Toy Story 3

When Toy Story was introduced in 1995 by Pixar Studios it gave us a film that was not just something for children to enjoy. Toy Story explored the friendship a boy had with his toys and how his imagination brought life to those toys. Toys, I now believe are the key to a child accessing his or her imagination and no matter how old you are most of us were given the opportunity at some point to imagine and explore the beauty of the world’s we created. Pixar extended this idea in a way that made them unique and set them apart from other animation studios by having that same idea of letting a child’s imagination soar but by having the toys themselves need the child to feel loved and cared about. From the child the toy learns friendship and love and vice versa for the child. In the first movie, the idea that Woody could be replaced by Buzz was explored and how alone and unloved it made him feel, that is until Woody the cowboy learned that love could be shared. In the second film which was released in 1999 the idea of being replaced was substituted with another common thing that occurs for a toy, being outgrown and discarded. Woody and Buzz had to come to the realization that one day their owner Andy would outgrow them and play time would end. By the time Toy Story 2 closes the audience is aware that Andy’s toys won’t be around forever and so are the toys.

Toy Story 3 opens with a montage of Andy’s early days spending time with Buzz and Woody. The audience soon learns that Andy is headed to college and is deciding on which toys to save and which toys to throw away and through a number of choice interactions by Andy and his mother; Andy’s toys end up at Sunnyside Daycare Center. Woody, Buzz and the gang must overcome some severe real world challenges to survive Sunnyside and find their way back to Andy. The theme that will no doubt reach across generations new and old is the value of friendship and how even though you may age your toys will always love you as you do them. This film asks you one last time to believe in the love we all once had for our own toys and to pass it on to others. I would recommend that people buy this film as it helps recapture the child in all of us.