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The Nearly Eleven Year Wait For TOY STORY 3 Is Worth It, Says The Enemy!!!
Hey there, people...
An infinite number of words could describe this movie, but in simplest terms I think "fulfilling" works best.
There are only a hand full of things I can legitimately say, "I've been waiting my whole life for," and this film is one them.
Back in 1999, I was five years old and sat outside a theatre with my father for two hours (in forty degree weather) to see the second film in the TOY STORY series. As an impatient child, I wanted my TOY STORY right then and there and constantly nagged dad about when we could get seated. Yet waiting there, freezing my ass off, somehow made my appreciation of the film greater after watching it. Not only did I feel like I'd earned it - it delivered.
Fast forward to 2010. I'm now sixteen ("Merrick's 16 Year Old Son") and that TS2 experience is still one of my fondest memories. When recalling my early years, I now realize a great amount of time and energy was spent on TOY STORY - making it a Holy Grail of my childhood. I went into TOY STORY 3 with high hopes and expectations, but also many natural apprehensions. Would this one deliver?
Every Pixar feature opens with a new short - the short for this film is called "Day & Night." This is probably the company's most badass short to date; it'll leave your jaw dropped and it's enjoyable for kids and adults alike. Describing the thing is pretty hard, but it's funny, interesting, and has a strong message at the end. It's essentially two transparent characters cut into a solid black backdrop. You see different and changing worlds inside of both of them, perspectives switching as they move, interact, and begin to understand each other. Crazy sounding? I know. It's one of those things you have to see for yourself. Here's a fast YouTube clip so you can glimpse what I'm talking about.
When viewing TOY STORY 3 itself, you'll immediately notice this film was created and constructed with extreme TLC - not surprising given the people who are making it. Though I have a strong distaste for 3-D, in this particular case seeing the movie in 3-D is probably worth that few extra dollars. If an IMAX theatre is located in your area, and showing the film in IMAX 3-D, I highly suggest seeing it there. The presentation here is sharp, rich, immersive, and pretty amazing.
Before the movie started, I wondered if it was going to be as depressing as the beginning of UP. The answer: yes. Within the first ten minutes of TS3, a sadder, darker tone prevails - brilliantly displaying complex and awkward ideas like growing up, finding one's purpose, and moving on in life. Often this tone threatens to pull a few tears out of you, and sometimes it does. Although subtle jokes, smart writing, and occasional happy moments lighten things up, there's still an overall dark atmosphere here. This is more like THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK of TOY STORY movies.
Previous films in the series were bright and colorful, but TS3 is a much harder, grungier looking movie for a majority of its running time - making it a less optimistic, idealized world for the toys (and us viewers). The upshot of this is a more mature vibe than many might be expecting, but it's darker style brings with it astonishing photography for an animated movie - there's some uncomfortable beauty here.
MINOR SET-UP SPOILERS HERE
The movie starts with an imaginary scenario (in Andy's mind) which re-introduces us to most of the TS characters. This transitions into the camera viewfinder of Andy's (still single?) mom - and a very changed world in which toys being played with is a distant memory, and Andy leaving for college is coming up fast.
Here we learn that some characters have been re-homed over the years, and that the remaining toys are waiting to have their fates determined by departing Andy and his cleaning-happy mother. Reluctantly, Andy chooses which toys stay, and which ones go.
An easy mistake or two later, the toys Andy holds onto (our hero toys) are accidentally banished to Sunnyside Daycare - essentially a toy prison. From here, like the earlier TSs, they have to find their way home. But in those films, the toys knew they were wanted, and would be missed. Here, even if they manage to get home, the best fate for most of them is that they'll end up in Andy's attic, to be played with again some day many years down the line. Maybe. See? It's dark. And, before the film's final, emotionally charged scene, the toy's personal Hell will become much more literal.
At Sunnyside, an angry and abandoned toy named Lots-O-Huggin’ Bear leads an elite group of evil toys. They've essentially conquered the toys that lived there before their arrival, and now rule over them like the mob. Lots-O decides which toys are assigned to what rooms in the facility - meaning once beloved toys are usually sent into the hands of infants where they barely survive the harsh treatment of the kids in the center.
A little girl from Sunnyside, named Bonnie, finds Woody as he's trying to return to Andy's house. She takes him home where, we meet her version of Andy's toys. They tell Woody the tragic tale of Lots-O's conquest of Sunnyside, insist that his friends are in danger, compelling the Sheriff to attempt a daring…possibly suicidal…rescue of his the toys he left behind.
