Goodbyes are Hard

Rating: 8/10 (10 August 2011)

I don't think "good enough" is something that's ever assumed at Pixar. Their labor of love, Toy Story 3, even bids a long-standing justification for careless filmmaking: It's a sequel. In 3D, which thankfully wasn't part of my experience. If truth be told, how good do the studio pushers and enlisted creative staff need to strive for it to be? Well, as it appears, this entire three-part, 15-year blockbuster about the escapades of a cluster of juvenile plastic items has come to be a lingering, melancholy reflection on bereavement, transience and love.
As endurers of for example Terminator 3, Live Free or Die Hard and Blues Brothers 2000 understand, too many outings, especially johnny-come-lately sequels, can be the fatal blow for a high-quality franchise. Toy Story 3 has flourished where others have staggered since it has remained faithful to its extraction at the same time it's further developed its scope. And since in ways both major and minor the people behind the series just adore movies. A fantastical rendering of the end of formative years and the consequence of friendship in preserving that warm constancy through life's transformations, this, Pixar's highest-grossing spectacle so far, focuses on the basis for why we constantly revisit the cinematic experience. As written by Oscar-winning Little Miss Sunshine writer Michael Arndt, quite impressive considering the enormous committee of writers typically developing animated films, this transcendent variation on the buddy film manages to suggest danger and excitement as well as unforeseen moments of sorrow. Preeminent, and most distinctive of Pixar on the whole, it grasps authentic feeling and puts it on the screen in a way generationally, culturally and perceptively universal.
The circumstances put forward an occasion for a handful of movie gags, a favorite Pixar idiosyncrasy. Look forward to lots of allusions to Cool Hand Luke and The Bridge on the River Kwai. But generally it's an opening to be in these characters' warm company again. An opportunity to meet new acquaintances as well, as Barbie encounters the man of her dreams, complete with a pastel leisure suit and glossy narcissism. It's all pleasurable, but also craftily executed, with an infatuated consideration of nuance. The Ken doll moves precisely like a Ken doll would. The wind-up monkey hits his cymbals in exact, unenthusiastically automatic shudders. Scenes are neatly paced and climaxes develop further climaxes.
In some sense, the story of a troupe of toys struggling to meet their duties and confront change, in another a musing on the edge of youth and the value of love in defining the stages in one's life, this epic anthropomorphic love saga persists in achieving the ridiculous by making every age group in every family in North America accept that toys are people too, distinctive individuals with psyches and viewpoints of their own. A reflection on the brink of changing times and the importance of love as continuity between those often truly frightening transitions, it's arguably quite a radical vision for a big movie-going event for whole families. It doesn't gloss over the very real fears it suggests, but deals with them in ways that are liberating for children who weren't born yet when the first two films were released, as well as cathartic for those of us who knew Woody and Buzz as youngsters ourselves. Now, we're Andy's age. And boy, is it tough to say goodbye.