toy story 3 movie review

These toys may be traumatized for eternity

The first two “ Toy Story ” movies centered on the relationship between a boy and his toys. In Disney/Pixar’s “Toy Story 3,” Andy has grown to college age and the story leaves the toys pretty much on their own. In a third act where they find themselves fighting for life on a conveyor belt to a garbage incinerator, we fear it could be renamed “Toy Story Triage.”

The problems all begin with that most dreaded of commands, “Clean out your room!” No mother in history understands that a boy’s room has all of his stuff exactly where he needs it, even if he dumped it there 10 years earlier. Andy’s mom gives him three choices: (1) attic; (2) donation to a day-care center; (3) trash. As Andy examines his old toys, his gaze lingers fondly on Woody (voice of Tom Hanks ), and he decides to take him along to college.

What with one thing and another, the other toys find themselves at the day-care center, which they think they’ll like, because there will be plenty of kids to play with them all day long. There seems to be relatively little grieving about the loss of Andy’s affections; he did, after all, sentence them to a toy box for years, and toys by nature are self-centered and want to be played with.

Day care seems like a happy choice, until a dark underside of its toy society emerges in the person of an ominously hug-prone bear named Lotso ( Ned Beatty ). They pick up, however, some additions to their little band, including a Ken doll with an extensive wardrobe. If you ask me, Barbie ( Jodi Benson ) is anorexic, and Ken ( Michael Keaton ) is gay, but nobody in the movie knows this, so I’m just sayin’.

Buzz Lightyear ( Tim Allen ) is back, still in hapless hero mode, but after a reboot, he starts speaking Spanish and that leads to some funny stuff. I also enjoyed the plight of Mrs. Potato Head ( Estelle Harris ), whose missing eye continues to see independently of her head. This raises intriguing physiological questions, such as, if Mr. Potato Head lost an ear, would it continue to hear, or if he lost a mouth, would it continue to eat without a body? These are not academic questions; at one point, Mister becomes an uncooked taco shell. Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head must be old hands at such situations, because children spend most of their time attaching his body parts in the wrong way, like malpracticing little Dr. Frankensteins.

Man, the toys have a dangerous time of it after they eventually find themselves at a garbage collection center. You have no idea what garbage has to go through before becoming landfill, and even an Indiana Jones toy would have trouble surviving the rotating blades. There is a happy ending, of course, but I suspect these toys may be traumatized for eternity.

This is a jolly, slapstick comedy, lacking the almost eerie humanity that infused the earlier “Toy Story” sagas, and happier with action and jokes than with characters and emotions. But hey, what can you expect from a movie named “Toy Story 3,” especially with the humans mostly offstage? I expect its target audience will love it, and at the box office, it may take right up where “ How to Train Your Dragon ” left off. Just don’t get me started about the 3-D.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

• Michael Keaton as Ken
• Don Rickles as Mr. Potato Head
• Tom Hanks as Woody
• Laurie Metcalf as Andy's mom
• Ned Beatty as Lotso
• Wallace Shawn as Rex
• Estelle Harris as Mrs. Potato Head
• John Morris as Andy
• John Ratzenberger as Hamm
• Timothy Dalton as Mr. Pricklepants
• Joan Cusack as Jessie
• Jodi Benson as Barbie
• Tim Allen as Buzz Lightyear

From a story by

• John Lasseter

Directed by

• Lee Unkrich
• Michael Arndt

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Toy story 3.

• Common Sense Says
• Parents Say 309 Reviews
• Kids Say 368 Reviews

Common Sense Media Review

Smart, funny "threequel" is scarier than the first two.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that while Toy Story 3 -- the third movie in Pixar's flagship Toy Story franchise -- is bound to please moviegoers of all ages, it is scarier and more intense than the first two (which is why we've rated this "threequel" at a higher age than Toy Story and Toy Story…

Why Age 6+?

Several of the Toy Story characters are recognizable brands (like Barbie, Ken, a

Spoiler alert: In one particularly harrowing/scary sequence set in a junkyard, A

Mild insults like "shut up" and "junk."

Flirting between toy characters like Ken and Barbie (it's love at first sight!)

Any Positive Content?

Pixar's Toy Story movies are all about friendship, loyalty, and "being there" fo

Andy's toys are all courageous and willing to sacrifice themselves for each othe

Kids may learn the value of appreciating and taking good care of their favorite

Products & Purchases

Several of the Toy Story characters are recognizable brands (like Barbie, Ken, and Mr. & Mrs. Potato Head). And beyond that, the Toy Story franchise has the potential for the most merchandising tie-ins of any kid-targeted movie series. Toys, action figures, books, party supplies, plush dolls, you name it -- Disney's Toy Story characters are everywhere, especially kid favorites Woody and Buzz Lightyear.

Violence & Scariness

Spoiler alert : In one particularly harrowing/scary sequence set in a junkyard, Andy's toys narrowly escape death several times; at one point they look like they're about to fall into a very fiery incinerator. It's a tense scene, and some kids will find it upsetting. A few of the Sunnyside toys are creepy -- especially the Big Baby doll and the screeching Monkey. A few scenes meant to suggest prison culture/abuse show toys being tied up or thrown in a sandbox as "punishment" -- or, in the case of Buzz, "reset." Some bullying and harsh talk between toys; a few perilous scenes. The opening sequence includes spaceship attacks and a train falling/crashing, but it ends up being the product of Andy's imagination.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Flirting between toy characters like Ken and Barbie (it's love at first sight!) and Buzz Lightyear and Jessie. Some innuendoes (as when Baribe tells Ken that she likes his "ascot").

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Positive Messages

Pixar's Toy Story movies are all about friendship, loyalty, and "being there" for Andy and for each other. Through teamwork, perserverance, and collaboration, Woody, Buzz, Jessie, Bullseye, Hamm, Mr. & Mrs. Potato Head, Slinky Dog, and Rex band together to overcome their many obstacles and disagreements. Sharing, curiosity, and ingenuity are all celebrated.

Positive Role Models

Andy's toys are all courageous and willing to sacrifice themselves for each other. Woody is one of the most loyal characters in movie history -- his dedication to Andy above all else is admirable (if sometimes hard for his friends to understand) -- and over the course of the three films truly learns humility. The rest of the toys are also quite brave and helpful, and they don't quit on Buzz when he's not acting like himself. Even the alien "kids" are quite willing to do anything and everything to save their "parents" Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head and friends from danger. Toy Story 3 introduces some new characters who aren't as admirable as Andy's crew, but they face the consequences of their behavior in the end -- and some even get a fresh start.

Educational Value

Kids may learn the value of appreciating and taking good care of their favorite toys.

Parents need to know that while Toy Story 3 -- the third movie in Pixar's flagship Toy Story franchise -- is bound to please moviegoers of all ages, it is scarier and more intense than the first two (which is why we've rated this "threequel" at a higher age than Toy Story and Toy Story 2 ). Overall, the latest adventure shared by Woody ( Tom Hanks ), Buzz Lightyear ( Tim Allen ), and the rest of Andy's favorite toys is kid-friendly -- but there's a fairly long scene of the toys in serious peril toward the end of the movie that many 3- to 5-year-olds could find quite upsetting. There are also a few new toys that act a bit mean and creepy (particularly a Big Baby doll and a cymbal-clapping Monkey) and scenes in which favorite characters are trapped by cruel authority figures. But there are also wonderful, touching messages about friendship, loyalty, and imagination. Note: The 3-D version of the movie may make certain parts feel more immediate/lifelike, but the movie's intense scenes have a strong impact no matter which version you see. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

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Parent and Kid Reviews

• Parents say (309)
• Kids say (368)

Based on 309 parent reviews

scarred me for life

Left my 7 1/2 year old son in tears, what's the story.

In TOY STORY 3, Andy (voiced by John Morris) is heading off to college, and his mom ( Laurie Metcalf ) asks him to clean out his old stuff. Woody ( Tom Hanks ), Buzz Lightyear ( Tim Allen ), and the rest of Andy's favorite toys have survived yard sale after yard sale, but now the best they can hope for is a one-way ticket to the attic. After an unfortunate mix-up, the toys -- particularly Jessie ( Joan Cusack ) -- believe it's for the best if they jump into the donation box for Sunnyside Daycare. When they arrive, they're greeted by a cuddly purple bear called Lotso ( Ned Beatty ) and Ken ( Michael Keaton ), who get the gang -- including Bullseye, Hamm ( John Ratzenberger ), Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head ( Don Rickles , Estelle Harris), Slinky Dog (Blake Clarke), and Rex (Wallace Shawn) -- fired up to meet their new little playmates. But Andy's toys quickly realize that these toddlers don't so much play with toys as terrorize them .. and that Sunnyside isn't the toy paradise they thought it was. Now they'll have to use all of their ingenuity to escape their preschool prison.

Is It Any Good?

If only every "children's movie" could be this well-made and well-loved. The consistency of the voice cast (even Andy is played by the same actor, now in his 20s), the brilliant animation, and the many running jokes are just a few of the reasons this series has yet to go stale. And the clever new gags -- like when Buzz gets "reset" and ends up in Spanish mode, making poetic declarations of love to his señorita , Jessie -- offer some of the movie's highlights. The film's antagonists, led by Beatty's deceptively huggable Lotso, have a believable reason for acting so selfishly, and Keaton's Ken is hilariously clothes-obsessed (and sensitive about being called a "girl's toy"). In the end, every character gets to shine (Barbie, the aliens, a self-sacrificing Mr. Potato Head who gets very creative when the situation calls for it), and every toy gets the "happily ever after" they deserve.