END MINOR SPOILERS
For all of the textural changes brought to the table this time around, there are also many familiar story telling aspects held over from the previous TS films; groups going from place to place, settings and characters not being what they initially seem to be, etc. Normally, I wouldn't enjoy watching a predictable story type told over and over again, but the writers here (Michael Arndt, John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton, and director Lee Unkrich)
find such unique and fresh spins on these ideas that it still feels extremely new, and is usually quite gripping.
The ideas of growing up, and recognizing the unstoppable passage of time, make the relationships of these characters very powerful. How they perceive and respond to concepts like fate and destiny are equally powerful. At times you'll wonder if the tasks and challenges they face are beyond them all - and you might even wonder if you'd be up to it yourself. There are plenty of surprising moments in the film, that you haven't seen suggested by trailers or TV spots. This is for the better. You'll be surprised that these sequences were kept under wraps, and may be even more surprised when you feel like you've been punched in the stomach by this movie.
The conclusion of TOY STORY 3 is powerful on its own merits, ensuring that the series as a whole will be preserved as a delight beyond compare. As I said above, you may tear up, if not cry like a big baby. You'll leave the theater with vast appreciation for not only what the people at Pixar have accomplished throughout the whole of this series, but the bigger picture of life as well.
This is much more than just a story about toys.
e-mail The Enemy!
FOLLOW THE ENEMY ON TWITTER
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Merrick?
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The new riddler???
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I'm glad its a good movie. I was worried that it'd be a steaming pile of "Shrek The Third", but this cheers me immensely.
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Interesting viewpoint, to bring in the son of a contributor who has grown up with the series. But "The Enemy"? That's weird. I guess he's got a Sauron fixation perhaps? I thought this was gonna turn out to be a piece by Moriarty or Devin from CHUD. Maybe even producer Don Murphy.
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Great review! Well written, short and sweet! Keep it up =D
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Jun 18, 2010 1:30:27 PM CDT
Merrick: your son is a better writer than you
by crispin_glovers_acid_flashback
You should be proud.
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The Enema would have been a cooler name.
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...its at the El Capitan but we are not doing it until our oldest daughter's 11th birthday which is Jate in July. The wait is killing me!
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"The Enemy" = reference to ALMOST FAMOUS.
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Hello Oscars. And yes, TS3 is phenomenal...even with the incredibly racist moments.
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Your son has earned the highest of kudos that I can award!
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This kid is a better writer than most reviewers on this site. Nicely written review.
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Jun 18, 2010 2:31:41 PM CDT
I DON'T NEED A CARTOON TO HELP PROVIDE INSIGHT INTO THE HUMAN CO
by darth busey
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I almost cried like I was watching a Pixar film as I read this review...
Proper grammar.
Correct Punctuation used.
Spellchecked.
No use of "!!!!"s (except in the title), "?????"s or "that said"s.
Paragraphed.
Spoiler warnings.
The rest of the writers on this site need to take notice. -
Don't want to cry in front of my kids.
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Which moments were the racist ones?
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...and I'll be basking in the light of it's Digital 3D glory!
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Not trying to start shit... Just genuinely curious... What sort of entertaining fiction do you feel you do need?
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fire all the old fogies...let the kids take over the site
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All I was doing at 16 was trying to get girls to talk to me and spanking it to any nudie mag I could find. God, I couldn't even imagine what it would be like growing up to internet porn. Oh yeah, this is a Toy Story talkback. My bad.
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Very well written review by The Enemy but I can’t lie when I say I’m extremely jealous. Not by his talent; I can write as well as he can but by the fact that he earned an easy pass over every other guy and was allowed time to write a quick review. I mean, how is that fair to every other guy who’d like to make a name for themselves out on the innerweb?
But he is a better writer than Merrick. -
Ask your kid, what's it like being a real journalist.
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A 16 year old using the word 'textural'? Come on. I teach 18 year olds college writing and I've rarely if ever seen writing this well done. So either this is fake or Merrick's son is a fucking prodigy. Could go either way.
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Don't get me wrong, Pixar = Quality and I'm gonna watch TS 3 as soon as I can, but Pixar should stop to depress the shit out of its audience. There is nothing wrong with a touching moment here and there, but I hate to watch a supposed comedy, just to be left in tears in the end.
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Look, it's a cartoon movie about toys. Ok? And it goes on and on and on about being discarded, and getting old, and becoming obsolete, and on and on and on. Christ, it was depressing. It's the only childrens movie I've ever seen that made me think about jumping off a bridge.
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I want to see the toy story movie where the toy's are traumatized watching Andy jerk it to internet porn. It could be a prequel.
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Though I figured YOU would be The Enemy, or maybe crappy bands like Nickelback, and not the 16 year old kid.
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Enlighten me...
