Pixar's toy box

Rating: 8/10 (23 July 2010)

After a slightly slow and perhaps over-familiar opening sequence, Toy Story 3 develops into something more involving and complex than its predecessor - albeit one that lacks the jaw-dropping novelty of the original.
Typically, Toy Story 3 doesn't skimp on the grown-up themes: neglect, isolation, as well as growing up itself, of course. There are also bubbling subtexts, like Ned Beatty's Lotso coming across as some kind of manipulative Southern slave-owner, with a patriarchal ferocity born of the trauma of disempowerment. Then there's Jesse (Joan Cusack) - far from being the obedient monogamist of Old Disney, her affections aren't so much torn as shared equally. She was made to love Woody, but why not Buzz too? (Jeez, that's some sentence.) The sophistication doesn't stop there. At one point, the narrative breaks into three strands. And when Buzz breaks into 'Spanish Mode' (one of the film's funniest extended jokes), we're offered another rarity for a mainstream children's film: subtitles.
Equally successful - and the real draw for the target audience - is the slapstick. The action in part 3 is a step up from its predecessors. The escape from the sinister Sunnyside kindergarten is worthy of the greatest prison breakout movies. There is a brilliant visual gag involving Mr Potato Head and a pigeon. And finally, the ending feels like Lord of the Rings' Mount Doom, except with a less feathery deus ex machina.
There is a sneaking sense of overkill in terms of the sheer wealth of characters. But then for every underdeveloped Mr Pricklepants (Timothy Dalton) there's a hilariously conflicted Ken (Michael Keaton), so it's churlish to complain. And there are some truly weird creations amongst the cast: Chuckles (Bud Luckey) sidesteps the creepy clown cliché to come across as a wellspring of pathos, while Baby, with his superhuman strength and his lazy eye, is probably the most horrifying henchman since Richard Kiel opened his gleaming jaws.
Pixar may have made better films during their extraordinary existence; but this film, and the franchise as a whole, will always be their best toy box.