Movie: Toy Story 3

Starring: The voices of Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Joan Cusack, Don Rickles, Ned Beatty, Michael Keaton, Wallace Shawn, John Ratzenberger, Estelle Harris, Jodi Benson, Timothy Dalton

Rating: 5 out of 5

That old, familiar (wonderful) feeling

By Davin Arul

YOU don’t need stunning advances in motion capture, digital rendering and visual effects to make a great film.

In fact, anyone trying to base a movie solely upon visual razzle-dazzle is doomed to make a lightweight, forgettable and passably entertaining movie (at best) if certain key ingredients are left out.

When Toy Story came out in 1995, it certainly broke new ground in animation, giving audiences an eye-popping look at what talented animators could do with these “new-fangled” digital tools.

But it didn’t stop there. Toy Story succeeded because its creators placed top priority on story and characters, and it is appropriate that the latest sequel should come by now of all times (given all the buzz – no relation to our favourite space ranger – about a certain A-for-Avatar movie) to remind us just how vital these elements are to a movie.

It’s been 11 years since Woody, Buzz Lightyear and the gang last rode across the big screen, and you would have this nagging worry that the toys may have gathered a little dust by now.

Or worse, been made obsolete by all those Transformers, statuesque (pfaugh!) McFarlane toys and endless Clone Trooper variants.

True enough, it didn’t take long before Toy Story 3 brought back that old, familiar feeling to me. But in this case, that is a good thing.

No, not really.

It is a GREAT thing.

Because there’s plenty of life in these old toys yet, and they have one more really touching, deeply resonant tale to spin.

Their beloved owner Andy is now 17 and about to leave for college. The toys face two options: the attic or the trash can, and neither one is particularly pleasing.

Through the customary bizarre turn of events, they end up in the neighbourhood day care centre, Sunnyside – a place that seems welcoming, initially, but soon turns into a nightmare.

The place is run by an embittered plush bear named Lotso (short for “Lots-o’-Huggin’ Bear”) (Beatty) who rules it like a maximum-security prison – leaving our intrepid band with an eternity of daily agony and nightly incarceration staring them in the face.

Expect lots of laugh-out-loud moments, a constant stream of chuckles, some “awwww”-inspiring bits, scenes of toys in peril, a heartwarming tale of sticking together (and the sacrifice that sometimes calls for), rounded out with a beautiful, sincere bequeathal from the heart.

Suffice to say that last bit involves Andy, a little girl named Bonnie and a whole bunch of toys, some familiar, some new. And it may leave you struggling to keep from bawling your eyes out in front of the kids.

I get teary-eyed just thinking about it. Damn you, Pixar – you’re costing me a fortune in tissues. I don’t mind paying for the tickets over and over again, though.

There’s nothing else to say about this one that won’t sound superfluous. It’s the best doggone movie of the year to date … and, I daresay, beyond!

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