"Toy Story 3" Talkback (Spoilers)

[Hanshotfirst1138]

How? HOW? HOW? John Lassetter sold his soul to the devil. There's no other explanation. How else can Hollywood turn out waves of sludge while numerous powerhouse directors hit and miss and a simple company dedicated to childrens' animation manages to defy all logic and history and make lightning strike not twice, but THREE times? How? If PIXAR do one day break their astonishing lucky streak, it won't be with this film, and if this is how they have to go out before moving onto a new era, what a way to go. Toy Story 3 has it all: hilarious jokes, cine-literacy that puts Tarantino to shame, more thrill action sequences than James Cameron put in Avatar, outstanding drama, tearjerking moments, a seemingly endless flow of creativity, gorgeous visuals, and some of the most memorable characters ever to grace the silver screen. It's pure movie magic, and you should see it and own it, regardless of how old you are.

 

[CyberCubed]

Is it just me or is Woody far more loyal to Andy than all the other toys? I know he was Andy's favorite, but Woody is like the guy who can't let go of the past.

 

[Mia]

Is it just me or is Woody far more loyal to Andy than all the other toys? I know he was Andy's favorite, but Woody is like the guy who can't let go of the past.

I assumed it had something to do with Woody's age, Lasseter mentioned that he imagined Woody belonging to Andy's father.

 

[Luna]

I enjoyed Toy Story 3 alot...My favorite scenes were with Ken (who,despite his stubborn insistance that he's "not a girl's toy",is pretty effeminate) and Spanish mode Buzz (epecially when he first sees Jessie,and his later rescue of her...Buzz and Jessie make a cute couple... )...

I also loved Jessie's speech late in the movie...

Spoiler

after their escape attempt is thwarted by Losto and his gang,and Lotso tells them to stay in the "family"...or go in the dumpster..

"Family?!...This isn't a family!..it's a prison!...You're a liar and a bully,and I'd rather rot in this dumpster than join any family of yours!"

and I also loved Big Baby realizing that Lotso's been lying to him this whole time and just throwing him into the dumpster (ala Darth Vader throwing Emperor Palpatine in Return of the Jedi)....

the ending was really nice,all of Andy's toys will be happy where they are,and it was also nice to see what was going on at Sunnyside as well...

 

[CartoonCF]

I really loved this movie! It was funny went Buzz spoke Spanish.

 

[DaffyDonaldQW93]

Lots O' Evil Bear (spoilers)

In Toy Story 3, Lotso was an evil bear to begin with. The toys felt comfortable when Lotso toured around Sunnyside daycare but Woody knew and had faith that Andy still wanted to leave the toys in the attic SOMEHOW.

Do I smell a trick comin' on?

Spoiler

But when they found out about Andy, Lotso refused to let them out. He even changed the setting for Buzz so he could be unaware about his reality just to enprison (sp?) the other toys.

Spoiler

And towards the end, he nearly killed them by not pushing the button at the garbage burning belt

If you saw the movie, what do you think?


For me, I knew how much the audience couldn't stand Lotso after they saw the movie because everyone put comment on YouTube's fake Lots O'Huggin Bear commercial how evil of a bear he is inside that strawberry-scented fur.

 

[Spideyzilla]

Um, why did this become its own thread? It should be in the Toy Story 3 talkback.

 

[DaffyDonaldQW93]

I couldn't find the official TS3 talkback thread.

 

[Classic Speedy]

I couldn't find the official TS3 talkback thread.

It's on the first page of the Disney forum. You don't have to look far.

 

[AJ Skyterra]

This movie had me in tears the first and second time around. I read the spoilers beforehand of how this was "sad and dark", but the movie still had such an effect on me. I thought the ending would be obvious once

Spoiler

we saw Bonnie play with Woody that she would be the final owner, but just the way the events were executed kept leaving me in doubts. I was so sure of "okay, so they want me to think Bonnie's the owner, but in the end Woody would just stay with Andy" but I was so off guard when Andy was in the donation box.

It was so hard for me to see Andy and Woody let go of each other, and I ended up enjoying it more than my little sisters--who were more interested in watching Monsters vs. Aliens. I guess it just held more of an emotional value for those of us who grew up with the series to have to watch it end.

Oh, and I would so kill for a Totoro!

 

[Ed Liu]

Oh, and I would so kill for a Totoro!

No need for bloodshed (unless it's to get the exorbitant sum that one of those little plush toys commands in the US).

