Toy Story 3
If you have ever been wondering – I never watched “Toy Story” nor “Toy Story 2”. In fact, I have not been planning on doing that, although I am strongly considering it now. Back in the day, when “Toy Story” just came out, I didn’t like its computerized style and thought that the toys looked pretty ugly. At the time, I wanted beautifully hand-drawn Disney movies, most preferably with pretty and smart princesses like Belle in Beauty and the Beast. After “Monster Inc.”, “Ice Age”, “Wall-E” and “Up” I have now definitely revised my opinion on computer animation, but “Toy Story” remained a bastion of ugliness in my eyes.
However, “Shrek” is ugly too which means that a good story can make up for everything. “Toy Story 3” is surprisingly good a third instalment of a successful franchise. The story is funny, very suspenseful and even had quite a lot of touching moments during which you realize how much you ended up caring for all these characters. Of course the evil characters were mostly boring, but what can you expect from a children’s film?
Animated movies are best in a movie theatre, and since I am more into cats than I probably have ever been into toys my whole life (I do not have a favorite toy except Lego and, uh, pistols) it is no surprise that I enjoyed “Puss in Boots” more, which came with 3D glory and cute facial expressions. But “Toy Story 3” is definitely proof that not all sequels must be bad – and that computer animated movies can be very promising. Nevertheless, I think that I will have my children watch “Snow White” and “Cinderella” before I show them “Wall-E”.