A completely fitting finale to a landmark trilogy. And a warning: this review is sappy.
The original TOY STORY came out in 1995, when I was 9 years old. I still remember sitting in the theater on Thanksgiving day being in complete awe of what I was seeing. In this case, the cliche is absolutely perfect: I grew up with these movies. To finally see the trilogy come to an end was almost like admitting that my childhood is (long) over.
Putting the emotional catharsis aside for a moment, TOY STORY 3 may well be the best of the trilogy. Pixar never fails to amaze with their wonderfully rich, beautifully animated, perfectly cast films, and TS3 is no exception. The plot winds through the typical TOY STORY plot (lost toys!), but then becomes so, so much more. The end theme of friends being together forever is not only a truly wonderful, touching theme in general, but even more heightened knowing this is the final film in the series. I’m not ashamed to say I cried. I’m not ashamed to say I quite nearly bawled my eyes out. Truly fantastic.
If you couldn’t tell, I truly, truly loved this film. However, I’m going to decline to speculate about Oscar talk, because I’m obviously not able to separate my emotional attachment to the trilogy from critical thinking. I will point out that in 2003, the Academy awarded the Best Picture Oscar to THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING, in a move that most regard as a reward for that entire trilogy. For that reason, I’d dare say TOY STORY 3 is, at the very least, a dark horse candidate. Could 2011 be the year an animated feature film wins the biggest award in Hollywood? Could be…….