 

[SKDarkDragon]

I love the first two Toy Story Movies (the second one better than the first) but I was extremely hesitant to see this movie. I skipped it in theaters, and finally forced myself to get it off of Netflix. (Even then I had to force myself to sit down and watch it.) I really didn't like the sound of the story, and I had read quite a bit about it before-hand. And although I'm glad I watched it, I really can't say I liked it.

I'm a super sentimental person anyway, had the "Peter Pan" syndrome growing up, have most of my old toys (that survived!) in boxes at my parents' place. I still love stuffed animals, and have two on my bed in my apartment. So if that's any indication of how this story would hit me, haha. I started crying like 10 minutes in, when they were talking about going in the attic. And I think I cried for like the last 15 minutes of the movie. The only thing that made it okay for me was that Woody saw the photo Andy kept of himself as a child, playing with all the toys, indicating that he would always have the memories of their time together with him. However, I really would have prefered the toys stayed in the family somehow. In Toy Story 2, they even mentioned that Woody was a family toy! It just seemed strange to me.

I found the overall tone of the movie to be very sad, and dark. I wish they hadn't taken the story to the garbage incinerator. It's just like, shades of what may eventually happen to the crew. The rest of the movie wasn't engaging enough to distract from the sadness. A lot of the plot actually seemed similar to Toy Story 2. (Especially the bad-guy.)

I don't know ... the whole film just made me sad. (And boy am I glad I watched this by myself; I was a mess by the end. If I'd gone to the theaters, yikes!) If I had seen this at the age I was when I saw Toy Story 2, I know I would not have liked it at all.

 

[AJ Skyterra]

I love the first two Toy Story Movies (the second one better than the first) but I was extremely hesitant to see this movie. I skipped it in theaters, and finally forced myself to get it off of Netflix. (Even then I had to force myself to sit down and watch it.) I really didn't like the sound of the story, and I had read quite a bit about it before-hand. And although I'm glad I watched it, I really can't say I liked it.

I'm a super sentimental person anyway, had the "Peter Pan" syndrome growing up, have most of my old toys (that survived!) in boxes at my parents' place. I still love stuffed animals, and have two on my bed in my apartment. So if that's any indication of how this story would hit me, haha. I started crying like 10 minutes in, when they were talking about going in the attic. And I think I cried for like the last 15 minutes of the movie. The only thing that made it okay for me was that Woody saw the photo Andy kept of himself as a child, playing with all the toys, indicating that he would always have the memories of their time together with him. However, I really would have prefered the toys stayed in the family somehow. In Toy Story 2, they even mentioned that Woody was a family toy! It just seemed strange to me.

I found the overall tone of the movie to be very sad, and dark. I wish they hadn't taken the story to the garbage incinerator. It's just like, shades of what may eventually happen to the crew. The rest of the movie wasn't engaging enough to distract from the sadness. A lot of the plot actually seemed similar to Toy Story 2. (Especially the bad-guy.)

I don't know ... the whole film just made me sad. (And boy am I glad I watched this by myself; I was a mess by the end. If I'd gone to the theaters, yikes!) If I had seen this at the age I was when I saw Toy Story 2, I know I would not have liked it at all.

Haha, and yet this is exactly why I loved it so much. I was pretty much in your same boat. I read about it, didn't think I would like it that much, saw it, and cried my eyes out to the point where it embarrassed my little sisters -_-. But it was because of that sadness, the way this movie was able to capture how hard it is letting go from your childhood and moving on, that touched me so much. It proves how special toys can be, and what serious business it is playing with them. Hell, I still have a little plush polar bear I sleep with.

But I agree with the bolded. I'm not sure how this would have affected me if I was ten. It's the same with a lot of Studio Ghibli films, and how I'm glad I didn't see most of them until I was a teenager, because the themes and the messages would've either been lost on me or depressed me beyond imagination.

 

[familyguyperson]

The movie was great! I'm glad that they were able to end the whole movie series well. But for some reason, my dad says they should make a 4th movie. Why would disney do that. The movie was about ANDY and his toys. They would never make a movie w/ them in that new girls home. anyways, toy story 3 was the 2nd best movie Ive seen this year, following up to the 7th harry potter movie.

 

[Vaporleaf]

I watched it I think... three times. And, well, I was kind of disappointed. People seem to love it for the nostalgia and sad scenes, but there wasn't much that surprised me, it had a villain way too similar to the one from the second movie, and an ending that didn't feel like it solved anything. When the girl grows up, won't they be in the same mess?

