A Fulfilling Symphony of the Heart

Rating: 10/10 (3 November 2015)

From the release of Toy Story 2 in 1999, Pixar went on an unprecedented creative streak. All of their films- Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo, Ratatouille, the Incredibles, and so on, became unprecedented critical and commercial successes. And they were all original films. In the face of the tide of franchises that conquered the first decade of the two thousands, it was a breath of fresh air and a pulse of creativity that rang throughout Hollywood and beyond. Wow, new and creative and well-done films could perform just as well if not better at the box office than massive, overblown, CGI-fests? Who knew? All of these films have and will form the fabric of many a kid's childhood. They are the kind of movies that last. Perhaps the movie scene of the 2000s did not deserve these films, but it certainly needed them. As soon as (main-branch) Disney animation went down, Pixar rose to claim the now-empty Western animation podium. For that and for much more, it has gained deserved respect.
But that run had to stop sometime. As much as we as members of the human race like to imagine that things go on forever, we all know that everything ends. Our lives. Our dreams. And Pixar's run.
Thankfully, it did not go out with a whimper, but with a sizzle. The first Pixar sequel in 11 years and the end of that run of near-perfection, Toy Story 3 holds a unique place in the Pixar canon. It is also their best film. As an animation buff, I am often disappointed that I don't like Pixar as much as I should. I guess it's too clean, too flawless. But whatever that issue, I do not have it with this film.
The Toy Story movies are some of my favorite Pixar movies. There is a reason that everyone who pans them gets torn to shreds. While I do not believe that 1 or 2 are as good technically or writing-wise as the Brad Bird films or even Finding Nemo (hence their exclusion from my top 100), they have that sense of energy and truth and knowing beyond knowing that I love to see from animated movies.
You can feel the impact of the passage of time. This may have been lost on the children who were ostensibly the audience of the movie, but it was certainly not lost on the high school seniors and college kids that probably made up as large a portion of the actual audience. I do not think that it is a coincidence that this film was released on what was, in many parts of the United States, graduation week.
The tone taken by this film is dark and existential. This is not an unexpected turn for the series; these themes- of being left behind, replaced, and made irrelevant- were present in the first one and were only ramped up in the second. But would be a little jarring if it was released in say, 2002. Real time needed to pass for this film to work as well as it did. Perhaps the best compliment I can pay to this movie is if all long-delayed sequels were as good as this, I wouldn't mind the long delay.
There is a scene in the first act of the film in which Woody (played excellently once more by Tom Hanks) calls all the toys out, the same way he did in the first him. It does not take him long to realize that it's not accident or mishap; most of the old group is gone. It is a short scene, but a memorable one. It sets the somber tone that pervades the rest of the movie. If I wasn't already completely invested, that moment made me so. And I wasn't let down.
This movie is, at its core, about letting go and moving on, no matter where the roads of the future may lead. It is not a story that has never been done before, not even one that has not been done in any animated movie. But it has never been done with this much gravitas. If you never cared about the world or the characters of Toy Story, you won't feel the draining, gripping, tear-jerking ambrosia that the rest of us do. But that is a small percentage of people.
Not much is talked about what has happened to the characters over the course of the last decade or so. But you can feel it; the animation and the acting performances give it to you wrapped in a bow. Everything feels so real, nothing is forced. A lot of that has to do with the fact that while the twenty-something in the audience have grown up with these characters, so have the people who made these movies, though in a different way. John Lasseter, the face of Pixar, was in his later thirties when the first Toy Story film came out. By this film's release, he was in his fifties. He had watched his kids grow up and learned more about himself.
Some people have said that the ending is a bit on the sappy side, and if this film was released in a vacuum, I'd partially agree. But it is not. At this point, Andy is a stand in for you the viewer. Instead of letting go of your toys, you are letting go of this franchise, and likely with it, your childhood. It is one of the moist poignant scenes ever filmed and it gets me every time. I hope TS4 will be good, but for me, this is the perfect end to the series.
(P.S. Look at the last shot before the credits roll. It is exactly the same as the first shot from the first movie, only that one panned down and this one pans up. It is subtle, but effective. I noticed it the first time off and it struck me like lightning.)