I want to start this off by saying that I rarely go all full-fanboy over a movie; you may have noticed that I don't post really positive reviews all THAT often.
I am about to.
I am also going to start off with some technical notes about the movie in question.
So.
This weekend, my lovely copilot and I went to see Toy Story 3, having heard reviewers (except that one douchebag) wax rhapsodic about its many virtues.
The very first thing I noticed was something I wasn't expecting; the 3D was done RIGHT.
OK, technical note #1: 3D, as a filmmaking technique, is and should be an enhancement to the movie, but the movie should still sell its story based on the STORY; all 3D is supposed to do is make the movie more immersive.
One huge flaw in most 3D movies is that filmmakers - ever since good ol' House Of Wax, and that infamous paddle-ball scene - have used it for its own sake; "OMG, there's something flying RIGHT AT MY FACE!"
Over, and over, and over.
Really, if I want to see that, I can go sit on the third base foul line at a Twins game. It's not an enhancement to the movie; it just annoys me.
Pixar, however, seems to understand my grievance there, and the 3D in Toy Story 3 is absolutely stellar; both in quality AND in usage, adding depth and feeling to the movie without being distracting.
As a second technical note, Pixar has come a long, long way; the animation is fluid, and I never saw any errors - something I spot in almost every film, computer-generated or otherwise. By comparison, the original Toy Story - which was a great movie in its own right - looks, technically speaking, like amateur hour.
So, the big question; how IS the movie?
I will answer briefly, and then expound at some length.
This is the best movie so far this year.
Based on the movies released thus far, Toy Story 3 is a shoo-in for Best Picture. Of course, they will fob Best Animated Feature on it, and give Best Picture to something political about Iraq and how war sucks, the way they gave Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon Best Foreign Film and gave Best Picture to traffic. (WTF?!)
Why is it so excellent?
Well, Pixar has finally figured out how to do something nearly miraculous; they created a (second!) sequel that not only surpasses the original, but outright blows it away.
That's not exactly a reason, but play along with me here.
The story in Toy Story 3 is one almost anyone can identify with; who hasn't had a moment when one of their friends does something that seems to be a complete about-face, a total betrayal of your loyalty and steadfastness?
The premise is simple: the toys' owner, the rarely-glimpsed Andy, has finally grown up enough that he's going off to college, and his toys are getting packed up for storage in the attic. This is not such a bad deal for the toys, until Andy's mom mistakes the bag of toys for a trash bag, and hauls them out to the curb.
The toys, understandably miffed by this betrayal, contrive to get themselves donated to a daycare, with the notion in mind that they will be played with, and therefore happy.
Unfortunately, the daycare is Efrafra, straight out of Watership Down, run by an innocent-seeming but tyrannical and possibly psychotic stuffed bear named General Woundwort Lotso.
Woody, the ever-heroic sheriff and nominal leader of the motley collection of toys, tries desperately to both break them out, and convince them that in fact Andy was trying to store them in the attic, and their anger is misdirected.
There are tons of references and asides for adults, as is becoming a hallmark (and a well-appreciated one) of Pixar films, and there are jokes that will be comical for all ages (on different levels, of course.)
Watching Buzz Lightyear in Spanish mode was both hilarious and strangely awesome.
There are some very effective cliffhangers, both figurative and literal, and the kind of sentimentality Pixar is learning to manage so well, in which you care without it being either maudlin or overly cheesy.
Unlike Up, in which the opening feels like getting punched in the kidneys with depression while simultaneously stubbing a pack of lit cigarettes out on your pancreas (and I LIKE that movie,) Toy Story 3 manages that ever-so-delicate tightrope walk of making you invest in the characters and the situation emotionally without making it obvious that they're doing exactly that.
When combined with some really creepy villains, and the advent of the unbelievably fabulous (and I use that word advisedly) Ken doll, it makes for a movie that I can actually call "an experience."
Interestingly, Pizar set up another sequel with such delicacy that I actually didn't realize that they had done so until I sat down to write this.
But overall, what I have to say about this movie is simple.
See it.
See it in 3D if you can.
It is the best movie so far this year, but it is also far and away the best film Pixar has ever made; if you don't see it, you are missing a great moviegoing experience.
This is a wonderful movie, and except for that one douchebag in New York, for once the mob got it right: this movie gets a perfect score.
