Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Movie Review: Toy Story 3

Over a decade after the release of Toy Story 2 Pixar Animation Studios released Toy Story 3.[1] But the road to get there was rocky. In 2004 Pixar was threatening to split from Disney (in large part due to personality clashes between Steve Jobs and Michael Eisner), but Disney retained the rights to all Pixar movies and characters produced up to that time.[2] In response to the threatened split, Michael Eisner fast-tracked Toy Story 3, to be produced by a new Disney studio, Circle 7 Animation. The script had Buzz Lightyear being recalled due to safety concerns.[3] When Disney bought Pixar in 2006, that version of Toy Story 3 was scrapped and production returned to the Pixar team.

My verdict: The opening scene was entirely gratuitous. And I loved it. The animators must've had a lot of fun with that one. There are several great new characters, including Chuckles the clown, the Chatter Telephone, and the cymbal-banging monkey. The scenes where Buzz spoke Spanish were fun—especially for me, since I understand Spanish.[4] I had a hard time believing that Andy would be leaving for college at the age of 17. Between this movie (the villain has a cane) and Rango (the villain is in a wheel chair) [5], I wonder if disabled people feel demonized. They ended the franchise in what was probably the best way possible.


Notes:

[1] There are no plans to produce a Toy Story 4.

[2] See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixar#Disney.

[3] See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toy Story 3#Production.

[4] I didn't even mind that it was Peninsular Spanish.

[5] Read my review of Rango here.

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