The greatest trilogy since Lord of the Rings

Rating: 9/10 (26 July 2010)

A whole decade has passed since Toy Story 2 rolled onto Cinema screens (and a staggering fifteen years since Buzz & Woody's original outing). Since those days of Pixar infancy, the studio has gone from strength to strength (Cars being the exception!), warming our hearts, and providing us with modern cinematic classics such as Finding Nemo, the Incredibles, Ratatouille, Wall-E and Up. The major question on everyone's lips is can Pixar overcome the curse of the 3rd film (e.g. the Godfather Part 3 and more comparatively Shrek the Third)? Can it retain that Pixar magic, keeping aspects of the original films we so adored (the emotion, humour, escapism and adventure)? Can Toy Story 3 successfully bring the series to a close with a big bang and provide audience members, such as myself, who began watching the saga way back when in 1995 with satisfying closure.
Going into the cinema, watching the massive queue snake around the cinema, there was a real sense of anticipation in the air, everyone anxious, itching to scout out a prime viewing location for the film in the cinema. After the rudimentary procession of trailers and popcorn crunching had died down, the audience slipped on their monstrous 3-D glasses as the picture began.
The Good In this final instalment several new elements have been weaved into the Toy Story gene , building on the original aspects of it's predecessors. Firstly there is the toy box-full of new additions to the Toy Story rooster, with Lotsa, Ken, Barbie, Stretch and sparks to name a few. These characters breathe new life into the franchise and provide a big dessert spoon of humour to proceedings (especially Barbie and Ken).
After re-watching Toy Story 2 recently, the other marked improvement Pixar has made (as well as making the character designs more sleek and polished) is the sheer amount of new characters and attention to detail in the backgrounds. Whereas the backgrounds in Toy Story 2 were quite empty (in comparison) and merely acted as a stage for the performances of Woody and the gang, here you get the sense with locations such as Sunnyside DayCare centre, that Pixar have spared no expense in making the sets incredibly detailed, packed full of new toys and tiny details, helping the audience become engrossed in the world of Pixar.
A noteworthy point that has been raised by the IMDb community, is whether there is a noticeable difference between 2D or 3D, have Pixar really bothered with it, and where is that extra money going? 3-D is not used as a gimmick in this film, unlike other recent cinema releases, which seem to be built solely around this facet (e.g. My Bloody Valentine 3-D springs to mind). In Toy Story 3 it has been used to provide greater field of depth to the locations and is only used to enhance what is already there.
In a similar vain to its predecessors, Toy-Story 3 has a terrific musical score. What is really striking about the music is its ability to move us from feelings of excitement and adventure at one moment, to humour, then sadness ,with the effortless artistic strokes that the studio possesses. This is accomplished in a completely natural way, it only adds to the many pros that the film has to offer.
Whilst the storyline may seem basic and follows a predictable arc, there is so much else Toy Story 3 provides us with, great humour (with the audience in hysterics at several points e.g. Spanish Buzz!!!), exciting action and shenanigans, that we don't care if the plot isn't Inception-like in complexity, we focus on enjoying the journey the film takes us on.
The Bad Whilst undeniably entertaining, Toy Story 3 needed more moments to pause, to slow down, for characters to reflect. More moments with emotional gravitas, which were delightfully sprinkled throughout the film Up, would have been welcome. Obviously the fast pacing is a good thing, as it never allows the audience to get fidgety, however it would have been good to experience that Pixar moment, where you feel your tear ducts are propping up a waterfall or where you have so much warm, fuzzy, lovely feelings in your gut, you want to hug the person next to you. However this is a minor gripe as the ending of the film provides a gripping and touching moment of near tragedy, which had me (and I'm sure several other young men) holding back tears. Also some of the new characters got little screen time to really develop, e.g. Buttercup, Trixie and Mr. Prickle Pants (although I liked the brief story behind Lotso, reminiscent of Stinkie Pete from Toy Story 2).
The Conclusion As I sat in my comfy, plush cinema seat, sensing the end was near, I began to feel incredibly disappointed, not because the film failed to meet my incredibly high expectations, but because I knew I would never be able to watch another Toy Story film for the first time, every again, and the characters that I had grew up watching and caring about, much like Andy's character, I would be leaving behind. However Toy Story shall forever remain in my heart and will definitely be in my DVD collection as soon as it hits the stores. This film lives up to the hype, whilst its not perfect, and maybe lacks some of the emotional depth of films such as Up and Wall-E, there can be no doubt that the trilogy went out on a high, entertaining everyone in that cinema, from 17 year old girls, to 30-something couples to young students such as myself. Go see it now!!! It will not disappoint you. Toy Story 3 will hopefully receive a best picture nomination at the academy awards, thus recognising the dream makers, that are Pixar.