Disney's Pixar is possibly the only studio in the history of Hollywood to bat a thousand. Even though some of their films end up having more adult appeal ( Ratatouille and WALL-E probably don't get as much DVD rotation as Finding Nemo or Monsters Inc . in many kids' houses) than others, Pixar's films always surpass expectations. So it's absolutely no surprise that the third installment in the studio's Toy Story franchise is another winner. By now we love these toys, cheering them on through battles with Sid the sadistic tween neighbor, greedy Big Al, and selfish Stinky Pete. So when Andy tosses the toys in a trash bag, our hearts flutter -- and when that bag winds up in the donation box instead of a trash compactor, we sigh in relief. And when at one point it seems that our beloved heroes may have truly reached the end, we tense up -- or in the case of the preschoolers in the audience, shed a tear or two. (And if that moment doesn't get you, the scene in which Andy's mom looks around his empty room and bids him farewell certainly will.)

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about how the core group of toys in Toy Story 3 have had to change since Andy's gotten older. How are they different? Who's missing, and why? What is the movie saying about childhood, play, and toys that mean a lot to kids?

Even though Andy's about to head off to college, he ultimately takes a moment to rediscover his favorite toys. Which of your toys do you think will stay with you forever? Parents, tell your kids about your beloved toys that you kept until you were grown up.

Why is Lotso so angry? Why is his motto "no owner, no heartbreak"?

How does the third movie compare to the first two? Which one do you like most and why? What is the role of consumerism in the Toy Story movie franchise?

How do the characters in Toy Story 3 demonstrate teamwork , curiosity , and courage ? What about perseverance and humility ? Why are these important character strengths ?

Movie Details

• In theaters : June 18, 2010
• On DVD or streaming : November 2, 2010
• Cast : Joan Cusack , Tim Allen , Tom Hanks
• Director : Lee Unkrich
• Studio : Pixar Animation Studios
• Genre : Family and Kids
• Topics : Magic and Fantasy , Adventures , Friendship
• Character Strengths : Courage , Curiosity , Humility , Perseverance , Teamwork
• Run time : 103 minutes
• MPAA rating : G
• Last updated : June 26, 2024

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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What to watch next.

Toy Story (1995)

Toy Story 2

Finding Nemo

Disney pixar movies, 50 movies all kids should watch before they're 12, related topics.

• Perseverance
• Magic and Fantasy

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Toy Story 3 Reviews

What also makes “Toy Story 3” a terrific entry in Pixar’s filmography is how much it can be enjoyed regardless of age and regardless of one’s familiarity with the previous two films.

Full Review | Original Score: 10/10 | Jun 14, 2024

"Toy Story 3" creates and occupies an imaginative world of dazzling detail but, more importantly, tells a poignant story any child (or former child) can identify with.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Sep 4, 2023

Filled with bravado action sequences, endless laughter, and the kind of emotional power that makes the film more enjoyable for adults than the targeted child audience, this film is simply a delight in every respect.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/4 | Aug 18, 2023

One of the best kids movies for grownups out there.

Full Review | Apr 20, 2023

Toy Story 3 is definitively for children, and can't leave us with too bleak of a message… but don't be embarrassed for spilling a comforting tear at the ending. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Jul 20, 2022

The last 45 minutes of this are perfect (especially the moments at the dump), some of the best moments in animation history.

Full Review | Jul 6, 2022

Third time is equally charming for Woody and the gang.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | May 19, 2021

Nothing short of brilliant.

Full Review | Original Score: 10/10 | Nov 30, 2020

Yet another masterful creation by Pixar Animation Studios.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4.0 | Sep 26, 2020

Not in the same league as Pixar's previous efforts ... it still solidifies the notion that this production company is at the forefront of modern animation.

Full Review | Aug 14, 2020

Toy Story 3 is not only one of Pixar's best films, but perhaps the best of the Toy Story trilogy.

Full Review | Oct 24, 2019

...an inventive and often completely gripping adventure...

Full Review | Original Score: 4/4 | Jul 6, 2019

While threepeats may be rare in the sports world, they're even harder to achieve in the cinematic realm. Yet here's Toy Story 3, bucking the odds and satisfying sky-high expectations.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/4 | Jun 20, 2019

Something deeply, almost primal in a powerful way, tapping into the emotional core of an entire generation and the eternally young at heart.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jun 7, 2019

More than lives up to the lofty expectations as a worthy addition to the already classic series. There is something for everyone in the film, which is easily the best major American studio release I've seen in 2010.

Full Review | Original Score: A | May 9, 2019

Toy Story 3 has magic in spades.

Full Review | Original Score: A+ | Apr 22, 2019

Dear Pixar, THANK YOU for not churning out yet another inferior straight-to-DVD animated sequel, and instead taking the time to create something that will be as dear to Toy Story fans at the first time we saw Woody & Buzz on screen.

Full Review | Mar 8, 2019

From moments of pure delight to one of the most heartbreaking goodbyes in recent movie memory, the trilogy wraps up in a masterful way and once again proves Pixar is on a level all its own.

Full Review | Original Score: A- | Dec 31, 2018

Leave it to Pixar to subvert the Hollywood rule of sequels, which states that each subsequent film must have eyes full of dollar signs at the expense of quality.

Full Review | Nov 17, 2018

With a heart felt ending and truly outstanding story, Toy Story 3 has ensured that the franchise and all the characters we have known and loved, will be remembered for infinity, and beyond.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Nov 5, 2018

Film Review: ‘Toy Story 3’

Pixar plays its third "Toy Story" outing mostly for laughs, before rewarding 15 years of audience attachment via an emotional ending.

By Peter Debruge

Peter Debruge

Chief Film Critic

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Andy outgrows his anthropomorphic amigos Buzz and Woody in “ Toy Story 3,” the franchise’s third (and final?) installment — and as it turns out, 15 years after launching the computer-animated toon revolution, Pixar has outgrown them, too. Whereas “ Toy Story 2 ” treated auds to a character-based sequel that handily justified its existence, this tertiary adventure delivers welcome yet nonessential fun, landing well after its creators have grown up and succeeded toying with more sophisticated stories. Nevertheless, the stereoscopic 3D release, which reportedly out-tested all of Pixar’s previous efforts, should dominate summer playdates.

From the outset, we can sense different hands at the reins. Like the original, pic opens with 6-year-old Andy acting out wild narratives for Woody (Tom Hanks), Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen) and the gang — only this time, director Lee Unkrich (who came up through Pixar’s editorial department and handled co-helming duties on “Toy Story 2,” “Monsters, Inc.” and “Finding Nemo”) plunges us into Andy’s imagination, which follows childhood logic but looks more like a Jerry Bruckheimer movie.

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Andy’s toys are fiercely loyal to their owner, with such playtime being their raison d’etre (though the “Toy Story” movies have long hinged on a rather arbitrary notion of what qualifies as the healthy treatment of toys). Homevideos advance us through a dozen years, disposing of Bo Peep and a few other key players along the way. It’s gutsy to see Pixar stripping back its ensemble — the Green Army Men effectively desert, rather than be donated — in contrast to the unwieldy, ever-growing ensembles of most toon sequels (though Disney Consumer Products has plenty of new characters to be excited about).

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Now 18, Andy is packing up for college. Clearly oblivious to the Roundup gang’s value, he tosses all but Woody into a garbage bag, which his mom mistakes for trash and takes out to the curb. So begins a convoluted adventure that leads the toys to Sunnyside Daycare Center, which at first appears to be an improvement: The toys haven’t been played with in ages, and here, they’ll get daily attention. Plus, they’ll have plenty of new friends, including “Big Baby” and a Dream House-dwelling Ken (Michael Keaton).

But there’s a dark side to Sunnyside, which is overseen by a folksy, strawberry-scented pink plush named Lots-o’-Huggin’ Bear ( Ned Beatty ). “Lotso” lost his owner years ago, and now he runs the place like a prison. Where the first two “Toy Story” installments served as rescue movies, with characters nobly putting themselves in danger to save their friends from harm, this one instead follows the jailbreak genre.

Take a step back, and the film seems to be about the idea of toys coming to terms with being outgrown by their owners — however, everyone but Woody seems perfectly fine with being donated at the outset (and Jessie’s song already addressed such abandonment issues quite poignantly in the second movie). As character arcs go, this one doesn’t seem particularly compelling: Woody must convince the others to break out of Sunnyside and find their way back to Andy’s attic, where they can wait until he needs them again — as delusional thinking goes, this tops even fresh-out-of-the-box Buzz Lightyear’s identity issues.

Pixar has essentially set an impossible standard for itself, having previously delivered the rare sequel that improves on the original, then followed that up with a run of exceptional work. This latest script, written by “Little Miss Sunshine’s” Michael Arndt from a story by John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton and Unkrich, feels more gag-driven than the studio’s previous efforts — essentially borrowing a page from DreamWorks Animation, chasing snappy humor over heart-on-their-sleeve sentimentality, within a few months of DreamWorks going the Pixar route with the sincere storytelling of “How to Train Your Dragon.” (It’s worth remembering that former Disney CEO Michael Eisner once intended to make “ Toy Story 3 ,” sans Pixar involvement, when relations between the two studios broke down in 2004.)

