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Click to viewHmmmmmmm... After my vague sense of disappointment from The Princess and the Frog, will Disney do better with something seemingly more... lighthearted?
So I saw Toy Story 3 at its midnight showing. The word I've most used to describe it is: intense. That might seem a bit dramatic, coming from a kid's movie, but that's really what it is. It's got humor and imagination and pathos and all the characteristics of a Pixar film. What differentiates it, however, from the rest of the pack, is that this film has matured along with us loyal lovers who watched the first film 15 years ago. Andy is older, we're older, and the concerns of the toys are not about escaping evil humans, but overcoming the most nefarious of enemies: time. When the toys are contemplating a future of being stuffed in the attic as the best outcome, you start to get into heavier emotions. There were some scenes that outright scared the bejeezus out of me with suspense. The cast has also been whittled down (R.I.P, Legs), so you get to have more time invested in their bond as Andy's most favoritest toys.
Another thing I really liked was their treatment of Ken. Other than one jibe after which he defends himself as a boys' toy (riiiiiiight, Ken), Ken's natural metrosexuality is not a trait that is portrayed negatively, and there isn't a whiff of a fag joke anywhere. Ken may wear high heels because he's Ken, and is literally made that way, just as he and Barbie were made for each other. It's a nice little lesson tucked away behind a lot of humor about just how much Ken loves his clothes.
Andy has graduated high school, and is going to college, and I feel that this movie is a fitting graduation as well for us fans to close the book on this trilogy. Of course John Lasseter had to put in a Totoro reference, not only because he's a hugemungous fan of Hayao Miyazaki, but because it's like a send-off to the new generation of kids, some of whom are more familiar with Miyazaki's 2-d animation than with Disney's. Daw, thinking about this makes me wanna watch Beauty and the Beast. Tale as old as time, indeed...