TOY STORY 3
(G)
MOVIE: ***** (out of 5)
BLU-RAY EXPERIENCE: **** (out of 5)
BY KEVIN CARR
WHAT IT’S ABOUT
In this third installment in the groundbreaking Pixar franchise, Andy is heading off to college, so he’s packing up his old toys to donate to charity. The toys have to come to terms with their owner growing up, and they start a new adventure at a day care center. But soon they discover that this place is not the happy haven they were led to believe it was.
WHAT I LIKED
It’s “Toy Story.” What’s not to like? It’s so rare for a sequel to be as good as the original. Make it a second sequel, and it’s even more rare. Make that movie 15 years after the first one, and the odds are astronomical. Yet Pixar rolled those dice and delivered the best movie of 2010, bringing back all of the characters, all of the voices (save Jim Varney, RIP) and all of the charm for another go-round.
Like the previous installments, “Toy Story 3” has everything you’d want in a film. It has drama, it has heart, it has great characters, it look beautiful… heck, I’m sure it smells beautiful too… just like strawberries.
Pixar is currently book-ended with “Toy Story” and “Toy Story 3,” and while you can see gargantuan leaps in technology, animation and vision in this film, the heart and soul (which is what made the first film so lovely) are still there.
WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE
Not a thing. And yeah, I cry at the end. Every doggoned time.
BLU-RAY FEATURES
The Blu-ray combo set comes with four discs: the feature Blu-ray, the bonus material Blu-ray, the DVD and the Digital Copy disc.
Bonus material on the first disc includes the brilliant short “Day & Night” as well as Buzz Lightyear’s Mission Logs from the Space Shuttle (as earlier installments were seen on previous “Toy Story” releases).
The Blu-ray Bonus Disc includes the “Toy Story Trivia Dash” set-top game, a commentary track, an embedded feature-length insight called “Cine-Explore” with director Lee Unkrich and producer Darla Anderson, three new “Studio Stories” and a slew of featurettes: “Beginnings: Setting a Story in Motion,” “Bonnie’s Playtime – A Story Roundtable with Director Lee Unkrich,” “Roundin’ Up a Western Opening” and “Paths to Pixar: Editorial.”
WHO’S GOING TO LIKE THIS MOVIE
Everyone but Armond White.