Toy Story 3 (2010)

This movie was so sweet it gave me a headache. Seriously, I thought I was going to have a fucking aneurysm. I love Pixar. They have never made a bad movie. I liked Cars the least out of all their releases but it was still hilarious.

I read four or five reviews of this movie on Friday. It was sitting at 100% on RT at the time; I haven't checked back since. It takes a lot to get me to see a movie aimed at children on a weekend where I will most likely be forced to interact with them. I still shudder when I think of A Series of Unfortunate Events back in 2004. But universal critic rating? That'll do it.

So I went on Saturday night. There were a number of children, but more annoyingly, there were tons of tweens. Who the hell let these little monsters run around unsupervised? They already skew the votes on all the reality shows, can't we not let them decide box office choices as well? Whatever.

The movie starts with a short called Day and Night and it was the first time I have ever thought 'This would be amazing in 3D.' THAT'S how good Pixar is! Thank God they seem to only use their powers for good...so far. I don't think it was quite as good as the short Partly Cloudy before Up but it was very cute.

The only negative thing I read about the movie itself was that the first 20 minutes dragged before the action really kicked in. I don't know what kind of ADHD people major publications have reviewing movies nowadays, but I didn't get that at all. The first 20 minutes were probably my favorite. I don't want to give up any real plot points because they've been discussed multiple times on other sites.

This was the first villain I felt was a little flat. He didn't have any really good lines like Syndrome from The Incredibles, and he seemed the most out-and-out malicious versus misunderstood or misguided. Maybe it's because I missed all the early promotional fake commercials Pixar released, but Lotso Huggin Bear was just as boring a villain as he was a toy. Plus he had that super-creepy John Huston-from-Chinatown kind of vibe. It made me wonder exactly what he did to Big Baby to keep him around. Blech. That's the first toy that seems like it shouldn't be allowed within 500 yards of a daycare. I'm just sayin'...

Everything else about the movie was pitch-perfect. All the new (good) characters are great without being overbearing and the ending... well, it's worth it. It'll make you remember that moment in your own childhood. At least it will if you happen to be part of the 33% of audience that passed puberty. Everyone else: it's coming. Look forward to it.