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But I remember when I was 16. I got my first car, I hated wasting my days in school, I played metal rock in my friends garage and went to parties where beer had to be bought for me. It was eons ago! Maybe his review could have helped me then, but my mind(15 years older) is most likely not in the same time zone as his. I'm sure it will still be good though. Pixar still shows year after year that they have it.
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How the hell old am I? Keep writing, friend.
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Jun 18, 2010 5:48:18 PM CDT
Just saw it. Very Good, not as great as How to Train Your Dragon
by thorsanvil
It was depressing as hell. HTTYD was infinitely more entertaining and deserves the Oscar come February.
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I hate abbreviations so i'll just write it out: I'm laughing my ass off at that one.
filegumbo, I had the exact same thought...
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Jun 18, 2010 7:36:37 PM CDT
The Enemy = the "real" picture from Transformers 3 Merrick meant
by eddiemurphyslaugh
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They have some achingly melancholy scenes here and there, but they're ALWAYS happy at the end and have the audience leaving with a laugh and a smile. Toy Story 3 has some pretty heady things to say about moving on and loss, but it's also FUNNY AS FUCK. There's nothing wrong with shedding a tear or two during a comedy (fuck, I teared up at The 40 Year Old Virgin, for Christ's sake). I hate people who complain "I hated that movie. It made me cry!" Since when is having a legitimate emotional response to a movie bad? I'll take a "depressing" Pixar movie over shit like Marmaduke any day of the week.
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and my boy got a 30 something on the reading portion of the ACT. Kudos to you Merrick - keep that son of your's writing!
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I agree. Sure, there were some sad parts in the movie (the ending is sad but at the same time happy) but the movie as whole is positive. It's all about moving on in life, which all of us have to do at some point.
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and shed some tears. 3D glasses were perfect for hiding them. Great story! As for Jonah Hex... don't even bother to watch it. Toy Story 3 has more cajones than that pretentious western fiasco.
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You have such a brief timespan of consciousness, and then it is gone. When you have kids, you start to understand "what" its all about. As they grow up, you see your own mortality looking back at your every day. Pretty soon, we'll all be dust and memories, and maybe if you're lucky, somebody will give a shit. More likely than not, you'll be forgotten 20 years after you cease to exist, too. Its rather depressing. I don't need to see a fucking cartoon to remind me of the inescapable fact that each breath I take is one more closer to my last. I guess what I'm saying is that I'd rather watch Patrick Swayze break up bar fights or Keanu Reeves playing an EFF BEE EYE agent at this point in my life.
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I really do.
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i wish you would step back from that ledge, my friend
either that or just fucking jump already -
No longer have young children at home, but the entire family went together. My 17 & 24 year old children loved it as did my wife and I. Nothing disappointing about this movie. As always, Pixar starts with a great script and builds a great movie. After seeing a host of poorly scripted movies last weekend at the Waterfront Film Festival it was refreshing to see a great movie.
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...that Neil Blomkamp is directing "The Hobbit"
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Seeing this short with depth actually made a difference. The short youtube clip doesn't do it justice. Imagine the hand drawn 2D characters are in the foreground, and are literally windows to the lush 3D backgrounds that expand 'through' them. The effect was very cool.
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There are some incredibly powerful and emotional little scenes in this movie.. BUT Pixar does definitely makes sure everyone leaves laughing and with a HUGE smile on their face. At least all 300 of us did!
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They should hire you at the very least to proof-read the articles before they publish them. But really, great writing. And not just "for a sixteen year old".
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So glad that Potato Head had a "family moment" at the end, like him getting Mrs. Potato Head in 1 and adopting the aliens in 2. Also, the first shot of Woody in the train sequence is totally BA. What a western hero stud!
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when you read this review...did your eyes well up in tears?
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A lot of kids writing. I'm currently in college, and I hate bragging, but I for one could write this well when I was 14, 15 and 16, too. Of course, I got straight A's through elementary/middle/high school and now into college, too, so. . . Maybe it is a lot rarer than I had originally believed, actually. Merrick, your son is a GREAT WRITER. Let him write more for the site, please and thank you.
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It sounds depressing as hell. Sort of Pixar's "Old Yeller."
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He had help writing this.
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Have you read some of the terribly written articles on this site? Who helped the kid write it? Certainly not anyone who currently works here.
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Do you think that is why Rock music magazine N.M.E is called as such?
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"More likely than not, you'll be forgotten 20 years after you cease to exist, too."
You won't "cease to exist"...you can't. It's a violation of physics: information can't be destroyed, not even by a black hole, and that's all we are...information, organizing physical matter into a biological machine, starting with our DNA and working upwards.
