Review of Toy Story 3 (2010) by Carlminez — 01 Jun 2011

Can't escape the feeling that Toy Story 3 is being terribly overrated by critics and moviegoers alike. Critics are calling it "heartbreaking" and "inspiring", and a movie critic from NYT even went as far as calling it "a deep, complex take on mortality".

Seriously? Personally, I found Toy Story 3 of being a surprisingly formulaic and unappealing movie of the following reasons. Firstly, the same story formula is being recycled for the third time! Just like in the other two movies, the toys are separated from Andy.

Overall, the plot just feels like one big excuse to move the characters from the backdrop of Andy's room to the daycare center where the story is being transformed into a prison break parody, filled with plot-twists, slapstick humor and gay-jokes, directly aimed at the adults in the audience.

But the worst thing is that this movie isn't treating the characters with respect. Rather than having them develop beyond the minimal standard required for the plot, the directors focused more on having them do stupid things and end up in stupid situations.

There are about a dozen different toys in the series now, most of which only functions as comic relief characters that stick around in the background. The majority of these toys spend more times being chewed on by drooling babies than showing any character development, whatsoever.

Buzz and Woody are really the only ones worth mentioning, which is sad, because both Woody and Buzz are terribly simplistic in this third installment. Woody is the same few-worded, whiny character he was in the other two movies.

But it's okay. He doesn't change because the plot requires him to stay the same. But Woody was never the star of this series. It was the space ranger, Buzz, who stole the show back in 1995. In Toy Story 3, the ugly doll is reduced to pure, stupid and brain-dead entertainment.

The only character development Buzz Lightyear demonstrates isn't more complex than the switching on the button in his back. He spends the majority of the movie in "demo-mode", delivering catchphrases and references to his delusional space-persona.

And it's funny about the first time he does it and not quite as funny about the tenth time. And he spends the rest of the movie as a surprisingly distasteful and offensive Spanish stereotype. And really, oh so devoted Pixarfans, doesn't the fact that the directors would take Buzz Lightyear and change him so carelessly in the film speak volumes of their indifference to their own characters' personalities? I just can't figure out what, if anything, makes this movie so good.

From my point of view, It is terrible! And it becomes even more staggering when you think about how other animated movies, personal favorites that are by far more sophisticated and complex; Like How to Train Your Dragon and Bolt, are being pushed in the background to make way for the unyielding glorification of Pixar.

Okay, both of these movies have been met fairly well by critics, particularly Dragon, but none of them have received the attention Toy Story 3 received, despite being more deserving. My personal favorite, Bolt, was very underrated, almost overlooked, when realized back in 2008.