For those who didn't grow up with Toy Story, this is fantastic. For those who did, this is beyond that.

Rating: 10/10 (19 January 2011)

I think I'm lucky in that the timing for Toy Story 3 to come out was absolutely perfect for me. The first Toy Story was released when I was about four or five, at the beginning of my childhood. The final installment came out when I was 18, and a few months away from leaving home. That practically made it symbolic to me, whether the film was great or not.
Putting that aside, this film is still extraordinarily good. It hits every note it needs to in order for it to be a classic film. It's funny, it's imaginative, there's adventures in there, the characters show their strengths and flaws, there's drama, there's emotion. It's everything you could want it to be.
To start with, it's a good story. I'm glad they went for the beginning of the end with Andy moving out of home, because it settles that presumption that the toys would eventually just all be thrown out in the end.
The idea of the toys finding themselves in a nursery was a good one. It allowed a lot of imaginative and clever characters, as well as this new big world for our characters to explore. Without giving too much away, the plot to escape was easily the most entertaining part of the film, with the ridiculous intricacy of the idea making it quite an intense part of the film, broken up by some fantastic visual jokes.
There's two scenes toward the end where people will tell you they cried. Though I personally didn't (which took some effort), it's not hard to see why. It's incredible that they managed to make these lifeless toys into something we, as an audience, could feel so emotional about though. That, for me, is the ultimate triumph of this film. They have essentially made them human in our eyes.
I just loved Toy Story 3. It's not often I can sit with my four-year old brother and get the same level of enjoyment from a film as him, but Toy Story went beyond all presumed possibilities. It's perhaps the perfect family film.