Not quite as fresh as its predecessors, but still funny and moving

Rating: 8/10 (27 December 2014)

The original 'Toy Story' was not only the world's first fully digitally animated feature, but also funny and original, the story of toys who just wanted to be played with, but who lived with the fear of redundancy and, in the case of Buzz Lightyear, an identity crisis (Buzz believing himself to be a real spaceman, and not just a toy). It played with the dual life every child ascribes to their toys, and brilliantly exploited its novel medium's ability to combine realism and fantasy. The sequel was pretty good as well. 'Toy Story 3' isn't bad either, although the idea is, inevitably, not quite as fresh in its third outing, the basic dynamic of the plot mirroring that of the two earlier films. There are still some fine moments: when Buzz gets stuck in his Spanish mode, the result is truly hilarious, and the scene in the furnace room more affecting than a story about talking toys has any right to be. The ending of the tale implies this is probably the final outing for these characters, and I think that's the right decision. But the series remains comparable in its quality to the best of Pixar's subsequent, much-admired work.