The visuals look gorgeous as ever, making classy use of 3D to enhance the drama, while staying true to the original aesthetic. Humans are notably improved, especially young Bonnie (Emily Hahn), who takes Woody home at one point and introduces him to the film’s most appealing new characters, including Shakespearean hedgehog Mr. Pricklepants (Timothy Dalton, whose perf amusingly suggests another level of split-personality delusion among toys) and scatterbrained triceratops Trixie (Kristen Schaal).

The latter bodes well for Rex’s romantic prospects, which seem far better than Barbie’s, since Keaton plays Ken as an effeminate closet case (imagine the outcry had Pixar attempted an equivalent racial caricature). But the pic wants laughs, and it’s willing to dilute the respect Lasseter showed this borderline-absurd world to get them, goosing auds with punchline-driven cutting, pop-song montages and throwaway silliness. Surely kids could have done without the bathroom humor, though much of the comedy takes the high road, such as an inspired bit in which Buzz is accidentally switched to Spanish-language mode.

But “Toy Story 3” is best when it’s being serious, and the final 15-minute stretch — from the moment the toys are dumped at a landfill through the tear-jerking finale — pays off feelings auds invested 15 years ago. Still, there’s no reason these scenes couldn’t have come 80 minutes earlier (had the toys not escaped their first brush with the garbage truck), which would have left room for the film to explore the curious ontology of being a toy after escaping such a near-death experience.

Pic is preceded by Teddy Newton ‘s visionary six-minute short “Day and Night,” an invigorating blend of stereoscopic CG visuals and old-school hand-drawn animation. Set against a black background, two characters serve as windows to opposite halves of the day, their playfully layered dance of sound and spectacle suggesting exciting creative directions Pixar could explore in the future.

• Production: A Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures release of a Walt Disney Pictures presentation of a Pixar Animation Studios production. Produced by Darla K. Anderson. Executive producer, John Lasseter. Directed by Lee Unkrich. Screenplay, Michael Arndt; story, John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton, Unkrich.
• Crew: Camera (color, 3D), Jeremy Lasky; lighting, Kim White; editor, Ken Schretzmann; music, Randy Newman; music supervisor, Tom MacDougall; production designer, Bob Pauley; story supervisor, Jason Katz; supervising technical director, Guido Quaroni; supervising animators, Bobby Podesta, Michael Venturini; stereoscopic supervisor, Bob Whitehill; sound designer (Dolby Digital/SDDS/DTS), Tom Myers; supervising sound editors, Myers, Michael Silvers; re-recording mixers, Michael Semanick, Myers; associate producer, Nicole Paradis Grindle; casting, Kevin Reher, Natalie Lyon. Reviewed at Disney Studios, Burbank, May 27, 2010. (In Taormina Film Festival -- opener.) MPAA Rating: G. Running time: 102 MIN.
• With: Voices: Woody - Tom Hanks Buzz Lightyear - Tim Allen Jessie - Joan Cusack Lotso - Ned Beatty Mr. Potato Head - Don Rickles Ken - Michael Keaton Rex - Wallace Shawn Hamm - John Ratzenberger Mrs. Potato Head - Estelle Harris Andy - John Morris Barbie - Jodi Benson Bonnie - Emily Hahn With: Laurie Metcalf, Blake Clark, Teddy Newton, Bud Luckey, Beatrice Miller, Javier Fernandez-Pena, Timothy Dalton, Lori Alan, Charlie Bright, Kristen Schaal, Jeff Garlin, Bonnie Hunt, John Cygan, Jeff Pidgeon, Whoopi Goldberg, Jack Angel, R. Lee Ermey, Jan Rabson, Richard Kind.

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Toy story 3 — film review.

After a decade-plus absence, the toys are back in town, and boy are they a sight for sore, 3D-beaten eyes.

By THR Staff

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“ Toy Story 3 ” might not carry that eye-popping dazzle of 1995’s milestone original that put Pixar on the map, but, in the absence of groundbreaking innovation, there’s a greater depth that isn’t solely attributable to those now-ubiquitous goofy glasses.

Playing with more darkly complex emotions than the previous two installments, incoming director Lee Unkrich (co-director of “Toy Story 2” and “Monsters, Inc.”) and screenwriter Michael Arndt (“Little Miss Sunshine”) manage to add nice substance without noticeably weighing down the beloved characters.

Speaking of which, in addition to all the familiar faces, there’s no shortage of entertaining new arrivals to this particular playdate, most notably the seemingly gregarious Lotso (effectively voiced by Ned Beatty), a jumbo pink plush teddy with something bitter and unpleasant festering beneath his strawberry scent.

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In a season filled with underperformers, expect “Toy Story 3” to finally rise to the occasion, handily extending Disney/Pixar’s deserved winning streak.

Shamelessly hitting empty-nesters where they live, the new adventure finds an all-grown-up Andy (John Morris) heading out for college and his mom (Laurie Metcalf) forcing him to first sort through his stuff.

After a perilous brush with the garbage truck, Woody, Buzz and company find themselves ensconced at a day-care center where they’re at the mercy of terrifying preschoolers.

But there turns out to be an even more sinister force behind all the chaos, as personified by the aforementioned Lotso, a bear bearing a grudge bigger than his belly.

As with last year’s “Up,” there’s nothing cheap or showy about the 3D here, which has been incorporated to heighten and enrich the vibrantly lit animation.

Despite striking trademark emotional chords, “Toy Story 3” takes full advantage of its main attraction — those larger-than-life toys.

Returning along with Tom Hanks’ and Tim Allen’s now-iconic Woody and Buzz in the toy box are Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head (Don Rickles and Estelle Harris), Jessie (Joan Cusack) and Hamm (John Ratzenberger).

Welcome additions, aside from Lotso (who could have escaped from a Tennessee Williams play), include a preening, short-shorts-wearing Ken (a terrific Michael Keaton), a pompous, theatrical Mr. Pricklepants (Timothy Dalton) and the truly disturbing (in a tragic way) Big Baby.

It might no longer be the sparkling new thing on the block, but “Toy Story 3” still has a few fresh tricks up its warm, fuzzy sleeve.

Opens: Friday, June 18 (Disney/Pixar) Production: Pixar Animation Studios Voice cast: Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Joan Cusack, Ned Beatty, Don Rickles, Michael Keaton, Wallace Shawn, John Ratzenberger, Estelle Harris Director: Lee Unkrich Screenwriter: Michael Arndt Executive producer: John Lasseter Producer: Darla K. Anderson Directors of photography: Jeremy Lasky, Kim White Production designer: Bob Pauley Music: Randy Newman Editor: Ken Schretzmann Rated G, 98 minute s

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'Toy Story 3': To Growing Up, And Beyond

David Edelstein

New Toys In Town: New characters including Mr. Pricklepants (second from left, voiced by Timothy Dalton), Buttercup the unicorn (Jeff Garlin), and Trixie (Kristen Schaal) join Toy Story mainstays like Woody in the third installment of the series. Disney/Pixar hide caption

Toy Story 3

• Director: Lee Unkrich
• Genre: Comedy, Animation
• Running Time: 103 minutes

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'Do Toys Here Get Played With Every Day?'

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'To Reset Your Buzz Lightyear'

With any luck, Toy Story 3 will be the last of the Toy Story movies. Yes, there will be pressure to squeeze out more sequels: This is, as industry folks say, a "franchise," a studio "tent pole." But if the people who run Pixar are as savvy as I think, they'll know the series should end like this, on a lovely, wistful high.

The Toy Story pictures are rooted in a child's fantasy of what happens when he or she turns out the lights and the toys come alive -- but I've never thought of them as "kids' movies." At heart they're about aging, impermanence, loss and death. Pixar very likely borrowed the premise from Thomas Disch's The Brave Little Toaster: Objects once prized lose their newness and become disposable. But they have spiritual properties, and to discard them carelessly is to dishonor the past that shaped us. The idea is almost Buddhist in how it invests all matter with a life force worthy of reverence.

Toy Story 3 has another dimension, probably the upshot of creators John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton, and the director, Lee Unkrich, getting older and having kids. The toys -- especially the cowboy Woody, with the voice of Tom Hanks -- see the boy who owns them, Andy, in the way of parents whose kids are growing up and moving on.

In a wild prologue, Woody -- with Tim Allen's Buzz Lightyear and Joan Cusack's cowgirl Jessie -- scrambles to save a trainload of orphans from the evil pig Dr. Porkchop. The adventure comes to a sudden halt when young Andy is called to dinner, and then we jump a decade ahead. Andy doesn't play with toys anymore; he's going off to college. His room is being cleared for his sister, who has her MP3 player and computer. Should the toys be stuck in the attic? Donated to Sunnyside, a day care center? Or left on the curb for the garbage truck? The gang, now including the sister's cast-off Barbie, is scared by every one of those possibilities.

On Monkey See:

A 'toy story' of our own, or: npr people and the company we can't help keeping.

After mix-ups and chases, they end up at Sunnyside, where the toy who calls the shots is the formidable huggy bear Lotso, with the great Southern stentorian voice of Ned Beatty. Although Woody is stubbornly loyal to Andy, the prospect of being played with again is undeniably stirring.

