A movie about toys that can truly offer something meaningful to everyone.

Rating: 8/10 (28 June 2010)

First and foremost Toy Story 3 is about toys, as deftly explained in the title. However, Pixar has managed to create a movie that can offer humor and emotion, and I mean honest and heartfelt emotion and witty humor, to a person of any age.
In Toy Story 3 toys are used as metaphors for loss and inevitability, but also redemption, and of course, being toys, for humor. Andy, our half-protagonist, has grown up and is leaving for college. Andy's childhood toys are becoming more uncertain of the future, and what will happen to them after Andy is gone.
Something that has always bugged me about Pixar movies is that the main problem that is overcome is always created by an accident that leaves mistaken assumptions within the main characters who then act to return to the way things were on those assumptions. I'm happy that Toy Story 3 has managed to have that same occurrence without it being the motivation behind the whole story.
The evil villain is a teddy bear suffering from rejection. The evil in Toy Story 3 is the result of a toy's loss and rejection by replacement. Without being preachy Toy Story 3 shows that most evil isn't because a person, or toy, is evil at heart, it's because someone is suffering from rejection or loss, and that suffering has led to darker and more hateful actions.
Toy Story 3 is one of the not so rare but rarely wonderful movies that attempts to pull off being both comical and serious, with neither one overshadowing the other. Toy Story 3 pulls this of fantastically. Humor is there, and it's always funny without being cheesy and without being one-sided, which is something I've always admired about Pixar's films. The humor is humorous for people of all ages without loss to one age demographic or another.
I have to mention the way Pixar crafted the unique personality of each and every toy. There aren't any stereotypes here, and if there are they were meant to be stereotypical. Each toy that speaks is a deep and complex character, and that character is suited to how the toy is apparent in real life. Ken and Barbie are hilarious, the villain's Henchmen aren't just evil figures but have personalities, and the villainous teddy bear himself isn't just straight evil for the purpose of having a villain. All the characters seem like real thinking people, real thinking toys.
In the end, Toy Story 3 manages to be entertaining, heartfelt, deep, and hilarious, all from a story about kids toys. However Pixar does what it does, it's done very, very well.