Films are often a little too grown up (read scary), or overly complicated, or violent. It is a rare thing a genuine family-friendly, well-made film. Toy Story broke the mold all those years ago and now the must-see Toy Story 3 is out in 3D…
In this day and age with all the animation that we see coming out of various studios, you would think a good children’s movie would be an easy thing to find. In my opinion, it isn’t.
Films are often a little too grown up (read scary), or overly complicated, or violent. It is a rare thing a genuine family-friendly, well-made film. Toy Story broke the mold all those years ago with its simple story of a bunch of toys led by the Tom Hanks-voiced Woody, trying to find their way back to their owner, Andy. It was a near perfectly-paced film, with new computer animation to surprise us. The characters were loveable, AND watchable. It was a favourite in our family, and in an emergency it can always be pulled out for visiting children.
Toy Story 2 was an even rarer thing. A sequel. A sequel that was as good if not even slightly better than the original film! Again, the story of Woody and his gang (including the master stroke of Tim Allen’s Buzz Lightyear) trying to get back to Andy after they were separated by the evil Emperor Zurg who was trying to put them all into a toy museum in Japan!
There was much talk for many years of a third film, but there was an issue with the Pixar/Disney combo. A third film would not be considered part of an already agreed number of films to be made by a certain date. It was understood that the story was ready to go for many years, but not finally given the great light until the two companies became much more closely linked than just a distribution deal.
The third film is another winner. Pixar at it best – not trying to reinvent the wheel – just improve it slightly, and add in 3D technology. I am not a particular fan of that technology (it plays havoc with my eyes!) but they used it well in the film, and my understanding is that there are advances that they have used for the film that we haven’t seen elsewhere. We get the added bonus of a whole raft of new characters, in particular the appropriately smarmy Michael Keaton voicing Ken who is just brilliant. He is just one big walking visual joke for those of us who remember Ken in his heyday (cue lots of jokes about him being a ‘girl’s toy’).
Woody and the gang are separated from Andy (again), as he gets ready to leave for college. They end up in Sunnyside Day Care, hopefully to be played with and loved by children again, after many years being ignored by their beloved Andy (he is a teenager and too old for toys).
The film is again about their journey… but I am not letting on where they end up. It is a lovely resolution, and possibly a nice lead into a whole new series of films. I like the idea of taking my grandchildren to new films, about the same characters that my children went to.
One of my reservations is a scene in a recycle plant where they are possibly about to make meet a hot and sticky end – might be a bit scary for the very small people – but in saying that, I didn’t hear a peep out of the many tiny people at the media screening. Maybe they are more savvy than my children at the same age! And I didn’t like the slightly creepy character of ‘Baby’ the sidekick muscle for the resident bad guy ‘Lotso’ (as in Lot-so-love) a plush, strawberry smelling, bear (voiced by Ned Beatty). Just slightly icky…
Seriously, this is a brilliant film that has something for everyone, and even the wide spread of ages in my family was easily made happy (7, 10, 13 – and myself far to old to say in print…) It is simply a must-see if you have small people, and a definite must-own when the DVD comes out. An instant classic.
By Anya Brighouse, 19 June 2010.
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