Lotso is a character with stature -- a toy shattered by abandonment who has purged himself of sentiment and runs Sunnyside with cold efficiency. And soon our gang discovers that the place operates like a prison. The big bald baby doll functions as a spooky enforcer, like Swedish wrestler Tor Johnson in Ed Wood movies. A cymbal-clashing monkey is the prison guard of nightmares. Soon, horror of horrors, Buzz is reprogrammed to be his old officious out-of-the-box self, the better to help Lotso keep everyone in cages. Suddenly, thrillingly, Toy Story 3 becomes a prison-break movie.

As usual with Pixar, the little things win your heart: Woody escaping out the bathroom window, but pausing to put down a sheet of toilet paper before stepping on the seat. At Sunnyside, Barbie is instantly smitten by Ken (who has the voice of Michael Keaton), and all those Ken-is-gay jokes get a new spin: He's a metrosexual elated at finding someone for whom he can show off his disco wardrobe. In the script by Michael Arndt, who wrote Little Miss Sunshine, the gags are all of a piece, right up to the forlorn yet enchanting finale.

Kids will love Toy Story 3 for its cliffhangers and slapstick spills. But for grown-ups, the film will touch something deeper: the heartfelt wish that childhood memories never fade. The paradox of Pixar is that, using advanced technology, it elevates the old-fashioned, the links to a more innocent form of play. This beautiful movie weaves together our joyful fantasies of the past, the ones that helped form us, and our darker fears of being forgotten -- and in that weave it offers hope that we can somehow reconcile those poles of life for ourselves. (Recommended)

TOY STORY 3 Review

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After the more outside-the-box family films of Ratatouille , WALL-E , and Up , Pixar is going back inside the toy box with Toy Story 3 .  There's nothing wrong with being inside the box when there are lots of toys, loads of fun, and plenty of jokes.  It's wonderful to see Woody, Buzz, and the gang team up for another adventure (even if it's the same rescue/escape narrative structure of the first two films).  But Toy Story 3 is so eager to entertain, that it almost never takes a moment to breathe.  Instead, it's a movie that's a roller coaster in the best sense of the term.  Set in the mold of a prison break movie, Toy Story 3 may not break with convention or out from under the shadow of the first two films, but it's a welcome break from this dreary summer.

When we last left Andy's toys at the end of Toy Story 2 , they had accepted that they would stick with Andy for as long as he needed them.  But as Andy has grown up, he hasn't needed them very much and they've sat crammed inside his toy box waiting for the chance to be played with again.  Believing that they're about to be thrown away, the toys choose to go to Sunnyside Daycare Center even though Woody tries to explain they were meant for the attic and not the city dump.  However, the rest of Andy's toys think they've found paradise with Sunnyside and its happy inhabitants.  But they soon learn that they've been tricked into being toddler-fodder for a younger age group who don't so much play with toys as much as come up with creative ways to destroy them.  Seeing that Sunnyside isn't all it's cracked up to be, the group tries to leave but that pink, stuffed bear named Lotso (Ned Beatty) isn't going to let them.  And there you have the set up for your prison-break movie.

With all that set-up, you can probably guess that Toy Story 3 is a little slow to start even though the intro is a thrilling set piece comprised of what Andy imagined when he was playing with the toys as a kid.  Once the group reaches Sunnyside, the film kicks into high gear and almost never slows down.  The movie is Pixar's most visually impressive to date, not just in the character detail and their movements, but the number of locations they cover and the amount of objects filling the frame.  Toy Story 3 is a movie people will go back to on Blu-ray and go frame-by-frame to find all the little easter eggs.  I wouldn't be surprised if there are actual easter eggs in some of these shots.

While Toy Story 3 boasts a cast of new characters, there are really only two major ones: Lotso and Ken (Michael Keaton).  Lotso presents a new dynamic as a Toy Story villain since he's the first one who's also a toy.  But the toy who steals the show is Ken.  Just watching the character walk is hilarious, but Keaton's performance adds such a terrific façade of charm.  Ken is constantly trying to convince others that he's not a girl's toy...even though his yellow-and-purple dream home is filled with various outfits that he loves.  And credit to Pixar for not going the easy route and just making Ken-is-closeted jokes.

Andy's toys go through their elaborate escape, I found that while I was having fun, but I also wanted the movie to take a moment and have a character feel something.  There's not really a moment of melancholy like when Buzz realizes he can't fly out the window in the first Toy Story or the "When She Loved Me" montage in Toy Story 2 .  That's not to say that Toy Story 3 is heartless.  As it winds to a close, you'll find your heart strings being pulled apart as you cry into your 3D glasses (the 3D, by the way, looks good—it's not distracting and adds a nice clarity and depth of field).

Toy Story 3 may not be as good as the first two films, but it's still a fantastic ride and a nice send-off to the seminal films that took Pixar to a place where the studio had the freedom to make movies like Ratatoutille , WALL-E , and Up .  Going back to the toys that started it all, Pixar and director Lee Unkrich have created a movie with exhilarating action, sharp writing, and it's a bright spot in a disappointing summer. And when it comes time to hit viewers with the emotional punch, Toy Story 3 packs a wallop that will have you in tears by the end.

Toy Story 3 Review

19 Jul 2010

103 minutes

Toy Story 3

How ‘adult’ can a commercial family movie be pushed before it starts alienating its core audience? Lay on too many mature pop culture references (see Shark Tale’s emphasis on Mafia movie clichés), and you leave the smaller ones fidgeting. Go too ‘dark’, and that theatre will be awash with trauma-induced tears. Works the other way too: play it too young, and adult eyes glaze. It’s a fine balance. And Pixar remains the master of that particular tightrope walk.

The studio certainly set the delicate course with Toy Story, a movie which not only contrasted the glee of imaginative play with the terrors of plaything-torture, but which, crucially, imagined its anthropomorphised, secret-life-living protagonists as adults just doing a job — the child Andy being their boss. While audience children could simply enjoy the toys coming to life and having adventures, the wage-slave grown-ups could, among other things, relate to the workplace anxiety generated by an impressive new ‘employee’ (in the first film), or the idea of being ‘promoted’ to somewhere where you think you’ll be more valued, but where the reality is you’ll no longer be doing the very thing you love most about your job (in the second). Continuing the theme, the third Toy Story is very much a movie about retirement. In Disney Digital 3D.

The set-up has a 17 year-old Andy preparing to leave for college, his few remaining favourite toys (oddly after all these years still including a Mrs. Potato Head, but hey, we ain’t judging…) making desperate Woody-corralled gambits for his attention. The sight, in the first few minutes, of the ever-determined cowboy doll clinging on to an old mobile phone as he listens to Andy’s confused “Hellos” is just one of several near-heartbreaking moments. (Just to give you an idea, we learn only a few minutes later that Woody’s long-time girlfriend Bo Peep is one of the many toys Andy’s long-since chucked out.) Naturally, Woody refuses to accept his destiny, which as the other survivors (The Potato Heads, Rex, Hamm, Jessie, Slinky, Bullseye, the ‘Ooooh’ alien triplets and Buzz) point out, will lead them either to the attic, a daycare centre or the dreaded trash.

And, via the wonderful quick-beat action-plot contortions that characterised both previous Toy Stories — miss a single second at your peril — it’s to daycare they go, to a place with the blandly sinister name of ‘Sunnyside’, appropriately making it sound as much like an old people’s home as a nursery.

The resulting caper is, like its predecessor, a paragon of good sequel-making. It moves the story on (take note, Iron Man 2 writers), while keeping its characters and plotting comfortingly familiar, and it brings in new characters without neglecting the originals. You could criticise it for merely offering a new variation on the previous films’ ‘displaced toys require rescue’ structure, but the reality is that the riffs on Toy Stories 1 and 2 prove joyous. Woody’s to-the-rescue whistle for faithful dog Buster this time yields a greying, sagging hound who merely flops exhaustedly to the floor. A third encounter with a deluded Buzz Lightyear is spiced with a hilarious dash of Latin flavour. The bitter, twisted-toy bad guy who initially appears friendly… a flashback to another plaything’s cruel abandonment… a desperate climactic chase in a setting that would dwarf even a full-grown human (in the last movie an airport, in this movie, with equal aptness, a trash-processing facility)... Maybe it is ticking boxes, but each tick comes with its own fresh twist. The latter, in particular, offers up a scene of such intense, exquisite end-of-the-line poignancy — also the scariest moment of the whole series — that it deserves comparison with Snow White’s terrified forest flight, or the shooting of Bambi’s mother. Without giving too much away, you could call it this trilogy’s Mount Doom sequence.

But hey, don’t worry, there’s still plenty of laughs. A prison-break movie structure is deftly constructed around the toys’ trapped-in-daycare predicament (“Sunnyside is a place of ruin and despair...” gravely intones Timothy Dalton’s thespianic lederhosen-wearing hedgehog, Mr. Pricklepants), leading to one supremely funny escape-plan montage — narrated by a Fisher-Price phone and starring a screeching, cymbal-crashing, mad-eye-popping monkey. Elsewhere we have new star Ken (Michael Keaton), shuffling stiffly around in fey poses and complaining that “no-one appreciates clothes here!”, while repeatedly insisting he’s not a girl’s toy.

Just as the action comes thick and fast, the wisecracks and visual gags are high-volume and high hit-rate. Combined with the kind of state-of-the-artistry we now take for granted with Pixar (interestingly restrained when it comes to the main characters, thus keeping consistency with the previous films), they ensure that every last frame counts, each a firework-burst of fine detail. In all likelihood, though, it won’t be the rendering of Lots-O’-Huggin’ Bear’s plush puce fur or Hamm’s dry asides that will earn this Pixar its sure plaudits; it’ll be its powerful tenderness as a fond farewell to some of cinema’s best-drawn characters.

