Toy Story 3D

Recently went to a 3D screening (£1.50 charge when I already kept a pair of glasses from the last 3D film I saw!) of Toy Story and whilst I remembered so much from when I'd previously seen the film I was able to appreciate new facets of the film revealing themselves to me which is in and of itself an example of what makes a truly great film.

What really stood out to me this time was the screenplay and how crammed with brilliant ideas the film is. There is really not a minute that goes past without an excellent bit of dialogue ("Hey, Hamm. Look, I'm Picasso.", "Years of Academy training wasted!", "Oh, great. If anyone attacks we can blink 'em to death.") and visual or storytelling creativity. From the entire look of Pizza Planet to small details such as ANDY having spelt the 'N' correctly on Buzz's foot as compared to Woody's. It's those sort of little things that makes Pixar so much better than all those that have followed in their wake.

I think with all films that are centred around an idea the avenues of the idea need to be vast and explorable for it to endure the entire film's length. The idea behind Groundhog Day worked whereas the idea behind Fred Claus didn't. In the case of Toy Story the idea (or "pitch" to use Hollywood terms) is 'what if toys came to life when their owners weren't looking?'

Pixar explore various pathways to this from the officious nature of an office meeting in the conference where Woody doesn't sound a million miles away from Michael Scott - right down to attemtping to pass over the moving forward of Andy's birthday party to the paranoia of Woody turning him against his better nature and attempting to hurt Buzz in the hopes that Andy will have to take him to Pizza Planet. Every avenue in this maze of ideas has been travelled down with forensic detail and no stone has been unturned if it could contain something that works as a joke, a plot point or a character motivation.

Looking further into this film, as I always am with simple kids stories to justify my watching of them, I think you can read an underlying theme during the whole film about faith. The needy nature of the toys against their fairly impassive "God" in Andy, the fact that they follow a personal code of ethics and live to serve at the pleasure of their owner. One theory I once read in a magazine suggested this was a Platoon-esque Vietnam war allegory with Woody representing the grizzled old soldier and Buzz the All-American idealist who has no idea of what fate awaits him. There are certainly more than a few moments and lines in the film that wouldn't seem out of place in Apocalypse Now.

There are also visual dichotomys between Andy's heavenly light-blue-and-clouds bedroom and Sid's black and neon coloured bedroom, a living hell where monstrous concotions of various old toys have been stitched together by both Sid and the toys themselves. Both aspects of a child's imagination are explored and yet it is the good child that seems to bring the most psychological, lasting damage to his toys in both the first and second film. Sid's damage is superficial and he himself seems to have just as much imagination as Andy but much more curiousity in what exactly makes these creations, sometimes literally, tick. If he tempered his malicious streak a lucrative career in surgery surely beckoned.

Finally, there is a dark night of the soul scene with Buzz that is amongst the most moving in any animated film, perhaps any film ever. Maybe as heart-breaking as the moment Bambi can't find his mother or when Rick Blaine knows his own happiness must be sacrificed for a greater good. Our hero, the most well-meaining of all characters in this film, has his beliefs shattered, his body broken and his spirit crushed. For all the redemption he might gain from then on, the innocence is never the same. He eventually accepts his fate as we all hopefully learn to in our own ways in order to function as we grow older and ever more aware of our own mortality.



Really, our own eyes were opened as well after this film, and would eventually come to realise that a special film studio had just left it's mark and nothing would be the same again. I think we all know that now.