Toy Story 3 (2010)

3.5/5 -- A consistently funny, polished Pixar production that manages perfectly to strike the balance between being targeted at kids while still being an entertaining watch for their parents’ reluctant cinema excursion.


Buzz impresses Jessie after being turned into a conquistador in the funniest scene in the film.

Director: Lee Unkrich
Writers: John Lasseter (story), Andrew Stanton (story)
Stars: Tom Hanks, Tim Allen and Joan Cusack

There is perhaps no greater sign of how much things have changed for the world of Andy’s toys since the first Toy Story film was released in 1995, than when Hamm the once beloved, but now shunned piggy bank, turns to his fellow playthings as says, with an air of resignation: “C’mon. Let’s see how much we’re going for on eBay.” Years have passed since their last adventure and Woody (Tom Hanks), Buzz (Tim Allen) and the crew have suffered. They haven’t grown older, they’re plastic, but Andy (John Morris), their owner has grown up at stopped playing with them. As Andy prepares to go to college, the toys are inadvertently shipped off to a day care centre, which seems the ideal solution, until things take a horrifying turn of events – well, not horrifying, or even unsuspected, but bad, real bad.

I’m not the biggest Pixar fan, as I’m of the generation that grew up with the Disney classics (Aladdin is a personal favourite), but I wanted to see Toy Story 3 after it was so successful in the awards season and I confess to being impressed. Okay, it was a ridiculous nomination for Best Picture at the Academy Awards, which never would’ve stood had the board not increased the number of nominees to ten in order to boost ticket sales, but it was brilliantly written, flawlessly animated and both adults and children would find it consistently funny, which is no mean feat.

Although the film is littered with one-liners and moments of minor comic genius, by far the funniest sequence comes when Buzz gets accidentally set to Spanish and he becomes a salsa dancing conquistador, strutting about with a camp Hispanic flair and sweeping cowgirl Jessie (Joan Cusack) off her feet.

The classic formula for a kids film states that all films must carry some kind of message, like a social contract clause, to indoctrinate its younger viewers to become worthwhile human beings. Fittingly, as this seems to be the last in the Toy Story franchise, the moral to this story is that there comes a time to let go of the ones you love. Sad times. And while I find Woody sickeningly moral and Buzz unbearably arrogant (when not set to conquistador), I’m really going to miss Rex the Green Dinosaur.