#66 Toy Story 3

In Summary

The third - and what was then believed to be, final - chapter in Pixar's quintessential tale of childhood, Toy Story 3 is a sucker punch to the heart.

With toys' owner, Andy, set to move to university, Toy Story 3, is a painfully wistful look at that crossroads between childhood and adulthood. Toy Story 3 is about how people change over time - or, rather, how time changes people - and how to move on to something new without completely overwriting the past.

The plot of Toy Story 3 primarily follows the cowboy toy, Woody's, attempts to stay with Andy through his move to university and to help keep his fellow toys away from the scrapheap. The film features much of the humour and action of the previous films, however, it is the emotional heft of Toy Story 3 that elevates it beyond its predecessors.

Almost every attempt Woody and his friends make to avoid the inevitable seems to make their situation worse. From the attic to the nursery, from the nursery to a rubbish dump, from the rubbish dump to a fiery pit of certain death.

The emotional high-point of Toy Story 3 is when the toys choose to stop fighting and accept their fate. Without a single word uttered, the audience are able to understand on an emotional level the decision that these inanimate, computer-generated, toys have made. It is better to die with dignity than in denial.

While the film delivers a deus ex machina to save the toys, it allows Toy Story 3 to end on a poignant, yet sweet, note as Andy passes the baton on to another generation, bringing his childhood to a rightful conclusion.

A Memorable Quote

So long... partner.

Things You May Not Know

• This was the first sequel to be nominated for the Best Picture Oscar without any of its predecessors having been nominated.
• It took two-and-a-half years to write this film.
• This is the first animated film to make over $1 billion at the worldwide box-office.

One of the Greatest of All Time?
Although it is no longer the final chapter to this film series, Toy Story 3 is a wonderful conclusion to a set of films that had already defined the childhood of the generation who would have been reaching Andy's age at the time of the film's release. While retaining the core appeal of the previous two Toy Story films, Toy Story 3 will be best remembered for delivering one of the most emotionally intense moments of recent cinema history.

Perhaps I'm biased because I was exactly the right age for this film - it was released just before I went to university - but this is a film that rightfully defines a generation, marking the maturing of the computer-generated animated films that the original spawned.