Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Toy Story 3




I saw this film the opening night in Mexico City. It was a real trouble to find a theater that will show the film in 3D and subtitled. The wait was awful lots of nasty children with their more nasty parents.

Directed by Lee Unkrich, Toy Story 3 opens in a similar fashion to the previous film, but this time Woody (Tom Hanks) is the hero of the imaginary adventure. We’re in the old west and he’s trying to save a train full of orphans that has been hijacked by the evil Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head. Right from the opening minutes the film will put a smile on your face and please you with surprises.

There’s a sweet montage right after that which shows Andy (owner of our little group of friends) on videotape as we remember him from the previous films, playing with and loving his favorite toys. We see him grow up a bit, and now he’s 17 years old and days away from leaving for college. We can all relate to this plot, presumably we all had childhoods and we had to leave some dear objects behind. The gang of toys hasn’t seen much play action, spending who knows how many years now closed up in an old toy chest.

Well with Andy leaving, mom wants to clean things up and Andy has to decide what to take with him, what to throw away, donate or put up in the attic for storage. Except for Woody and Buzz (Tim Allen), the toys are freaking out thinking they’re headed for the city dump. While of course they weren’t headed that way, some confusion ensues and they do indeed end up at the curb. Woody rescues them and tries to tell them it was a mistake, but they’re all convinced that Andy was trying to get rid of them.

Hiding in a box meant for toy donations to a local daycare center, they believe they’ve found a new home where there will be an endless supply of young children to play with them forever and they’ll never be outgrown. The daycare is a hellhole literally and you realize the sort of dark side of these children and their future personality projections. The toys are welcomed by the veteran toys, led by Lots-o’-Huggin’ Bear (he smells like strawberries!). He (Ned Beatty) welcomes them, explains what a wonderful place they’ve found and shows them where they’ll be living. Eventually they come to find that this isn’t a paradise, but a prison. Woody leaves prior to this discovery, and of course the rest of the film is dedicated to setting everyone free and getting back to Andy’s house whether he wants them or not.

The film is very entertaining with new characters, my favorite one is Ken, self-centered, no too bright and above all a secret thing for clothes. The film is full of great sequences, it was quite pleasing to realize that the sequel was so good. Toy Story 3 was laugh out loud funny, exciting, heartwarming and touching.

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