1. Animation is not just for kids
I know for some of you out there this isn't new information, movies like Shrek, last years monsters versus aliens and pretty much every Pixar movie up to now have featured some adult humor, but up until now it has more felt as though this was in place to amuse parents who had been dragged along by their toy loving screaming spawn, but Toy Story 3's overt humor really takes it to another level. Jokes about Ken's sexuality and even terms such as Lincoln logs are used with abandon, while sight gags like the tortilla head and flamenco dancing Buzz seem further removed. But that seems to have been done for a reason. Which moves me effortlessly into my next point.
2. Toy Story 3 was not made children of the 00's but the 90's
I know this may be easy to argue through the near incineration of the toys (oh did I not mention this is a spoiler filled review? Cause it is) but it was even before that when I came to this conclusion, the entire opening sequence is geared towards us, for any child entering the theatre who was born in the 00's they're watching some kid, whom they can assume is called Andy, playing with a bunch of toys. hurray. While for the 90's child it's our old buddy Andy and look there is Woody, Mr Potato head, Buzz, Jessie... the list just goes on and then we are casually informed that Bow Peep is gone, for any one who didn't grow up with the series that is like a throw away line, but for me it blew my mind. Woody was now all alone and that neat rift of sexual humor had disappeared.
3. Just because you expand an ensemble it doesn't mean that everyone becomes thinly spread
Taking movies like Batman & Robin, Spiderman 3 and Iron Man 2 (and ignoring the fact they are all superhero movies) we could deduce that films who increase their heroes and villains beyond the number 3 will inevitably become thinly spread and leave us unfulfilled with each character. This is something I have always belived this to be true, but not only did Toy Story 3 break that mould, it threw it in a fridge and shot a nuke at it! The thing is we know all the central characters of Toy Story 3 so that was never going to be the problem, but it was all these new characters, such as Bookworm, Big Baby, Mr. Pricklepants and the Monkey, that we needed to learn about that was going to be a challenge. But they were all developed, even if it was for a moment, to a point where I can describe them; Bookworm is a social defunct who enjoys his time in the company of books and looks down his nose at people; Big Baby is an individual who is easily controlled by Lotso but still cares for people to much and is really good at heart, Mr Pricklepants is a thespian who takes himself all to seriously but again has a heart of gold and the monkey is a dumb individual who will do what the person in power tells him.
4. No one will ever best Pixar
This lesson was one that I had nearly learnt in Up but was only truly hammered home in this film. Pixar will forever reign as one of the top studios in Animation comedy for one simple reason, they are not afraid to make you cry. In Up Pixar came out and but the massive amount of balls they had on the table at the start, we got to see a montage of one mans happy life leading up to his wife's death. I know people who were brought to tears by that, and here they do it again having all the toys sadly accept the fact that they are about to die and you can't help but feel that this is the end even as you dimly remind yourself that a happy ending was promised you still get this terrible niggling feeling that it may all be a lie and that these wonderful friends of yours are about to bite the big one. Now I hear some of you asking but this is supposed to be a happy film how does immense drama put it above others? Well quite simply it makes those funny moments more poignant, LGM's using 'the claw' is a running gag the last time it gets dragged out should only elicit a giggle, but put it next to instant death and you'll get a full belly laugh of relief from me.
5. You can draw any points from Pixar films
Okay so I got this from reviews after the film which goes against what I set out to do but shut up its my blog and I'll do what I like. Anyway so something that every reviewer seems to enjoy banging on about is how you can draw death metaphors from Toy Story and there are latent homosexual themes living in the character of Ken. But I don't think they are digging far enough, there are so many other juicy parallels you can make for this film. The first one I thought of was Marxist theory. Where Lotso portrays the Tsar Nicholas, the Butterfly room occupants are the Bourgeoisie and the Caterpillar room are the repressed working class. All continues with its oppression until the intellectuals arrive (here played by Andy's toys) and educate the people in how to rise up for themselves, and they do disposing of their leader and creating a land where people wear gold sparkly clothes and are groovy... Okay so the metaphor slides off at the end there but you get my drift.
Question: What other themes or ideas can you draw out of Toy Story 3? They could be as loose and thin as you like.
So thats it the first of what will be a number of reviews of anything I can find, movies, video games and other stuff.
Hope it was enjoyable.
I especially agree with number four. Good list.
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