Toy Story 3

When a movie appears to be universally popular it is very easy to get swept away with popular opinion, it is just as easy to rebel against the zeitgeist and unfairly bash it. I struggle to do either with Toy Story 3.

Andy is now seventeen and his toys have spent years shut away in a chest in his bedroom, their numbers somewhat depleted from the earlier movies. The toys only desire is to be loved and played with by their owner but as Andy prepares for college their future appears to be in the loft (that’s the attic for American readers). A mishap sends them to a different destination and starts an adventure that could be their last.

Don’t get me wrong, it is a good movie, a very good movie but it isn’t a great one. My first and main criticism is that I have seen it all before in the first two movies. The only new element is Andy’s growing up and leaving home, I am sure all parents will relate it but the toys going on a journey and triumphing over adversity offers little new. Although well trodden ground it is extremely well handled particularly the prison-break movie setup and the numerous movie references.

To make what is essentially a kids movie fifteen years after the original could have gone horribly wrong as it’s target audience will have grown up by now, it gets away with it as just like the first two movies there is enough going on to keep adults happy as well. For that reason it never was just a kids movie and that is what gives it such a large demographic encompassing everyone from kids to the parents of kids who saw the first movie. This will have the studio laughing all the way to the bank. I have gotten this far without mentioning the 3D, there is a good reason for this, the best thing I can say about the 3D is that it wasn’t that noticeable. The sooner this fad passes the better.

The most simple conclusion I can draw is that it is a good movie that follows the “if it isn’t broken….” philosophy of filmmaking, this means most viewers will feel exactly the same way about this movie as they will about the first two movies.

Four Stars out of Five

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