Once in awhile comes a movie that has an everlasting impact on your mind. The Toy story series is of them. I vaguely remember seeing Toy Story (but I watched the Hindi dubbed version) on home video during 1999. I was extremely fascinated by it I even had a Mr. Potatohead toy and became an ardent fan Buzz Lighter cartoon series on Fox Kids.
I then watched both Part 1 and 2 somewhere in 2000’s and they were one of my favorite movies while growing up. Due to the buzz around Toy Story 3 I watched both these as much as 5-6 times and they brought out the child in me and I had an urge to play with my old toys. One of the most fascinating things about this trilogy is the simplicity by which they capture a child’s imagination of playing characters with his toys.
Now to Toy Story 3 the movie is simply amazing one moment it makes you laugh and just the other will make you cry. I thought Pixar had delivered it best with Wall E, but this studio keeps on surprising me and they are raising the bar of animation films with each of their each release. I was completely immersed into the movie with characters for the movie’s duration. Only a few movies can achieve this.
The plot is basically that Andy has grown up and has to join college and leave his toys behind or trash them. The last of the remaining toys are sad and depressed about this and they end up in SunnySide daycare centre where things go the opposite way and all their misconceptions of the goody goody things which they have about the daycare changes. They must stay together to fight the “evil” and go back to Andy’s home.
New toy additions in this one are Lotso-the strawberry smelling bear, Twitch, Stretch (the octopus), Sparks, Chunk, Big Baby(this was one toy I was genuinely scared of) who are the ‘henchmen’ of Lotso, Ken-the male Barbie doll , Trixie the Tricreatops who is also an internet chatting addict.
Also there is a part with the Toy Incarcerator, which is very emotionally intense and I had to thank the Little Green Men aka The Space Aliens for “their CLAW” and only due to their fascination with ‘The Claw'(which goes back to the first part) the group could be saved.
The direction by Lee Unkrich is top notch and the animation is one of the best in years. The music by Randy Newman, who seems to have shifted his focus to animation movies is a treat to the ears.
The movie has some the greatest moments ever seen on the celluloid. The end was simply fantastic. When Andy handovers his toys to Bonnie the things he said about them was really touching. The part when the credit rolls out and the video of the toys new life in the Daycare centre without Lotso (who is stuck in front of a garbage van) is simply amazing. The entry of Emperor Zurg (archenemy of Buzzlighter) in the ending as a toy to the daycare was unexpected.
I never remember crying so much in a theatre. No Bollywood movie could make me cry, but these animated films made me cry. So I realized that the inanimate things also have feelings and at one point or another they become an integral part of our lives.
I had some doubts about the story getting revealed as I had played this game, but they were washed away as the game and the movie had some similarities, but most of it was different.
