Toy Story 3 (2010, G)

Rating: Null/10 (3 November 2010)

"Toy Story 3" has plenty of action, adventure, and fun once it gets going, but even better is the overall effect of nostalgia for the viewer. Comedy films like to make fun of these types of childhood experiences, and no doubt they do have a comical side especially through the perspective of adults; for example, Rick Moranis is memorable playing with action figure dolls in a scene in "Spaceballs". "Toy Story 3" gives playtime scenarios a positive and tear-jerking spin with high hopes of lifting them from comedy into important individual and educational experiences. However, the catch is that most of the movie is a parallel adventure played out by the toys themselves. Having the toys come to life is not quite as annoying as in other films. It actually makes sense from the perspective of a hypothetical game scenario that a kid would likely make up.
Andy, 17 years old now, is past playing such games and leaves his toys untouched in a toy box. He keeps the box around at his age mainly for the requirements of the plot, and we can imagine the writers had a difficult time figuring out how to begin the third of these "Toy Story" movies. They start with an flashback to Andy's toys in full lifelike visual effects, which seems right out of a segment for a modern video game. Andy lets some of the toy characters behave based on their inherent persona's, but some of them he creates himself, such as giving a piggy bank, Hamm (John Ratzenberger), an evil nature as the ultimate bad guy of his stories. Woody (Tom Hanks), Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen), and associates are the main good guys.
But these are short lived events as we flash forward to Andy's grown up concerns about college. His toys quickly downgrade from a hope to play with him again to a hope that he will store them in the attic rather throw them in the trash. Is this a slight metaphor for keeping the fruits of our childhood visions alive? Well, the toys see their role as servants to any future need Andy might have for them, but an attic isn't very entertaining, so the toys get sent to Sunnyside daycare in the hopes they may be of interest to a new generation of kids. They won't. The toys get sent to a play room for toddlers, who have no imagination and only bang the toys into things and rip them apart. The kids might as well have a bunch of rocks to roll around since they certainly aren't getting any benefit out of elaborately designed toys.
Woody (Tom Hanks) tries to convince the rest of Andy's toys to break out of the place and to live in peace in Andy's attic, but they are skeptical. They think Andy was about to throw them in the trash and they want new kids to play with them. Woody escapes by himself, but a young girl, Bonnie, finds him and takes him to her house. Woody enjoys his games with her, but her toys (including a theater porcupine, Mr. Pricklepants, who shushes the other toys so he can stay in character) inform him that Sunnyside isn't sunny and his friends are in trouble. A big purple and strawberry smelling bear, named "Lots-O'-Huggin' Bear" or "Lotso" (Ned Beatty), who rides in the back of a toy truck and walks with a cane like Yoda, is actually a menacing warden over Sunnyside daycare. He loves to give hugs, but he also likes to send the newbies (toys, that is) to the toddler playroom (named Caterpillar Room) and keep them prisoner at night so they won't try to escape. He creates an oligarchy of toys in which his elderly elite get to play with the older kids (in the Butterfly Room), who actually use them as intended and imagine them in more sophisticated games.
The escape sequences are the most adventuresome and funny parts of the movie. Lotso marshals his forces to keep the new toys in line. His long time enforcer is Big Baby, but he also has Ken (Michael Keaton), an octopus (Whoopi Goldberg), and roving trucks on his side. His newest addition is Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen), who he reboots to a default military mode (stripping him of his former identity) by reading his instructional manual. At one point Buzz gets reset into Spanish mode, turning into a romantic. Ken entertains Barbie by modeling clothes. He has a soft spot for clothing as much as she does, perhaps from participating in so many games imagined by girls. Mr. Potato Head (Don Rickles) and Mrs. Potato Head (Estelle Harris) have parts similar to a Transformer or certain Vampires – ears, eyes, and mouths function perfectly while detached. Mrs. Potato Head sees over long distances to her lost eye, and Mr. Potato Head attaches his parts to pita bread. Are their parts therefore nearly immortal?
It expands from this arch of a playful adventure to make a point about the value of play. It's a film about nostalgia for a boy's past experiences playing with toys as a sort of simulation or self-training for life. It might be a tear-jerker for many viewers, perhaps mostly adults, because many will relate to its message. The message is perhaps that Andy had a great deal to do with raising himself, but not entirely on his own. He also had the help of toys to manipulate and use as little pegs for his memories. These toys develop their own back story for him, some of which is inherent in the toys' characters but some of which is quite unique and invented by him. In this sense, his toys are external memories, storing a mini world of his past imaginings and mental experiments. It's important to him to pass these memories along.