Love, Loss and Renewal

Rating: 10/10 (5 November 2010)

Toy Story 3 is a beautiful and affecting wrap-up of the Toy Story trilogy. Andy goes off to college, and unlike the girls in most Disney animated films, he actually has a living mother. She's the same age as all of us parents who took our children to the original Toy Story films when they were little. All the Toy Story films have been about the sense of time passing and the inevitable sense of loss that goes along with it. Andy's mom, a single mother is loosing her son and he's ambivalently moving away from her and his childhood, the childhood personified in his beloved toys, especially Woody. The first Toy Story film started with a shot of a cloud-patterned wallpaper in Andy's bedroom. Toy Story 3 begins film ends with the camera panning up into the sky (interestingly, Up ends the same way). The director mentioned during his commentary that this gives the film a "storybook" quality, but it also gives it a dimension of mystery and becomes a commentary on the transitory nature of life. It's this sense that gives these wonderful films their resonance and makes us able to watch them again and again. Director Lee Unkrich and Producer Darla Anderson's commentary was excellent; they really went out of their way to give credit to all the individual animators and the work done by everyone at Pixar on the film. Generosity like that must make Pixar a great place to work.