What's more, the universe is essentially a giant, disorganized computer recording not only our information, but all information created within it. One day, it will be organized by our machine "children" as they spread out across it, and our information patterns will be recreated within it as a simulation (I say "will" because we exist in a multiverse, so it *will* happen in one potential universe, which is all that is necessary). Actually, we're in that simulation NOW, because a perfect simulation is indistinguishable from the original (and any sufficiently advanced computer will be able to pull this off, given Moore's law and enough time...a few million years should is sufficient to create it).
Long story short, there's no such thing as "death". People stop, but they don't end.
Don't you feel better now? -
Great video: http://tinyurl.com/28pvlo5
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Hahahaha, I hate reading movie reviews written by people half my age.
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Wow.
Just wow.
Maybe Harry should add a feature to the site that lets other members who have actually FINISHED HIGH SCHOOL write reviews and submit them for others to read and discuss. I mean holy shit, the guy is in high school, what does he know that I don't about the world/movies? -
Hope you can still get laid when all the girls know you were waiting for a film about toys to come out...
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The showing of Toy Story 3 I was at was packed, almost sold out. All of them were kids in their teens and their twenties. There were audible gasps and crying during this movie, and people's facebook statuses have been counting down the days until it opened.
Looking forward to Toy Story 3 is not going to impede this kid getting laid. If he really wanted to avoid sex, he should be one of those people that log on to the geekiest website on the internet, just to post a comment making fun of a 16 year old just for writing a pretty good film review. -
Just came out of the TS3 EIFF screening (with Sean Connery in the audience no less). Loved it!
The film looks beautiful. The 3D is subtle and not distracting. Sound seemed to be extra loud for some reason but that made a change from quiet (and overly bright) auditoriums. The story? It is dark in places but the laughs come thick and fast while the story rattles along nicely with everyone getting a go in the spotlight. Overly sentimental? Yup, and all the better for it. If this was a final send-off for the gang, the Pixar guys did them proud. Funny. Punchy. Poignant. Lovely. -
must kill you that merrick and the rest of the geeks who run this site, get more regular pussy than you ever will
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You're wasting your life watching shit. I'd rather spend my time watching movies that mean something or enlighten me in some way than waste two precious hours watching Patrick Swayze get in bar fights.
Also, who said this was a kids movie? And who said it was a comedy? Animation is a medium, not a genre. It is a movie for all ages, that is funny and dramatic and moving. Good movies can be all that, and Pixar is the only American animation studio that realizes this.
If all kids grew up watching movies like this, and not just movies dumbed-down "for kids," they could all write like Merrick's kid. -
Anybody who thinks movies that elicit actual emotion from the audience are "depressing" should get a job as a studio exec or a serial rapist. Movies are SUPPOSED to make you FEEL something. If you don't realize that, you'll end up spending the rest of your life wasting money on Nicholas Cage movies.
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I'm somewhat inclined to disavow any review which was written by someone more than half my age as well. However, your ability to write coherently, with fore-thought and progression might just go a long way here at AICN where proper grammar is almost discouraged.
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I mean Franklin Richards smart. Tell him to sign up to his school paper or something!
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Well done! You have mastered the "Harry Knowles" technique of boring us to death with a movie review that contains some inane story about your youth. News flash - nobody gives a $hit when Harry includes this crap in his reviews, and nobody cares about your memories of seeing Toy Story 2 as an 11 year old.
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It stands for New Musical Express.
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Anyways, TS3 was the best movie I have seen in at least a year. I was thoroughly impressed. Smart jokes, great writing, great arcs, and a story that was anything but predicatable. I was into it the whole time. The only thing is it might be a little scary for the little kids....apparently my little cousin screamed at one point when he saw it.
This is the level of stuff they should be making for kids. Maybe then we'd have kids with empathy for people like Lots-O instead of growing up to watch shit like TF
TS3 blows everything out of the water. I am buying it on DVD. If I was on the academy, I would nominate for best picture. First time I felt like I got MORE than my moneys worth at a theater...I would have paid 50 bucks to see that movie..and would pay to see it again.Also, if any girl doesn't think you are "cool" because you like Toy Story, she's probably not worth the effort. -
How time passes!
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watch "The Brave Little Toaster". I don't know what kind of sad-sack wrote THAT one, but they need to be kept away from kids.Toy Story 3, on the other hand -- is just a brilliant piece of work for all ages.
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"The Enemy" proves why you should stay in school! Great writing, kid. Now don't get cocky...
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Good stuff, Merrick's kid! Very good stuff indeed! And hang on to those memories you had as a 5 year old. Especially as it pertains to cinema...(good job Merrick!)
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And I wathced Toy Story 2 in the movie theater that summer. First animated feature I saw at a movie theater not being with my parents. I'm getting old...
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