"Toy Story 3" is a masterpiece on the level of Pixar's other recent films, such as "WALL-E" (2008) and "Up" (2009), and even if doesn't quite reach the heights of these last two, it provides more comic, dramatic and (of course) visual delights than perhaps any other movie that has come out so far this year. In the film, Andy (John Morris), the owner of the toys featured in the trilogy, has grown up and is about to depart for college, a state of affairs that leaves the toys in a panic over their impending irrelevancy and the possibility of living in the attic, being donated, or (in the worst potential scenario) being thrown out. Soon enough they find themselves dealing with the second of those possibilities when they are donated to Sunnyside Daycare, a seemingly paradisiacal new home where the toys will never run out of children to play with them. However, not everything is peachy keen at Sunnyside, as the toys soon discover it is run by an outwardly benign but inwardly ruthless pink teddy bear Lotso (Ned Beatty) with a dark past.
The rest of the plot unfolds at a gripping and ever-increasing pace as the film builds up to an emotional climax that is as devastating and life-affirming as anything found at the top arthouse film festivals around the globe. The character development in "Toy Story 3" is stellar as always: Andy plays a larger role than in the past two films to extremely moving effect, and there is hardly any clich or tiredness in the way the toy characters are written, especially given that the film's plot is somewhat derivative of other family features. Woody the cowboy (Tom Hanks), Buzz Lightyear the space warrior (Tim Allen) and the other toys try to cope with changing times in a manner that is surprising and poignantly drawn: at no point is there any question that we are witnessing a specific relationship between a boy and his toys, one with a rich, detailed history that is not generalized in the least.
Furthermore, the dialogue is up to Pixar's usual high standard, always easy for the whole family to understand and not saturated with tired of-the-moment pop culture references present in other companies' computer-animated films. Especially welcome is the introduction of Ken (Michael Keaton) and Barbie (Jodi Benson), whose bickerings provide some of the biggest laughs in the film. Of course, the comic side of the movie truly shines in the universal language of visual gaggery, one which Pixar has mastered like no other contemporary production company, whether live-action or animated. These amazingly agile toys move about their world in consistently hilarious ways. A world once they leave the claustrophobic confines of Andy's room and begin their own adventures that is big, beautiful, amazingly detailed and full of opportunities for danger, comedy and bittersweet emotion.
