Solid effort but unspectacular, except for the ending.

Rating: 8/10 (16 June 2010)

Toy Story 3 is a great addition to the Toy Story franchise but it is far from perfect.
It's a bit on the long side and the story noticeably drags through the first half while slowly building up to its climax. There are some very funny moments interspersed but in general the opening acts of the film are very, very dark. In the preview I saw, Toy Story 3 scared the young children sitting in our row on two occasions.
Once the action starts in the second half with our hero Woody as the necessary savior, the excitement builds at a frantic pace, there are a lot more laughs, and while the plot is unoriginal and the conflict cliché, it is still well written and engaging. There are a couple of hilarious scenes of note involving Buzz Lightyear dancing and one in particular with Mr. Potato Head. Funniest parts of the movie (you'll know when you see them to avoid spoilers).
One of the feats of the first two movies was the emotional attachment to the characters during the movie and unfortunately, it is almost non-existent until the end of the movie. The most emotional scenes in the first acts involve the back story of the new characters and they also are some of the best looking scenes in the movie. However, the last few scenes more than made up for this and while it didn't need to 'save' the movie, it greatly added to the experience and my overall opinion of Toy Story 3. It really is expertly done.
The 3-D is there, it is well done and one can tell it is in 3-D but it doesn't really add anything substantive to the movie. It's a similar manner to the way Toy Story 1 and 2 were redesigned.
It is difficult to evaluate a movie having seen the other 2 repeatedly. As a stand alone movie, it's very good, but not quite great. As an addendum to the first two Toy Story's, I don't think it's quite up to the first one on the basis that it's not groundbreaking. I still feel the first is the best of the trilogy to date but this is still a solid movie and well worth watching with a friend (young or old) or with your family.