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Movie Review | 'Toy Story 3'

Voyage to the Bottom of the Day Care Center

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By A.O. Scott

• June 17, 2010

“Toy Story 3” begins with a rattling, exuberant set piece that has nothing to do with the tale that follows but that nonetheless sums up the ingenuity, and some of the paradoxes, that have made this Pixar franchise so marvelous and so successful. The major toys — Woody (Tom Hanks), Buzz (Tim Allen), the Potato Heads (Don Rickles and Estelle Harris), Hamm (John Ratzenberger), Jessie (Joan Cusack), Rex (Wallace Shawn) and the others — are in a setting at once wholly unfamiliar and instantly recognizable. They’re in a western, albeit one made in the amped-up modern action style, rather than the more stately idiom of old-time oaters. A train is hurtling down the tracks; a bridge explodes; stuff is falling out of the sky. There are force fields and laser beams and a big noisy surprise every time you blink.

At first glance your heart may sink a little. Can it be that “Toy Story,” built over 15 years and two previous movies out of the unlikely bonds that flourished among a band of beautifully animated inanimate characters (and Andy, the mostly unseen boy who collects them), has succumbed to flashy commercial blockbuster imperatives? Or would we be fooling ourselves to suppose that it has ever been anything else?

The resolution of the opening scene in the latest episode shows this to be a false choice. The action is taking place in Andy’s head as he plays with his toys. All those crazy effects are the products of his restless and inexhaustible imagination, which is no less his for having been formed and fed by movies, television shows and the cheap merchandise spun out of them.

And how many real kids who have grown up with Buzz Lightyear and Sheriff Woody have unspooled their own improvised movies on the rec room floor? Perhaps no series of movies has so brilliantly grasped the emotional logic that binds the innate creativity of children at play to the machinery of mass entertainment. Each one feeds, and colonizes, the other. And perhaps only Pixar, a company Utopian in its faith in technological progress, artisanal in its devotion to quality and nearly unbeatable in its marketing savvy, could have engineered a sweeping capitalist narrative of such grandeur and charm as the “Toy Story” features. “Toy Story 3” is as sweet, as touching, as humane a movie as you are likely to see this summer, and yet it is all about doodads stamped and molded out of plastic and polyester.

Therein lies its genius, and its uncanny authenticity. A tale that captured the romance and pathos of the consumer economy, the sorrows and pleasures that dwell at the heart of our materialist way of life, could only be told from the standpoint of the commodities themselves, those accretions of synthetic substance and alienated labor we somehow endow with souls.

Cars, appliances, laptops, iPads: we love them, and we profess that love daily. Its purest, most innocent expression — but also its most vulnerable and perishable — is the attachment formed between children and the toys we buy them. “I want that!” “That’s mine!” Slogans of acquisitive selfishness, to be sure, but also articulations of desire and loyalty. The first “Toy Story” acknowledged this bond, and “Toy Story 2” turned it into a source of startlingly deep emotion.

When Woody chose life with Andy and the others over immortality with Stinky Pete at the museum, he was embracing a destiny built on his own disposability. When we grow up, or just grow tired of last year’s cool stuff, we don’t just put away those childish things, we throw them out. “Face it, we’re just trash,” says a bitter pink teddy bear near the end of “Toy Story 3.” Though the movie, directed by Lee Unkrich from a script by Michael Arndt (“Little Miss Sunshine”), labors to dispel the gloom of this statement, it can’t entirely disprove it.

As Andy prepares for college, Woody surveys the depleted ranks of his pals, noting that some have passed on (rest in peace, Wheezy) and reassuring the others that everything will be fine. They’ll live in the attic until the next generation comes along. But instead they wind up at the Sunnyside Daycare Center, which at first seems like a paradise where the problem of obsolescence has been magically solved. Lots-o’-Huggin’ Bear (Ned Beatty), its seemingly jovial patriarch, explains that there, toys are played with every day, and when one group of youngsters outgrows them, another cohort arrives. It’s a perfect reversal of the single-owner predicament, and most of the toys are relieved and happy — especially Barbie, voiced by Jodi Benson, who finds a Ken with a fabulous wardrobe and the voice of Michael Keaton.

The change of scene, and Woody’s subsequent journey to the home of a little girl named Bonnie (Emily Hahn), allows the filmmakers to introduce a bevy of new toys , including a talking phone and a purple octopus who sounds a lot like one of the hosts of “The View.”

“Toy Story 3,” which makes remarkably subtle use of 3-D, also explores a range of cinematic techniques undreamed of in the first two chapters, and refined in recent Pixar films like “Wall-E” and “Up.” There are swiftly edited action sequences worthy of a “Bourne” movie; low-angle compositions and nimble tracking shots; changes in the color saturation and the texture of the light — just like in a “real” movie! When the truth about Sunnyside is revealed, the movie has fun evoking prison escape pictures and horror films, darkening the Pixar palette to captivating (and, to some small children, possibly frightening) effect.

In providing sheer moviegoing satisfaction — plot, characters, verbal wit and visual delight, cheap laughs and honest sentiment — “Toy Story 3” is wondrously generous and inventive. It is also, by the time it reaches a quiet denouement that balances its noisy beginning, moving in the way that parts of “Up” were. That is, this film — this whole three-part, 15-year epic — about the adventures of a bunch of silly plastic junk turns out also to be a long, melancholy meditation on loss, impermanence and that noble, stubborn, foolish thing called love. We all know money can’t buy it, except sometimes, for the price of a plastic figurine or a movie ticket.

“Toy Story 3” is rated G (General audiences). Some of the mean toys might be a little scary, and the danger the nice toys face becomes pretty intense at times.

TOY STORY 3

Opens on Friday nationwide.

Directed by Lee Unkrich; written by Michael Arndt, based on a story by John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton and Mr. Unkrich; directors of photography, Jeremy Lasky and Kim White; edited by Ken Schretzmann; music by Randy Newman; production designer, Bob Pauley; produced by Darla K. Anderson; released by Walt Disney Pictures and Pixar Animation Studios. Running time: 1 hour 38 minutes. This film is rated G.

WITH THE VOICES OF: Tom Hanks (Woody), Tim Allen (Buzz Lightyear), Joan Cusack (Jessie), Ned Beatty (Lots-o’-Huggin’ Bear), Don Rickles (Mr. Potato Head), Michael Keaton (Ken), Wallace Shawn (Rex), John Ratzenberger (Hamm), Estelle Harris (Mrs. Potato Head), John Morris (Andy), Jodi Benson (Barbie) and Emily Hahn (Bonnie).

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• DVD & Streaming

Toy Story 3

• Action/Adventure , Animation , Comedy , Kids

Content Caution

In Theaters

• June 18, 2010
• Voices of Tom Hanks as Woody; Tim Allen as Buzz Lightyear; Joan Cusack as Jessie; Ned Beatty as Lots-o'-Huggin' Bear; Don Rickles as Mr. Potato Head; Michael Keaton as Ken; Jodi Benson as Barbie; John Ratzenberger as Hamm

Home Release Date

• November 2, 2010
• Lee Unkrich

Distributor

• Walt Disney

Positive Elements   |   Spiritual Elements   |   Sexual & Romantic Content   |   Violent Content   |   Crude or Profane Language   |   Drug & Alcohol Content   |   Other Noteworthy Elements   | Conclusion

Movie Review

It’s been a while since we last saw them—11 years, to be exact—but Woody, Buzz Lightyear and their makeshift family of beloved toys are still happily residing in Andy’s toy box. It’s a somewhat forgotten abode nowadays, but it’s theirs. And even if Andy has paid them little heed of late, well, they can always live on the memories of yesteryear’s glorious playtimes.

Occasionally they might even grab Andy’s cell phone, luring him in to remind him of all the fun that could be his once more if he would just play with them like he used to. Alas, however, 17-year-olds like Andy aren’t often in the playing mood. Not with old toys, anyway.

“Every toy goes through this,” Woody reassures his worrying pals. Secretly, however, even Woody senses the significance of their owner getting older. And as the toys peek through the lid of their boxy home, they learn that Andy will soon leave for someplace called “college.” Gasp! What will happen to them? Will they be sent to the attic? Or worse?

Through a series of mishaps that follows, the gang eventually ends up being donated to the Sunnyside Daycare Center. At first, it seems like a toy’s paradise—a place where it’s playtime all the time. Barbie even meets a hunka hunka plastic love called Ken. This perfectly coiffed guy loves trying on new outfits even more than she does.

But there’s also a less-than-pleasant side to this kid-filled playground. Newcomers get sent to the Caterpillar Room, where toddlers beat the stuffing out of their toys. Not only that, but the whole place is under the controlling eye of a strawberry-smelling leader named Lots-o’-Huggin’ Bear (or, Lots-o’ for short) who rules with a pink, furry, Machiavellian fist.

Woody, however, doesn’t stick around long enough to learn about Sunnyside’s dark side. No matter what, he says, he must make his way back to Andy—even if everyone else is convinced that their beloved owner no longer wants them.

When he learns that his friends back at Sunnyside are in trouble, though, Woody has a decision to make about where his deepest loyalties lie.

