Review:
Toy Story 3: The Perfect Way to Conclude a Legacy

I remember when the original Toy Story movie came out. I was in 5th grade or so, and it totally blew my mind. Whereas every movie these days seems to be employing more and more CGI, back in 1995 Pixar was a bold pioneer. Toy Story was the kind of movie that you re-watched over and over again, and it never got old. And when Toy Story 2 came out, our jaws once again dropped to the floor and we marveled at Pixar's accomplishment. It's no different with Toy Story 3, the masterful conclusion to a truly wonderful trilogy.

I went and saw Toy Story 3 this weekend with a group of twenty-something friends. We had all essentially grown up on the Toy Story movies, and we were all just as excited as the kids in the audience, if not more so. You know what? By the time the movie was over, we were crying harder than any kid in the audience.

Why were we in tears? It wasn't just that this amazing series of stories was coming to an end, it was that it was being done in a way that was so emotionally compelling and fulfilling. I don't want to have too many spoilers here in this review, so I won't go into specifics. What I will say is that the ending was so brilliant and moving that anyone considering a trilogy should be looking to Pixar's Toy Story franchise as the benchmark for doing it well.

Okay, enough about us all crying like babies at the ending. Let's talk about the laughter. Like its predecessors, Toy Story 3 is hysterical. Although I can't speak for the kids in the audience, who I am sure missed half of the jokes, me and my group laughed so hard our faces hurt. In fact, there may have been tears of joy at some moments. I still can't believe Mattel signed off on the movie, given how much laughter was at Ken's expense. Poor Barbie.

Mild spoiler time:

How fantastic was Spanish Buzz Lightyear? It was during that sequence that my friends and I laughed the hardest. The combination of the voice acting with the animation created such a brilliantly funny moment in the movie. Kudos to whoever thought that up, because it totally made the movie for me.