Playtime with Pixar
- Source: Global Times
- [11:01 June 23 2010]
- Comments
Characters Woody, Jesse, Buzz, Hamm, Slinky, Bullseye, Rex, Mr Potato Head, and Ken and Barbie, in a scene from Toy Story 3. Photos: AFP
By Nick Muzyczka
The familiar start of Toy Story 3 is slightly worrying. Our bunch of toys find themselves in pretty much the same situation as in the previous two installments of this excellent Pixar movie series - anxious about being cast out by their owner, Andy (voiced by John Morris), who reappears in this film as a nerdy freshman on his way to college.
Fortunately, the slow start to the movie and accompanying fears that this may be nothing more than an effort at rehashing, do not last long.
Ten minutes in and we are back to the barrage of wry visual and dialogical jokes, moments of intense cuteness and mind-blowing inventiveness that defined the previous two Toy Story films.
Although an absolute delight for children, there is also plenty for adult audiences in this movie.
There are, for example, a number of enjoyable pastiches of other movies, such as the Ocean's Eleven-style bank heist scene (in which the toys must escape from a heavily guarded kindergarten), or the Sin City-style moonlit lament from Chuckles (Bud Luckey), a scary, mentally scarred clown, who might as well have been voiced by gravelly voiced cult musician Tom Waits.
The toys also make multiple references to the fact they "haven't been played with in years." It is common to find, in animated sequels, the addition of many new, underdeveloped characters in place of a flimsy plot.
Toy Story 3's many new toys, including the villainous Lotso (Ned Beatty ), the mute, intimidating, broken-eyed Big Baby, and the aspiring, classically trained actor and hedgehog Mr Pricklepants (Timothy Dalton), are all cleverly constructed.
They help to inject a wide range of moods into a movie that moves through slapstick, high drama, film noir, parody and romance.
The film's many genuinely funny moments include Buzz Lightyear's (Tim Allen) extravagant dance routine and the passionate expression of his love for Jessie (Joan Cusack) that occur immediately after he is erroneously set to Spanish mode.
Also highly entertaining is the security guard monkey who must be fought to ensure escape from the kindergarten.
The highlight for many will be the inclusion of Ken, of Ken and Barbie doll fame. The meeting between these two characters is priceless.
They fall in love the very second they lay eyes on each other, and the audience is only made to wait only a few seconds before hearing the line, "it's almost … almost as if … we were made for each other."
Lee Unkrich, who steps into the role of director 11 years after John Lasseter and Ash Brannon's Toy Story 2, keeps up Pixar's tradition of producing movies with a fine sense of pacing. The action sequences are never overblown and the sentimental moments are not stretched out.
As the last movie in the series, Toy Story 3 wraps up its various story lines effectively in an emotional, though not overly syrupy, manner.
Unkrich was joined by Michael Arndt, the Oscar winner who wrote Little Miss Sunshine, John Lasseter and Andrew Stanton as screenwriters.
The 3-D version of the movie does add an extra wow-factor to some of the nicely choreographed action/stunt scenes, but viewing through the glasses is a bit of a trade-off because the vividness of the bright colors is impaired.
