Beyond Infinity

Toy Story 3
(John Lasseter, 2010)

4.5 Stars

Sequels are tricky. Disney sequels are trickier. As such, sequels to the truly great Disney movies are perhaps the trickiest of tricksters. Pulling it off is a rare thing. Indeed, the only Disney sequels that really live up to their predecessors greatnesses are, in my opinion, The Rescuers Down Under and Simba’s Pride. Add to this ten years in development limbo, and things didn’t look all too hopeful for the third instalment of the adventures of the anthropomorphic toys of Andy’s bedroom. Nonetheless, when it was announced that Toy Story 3 would be hitting our screens this summer, I found myself salivating with anticipation.

Aside from being one of the most important films in animation history, Toy Story was also one of the most influential films in the Westgate household throughout the late nineties. As such, I found myself counting down the days until the new movie’s release, only to discover that, being in Japan, not only would I have to wait an extra month for it to arrive on the Nipponese shores, but I would also have to search high and low for somewhere that would be showing it in English. Crazy bloody Japan.

But it was worth the wait.

Toy Story 3 manages not only to pull on every nostalgic heartstring imaginable, but also takes the viewer on a hilarious and exciting romp as Woody, Buzz and the rest of the gang cope with Andy going to college and exactly what this means to their plastic existences. Hitting us full on with an action packed re-enactment of the opening sequence of the original, TS3 proceeds to take us on a roller-coaster ride of emotions, introducing us to a smorgasbord of new characters (most notably the diabolical Lotsa-Huggin Bear, voiced by the charming Ned Beatty and the adorably naïve Ken, brought to oblivious life by Michael Keaton) and even throwing in a few familiar faces for the keen-eyed observer (anyone else notice that the crazy garbage guy was Sid from the first movie?), eventually leading to one of the most tear-jerking endings to an animated feature I thing I have ever seen. Seriously, there were floods here.

Beautifully animated and perfectly paced, perhaps my only qualm with this outing is that a few of the characters’ motives and logics seem a little out of keeping with what we have seen in previous instalments. There’s also a little too much of the oft-annoying Jesse (Joan Cusack) for my liking.

Little grievances aside, Toy Story 3 is nonetheless one of the finest features to have come from Pixar studios. And that’s saying something. This time round, Lasseter really has taken us to infinity and beyond. Just make sure to have a box of tissues when the end credits come around.