An all round winner !!

Rating: 9/10 (25 June 2010)

Toy Story 3 opens in a similar vein to the previous film, but this time Woody (Tom Hanks) is the hero of the imaginary adventure. Watch the three films back to back and you'll see the progression in the quality of the animation. In this film the people are still stylized, but the level of detail and expression is far beyond what was in the previous film; it's really beautiful and helps you connect to the human characters more than ever. Having said that, I did see it in 3D and frankly the film would have been just as good without it.
As with everything Pixar does, the attention to detail here is incredible. How the slide in the playground becomes a watchtower at night. How marker smudges become prison stats. The level of detail, in things like Woody's rounded-down hairline, is astounding. And yes, that's the voice of John Morris, now 23, playing Andy once again. Why get the same actor when only a few might notice? Because everything is everything here.
And talking about the emotional part of the film; it starts tugging at you a little bit early on, then gives way for a lot of the fun stuff. If you don't shed a tear at some point you might just be made of stone. There's just one scene after another, going from touching, to heartbreaking, back to touching and melancholy. There are few live action films that can reach your heart the way this one did in the last 15 minutes or so. And the jail-break sequence was so exciting, you forget that you are watching an animated movie and get totally involved with the characters.
The relationship that the toys have with their owners in the Toy Story-movies has always been a curious thing. In order for toys to truly feel wanted, their owners need to really use their imaginations while playing with them. There almost needs to be a heightened sense of wonder involved in order for the toys to feel complete. This is what drives them to find a place where the kids would connect to them and enjoy playing with them. Thats when all hell breaks loose and everything seems to go wrong. You can't help but notice the small values of life that these toys teach us in almost every juncture. No matter what we have around us, be it living or not, its special. Its special 'cause it serves a purpose that no one else can !
Go see Toy Story 3 and take the whole family. It might just end up being your all time favorite Pixar film. The three movies have now shown us that the story of a toy is, overall, a sad one. But not one without pride. And not one without joy.