Positive Elements

Woody and pals must learn to cope with a sense of abandonment as Andy seems to turn his back on them. And that painful chord of loss resonates throughout the story. Woody, however, holds tightly to his faith in Andy and tells the toys, “Andy’s gonna take care of us. I guarantee it.”

But one thing’s for sure, regardless of Andy’s choices: The toys refuse to abandon each other. The whole community of friends voices its commitment to fight for one another and stick together—whether that means the attic or the junk heap. “What’s important is that we stay together,” Buzz says. And he, Woody and the rest always live by that credo. Late in the movie, when it looks as though they could end up in a place far worse than the city dump, the toys reach out to join hands and face their desperate situation in unity.

The toys also put themselves at risk to save others. For instance, Buzz tosses Jessie to safety at one point, knowing that he’ll receive a bruising blow from a falling TV. Elsewhere, Woody and Buzz strive to save a villainous character even though that toy pulled them into danger in the first place.

The movie also makes a subtle, but positive, statement about commitment. When our toy heroes first go to the day-care center, they’re told by Lots-o’ that “no owners means no heartbreak.” (Lots-o’ once had his stuffed teddy bear heart broken by a little girl who replaced him when he was left behind at a picnic.) But Woody reaps the rewards of standing committed to his teen owner. And in the end, even though situations do change, Andy shows himself to be a caring and devoted pal to his toy friends.

The subject of death is never dealt with in so many words, but as the toys wrestle with endings of various kinds, it’s almost impossible for viewers not to grapple with the reality of death and loss at some level.

Andy and his mom are feeling the pangs of loss over their upcoming separation, too. They embrace and voice their love for each other.

Spiritual Elements

A little girl playing with her toys mentions ghosts a few times.

Sexual & Romantic Content

It’s no surprise that Ken and Barbie feel an instant attraction for each other. After all, they gush, it’s like they were made for each other. “Love your leg warmers,” Ken compliments. “Nice ascot,” Barbie retorts. They’ve barely met when Ken asks if Barbie wants to come live in his dream house. She seems to accept, if only for a day or so. Over the course of their romance, the couple holds hands, rubs noses and tells each other “I love you.”

Later on, after things go bad between the pair because Ken is working for Lots-o’, Barbie, who is prone to wearing slinky outfits, ties him up after, apparently, removing his shirt and pants. We see him wearing nothing but polka dotted boxer shorts, which is his attire for much of the rest of the film. As she’s tying him up, he suggestively says, “You can’t make me talk. You can’t! But I’d like to see you try.”

Ken’s sexual orientation, if a doll can have such a thing, is never in question. That said, the film makes a couple of wink-wink references to effeminate stereotypes when it comes to Ken’s obsession with clothes and his appearance. Fellow toys roll their eyes when talking about Ken’s wardrobe and his perfect, flowery penmanship. Ken insists, “I’m not a girl’s toy. I’m not!” When Barbie disguises herself in one of Ken’s outfits, she forgets to take off her high heels, prompting a smirk from another toy.

An innocent romantic relationship also blossoms between Buzz and cowgirl Jessie. That attraction intensifies when Buzz’s computer processor is accidentally switched to Spanish. Suddenly the spaceman takes on the characteristics of the stereotypical hot-blooded Spaniard—including flamenco dancing, impassioned glances and heartfelt expressions of affection. Jessie likes the attention and later flips on some Latin music just to rekindle the flame with a quick dance.

Violent Content

The movie opens with Andy directing the toys in an imaginary Western story that features Woody and the gang as characters fighting a melodramatic battle between good and evil. Rough and tumble action and explosions ensue, but no one is hurt. And that standard is mostly maintained throughout the rest of the film.

There are a couple of intense scenes where it looks like a character could be hurt, though. The toys, for example, make their way through an ominous garbage-recycling plant complete with whirling blades and a blazing furnace that threatens to incinerate them.

Lots-o’s thug toys grab and imprison our toy heroes. And we see a Chatter Telephone who looks a little beat up after an encounter with those same bully toys. But that implied torture doesn’t take place onscreen. In fact, the toys take their worst pounding at the hands of a classroom full of toddlers who seem trample and tramautize every toy they touch.

Other moments of cartoon violence include Woody jumping on a monkey guard and wrestling him to the ground. (He shoves the monkey into a drawer and leave him there, all tied up with tape.) He also falls hard from a hang glider into a tree. A garbage truck driver finds Lots-o’ and ties him to the grill of his truck. (To the driver, the bear is just a silly hood ornament. To the toy, it’s a brutal punishment for wrongs done.) A truck runs over the Martian triplets, but they show up later, unscathed. For a moment, it looks as if toys have been crushed in a garbage truck trash compactor.

As is often the case in Pixar’s films, certain moments pay homage to classic movie scenes and genres, references adults may recognize that will sail over the heads of young viewers. And that’s the case here, too. The toys’ imprisonment is a nod to many prison-escape stories. Mr. Potato Head’s solitary confinement in “The Box” seems like a reference to Vietnam films. And when a baby doll’s head spins around to spy escaping toys, it feels like something out of a horror movie.

Crude or Profane Language

Twice we hear “what the heck?” Another time that phrase gets cut short. A character says, “Darn it, Barbie!” Ascot and astronaut are both used to subtly bring to mind a crudity. Name-calling includes “drooling doofus,” “idiot,” “imbecile,” “pea-brain” and “moron.” “Holy moly” and “holy cow” pop up. 

Drug & Alcohol Content

Other noteworthy elements.

When the thug toys lock Mr. Potato Head in the sandbox overnight, he comes back to report, “It was cold and dark. Nothing but sand and a couple Lincoln Logs.” Hamm retorts, “I don’t think those were Lincoln Logs!” During the credits, Mr. Potato Head shoos some little toys out of his back hatch shouting, “I told you kids. Stay out of my butt!”

Buzz comes upon a group of toys gambling with Monopoly money in a secret location that has the feel of a speakeasy.

Woody and the gang kicked off the whole full-length computer-animated film craze 15 years ago. And they took everyone by surprise. Entertainment Weekly recently labeled  Toy Story (Pixar’s first film) the “popgun shot heard ’round the world.” And when you add in Toy Story 2 ‘ s success and Pixar’s blockbuster track record since, well, there’s a lot to live up to when making a second sequel.

But in spite of the fact that today’s kids are more apt to play with virtual avatars than plastic action figures, this third tale about toys with a secret life of their own is still just as charming and appealing as ever.

This latest outing joyfully reunites us with Woody, Buzz, cowgirl Jessie and their friends. And it expands the toys’ ranks with several other entertaining newcomers, such as Mr. Pricklepants, an English thespian hedgehog; and Big Baby, a mostly mute, oversized enforcer who feels like a character from Of Mice and Men.

All in all, this is just like the first two installments in the franchise, only bigger.

That’s the nature of a sequel, though, isn’t it? Make things bigger. Bigger cast, bigger laughs, bigger booms. Toy Story 3 doesn’t shy away from the challenge. It’s packed with inventive gags and knowing pop-culture references (including a few questionable ones at the expense of Ken’s masculinity). As for the action, it’s epic in ways 1 and 2 never were. The adventure careens from rollicking rescue to a strategic jailhouse breakout to a musketeers-like last stand.

In fact, some of that action intensity—including an extended life-or-death moment in which it looks as if everyone is about to perish—could be a little too intense for the youngest viewers, those whom you might be inclined to think would be the film’s most natural audience.

But this is far more  Up than  Horton Hears a Who! And as is the case with Up , Pixar’s version of bigger works best when that large lump starts forming in your throat near the end. It’s amazing, really, that a CGI-created pull-string cowboy can come to embody loyalty, bravery and love.

But he does. And somehow just waving good-bye to a group of well-worn toys can powerfully communicate the emotion of both a teen bidding childhood farewell and a parent watching him take the next bittersweet step in his journey.

After spending more than two decades touring, directing, writing and producing for Christian theater and radio (most recently for Adventures in Odyssey, which he still contributes to), Bob joined the Plugged In staff to help us focus more heavily on video games. He is also one of our primary movie reviewers.

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Review: toy story 3.

Tears tell no lies in the end: Toy Story 3 is sketchy, but it’s also profoundly moving.

The use of 3D is as superfluous to Toy Story 3 as it was to Up : Both films, marvelously and perceptively drawn, are classically—and classily—told tales of adventure in which good is pitted against evil, but because peril never comes in the shape of a bat or sword swinging at anyone’s face, they don’t exactly benefit from the added dimension. Unlike Day & Night , the cunning short that will precede Toy Story 3 throughout its theatrical run, this third installment of the Toy Story franchise isn’t a morally charged study in visual perspective, though it’s certainly a moral film and, like its predecessors, obsessed with the way we perceive the toys that once brought us joy—and, for some, still do. Like Up , the film doesn’t lack for poignancy, so in the end, 3D glasses at least prove useful in concealing one’s tears.

The effect of the Toy Story films is practically primal. They appeal to anyone who’s ever cared about a toy—one they outgrew, gave away, or painfully left behind somewhere. These films, with scant manipulation and much visual and comic invention, thrive on giving toys a conscience and imagining what adventures they have when we turn our backs to them. They address the way we emotionally invest in toys, sometimes (as in Toy Story 2 ) even throwing in a canny bit of air-tight commentary on consumerism as a bonus for the adults in the room. Such is Pixar’s unique gift that these stories about toys fighting to be played with become, for us, confrontations with our own mortality—from birth to rot and everything in between.

