Toy Story 3

An-i-mate (v. an-uh-meyt; adj. an-uh-mit)

verb, -mat•ed, -mat•ing, adjective
–verb (used with object)
1. to give life to; make alive: God animated the dust.
2. to make lively, vivacious, or vigorous; give zest or spirit to: Her presence animated the party.
3. to fill with courage or boldness; encourage: to animate weary troops.
4. to move or stir to action; motivate: He was animated by religious zeal.
5. to give motion to: leaves animated by a breeze.
6. to prepare or produce as an animated cartoon: to animate a children's story.

Pixar – an incomparable organisation that does all of the above with PERFECTION.

Nearly 15 years back, Pixar studios burst into the animation scene with the first edition of the Toy Story Franchise. Although they were incorporated over 10 years before this, Toy Story was their first ever block buster. Most animation studios on the block at that time knew that they had seen who would be the BIG DADDY of animation in the years to come. It took 4 years more to make Toy Story 2 and a further 11 to come up with what is clearly the best animation movie of the year and the best animation movie after Pixar released “Up” last year.

Woody (Tom Hanks) and Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen) are back with their gang of friends at a time when Andy has turned 17 and is off to college. Faced with a predicament of whether to throw them away or stow them in the attic, Andy decides to go for the latter. He puts all of them but Woody in a garbage bag and is going to the attic when he sees Molly having some trouble with her box of toys that she is donating and helps her out. Since the toys are in a garbage bag, Andy’s mom puts it out with the rest of the garbage. The gang now thinks that Andy wanted to throw all of them away anyways but using Rex’s pointy tail they manage to escape out and make their way to the garage. They all get into a box labeled Sunnyside along with Molly’s toys. Woody’s effort to tell them that Andy never wanted to give them away goes in vain since none of them are ready to accept it. Also, their desire to be played with and not stay in an attic drives them to make a choice of Sunnyside much to Woody’s disdain. But before Woody can move out of the car, Andy’s mom arrives and drives them off to Sunnyside Day Care.

Much to their relief, the gang is given an extremely warm welcome @ sunnyside by Lotso (Ned Beatty) and the other toys at Sunnyside. Little do they know that Lotso runs his own empire here and that all new toys are first sent to the “initiation” with the new toddlers who come to Sunnyside. Although Woody travels with the gang to Sunnyside, he tries his best to convince the gang to come back with him but when they don’t listen, he decides to take off himself. His dare devil escape gets him over the wall @ Sunnyside and hanging off a tree without his hat and right in the way of Bonnie who promptly takes him home with her. @ Bonnie’s place Woody meets Trixie, Buttercup and Dolly who tell him about the horror that lies in store for his friends @ Sunnyside and how Lotso runs his it like a brutal emperor. Stunned @ the revelations, Woody changes his plans about going back home and decides to help his friends escape.

Lee Unkrich finally gets to direct his first solo movie with Pixar. He was till date only the co-director on Finding Nemo, Monsters Inc and Toy Story 2. Proves that good things come to those who wait. Although I would personally feel that Finding Nemo was far superior that this effort, its also because of the amount of work that could have been done with Nemo that made it probably the 3rd best animation movie of all time. Toy Story 3 however, to Unkrich’s credit clearly transcends the benchmarks set by the previous 2 editions of this franchise and takes it to the next level. Best of all, it leaves options open for a fourth edition. In one of my previous reviews I had said that a successful franchise is one that should be scaleable. Toy Story is a fantastic example of what I was speaking then.

The voices of Tom Hanks and Tim Allen are nostalgic and take you back over a decade to the previous 2 editions. The characters are absolutely true to life. The narration absolutely superb. But I sometimes do wonder if animation movies are ever going to be just for kids. The story coupled with the quality of execution makes it so easy for even an average adult to go through what would otherwise have been targeted only for less than 12 year olds. Lovely movie for people of all ages. I give this a 8 on 10.