Toy Story 3 reviewed

 

I can remember seeing the first Toy Story movie in theaters.  It was supposed to change the way we looked at animated movies since it was made with a computer.  It did.  I still remember my mind being blown at the theaters and then watching it and re-watching it again and again when it was released on VHS.  I only stopped when my mom said it was ruining the tape.  Then the second Toy Story came out and I loved that too but I thought that was the end of series but little did I know what was in store in the coming years. It wasn't a movie that's equal to the first two but Toy Story 3 has plenty of charms.

After many years of being Andy's playthings, times have changed and Andy has grown up.  He's about to go to college and like all big boys, he hasn't played with his toys for years.  But his mom throws down the gavel and demands him to either put his old stuff in the trash, attic or college.  But due to some WACKY HIJINKS, they get put in Sunnyvale Day Care Center run by the adorable and strawberry-scented Lotso Hugging Bear, so it's like Heaven on Earth.  But Woody is all like "We're Andy's toy." and the rest are like "But he doesn't want us!" so Woody goes to find Andy and the rest stay.  Needless to say, things aren't what they appear to be which necissitates the return of Woody and a great escape from Sunnyvale.

The Toy Story movies have always been about letting go and accepting the fact that you can't be in control of everything forever.  The first movie was Woody not being Andy's toy anymore.  The second one was the fact that toys will get broken and replaced.  This one is about what happens when the kid grows up and you don't know what's going to happen. It's that fear of the future that leads to a depressing air to this.  It may be funny at times but even then it's really subdued and there isn't any laugh-out-loud moments.  But that's not to say that this is a bad thing since it fits the story really well.

The animation, however, tells a much different story.  It's bright and vibrant and alive making it a great feast for the eyes when they're not flowing with tears.  Each character is wonderfully animated in a way that's instantly familiar to anyone who has grown up with the series and still don't look out of place with today's animated movies.  It's a thin line that the animators crossed flawlessly.

The voice-acting is still top-notch.  All the returning actors like Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Don Rickles and everyone else fit their characters like a glove.  It's like it's been eleven days since they last did Toy Story 2, not eleven years.  The new guys also acquit themselves admirably here.  But special note goes to Ned Beatty, the voice of Lotso Huggin' Bear.  He has that folksy, grandfather-like quality about him that lures you into a false sense of security until he shows his hand and reveals he's EVVILLLL!  And he still retains his folksy, pleasant talk barring a couple breakdowns.

This is just like spending good times with some very dear friends that you haven't seen in years.  The script isn't the best written and at times it can be a bit to cloying with the past & I think Lotso comeuppance was a bit too weak.  Despite that, it's still  a very good movie that only Pixar can do, they just did it better on the other movies.

8/10

Up reviewed

This is really obvious but I really like the Pixar movies.  Everyone of one them that I see (barring Monsters Inc. and A Bug's Life since I haven't seen them) I, at the very worst, like and some of them I love very much, like Wall-E.  However, my hopes were not high when I sat down to watch Up.  For one thing, the very first promotional photo that Pixar gave me visions of Waterworld, but in the air...which isn't a bad thing since I love Waterworld. When I read the plot though, it didn't sound like Air Waterworld at all.  And then I saw Wall-E, which is the absolute pinnacle of Pixar, CGI-Animated movies and 2008 movies which made me think, "How could Pixar follow-up?"  So did they do it in a successful way?  Let's find out as we dig into Up.

The movie revolves around Carl Fredrickson, an elderly man, who recently lost his wife.  They made a promise to go to Paradise Falls in South America but life always got in the way.  Now Carl, grumpy and alone, has lost his house due to some horribly non-wacky hijinks and is due to be sent to a retirement home.  So he gets a lot of balloons and heads down to Paradise Falls but somehow he got an Asian Wilderness Explorer Scout in his house.  Eventually they make it, but the adventure is only beginning.

There is one thing that Up has that stands head and shoulders over the rest of Pixar's films.  That thing is Carl, who is the best human protagonist in a Pixar movie, granted the only real competition is Mr. Incredible from The Incredibles.  His character arc is one of the best that Pixar has ever done starting him as a nice, optimistic and caring husband down to a grumpy old guy back to caring due to his many lessons learned at Paradise Falls.  Carl is truly, one of the most fully realized characters that Pixar has ever created and certainly the best human one.

What really sells this is the voice-acting, especially by Ed Asner who voices Carl.  Not once did I think of Carl as Ed Asner or even Cosgrove even though I would kill to hear this "Hey Freakazoid, you wanna help me put balloons on my house so I can get to South America?"  He injects Carl with the humanity and pathos of his journey so well that Carl wouldn't have worked half as well if it wasn't for Asner.  Another character of note is Dug, the dog voiced by co-director Bob Petersen who's the funniest thing about the movie.  Dug is both a Cloud Cuckoolander and Captain Obvious but it totally works and Petersen plays it to perfecSQUIRREL....heh, heh sorry.

However, there are some flaws that do drag Up down.  First of all, it's a bit too short.  The last few Pixar movies have been over 100 minutes, giving the various stories time to breathe and feel real.  Up clocks in at 96 minutes and by the second half I felt things were a bit too rushed as everything gets wrapped up in a neat bow.  I probably won't have much of a problem if this came out before the epics like Incredibles or Wall-E but after them, it just looks like a step back.  Also, this kinda does suffer from some logic-holes that I saw during the movie.  I know about Suspension of Disbelief and moving the story along but it just kinda bothered me.

In the end though, Up was really good even though it ranks in the middle of Pixar films.  It succeeds at everything it sets out to do and it plucks the right emotions with one of Pixar's best characters.  It does misstep in the second half and there's some stuff I never quite liked but that's just fairly minor quibbles.  It might not be as good as the Toy Stories, Cars or Wall-E but it is still great family entertainment.

8/10