8 times more beautiful than the original.

Rating: 9/10 (19 May 2019)

According to Moore's Law, the computing power used to create this film is almost 8 times greater than in 1995 when "Toy Story" broke through and created the CGI full-length animated film category. Needless to say, "Toy Story 3" is 8 times more beautiful than its 90's predecessor.
Let's start off with the short that ran beforehand: brilliant. Fusing the worlds of CGI and classical animation has never looked so good or held so apt a message.
The opening sequence to "Toy Story 3" was mind bogglingly excellent. I was laughing the entire time because of the almost verbatim re-hash of a segment from the first movie. I also enjoyed the obvious nod to Miazaki's films with the inclusion of a stuffed Totoro, indicating the acceptance of anime as a form of animated art on par with many animated films today.
My only qualm with this film is that the plot and sub-plots were good, but a lot of the movie was spent in "SWAT Ninja mode", where the characters are running around doing very sneaky "Great Escape" type action. While looking cool, this has little substance. In fact, every time Woody would run, I couldn't resist laughing, because his running style is incredibly goofy (guess I just noticed it this time around).
Also, this film is considerably darker than its predecessors. This was especially evident when the toys seemed to have accepted their fate in the most dire situation they've ever been in. Plus, the prison motif tends to be dark, no mater how you package it (and that monkey was just freaky).
However, I think the fact that this franchise has been around for 15 years and that I have grown up with it really hit me square in the heartstrings at the conclusion. I was crying so much that I was literally on the edge of breaking down and openly sobbing. The collar of my T-shirt is still wet from the tears while I write this review. Within their last two or three movies, Pixar has really figured out how to get even the most stoic viewer to give in and cry a little.
The 3-D is still somewhat of a gimmick to me and I continue to have the "focus" issue with it, but the visuals still remain stunning. There's almost too much detail, there's so much of it.
In conclusion, this film brought some very good closure to the saga and is definitely a fine example why I will pay full price on a movie ticket to see a Pixar film.