Toy Story 3 picks up with Andy (John Morris) getting ready to go to college, his mother (Laurie Metcalf) forcing him to decide what to do with Woody (Tom Hanks), Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen), and his other toys, all unplayed with for many years: to stow them in the attic, donate them to charity, or throw them out. Rife with much action and misunderstanding, the story takes Woody and the gang from the side of the curb in front of their Elm Street home to a few blocks away inside Sunnyside Daycare, most of them believing that Andy wanted nothing more to do with them. When Mrs. Potato Head’s (Don Rickles) stray eye—lying too-conveniently beneath Andy’s bed—reveals the truth of his intentions, it’s up to Woody to free his friends from the sinister caste system of the deceptively sunny daycare that becomes their prison.

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As social commentary, Toy Story 3 is provocative but vague, even unrealized. Lots-o’-Huggin’ Bear’s (Ned Beatty) torment of Woody’s friends by locking them in with the daycare’s younger and considerably less kind children suggests something of a slave trade. Their nightmare imprisonment is practically a statement on gentrification, as you get a sense of the rich life Lots-o’-Huggin’ and his cronies enjoy being impossible without other, less fortunate toys wasting away in less desirable, impoverished conditions. (There’s no “in” for the undesirables, just one way “out”: the trash.) The scenario is evocative, suggestive of a New York City street with a Whole Foods and expensive luxury rentals on one side and the projects on the other, but the correlation the film makes to real-life urban gentrification ultimately feels tacky because the way justice comes to Sunnyside has no correlative in Harlem.

Better to enjoy Toy Story 3 as a well-executed action yarn, a sort of cartoon version of The Great Escape , even if the film’s admittedly thrilling set pieces—like the opening, which features Woody and Buzz chasing the thieving Potato Heads and trying to save a runaway train filled with hilariously squealing toy trolls—are more referential than satiric, feeling as if they’ve sprung less from the imagination of a child than from the minds of men with much affection for the collected works of George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, Michael Bay, and Peter Jackson. Your heart pounds as Woody and his friends face what feels like certain death inside an incinerator while your mind goes, “Didn’t I see this already in The Brave Little Toaster ?”

Toy Story fans may bemoan how this third film frequently indulges the snarkiness that completely dictates the world of the inane Shrek movies, most evident in the predictable exchanges between Ken (Michael Keaton) and Barbie (Jodi Benson )—not once, but twice do characters, including Woody, recoil at what is perceived to be Ken’s effeminacy—and the Latin-lothario behavior that grips Buzz when he’s unscrewed and switched to “demo” mode.

Time and again, Pixar has proven to be above such frivolity and insensitivity, but the powerhouse of an ending, proof of the company’s emotionally rich ability of telling tales that force us to grapple with our mortal coil, is so humane it disarms our qualms. Tears tell no lies in the end: Toy Story 3 is sketchy, but it’s also profoundly moving.

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Ed Gonzalez is the co-founder of Slant Magazine . A member of the New York Film Critics Circle, his writing has appeared in The Village Voice , The Los Angeles Times , and other publications.

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'toy story 3' knocks it out of the playbox.

• The original "Toy Story" started Pixar's remarkable run 15 years ago
• In the film, Woody and Buzz's owner, Andy, is 17 now and moving on to college
• "Toy Story 3" is likely to be the most hilarious and heartfelt blockbuster all summer

(CNN) -- How should a tortilla move? Trust Pixar to ask the important questions and to come up with the most inspired answers, too.

Unsteadily, at first, in a floppy, folding, undulating furl, on detachable legs accustomed to the rotund corporeal bulk of Mr. Potato Head (the potato being indisposed at the time).

Nobody speaks body language more eloquently than Pixar.

In another inspired touch, space ranger toy Buzz Lightyear is inadvertently rebooted for the Hispanic market. Not only does he switch to fluent Spanish, he accompanies his newly ardent protestations of love to cowgirl Jessie with flamboyant flamenco finger clicks and swiveling hips. He's an intergalactic toreador of love.

Nifty moves are one thing, but everybody knows that by the second sequel -- or "threequel" if you prefer -- even the strongest film franchise is venturing onto shaky ground. (Not to say there aren't exceptions.)

But in any case, conventional wisdom never seems to apply to Pixar, the digital animation giant that only ever seems to produce winners: "WALL-E," "Cars," "Up" and "Monsters, Inc." to name just a few.

It was "Toy Story" that started Pixar's remarkable run 15 years ago, but the angsty devotion of Andy's cowboy doll and his friends (a slinky dog, a cowardly T Rex and a piggy bank named Hamm among them) as they await their inevitable retirement remains as poignant today as it did then. Maybe more so, now that a generation of kids have grown up with these characters, and, in some cases, probably have grown out of them.

iReport: Kids review "Toy Story 3"

In "Toy Story 3", Woody and Buzz (voiced by Tom Hanks and Tim Allen, as always) remain unchanged, as good as new in fact, but their owner, Andy, is 17 now and moving on to college. His mom wants his room cleared, and a misunderstanding consigns the toys to Sunnyside Daycare.

Initially the idea of all-day play seems too good to be true, but Sunnyside has a dark side: it's "a place of ruin and despair", a pre-kindie pastel-colored gulag presided over by Lotso (Ned Beatty), an avuncular pink teddy bear who smells of strawberries (so we're told, the movie is discreetly 3D but not in smell-o-vision).

It's at this point that a slow-starting story hits its stride. Loveable, huggable Lotso makes a terrifically malignant bad guy, a tin-pot dictator whose loathsome lackeys include a baby with a beady eye and a head capable of 360 degree rotations right out of "The Exorcist"; a scary cymbal monkey who doubles as an alarm system; and -- yuck -- a Ken doll. Lotso's wicked plan? To confine the new guys to the toddler room, a charnel house of free play just a short hop from the landfill.

A great escape movie, "Toy Story 3" funnels the series' abiding separation anxiety into a succession of ingenious feints and evasions, climaxing in an apocalyptic vision of the gaping inferno.

Thrilling enough to goose smaller kids, the film is more likely to give sleepless nights to their parents. After all, it's the older folk who are left behind, like Woody, when the kids head off to college.

So now you're abandoned and redundant, wondering whether it's OK to go see the latest Pixar without a youngster in hand. Yes, it's OK; you owe it to yourself.

I seriously doubt there will be a more hilarious and heartfelt blockbuster all summer.

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Toy Story 3 (2010)

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Movie Review: Toy Story 3 (2010)

• Movie Reviews
• One response
• --> April 4, 2011

Even for a consistently-reliable studio like Pixar, the notion of Toy Story 3 seemed risky due to the time-honored tradition of part threes being unnecessary and below-par. The Godfather: Part III , Lethal Weapon 3 , Batman Forever , Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines , Alien 3 , Jurassic Park III and Superman III are a few examples of “threequels” which took a drastic nose-dive in quality after two solid forerunners. But Toy Story 3 is not an addition to this list. Not even close. The folks over at Pixar Studios have done it again; extending their unparalleled streak of success stretching all the way back to the original Toy Story in 1995 (their feature-length debut). Arriving 15 years after the first film and 11 years after the sequel, Toy Story 3 is every bit as brilliant as its predecessors and one of the best movies of 2010.

Elements of the narrative are best left unspoiled, so only a brief synopsis will be included here. When we last met Andy (Morris), he was a little kid who played with his toys all the time. Many years have elapsed, however, and now he’s a much older lad packing for college. This leaves his toys — who have been relegated to a spot in an old chest — in a frenzied panic. Their numbers have steadily dwindled over the years, so only a small group remains, including Woody (Hanks), Buzz (Allen), Jesse (Cusack), Rex (Shawn), Hamm (Ratzenberger) and Mr. Potato Head (Rickles), just to name a few. While Andy had intended to place the majority of his old toys (save for Woody) in the attic, a Toy Story-style series of mix-ups leaves the toys being donated to a daycare centre. From here, a plot unfolds that’s too delicious to spoil, but suffice it to say there is an escape plan of sorts involved. Frankly, though, these are the very basic constituents of the plot — at its core, Toy Story 3 is a beautiful, vibrant tale about memories, mortality, the passing of time and how you treat people in your life.

This leads to a conclusion filled with action, comedy and pathos. Truth be told, the climax is a bit of overkill and there are bits & pieces which don’t work, but this can easily be overlooked due to how perfectly the film ends. Anyone who felt the ending for Toy Story 2 was too optimistic will find the third installment’s ending to be far more satisfying, as the toys are confronted with their own mortality and are faced with their greatest foe of all: Time. The conclusion for the trilogy works on different levels for different viewers — while the youngsters in the audience will understand the importance of friendship, mature-age audience members will find the ending to be a reminder of the fleeting nature of childhood and how all things pass in the blink of an eye. There’s a particular moment which emphasizes this point but will likely go unnoticed by the kids: Andy experiences an epiphany. This is conveyed so effectively through mere facial expressions rather than words, and this is precisely why Pixar’s motion pictures achieve greater respect than those produced by their less ambitious competitors.

