a good idea to have a tissue box at hand. Pixar finds a way of making us cry about things that we wouldn't normally care about, and where they could've used conventional dialogue to sell the scene, the show emotional arcs of the characters through the actions on screen.

So where does Toy Story 3 rank in the end? The film easily beats out How to Train Your Dragon, several other Pixar classics like Finding Nemo and Ratatouille, and even the first two films in the Toy Story saga. The film lands somewhere at the top of the pile of Pixar films. Anybody who thought that Dragon might get more Oscar attention than this one is saddly mistaken. This film is a lock for a nomination, and depending on the competition through the rest of the year, it may stand a chance at taking the top prize. Stop thinking it's so unlikely.

A+