Toy Story 3 Review - Oh yes!

After being away on holiday to picturesque tat-central of the world Turkey, for a few weeks I have finally seen 'Toy Story 3', I suspected based on Pixar's track record that as reviews had said, it was brilliant, well I'd like to had to that and say, it's even better, it's absolutely brilliant, in fact bar 2 minor niggles, I would say it was perfect.

The niggles: I must confess I do not remember the previous 2 films in the franchise well (other than, I enjoyed them and they're fantastic) but I do remember the villain from the previous one was Stinky Pete, an old timer, and although Lotso(hugginbear) villain in 'TS3' had a different background and look and scheme he did remind me a little too much of him, with walking stick-an'-all. Secondly there is a sequence (of just a few seconds that plays a role in the plot to be fair) where there is a dressing up montage, which to me, seemed out of place and below Pixar. There, I did say they were minor.

Remember back when Pixar started, and they said they wanted to advance animated films (both in terms of genre conventions and depth, but also technology wise) and make great films for everybody. They have continually topped themselves and grown more mature, with always great films. Take their last offering 'Up'. I think it is somewhat overrated, but undeniably great and achieved a new level of emotion from animation and such thematic maturity (it's about getting old!); 'Toy Story 3' really takes this to a new level, and what better characters to do it with then go back to their first film with that beautiful ensemble (that once again all somehow get equal love, even among new characters...my favourite 2 are Ham, and Rex by the way), which we know and love. This is definitely the swansong for these characters, there is a great sense of threat actually, it's intense, the suspense and drama and all the excitement and emotion is cranked to 11. Thematically the movie manages to cover loss of innocence, coming-of-age, getting old, death and the afterlife...and the value of relationships in life (particularly the fascinating relationship between an owner and his toy, a sacred bond), all in its 103 minute running time. It's a lot to get through, and the film is never, boring.

So I covered how deep it is, covered how it advances the genre, covered how emotional it is, covered how well the whole feel throughout the film is, say goodbye to these characters; the whole film is very dense and poetic, a definite work of art. What I haven't said but really goes without saying is how funny it is all along the way, with great but toned down post-modern reference humour. Even better than 'Shrek' with its charming world scattered full of genius ideas. That stuff goes without saying...the film of course hits its mark...to the point of "infinity and beyond", and I'm sure Pixar are the only people truly doing family films these days. Usually we get kids films with some jokes adults will get but kids not likely, or adults films completely, but Pixar have so many layers to their films (the message in here of growing up and putting away childish things is for the adults, the kids are not that old yet), and the humour is funny for everyone, not some for kids, then some for adults. Brilliant.

Now obviously I'm not going to ramble about every little thing, like in such and such a scene the colour scheme evokes X and the music here evokes Y but suffice to say, the movie in every scene is do detailed and carefully crafted, what I will say, that deserves a special mention...is the 3D. This is the first movie I have seen where I was not bothered about the 3D...in the midst of the all round engaging experience of the film, I totally missed all the things that normally bother me about the 3D (most notably the glasses in my peripheral vision disappeared as I could only see this beautiful thing unfold before me in a sort of tunnel-vision). I appreciated the depth of the detailed and colourful picture throughout, and I actually enjoyed the subtle things 3D brought to the table, but almost instantly I had forgotten the 3D was there, thinking back to the picture, I see the 3D element and like it, but the negative points of 3D were just carried away...incredible. I stand by my view on 3D for now, but if it can be used sparingly and to this good-effect then I can accept 3D...hopefully when this silly craze is over, and it will stop being used just for the sake of it, it will just be another tool at a film makers disposal that may or may not be used.

I'm always hesitant to say "perfect", I don't really know what a "perfect movie" would be, but, technically, it should be, faultless, and that's very nearly what 'TS3' is...said niggles aside I would call it perfect. It's the best threequel I can think of. It's the perfect end to the trilogy. It's the evolution of 'Toy Story', it's the evolution of animated films, and once again the evolution of Pixar.