Toy Story 3

Directed by Lee Unkrich. Released 2010. Rated G.



How does a movie like this end up being a wonderful children’s movie? How does someone write a children’s movie about death, abandonment, elderly-care, and religious questioning with never actually using the terms associated to them?
Actually, a few people in the after-movie discussion were a little irritated that I would take the movie that far from its target (five-year-old) audience. Let’s see if I can break it down.

Andy is the owner of a small band of desperately loyal toys, all of whom wear his name on their bodies. It would be perfect for these toys, who value nothing more than being played with by their kid, except their kid is not a kid any more. He’s seventeen and pretty much done with toys. The beginning of the movie is a slow paced kick in your mortality. You will get old, people will leave you, and when that time comes it’s either wait to die or take the quick road. In fact, many of the familiar faces from the first two movies have already found their way out of Andy’s life.



(Bo Peep is definitely not in this movie)

At this point, you only have a few thoughts to keep you afloat: an unknown future (which could be bright. Possibly. Maybe.), or the “at least we still have each other” mentality. Neither thought seems very buoyant; after all, Andy didn’t care about tossing their friends, and what’s keeping them together if not faith in Andy?

See how that word faith found its way in here? Keep it in mind.

That’s as far as I’ll take the synopsis. You should already know most of that just from the first trailers. It was hard to watch with those themes in mind, but the movie doesn’t keep you in agony for long. Soon we’re back to enjoying toys in action, with all of their caper-like stylized action. So what’s new? Naturally, a few new characters, a new world to explore, that sort of thing. While the toys have had to deal with misfortune and human wickedness before, this time they have to deal with it from other toys. This new dynamic lets light in on the toy moral ethic and many of the driving forces in their lives. It helps the audience question their own methods. Or not. Sometimes it’s just fun to chuckle at the simple life of a toy.

Can anyone actually tell me if the visuals are actually getting better? I swear, in 1995 the characters looked perfectly in their element. They still do and I can’t tell if they were just perfect the first time or if Pixar just effortlessly keeps up with the pace so easily that they won the gold while jogging.



It’s interesting to relate toys to the abandoned parents of children, but that seems to be how Toy Story has always taken itself. They stay with a child, a child they love more than anything, and they stay until the child is grown up and can make do without them. Then the kid has to do SOMETHING with his poor care givers. Donate, attic, or trash. In this movie you can substitute those words with old folks home, your basement, or...trash. But a kid's gotta do something.

However, Toy Story 3 deepens that relationship into near worship. The dramatic question throughout the movie is “how can we return to Andy,” but just behind that question is the question that was asked before they were separated, “does Andy care?”

While some toys are set on making their own fortune and cutting their losses, others, like Woody, are constantly urging the toys to just stay together and stay as close to Andy as they can; someday he may need them, and, if not Andy, maybe his children. It is the faithful waiting game; there is no guarantee, barely a promise and no future vision. Why bother? Just have faith.

In a climactic moment, disaster seems eminent, one faithless character asks the ironically religious question, “Where’s your boy, now?” Personally, I use the root phrase of that as often as possible.



In conjunction with this movie, it’s impossible to not see its religious connotations. I shouldn’t really go into detail about what happens next, but I think it is a very honest way to look at faith in reality.

When all is said and done, the movie is a blast, even if you don’t care for its theological themes. All of the characters the movie retains are more fleshed out than ever. After the previous films it’s obvious that these toys are old hands at working together and getting out of situations, so their caper-style antics are at their best. The Potato Heads have some of the absolute funniest scenes and gimmicks as it turns out that their mix-and-matchable parts can connect to other things than their bodies.



(This is not one of those moments)

Definitely a high rating. 3-D was good because it wasn’t intrusive, but I’m not sure it was necessary. I’ll tell you what, though. You better watch it 3-D just so no one can see you cry behind the dark shades at all the sad parts.



(You'd never guess he just shot his woman...and then watched Toy Story 3)

Coraline

Directed by Henry Selick, released 2009, adapted from the novel, Coraline, by Neil Gaiman. Rated PG.

Coraline is a snappy story about a young girl who moves to a strange new home at the Pink Palace Apartments in Oregon with her depressingly busy and irritable writer parents. While trying to find a new place for herself she meets the other bizarre inhabitants of the old apartments, a Soviet Jumping-mouse circuteer, two washed up actresses, a boy named Why-were-you-born, and eventually she stumbles in on an alternate realty where things seem much brighter.

That's great, and it really is, but the story is really only so compelling as it's telling, and that's where this movie really takes off. Henry Selick, the director, also directed the films The Nightmare Before Christmas, James and the Giant Peach, Monkey Bone and several others. What's the connecting link? Stop Motion animation.

Coraline is fully animated with Stop Motion with some of the most gorgeous visuals you can ask for. In fact, to fully grasp what the artists and directors created, they filmed it in 3D, a sight that I regrettably missed out on. However, with a little imagination it's easy to see where the big Pop-Out images would be.

Most of this film is visual, watching Coraline accomplish subtle movements while talking, watching the unique posturing of the characters, being absorbed by the colors in the woods and in the garden. I especially loved the depth of the background scenery. Even when it gets trippy at the end, and probable computer generated images are included, the motion of the characters and the skill of the creators puts it together seamlessly. In fact, I think I really missed out on the 3D there. But equally important to the movie is the audio.

The real soul of the film is transmitted by the voice actors and musicians who fill the screen with life. During the relatively quiet scenes of watching Coraline explore her new worlds there's a hauntingly mellow song by Bruno Coulais sung in French that leaves the hair on your neck standing up. How does a mellow song leave you nervous? I can't tell you, except that it's the kind of incongruous experience that you have when somebody is so comfortable in a horrible situation that you get unnerved. There are tense scenes with tense music, but most of it is just an unsettling ambiance that you can wallow in. And why are you uncomfortable with the scene already? Probably thanks to the visualists.

And that's all I'm really trying to communicate here. This movie delivers it's mood so thoroughly that you'll walk away with it stuck in your pockets. I know people who didn't like that eeriness, but I personally couldn't get enough because the movie was so at home with it. It wasn't just a bizarre situation, but it was the reality of the world they show, so I made myself comfortable.

Now, structurally the story is not as engaging. The pacing is admittedly slow, and the events are really more of a show-and-tell that pays off for a climax. However, thanks to the voice actors and the great visual artists, the characters become so charming that watching the day-to-day of these odd people and creatures is really enough a story in itself.

With an unsettling atmosphere and occasional adult themes, it isn't a show for little kids, but it should do fine with open-minded big kids and young teenagers and most adults.