But I'll give some credit. The prison stuff was cool, I can appreciate the incinerator scene, and the final playtime with Andy was great, as were Woody's parting words. I liked Toy Story 3 fine overall, but I really don't think it deserves all the praise and 'the highest rated animated movie of all time' title. It's like all Pixar has to do is stick some sad scenes in their movies and people will call them brilliant.

 

[DarthGonzo]

I watched it I think... three times. And, well, I was kind of disappointed. People seem to love it for the nostalgia and sad scenes, but there wasn't much that surprised me, it had a villain way too similar to the one from the second movie, and an ending that didn't feel like it solved anything. When the girl grows up, won't they be in the same mess?

But really, was there any other say they could have ended this movie that felt satisfying? I think by the end of the movie it's became apparent that the most important thing for the toys is that they had each other. So having Woody go to college with Andy and the rest of the toys hanging out in the attic wouldn't have been satisfying, at least not for me. And Andy certainly certainly wasn't going to take all of them to college. Going back to Sunnyside wouldn't have been much of an ending since they spent so much of the movie there. And we certainly didn't want to see everyone get thrown away.

Honestly, this was probably the best ending they could have come up with. You WANT to see all the toys together happily, including Woody. Any other ending would have seemed unsatisfying.

 

[Vaporleaf]

^I guess it's supposed to be satisfying enough to have all the toys together, but like I said, another owner doesn't solve the big problem that the film deals with. It's like a character who spends the movie trying to get out of a rotten town, only to be put on a bus in the end that will eventually reach another rotten town. But I guess they wanted the point of the end to be more about Woody letting go instead of the predicament of kids some day outgrowing their toys.

 

[Mia]

^I guess it's supposed to be satisfying enough to have all the toys together, but like I said, another owner doesn't solve the big problem that the film deals with. It's like a character who spends the movie trying to get out of a rotten town, only to be put on a bus in the end that will eventually reach another rotten town. But I guess they wanted the point of the end to be more about Woody letting go instead of the predicament of kids some day outgrowing their toys.

Andy cared about his toys enough to put them in the Attic instead of throwing them away. He also planned to take Woody to college with him. Who's to say that when Bonnie's older and Andy's done with school that he won't come back and get them?

 

[Vaporleaf]

Andy cared about his toys enough to put them in the Attic instead of throwing them away. He also planned to take Woody to college with him. Who's to say that when Bonnie's older and Andy's done with school that he won't come back and get them?

I don't see a hint of that in the movie. What does it matter with 'maybe this or that would happen' kind of speculation? I just think the end didn't have the best closure. But perhaps that wasn't the point.

 

[Ed Liu]

Honestly, this was probably the best ending they could have come up with. You WANT to see all the toys together happily, including Woody. Any other ending would have seemed unsatisfying.

I'm more with tealeaf on this than less. Yes, I want the these characters to be happy, but this ending isn't anything more than a short-term solution. The toys will get another owner and more new friends to play around with for another few years, but tealeaf is right in that the ending just kicks the ball downfield. I feel like the movie spent its first third to bring up a really really good, logical question that's the inevitable conclusion to what we've seen in the first two, then stalls for an hour to do a prison break movie before wrapping up without actually answering the initial question.

The other thing that sticks in my craw is the fact that the toys have to end up together. To be honest, I think toys like Rex and Jessie would be happier at day care than with another owner. They touched on this when Jessie starts freaking out and saying, "I can't go through this again," but that's about as far as that went. Now she's going to have to go through that emotional rollercoaster a THIRD time. I still think the most satisfying ending that makes the characters happy for the long-term is also the one that breaks up the band. Presumably, Buzz won't leave Jessie, but Woody needs/wants an owner. So Buzz goes to day care with Jessie and Woody stays with Bonnie, and we get another goodbye sequence where it's Woody and Buzz who have to say goodbye to each other. They're the ones we've been following this whole time. They're the ones who we really care about, and they're the ones that the movie series was built on.

It's a satisfying ending. Just not really a happy one.

Andy was always just the audience stand-in, so it makes some sense to give him the big farewell scene at the end, but it's the one and only big moment he's ever gotten in all 3 of the movies and that just doesn't seem right to me.

Anyway, I suppose it would have been too much to ask for Pixar to pull that one off. This is a studio that hasn't done a sad ending since "Red's Dream," and I'm not sure that they really have it in them.