Rating:  

Pixar Animation Studios and Walt Disney Pictures.

Written By: Michael Arndt, featuring characters created from the previous “Toy Story” films.

Based on the first two “Toy Story” films, and with an 11-year wait since the last “Toy Story” film, anticipation could not be higher for this final entry in the “Toy Story” trilogy. Not only is “Toy Story 3″ worth the wait, but realizing that there may not be a “Toy Story 4″ is a major personal disappointment.

Andy, the kid with the wild imagination and devotion to his beloved toys, is now 17 and driving off to college in a few days. Packing up his room, Andy decides to take Woody the Cowboy with him and place the remaining toys in the attic in a garbage bag. As Andy and his mother clean out his room, the garbage bag is mistakenly placed on the curb for garbage pickup. As that mistake is averted, the toys are donated to the Sunnyside Daycare Center with Woody begrudgingly in tow.

The daycare center is an eye-opener, full of potential new friends, adventures, and a sweet-natured big, lovable, strawberry-scented teddy bear named “Lots-O Huggin’ Bear”. Just as the toys begin to feel acclimated to their new home, an afternoon of rough play from the kids and a misunderstanding with “Lotso” reveals that Sunnyside is not at all what they perceived it to be. Lotso is clearly calling the shots, with a giant baby doll and Barbie’s love interest, Ken, as his special enforcement. Having left them behind and thinking that his friends will be fine in their new home, Woody intends to head back to Andy, but a little girl, Bonnie, finds Woody and takes him home with her.

The toys soon realize that they need to break free from their oppressive surroundings and adventures ensue. The task at hand proves difficult and the toys face peril the likes of which they have never yet experienced. A caution to the youngest of viewers, and their parents; the risks and dangers on display are darker than we have experienced in the “Toy Story” movies previously. The final action sequence is not only masterfully executed, but is also rich in intensity, both visually and thematically.

Perhaps because Andy is older, this “Toy Story” can delve into deeper and richer themes. Michael Arndt’s flawless screenplay successfully balances what, in lesser hands, would be the potential for misfires left and right. In traveling to the day care, numerous new potential characters are introduced but never divert the focus away from the characters we have grown to love. The themes of abandonment, loyalty, and devotion have been present throughout the “Toy Story” adventures, but they reach a deeper and more emotional layer here. Arndt’s screenplay simply transcends age and experience.

Dropping your child off at a day care facility those first few times can be a nerve-wracking experience for not just the parent but also the child. Cleaning out a child’s room, or any room for that matter, always provides that moment where the cleaning stops and something in that room triggers a memory related to that item or an event that item rekindles in one’s mind. Parents worry about the moment when a child reaches the age where they may not be living at home any longer. Whether we connect through those moments or relate on some level to Lotso’s actual story and the emotions prevalent in his experience, the film is rich and full with meaning that is not preachy or heavy-handed, but simply real. In fact, “Toy Story 3″ is a much more real movie, with its toys and animated human beings, than anything I have seen so far in 2010.

By the trilogy’s conclusion, “Toy Story 3″ takes everything we have seen in the previous films – all the humor, adventure, connection to characters, and the touching moments, and distills them down into one final sequence that is moving, honest, perhaps to some melancholy, but absolutely necessary. The emotional impact of the final moments blindsided me and I can only think that it will speak deep to all of those boys and girls, now young men and women, who have taken Andy’s journey both on screen and off. In an extraordinary run of accomplishments, perhaps unparalleled in cinematic history, the final scenes in “Toy Story 3″ may be Pixar’s finest accomplishment.

Should I See It?

“Toy Story 3″ is, to my eyes and mind, the best film of 2010 thus far.

Everything you love in a film is present here. Comedy and humor, action and adventure, drama and meaning.

You have enjoyed the films as a child, a parent, or both, and want to see how it all wraps up.

See above review.

(No lie…I’m reaching to come up with these.)

The first two films have held no interest for you.

You have a rock where your heart used to be. (from my wife…)

As a parent, the action sequences may be, at times, too intense for the youngest of viewers.