Do not mistake Toy Story 3 as a weepy, depressing drama, however — it was designed to provide a good time, and heavens me it does exactly that. All the emotional moments of the movie do not arrive at the expense of enjoyment, as it provides huge laughs and enjoyable set-pieces (and I’m not spoiling anything ). In fact, this is one of the most effective and well-paced comedies of the year. No doubt you will be laughing from the get-go at the sight gags, the one-liners and the pop culture piss-takes. Director Lee Unkrich served as assistant director on three previous Pixar features, including Toy Story 2 , and was therefore well-suited for the job. Unkrich’s greatest talent is attention to detail, as every frame of Toy Story 3 is bursting with visual splendor and smart touches. The way the daycare centre becomes an Alcatraz is a stroke of genius — the slide in the playground becomes a watchtower, the bead mazes double as razor wire, and so on. It’s astounding how much creativity went into the feature. Unkrich and writer Michael Arndt ( Little Miss Sunshine ) also clearly spent time watching pre-schoolers, as the film highlights the notion that an unattended child is a walking WMD.

Naturally, Pixar’s animation techniques have improved tremendously in the 11 years between Toy Story 2 and Toy Story 3 . Added to this, the 3-D effects serve to enhance all the rich texture within every frame, such as the fur of Lotso (Beatty) and the flashy clothes Ken (Keaton) wears. In 3-D, the film is amazingly immersive. Also, most of the original voice cast made their return here, and slipped into their roles as if no time had passed. Even John Morris (now in his 20s) voiced Andy once again. Other returning cast members include Tom Hanks as Woody, Tim Allen as Buzz, Joan Cusack as Jesse, Wallace Shawn as Rex, and many others. The only missing cast member is Jim Varney who died in 2000; his role as Slinky Dog was filled by Blake Clark, and the change is seamless. There are an array of newcomers here, too, each of which are standouts. The scene-stealer here is Ken, voiced by Michael Keaton. Keaton has always had impeccable comic timing (see Beetle Juice ) and this role fits him like a glove. Jodi Benson (or Ariel from The Little Mermaid ) had a small part as Barbie in Toy Story 2 , but her role is expanded here as she becomes Ken’s plastic soul-mate. Meanwhile Ned Beatty is effective as Lotso, Timothy Dalton is terrific as Mr. Pricklepants, and Kristen Schaal did a great job as Trixie.

A hint of familiarity pervades Toy Story 3 , yet it never feels overly derivative while you enjoy the experience, which is a testament to director Unkrich’s masterful handling of the material. In a nutshell, the film is a rousing adventure, a delightful comedy, a thoughtful drama, and a treasured reunion with a beloved group of fictional pals, and it provides exceptional entertainment for viewers of all ages. It is also a weeper, particularly during the final 15 minutes or so which are poignant and overwhelmingly affecting (even by Pixar’s standards). Those irritating 3-D glasses may be beneficial for hiding all your tears. Altogether, the Toy Story movies take the breath away. What a terrific, mature trilogy this has turned out to be. Thank you, Pixar. Thank you for providing three wonderful animation gems, and for showing the world the difference between paycheck efforts and actual hard labor.

I'm a true blue fair dinkum Aussie larrakin from Down Under (or Australia, if you're not a fan of slang). Yep, I wrestle crocs and I throw shrimps on the barbie. Movies are my passion. I also post my reviews on Flixster, Listal and MovieFilmReview. I've been writing reviews as a hobby since 2003, and since then my technique has increased big time. I'm also studying Media at University, which helps me develop my writing skills. I am continually commended for my writing from both tutors and peers. On top of reviewing movies, I voluntarily contribute to the local newspaper in the area of music journalism. And I'm a through-and-through gym junkie. Yep, my life thus revolves around peers, studies, movies and exercise. I'm more than happy.

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'Movie Review: Toy Story 3 (2010)' has 1 comment

November 9, 2011 @ 7:13 am Robflick

When this film was released in 2010, it stole a lot of headlines for being a male tear jerker – for some reason a lot of adult men where coming out the cinema with wet eyes. We saw this film recently and I have to confess I couldn’t understand what all the fuss was about – that is, until near the end and the scene where Andy leaves his room for the final time, having cleared it of all his childhood memories. For some reason it stirs up a lot of emotions. Strong stuff.

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Lee Unkrich

Reviews (7)

Toy Story ends what I guess we have to call the 'Andy Trilogy' with a class-conscious battle for survival. The villain/s works well but Buzz Lightyear is wasted as a character.

This one is kind of mixed for most people, but I love this one the most I think. Lotso was a great villain and the idea of daycare toys was a really interesting concept for these films. I wasn't sure I could like another kid the way I liked Andy, but Bonnie really grew on me and by the end of the film, it seemed that everyone had reached the end of their character arcs and it just made sense to wrap things up the way it did. However, the 4th movie kind of ruins everything about that.

Toy Story 3 was a film no one expected or asked to be made, but the gorgeous visuals and emotionally bittersweet writing more than justified its existence and made it one of the most iconic Pixar films ever made. Toy Story 3 ultimately wasn't the finale to the franchise, but it's still the best ending to the original era of the franchise a person could have asked for.

I wish I loved the Toy Story franchise as much as others do. Still, Toy Story 3 is a good time that could have (and probably should have) been a satisfying end to the series. Surprisingly dark at times for Pixar film. Love how it feels like a prison film for most of its runtime.

While I do appreciate how strong the play with nostalgia is for Toy Story 3, I don't ultimately think it holds up to the first two. Don't like the villain in this one, and the journey feels less tight. The first two are great though!

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'Toy Story 3' is a funny, touching and most excellent farewell to the characters we've come to know and love.

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Toy Story 3 Finally Gets Negative Review, Becomes The Second Best Reviewed Movie Of All Time

When the Rotten Tomatoes twitter account announced that Toy Story 3 still had a 100% fresh rating with over 130 reviews and counting, I got excited. I've seen the movie twice now, and it deserves all the praise it has and will recieve. The reason I got excited is that it had the chance to become the best reviewed movie in the history of cinema (this according to Rotten Tomatoes of course, albeit still a milestone achievement).

I'm not going to debate the merits of the achievement — best reviewed film of all time doesn't mean best movie of all time. Also, as we know Rotten Tomatoes is not based on a scale of enjoyment, just thumbs up or down. Meaning, the best reviewed film of all time on Rotten Tomatoes means the largest percentage of possitive reviews.

With 147 100% positive reviews, Toy Story 2 has held the coveted top slot for eleven years and counting . The film to come closest was the 2008 documentary Man On Wire — 100% fresh with 142 reviews, six short of the #1 slot. And how fitting would it have been to have the Pixar's latest film, the third film in the trilogy, knock Toy Story 2 from the top of the mountain.

What happened? You guessed it. Armond White — the notorious contrarian movie reviewer for the alt-weekly New York Press. You might recall that White was the first critic to give Pixar's last film Up a negative review. Whats worse, he gave Jonah Hex a positive review, a film which has been panned by critics and moviegoers (12% on Rotten Tomatoes with almost 90 reviews).

Here is an excerpt from White's review of Toy Story 3 titled "BORED GAMES" :

Toy Story 3 is so besotted with brand names and product-placement that it stops being about the innocent pleasures of imagination—the usefulness of toys—and strictly celebrates consumerism.  ... But none of these digital-cartoon characters reflect human experience; it's essentially a bored game that only the brainwashed will buy into. Besides, Transformers 2 already explored the same plot to greater thrill and opulence. ... When Toy Story 3 emulates the suspense of prison break and horror films, it becomes fitfully amusing (more than can be said for Wall-E or Up) but this humor depends on the recognition of worn-out toys which is no different from those lousy Shrek gags. ... The Toy Story franchise isn't for children and adults, it's for non-thinking children and adults. When a movie is this formulaic, it's no longer a toy because it does all the work for you. It's a sap's story.

Here is an excerpt from White's review of Jonah Hex :

"Jonah Hex does for the western what the Crank movies do for the urban action film; simultaneously commenting on genre practice. ... Hayward's action scenes depict a terrorist environment way past Pixar-kiddieland. Bombs, flames, explosions carry 9/11 force, replete with hellhound and ravens—creatures whose myths help vanquish anxiety—all to a pounding score that re-routes death metal back to cathartic affirmation. ... Without a $50 million ad budget to make Jonah Hex seem important, the media feels free to trash it—doing so exposes their collusion with marketing and refusal to read film for personal reflection. True art is watching hot-chick Megan Fox (as Lilah the hooker) fearlessly staring at the most grotesque side of Jonah's face as if coming to grips with her own exploitation. Beautiful and brilliant. I previously remarked how "Neveldine-Taylor stand so lonely on the culture's edge that their au courant ingenuity seems absolutely avant-garde when compared to standard box-office formula." Greed is a cultural hex."

I have no problem with a differing opinion at all — actually I welcome it. Especially an opinion that makes me reevaluate my experience, and the art. But White's reviews don't seem to serve that function. Instead, White gets off on being a contrarian, and nothing more. His list also includes unfavorable thumbs downs for Inglourious Basterds, District 9, The Wrestler, In The Loop, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince , 500 Days of Summer, Avatar, Up in the Air, The Princess and the Frog, An Education, Star Trek, Milk, Slumdog Millionaire, The Hangover, The Dark Knight, Gone Baby Gone, Iron Man, There Will Be Blood, and Zodiac. Did I mention that he gave Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen a positive review? Even Roger Ebert calls White "a troll."

Oh well, the second best reviewed film of all time is still quite an achievement.

Post note: After writing this story, another critic named Cole Smithey filed the second negative review for the film. Update: Toy Story 3 director Lee Unkrich has sent out a tweet, a a Buzz Lightyear quote from Toy Story 1, which appears to be a vague response to the two negative reviews: