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Cowboy Woody (Tom Hanks) calls for help on Chatter Telephone (Teddy Newton) in the sequel “Toy Story 3.” |
I realize that only baby boomers might get this reference, but “Toy Story 3” features a horrific, white-knuckle survival sequence that packs as much raw power as the single gunshot that killed Bambi’s mother.
Yes. Bambi’s mother. I’m not kidding.
It’s been a long time since a G-rated animated feature has been this scary, this smart, this moving, this thrilling and this visually dynamic. (Even more than Pixar’s “Up?” Yes!)
The sheer excellence of Disney/Pixar’s “Toy Story 3” is all the more amazing because it’s a second sequel to a hit movie, so the writers are limited to using certain characters and conventions already established in “Toy Story” (1995) and “Toy Story 2” (1999).
When you consider that almost all of the original actors have returned to play their characters 11 years since the last “Toy Story,” this sequel deserves even greater admiration. (Jim Varney, the voice of Slinky the dog, died in 2000 and has been replaced by Blake Clark. Bo Peep, Wheezy the Penguin and the Etch-a-Sketch apparently have become yard sale fodder.)
“Toy Story 3” takes up when young Andy (John Morris) is preparing to head off to college. What will he do with all his favorite toys? Throw them away? Donate them? Take them to college?
The green army soldiers don’t wait around. They bail.
Andy sets aside all his toys, except for Cowboy Woody (Tom Hanks), to be donated, but an accident places them in the trash bin. Woody’s attempt to save his pals becomes the first crisis of many as the toys struggle to survive and face the biggest question of their existence: Who will play with them and give their lives meaning? (Read more…)