Friday, June 25, 2010

Toy Story 3: Movie Review


If only Thin Lizzy could change their song title to Toys are Back in Town, then this would have been perfect. But the movie itself is a wonderful, and perhaps dark, journey into understanding how we should never forget those that we hold dearly.

Andy, the owner of the story, is all grown up. And he's about to leave college soon. Like most growing teens, we'd end up forgetting about the toys that we grew up with. We threw them out, put them in the store, attic, wherever. As the toys were headed to the Attic, except Woody (Tom Hanks), all of them were mistakenly taken out and headed to Sunnyside, a day care centre for kids. Greeted by Lots-o-Huggin Bear and Ken (Michael Keaton, NO KIDDING), all was fine and dandy until they were manhandled roughly. Now, every toy of Andy's vow to get themselves and Woody back to Andy and the Attic before he leaves for college.

I grew up with the first 2 movies and it was really fun. I remembered first the most (after watching it like, 20 times, through illegal means that I'm not proud of now) and the 2nd was forgettable. But now, this one marks as even more memorable due to its dark tone in certain parts of the story.

The plot pacing was, ok frankly. It wasn't as engaging as the other movies, but still ok. The animation was wonderful, the sound was too. Voice cast, as usual fantastic. Props to Michael Keaton, seriously, for being Ken.

Gripes with the movie? I cried like a baby. I said it. But its because you can feel the attachment when the ending comes. I can't spoil it here, but if you did grow up with the toys, it might leave you bawling. I have never cried in a movie hall before, and this broke my record.

But that's not just the only memorable scene. The whole movie, in its covers, actually asks us about how we treat others. For the adults, we could ask what have we done in our lives and what have we left behind (These sort of emotions is what Pixar is best at. Dependency was in Wall-E, Up was about imaginations). For the kids, they are in for a treat as the ending, will be a happy one. But they will be scared in certain scenes when everyone would question the fate of the toys.

Its rare to get movies that makes you question yourself about a whole lot in life. We did have Yasmin Ahmad in the past to do so, and Muallaf will go down probably as an underrated movie that many may not understand the questions. But lets hope that Pixar continues on and on with their movies and the questions that they have given to us. This movie is such a delight that you may want to watch it again and again.

Kyo's score: 10/10. I still love The A-Team more because I'm biased about that. :P

1 comment:

SowYau said...

Great TS3 writing, maybe because it share my thought.