Toy Story 3
Since the Toy Story films are so far apart (it being about more than 10 years since the second one), I can say that I’ve grown up with them. My generation saw Toy Story when we were still kids, so the third and final installment resonates deeply with us. The films were always mature for animated films—like most of Pixar— so they can be enjoyed by both adults and kids. But the fact that people in their mid-twenties have actually enjoyed them as both is fantastic. I suppose it may be similar to how people felt seeing the newer installment of Star Wars in theaters, after growing up with the original trilogy. However, there were mixed feelings about the more recent Star Wars, especially from those who did see the original as teens in the ’70s. Toy Story 3, however, has become a triumphant final film for a trilogy, critically praised and popular. It has the same heart as the first two, the same great and cherished characters, and it ends the series with some deeply resonant and often very dark ideas.
It begins as Andy is headed off to college, and the toys have given up being played with ever again. They are, however, determined to stick together. But when Andy chooses to take Woody to college, and the rest accidentally get put out with the trash, sticking together proves difficult. Woody manages to follow the rest and they make it to day care instead of the garbage. The idea of being played with by kids again seems an ecstatic one for the toys, but fades as the world of the day care is revealed as dark and corrupt, run by an old teddy bear (voiced by Ned Beatty) who’s had no heart since he was lost and then replaced by his owner. The toys must again make a great escape to get back to Andy, since, as Woody insists, they should always be there for him.
The underlying and timeless theme of the film is growing up and how things inevitably change. Making a film through the eyes of toys is ingenious (although not completely new—this film has touches of The Brave Little Toaster, especially in a landfill scene toward the end) because everyone thought their toys were real as a kid, but Toy Story 3 also goes beyond that and examines bigger themes of how Andy deals with change, and what everyone goes through when they leave home. The toys (mainly Woody) ultimately realize that things have to change as people change, even if the toys themselves are essentially immortal. That initial idea of toys having feelings could have gotten old had the filmmakers not faced the more difficult questions of their immortality and of their owner growing out of childhood, as well as ideas of belonging and of being abandoned, which all the toys face, but which can be a major fear for children as well.
The ending is bittersweet, deeply felt and completely perfect. It’s incredibly adorable, but also heartbreaking, and it gives absolute closure, as the story comes full circle. This is, after all, a cartoon, and should have a happy ending, but since it’s extraordinary, the happy ending has a realistic underlying sadness.
Astoria Cinema 
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