Movie Reviews

Toy Story 3 Starring Tim Allen and Tom Hanks

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Written by Jonathan Jacobs

     Our adventure begins as Andy is packing for college and has to make deeply personal decisions about what to bring and what to either leave behind in the attic or throw away in the trash. Without heartfelt sadness our young man decides to leave the majority of the toys in the attic and to take only his cowboy Woody to college. In a moment of weakness he calls the old toys a bunch of junk and accidentally leaves them in a garbage bag when his mother is throwing away all old articles. This hurts their feelings and convinces them to abandon him in favor of being donated to Sunnyside where other children will play with them.

     At Sunnyside things are anything but bright. Andy’s toys have been duped into entering the young kids’ playroom where they are thrown, smashed and drooled on all day long. The culprit responsible for their misfortune is the terrifying purple bear Lotso (Ned Beatty). Lotso controls the minds of the toys and has created a division between the rookies and the worn and torn toys living a life of luxury. With Woody out of the picture chasing Andy even Buzz Lightyear cannot save his friends from being locked down. In fact, old Buzz (Tim Allen) is forcefully reprogrammed. Did you know Buzz not only has an original factory setting, he also has a Spanish conquistador mode? The middle of the movie concentrates on the toys’ escape from Sunnyside. As usual nothing can be done without the help of a beautiful woman. This brings us to the star of the show, Mattel’s billion dollar princess.

     I am concluding my recapitulative duties early to talk about my favorite part of the story, the long overdue debut of Barbie and Ken’s scorching romance. Michael Keaton lends his voice as Ken, the most prissy, pompous, selfish, superficial plaything of all time. He is more obsessed with sparkling outfits than Barbie. Barbie is presented as a sweetheart do-gooder who is a wonderful friend. When she and Ken met and the directors cued the romance music it was one of the funniest things I have ever seen. When Ken proves he is a trickster Barbie convinces him to hold a fashion show in their dream house to distract him while her friends escape! Ken’s Zoolander like dance moves are classics for the ages. Their interactions are magnificent. They simply could not have been better portrayed. All in all Ken and Barbie are the real stars of the show.

     From the beginning where Andy is forced to decide the fate of his faithful toys, to the middle where his play friends are trapped and are forced to escape, to the end when our young man grows up by making hard decisions, Toy Story 3 manages to touch our hearts if for just one last time. In all sincerity, Toy Story 3 is not Pixar Perfect. It does not have to be and it was probably never meant to be. The studios’ goal has always been to entertain audiences. By the sound of the resounding applesauce, I mean applause, the screening audience fell in love with the film. (If anyone can explain to me, and cogently, why people clap at an inanimate movie screen and cheer at a projective image I will be happy to change my mind about the cheerers being mentally deranged from eating paint chips) I found myself at first bored and disappointed and managed to focus my attention only on account of a few zingers thrown in to keep the adults interested. As the plotline developed and Barbie and Ken’s romance blossomed I could not help but to get in the mood. My final pronouncement (from one humble critic to his vast audience) is that TS3 is a mediocre movie with a slow building drama that nicely comes to fruition but will disappoint die-hards. One final note, Tim Allen sounds ancient, Pixar should have cleaned up his guttural voice for the benefit of the kids in the audience.

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