Toy Story 3

The final installment in the Toy Story series was released in 2010. Directed by Lee Unkrich, Toy Story 3 brought most of the original voice actors back, replacing Jim Varney with Blake Clark and added Ned Beatty, Michael Keaton, Emily Hahn, Timothy Dalton, Whoopie Goldberg, Richard Kind, Bonnie Hunt and Kristen Schaal. The film grossed $1.063 billion and was the first animated feature to break the billion dollar mark along with the 13^th highest-grossing film of all time. At the top of Quentin Tarantino’s list of favorite films of 2010, it won the Grammy for Best Score Soundtrack, Academy Awards for Best Animated Film and Best Original Song, and the Saturn Award for Best Animated Film.

Woody (Tom Hanks), Buzz (Tim Allen) and their friends deal with an uncertain future as Andy (John Morris) has grown up and is about to head off to college. He puts the toys in a bag meant for the attic, but the toys mistakenly think they’re being thrown away so they climb in a box bound for a daycare.

Foreshadowed by a line by Stinky Pete in the second film, this installment is probably the most impactful of all the Toy Story films. The first dealt with jealousy, delusions and depression when faced with reality. The second with abandonment and skims growing up. This one goes all out in growing up and moving on, totalitarianism, loss, and even the inevitable. But still manages to do so in a way that’s appropriate for both kids and the young adults that grew up with the franchise.

Andy does finally grow up and the toys realize they’re headed for the attic, despite their attempts to get him to play with them. And in a misunderstanding, the toys think it’s in their best interests to move on to a day care. A daycare ruled with a purple iron fist that smells like strawberries. But when they’re finally able to escape, they have to face the end via incinerator. It’s one of the most poignant animated scenes ever, with all of them one by one accepting their fates and holding hands, ready to go out together.

But the film isn’t without its lighthearted moments. Buzz is shown to have a third setting, other than Space Ranger and Toy: Spanish Space Ranger. There’s also the well-timed reference to Star Wars, just like the first two films, with Big Baby throwing Lotso in the dumpster a la Darth Vader and The Emperor. And then it tosses Brick Jokes to the audience, both set up in the first film with one carrying over into the second. Rex finally gets to pal around with an herbivore and The Claw ultimately chooses who will go.

Production also made sure this was the perfect ending to the trilogy, with the filmmakers bringing back John Morris as Andy. Prior to this film, Morris hadn’t acted since Toy Story 2. Sid also has a cameo as a garbage man and he, too, has the same voice actor.

The only problem is the film goes on for a little too long and could have ended a couple times before it did. It makes sense to have Andy bring the toys to Bonnie and introduce one or two to them. But he does it for every single one and plays with them.

The joke was that full grown adults were barreling through kids in line for the film at theaters screaming they had waited 11 years to see it. And in the end, it really was worth it. Toy Story 3 really is the best of the trilogy.

#5

Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: The Adventure Begins

After the success of Toy Story and Toy Story 2, Disney released a direct to video pilot of the television series Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: The Adventure Begins. Starring Tim Allen, Nicole Sullivan, Stephen Furst, Larry Miller, Adam Carolla, Patrick Warburton, and Wayne Knight, it was the only film spin-off of a Pixar film until Planes.

Andy’s toys watch a VHS copy of the film.

Buzz Lightyear (Allen) vows to go solo after his partner dies searching for three missing Little Green Men (Warburton). However, Commander Nebula (Carolla) gives him new recruit Princess Mira Nova (Sullivan).

Meanwhile, Zurg (Knight) steals the Uni-Mind from the Little Green Men homeworld. He corrupts the universe, leading Buzz, Mira, a robot soldier named XR (Miller) and the janitor (Furst) to stop him.

This is actually quite a fun movie in every possible way.

The story is silly enough to be enjoyable, but not stupid enough to ruin what made Toy Story an enjoyable film in the first place. It provides us with the world Buzz originally believed himself to be from. And even though we can’t get a completely detailed setting within 71 minutes, it’s able to establish the vastness and uniqueness of the galaxy.

The characters are also good. They’re not completely one note and just complex enough to not go overboard for it being the pilot for a children’s television series. Zurg’s minions are also quite funny. They get that they’re working for an evil villain, but still hope that he’ll live up to promises made to them. It’s also telling that some of the characters are voiced in such a way that gives away their voice actors. Without effort, it’s not easy to tell that such distinct voices were warped for the LGMs and Zurg.

For a direct-to-video pilot, this may be one of the best that Disney’s put out.

#28

Toy Story 2

Initially, Toy Story was going to have a direct-to-video sequel produced by Disney. But when the story proved promising, it was upgraded to a theatrical release and Pixar became unhappy with the quality. So Lasseter decided to take the reins and Toy Story 2 was released November 24, 1999. Starring all the original voice actors, plus Joan Cusack, Kelsey Grammer and Wayne Knight, the film had a troubled production but was praised highly by critics.

