Changing Lanes

11 years later, Toy Story 3 still manages to stay true to the original concept and blows us away. Directed by Lee Unkrich (co-director of Toy Story 2), it manages to induce plenty of laughs and few tears from the adults who as kids had drooled over the first two movies. I wouldn’t claim to be a huge Toy Story fan but the third installment just made me realize how much in love with the characters I was.

Andy Davis (voiced by John Morris), now 17 years old and heading off to college, needs to decide what he wants to do with the few toys he still holds on to. This predicament leaves him in some angst and in the end decides to take Woody (voiced by Tom Hanks) with him while leaving the rest of the toys in the Attic. But due to various mishaps, all the toys end up in a day care centre called Sunnyside that is run by the huggable, strawberry scented Losto Bear (voiced by Ned Beatty). This is where most of the action takes place i.e. from Buzz Lightyear (voiced by Tim Allen) being reset, Woody leaving the others to go back to Andy, Ken (voiced by Michael Keaten) and Barbie (voiced Jodi Benson) falling in love, being played/tortured by infants, Woody and gang saving the other toys from the evil Losto etc.

The process by which the movie builds up is just plain eye candy for us viewers because it makes us fall in love with each of the characters all over again. The opening scenes showing Andy as a kid playing with the toys, takes us back to the original movies which in my opinion was the best way to get the viewers nostalgic and hooked from the start. Even though a lot of the toys/characters from the first two movies didn’t make it to this movie, all the remaining ones were handled in an ideal way making sure we didn’t miss the ones that were lost. Jessie (voiced by Joan Cusack) was the perfect cow girl, Mr & Mr Potato (voiced by Don Rickles and Estelle Harris) head were adorable, Rex (voiced by Wallace Shawn) was his scary best and Slinky Dog (voiced by Blake Clark) the faithful sidekick irrespective of his age.

Somewhere in the middle of the movie, I did get slightly bored but as the ending unraveled, the whole thing made complete sense and this is where the movie blew me away. The likelihood of an emotional ending going bad is usually high but the way the writers handled it was just mind bogglingly faultless. I won’t go into details but in all honesty, I’d watch this movie over and over again just for the ending. Loved it...well done Lee Unkrich.