by CoGro » June 18th 2010 11:48 pm
Sometimes you just see a film that compels you to write a review.
Oftentimes it's because the movie is so bad or such an enormous disappointment that you need the written word to express your venomous hatred. Telling people how you feel isn't good enough: you need to pour every ounce of your being into shitting all over wasted celluloid. Hell, that's one of the two reasons the internet was created for.
I am compelled to write about Toy Story 3 not because it's a bad movie, but rather because it was the best movie I've seen all year.
So Pixar hit another home run - What else is new? Why should I waste someone's time with another diatribe about the genius of Pixar in what was obviously going to be a slam dunk from the start?
I'm not going to write about the merits of movie per say...you're all going to see it and our opinions of it will likely all be the same - it's incredibly well crafted, creatively excellent, wonderfully voice-acted and meticulously detailed - I want to write about what this trilogy meant to me and why I feel it's a tremendously important piece of cinema history.
I was Andy. We were all Andy. I remember playing with armies of Stormtroopers, Ghostbusters, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Thundercats, Potato heads, GI Joes, and whatever else was in my closet like it was yesterday. I had my video games but they didn't occupy my time like my toys did. I can remember when my parents packaged up my toys (including classic Star Wars, Ghostbusters, Batman, and Spider-man figures) and gave them away to the hospital for sick children. They didn't tell me they were doing it. I got home from school one afternoon and they were all gone. My Ghostbusters firehouse: gone. My WWF figures: gone. I was crushed. I had an emotional attachment to my toys because they were more than just plastic; they were an extension of my imagination.
I honestly believe that the power of children's imagination is being eroded by computers, video games, blackberries and horrible television/cinema. Watching Toy Story 3 tonight made me feel sorry for kids today. This series is a celebration of imagination. It was absolutely fitting that Toy Story is the crowning jewel, the flagship of the Pixar library.
I can't wait to share this series with my kids one day but I fear that it won't strike the same chord with them as it does for me. I remember when toys like Woody were cool. I remember what it was like to have to create my own stories because of television's limitations. As much as this series was made for kids and is about kids, this movie especially speaks to our generation: the last before the digital hurricane. Anyone who knows what it was like to play with toys the old fashioned way is bound to choke up a bit as Andy goes through his final goodbye to his gang.
Ironically this series is a triumph of technology yet it's message and story celebrates a time when technology wasn't a requirement for expressing creativity. It brings me joy to be reminded of what that time was like and to see a movie that reminds everyone of the power of imagination.