A year or two after the first film, Woody (Tom Hanks) is accidentally damaged while being played with. He becomes concerned about becoming an unwanted broken toy and later, is stolen at a yard sale by the toy collector Al (Knight). So Buzz (Tim Allen) leads a group of Andy’s (John Morris) toys to rescue him. Meanwhile, Woody finds out he’s old merchandise from an old TV show and is a valuable collector’s item. Now he must decide to go back to Andy or a museum with three other toys from the series (Cusack, Grammer, and Frank Welker).

As with The Rescuers Down Under, this film didn’t try to shoehorn the characters into a forced redo of the first film, nor did it ruin the characterization. Instead, the continuation was fluid and the characters developed off of the qualities they already had.

Remember how Woody had an ego in the first film? What with him being so jealous of Buzz becoming Andy’s favorite toy? It resurfaces, but not in the same way because he’s already dealt with that. Instead, he finds out he’s famous and becomes willing to throw away the love of his owner to last forever. It’s not until Buzz hits him with a near identical lesson that he’s meant to be played with and loved, with the exact quote Woody used on him in the first film, that he realizes ego and fame aren’t worth anything if you’re giving up something that matters more.

And we can’t talk about this film without Jessie’s arc. Her struggle with abandonment is reasonable and perfectly played out. She doesn’t’ take too much stock in the love an owner shows their toys because her previous owner left her by the wayside to focus on other things. And once Woody’s snapped out of his ego trip he shows her that she can still be played with and loved.

The Prospector is also understandable. He’s never been played with, never been shown love by a child and never known what it means to enjoy living. Because he’s lived his whole life in a box. He’s got a justified motive. The problem lies in how he says he wants his existence to have purpose, but won’t let the other toys choose their own purpose. He’s a hypocrite is what he is.

The internal conflict within Woody is also amazing. He has to choose between the finite love of Andy, who will eventually grow up and being adored by children forever. It’s a conflict where there’s no clear victor when it comes to the pro and cons and he must decide what is ultimately the most unselfish choice. Sooner or later, we all must do the same.

Toy Story 2 is a great film where, once again, every character fits. The CGI also greatly improved since the last film, where Al, Andy, and Andy’s Mom actually look better.

Also references to Star Wars never get old. 

The series could have ended here and it would have been totally fine. But fortunately, 11 years later, it didn’t.

#5

Toy Story

In 1979, George Lucas founded The Graphics Group, which made up one third of the Computer Division of Lucasfilm. They began working on film sequences in 1982 and were sold to Steve Jobs for $5 million and became a computer hardware company. Their core product was the Pixar Image Computer, which was sold to government agencies and the medical community. But, employee John Lasseter started creating short demonstration animations, which led the company to produce commercials for other companies. In 1990, it sold the hardware division and grew its relationship with the Disney Animation Studio, resulting in a $26 million deal the next year to produce three feature films. The first of which was Toy Story. With a screenplay written by Joss Whedon, Andrew Stanton, Joel Cohen and Alec Sokolow, it starred Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, John Ratzenberger, Jim Varney and Wallace Shawn. It made over $300 million and is considered one of the best animated films ever made, winning, among others, the Los Angeles Critics Association Awards for Best Animation, an ASCAP Film and Television Music Award, eight Annie Awards and the Best Animated film for the Kansas City Film Critics Circle.

Woody (Hanks) is the unofficial leader of a group of toys belonging to a boy named Andy (John Morris). Woody, an old cowboy doll with a string, receives competition when Andy gets a new toy for his birthday. Buzz Lightyear of Star Command (Allen), who thinks he’s really a spaceman, has leadership qualities that make Woody jealous. When Buzz is accidentally lost, the other toys think Woody masterminded the disappearance. Eventually, the duo have a confrontation that forces them to join together.

This isn’t your average buddy comedy adventure. Sure we’ve got the usual tropes associated with these types of films. Woody and Buzz learn to get along and whatnot. We’ve seen the characterization done in many other films before. This one stands out among all the rest not only because the characters are sentient toys, but that one stopped being the favorite in favor of the other, who doesn’t realize his delusions until three quarters of the way through the film. The best part is, both characters are extremely relatable. No one likes getting shoved aside in favor of someone else and at the same time, we’ve all been the new guy. (I’m still the new guy in my office right now.) And facing a revelation that what you’ve thought to be completely true all your life isn’t true at all completely wrecks people. I’m convinced there was more than fake tea in that teacup.

This film also has no true villain. People can mark Sid as evil, but he’s just a young boy who’s taking his destructive fantasies out on toys. And he doesn’t realize they’re sentient until the end. He doesn’t know that he’s in the wrong.

Say what you will about him, but I actually enjoy most Randy Newman songs (most). And to me, “I Will Go Sailing No More” is the best song on the soundtrack. It really captures what Buzz is feeling about having realized his entire existence has been a lie.

Even after 19 years, the animation still looks great for the most part. The humans and dog still look like they belong in the uncanny valley though. But for being the first feature-length computer-animated film, a few things were going to be off. It only got better from there. #5.