I love having kids. I love having them for a myriad of reasons, but one of those reasons is that it means I get to watch cartoons and not feel silly about it. I confess I still love cartoons, I am just a big kid that way. Recently I re-watched Toy Story 3 with my daughter and noticed a few themes which I thought might serve us all to reflect on.
For those few of you who have, apparently, been living under a rock since the mid 90s, Toy Story is a trilogy about a group of toys belonging to a little boy named Andy and the various stages of their life together. In the first movie the Sheriff Woody must come to grips with sharing his place as Andy’s favorite toy, and his competitor, a space ranger named Buzz Lightyear, must come to grips with being simply a toy and not a real space ranger. Toy Story 2 builds on this same theme, but this time Woody is the one wrestling with his identity and place. He can be a famous toy and live in the spotlight of a toy museum or he can return to his owner, Andy, and spend his days as the object of a little boy’s affection. Toy Story 3, takes a drastic turn, however, when we consider that Andy is all grown up and his toys are no longer important to him.
The movie helps us first to wrestle with the reality of growing up. For many of us childhood holds fond memories. Memories of a simple time, of fun with our action figures and doll houses. We can tend to romanticize these times, but often they really were fun. But Toy Story 3 reminds us that we all grow up and we all must accept change. This happens not simply for Andy who has to let go of his beloved toys, especially Woody, but it happens for the toys themselves. They are no longer going to be used and played with and they must come to accept that. No matter how much we want to live in the past, and many of us do (like the guys who relive their high school football games constantly; or their college days; or churches that try to recreate revivals from twenty years ago) we must all accept the present and move on.
Second, Toy Story 3 forces us to ask questions about our possessions. What do you have hiding out in your attic that could better be used if given away. Andy decides that he will store his toys away, with the exception of Woody. He struggles with the though to giving them away because they meant so much to him as a boy, the hold a great deal of sentimental value to him. But as we watch him, at the end of the movie, playing with Molly we see so clearly what he must do. He must give them away to a sweet little girl who will play with them. Americans aren’t just consumers we are hoarders (see the reality show by this name for proof). But what stuff do you have that you will never use again that could profit another.
Lastly, the movie portrays in gripping fashion the importance of relationships. All three movies emphasize the importance of friendship. The title track for all three movies remains Randy Newman’s “You’ve Got A Friend In Me,” and for good reason. This theme recurs constantly throughout the trilogy. In Toy Story 3 the theme is seen as we watch the toys go from one change to the next. I confess I even got a bit teary-eyed watching as the toys faced certain destruction at the dump. Here as they prepare for their incineration they huddle together, holding hands, and softly smile at one another, resigned to endure their fate together. In the face of change it is crucial that each of us have this kind of community. There must be, for each of us, a group to whom we can cling for encouragement, comfort, hope, and help as we face change. For Christians this community should be the church.
I loved this movie, and so do my kids. The characters are as endearing as they were in film one, but more than that the various themes of the film reveal both a great range in plot and emotion, something rare in movies these days. Like all good art Toy Story 3 leaves us with much to reflect on.
For more on this see: Drew Dixon, “Toy Story 3 and What Will Happen To Our STuff?”
Sparrow & Heart Soul Care 
First let me say: Toy Story 3 is another Pixar masterpiece and the perfect way to close a franchise started in 1995. Randy Newman’s “You’ve got a friend in me” warms the heart today as it first did 15 years ago.
Now with that out of the way let me call attention to the films lead-in…
Pixar continues another tradition here with is the animated short that precedes the feature (like Luxo Jr. where the Studio’s logo comes from). Toy Story 3’s short is called “Day & Night” and raises the bar for future Pixar shorts and will likely get many Academy nomination for it’s efforts. I think the 3-D may work more effectively with the short than the sequel itself. “Day & Night” is more complicated a concept than you’d expect considering it involves two mute characters struggling to coexist. One character consists, literally of daytime images while his counterpart is made of night images. Although the two characters are little more than retro-cartoon silhouettes, they are filled with complex animated scenes within their own animation. They shift positions and move around one another creating some fascinating visuals for us. Equally simple is it’s message for folks to overcome their fear of the differences in others and the unknown. Day & Night is simply the best short I’ve seen from Pixar to date
Now with that out of the way, Toy Story 3 reunites us with old friends: Woody, Buzz, Jesse, Hamm, Rex, Mr. & Mrs. Potato Head, each voiced by their original actors (except the late Jim Varney). Surprisingly, the Toys owner Andy, now grown up and ready to start college is still voiced by the same actor John Morris (who started at around 11 in the first film). It seems the concept of toys coming to life when people aren’t look would become tired after 2 films, but I have to say that is not the case here. After a super opening sequence, an homage to Woody’s opening adventure in the original film, the toys end up at Daycare run like a prison by a naughty Teddy Bear (voiced by Ned Beatty). Naturally the Toys want to escape; the break-out plan doesn’t go quite as planned by makes for some funny tributes to the prison movie genre (including a harmonica playin’ Hamm). More classic toys turn up like the old Fisher-Price rolling phone and cymbal-monkey as an ever watchful prison guard. Barbie’s Ken even turns up voiced gloriously campy by Michael Keaton, definitely emerging as the film’s breakout toy characterization. The visuals are more amazing than ever, the humans look so much better than the original, it may become difficult to watch those older sequences after seeing “3.” Lot’s of details sweep across the screen with everything from the Pizza Planet ” Yo” truck, to all the texture of Ken’s extensively stocked accessory collection (Groovy). But technical strides aside, on an emotional level the movie, like those before it, generate plenty of concern for the wellbeing of these CGI toys, again. I would go as far to say if you are not touched by the final moments of the film and Andy’s goodbye, then you may want to get to a cardiologist and get yourself checked out!