A Look at Disney Opens The Toy Box: Toy Story 3

Hello & welcome back to A Look at Disney Opens The Toy Box.  And today, we are tackling are the final (as of right now) film in the trilogy. Join me as we look at Toy Story 3. With that out of the way, let's begin.

Trailer

This trailer knows what it's doing . Especially in the beginning, it's hitting on fans' heartstrings by showing them the montage of Andy and well that part of the trailer works for me because it gets me excited to see the rest of the trailer.

The Plot

Just like Toy Story 2, we open with an elaborate intro as we see  Woody,  Buzz, & Jessie going up up against the Evil Dr. Porkchop.  We then see it was a young Andy playing with his toys and then we get a montage of Andy growing up.

We flash forward to ten years later, and Andy is now in his twenties. And we learn that a lot of our friends from the previous installments have been sold off such as Bo Peep. The toys  try one last time to get Andy's attention.

Woody tries to convince the toys that they can stay up in the attic but the toys are reluctant  to this idea but they agree to it. Andy bags the toys and they are mistakenly taken out to the curb to be picked up by the trash. Oh, and Hi Sid.

Woody tries to save his friends with Buster but the years haven't been kind to the old dog.   The toys escape however and load themselves into the Sunnyside box to be donated to the daycare.

 


The toys load up into the Sunnyside box thinking that'll be better off there.  When I re-watched this film, I wanted to tell the toys to get out of there knowing what would happen as they are sealing their fate. Woody tries to explain to the toys that Mrs. Davis that they were accidentally thrown out but they don't want to listen to him as they think Woody won't let go of the past.  As the toys arrive, they are duped into thinking that they've found a great new home but it's a big lie.

All of the toys sans Woody decide to stay and Woody makes his daring escape. Which is quite awesome.

 

During his escape,  Woody is found by a little girl, Bonnie Anderson.

Which leads to one of the most adorable moments as we Woody getting to enjoy playtime once more.





But also one of the most tragic moments as we get Lots-o' backstory.  Which is just so tragic.





Woody realizes that he needs to get back and save his friends but the toys warn him that this will not be an easy feat. And this is when Andy's toys learn the truth and Buzz is reprogrammed.  And lock the toys up and the daycare becomes a prison.

And as Potato Head put it, we have the return of the Astronut.  And it's here now, where the toys start to realize their mistake in not staying with Woody. Speaking of the cowboy, he returns and formulates a plan to escape with the aid of Chatter Telephone.  And that night, Chatter informs them of the Monkey that they need to watch out for as he is Lots-o's eyes and ears.   And Potato Head helps them with a diversion by becoming Mr. Cucumber Head, oh and Buzz is reprogrammed once again and this time, we have Spanish Buzz.  Sigh, I am not a fan of Spanish Buzz, I found this to be rather annoying.

 

The toys almost make it but it's seems they are trapped as they are stopped but Lots-o' and then Woody reveals the truth and when we get a Star Wars reference as Big Baby throws him into the dumpster.

But it seems it may be too late as he pulls Woody in and the rest of Andy's toys won't abandon their fearless leader once again, so they try to pull him out but to no avail. And this is where we get one of the most gut-wrenching scenes because after Andy's toys save Lots-o', he leaves them to die. And who should save our heroes but The Aliens who now control The Claw.

 

I just love the fact that it's the Aliens controlling The Claw is what saves the day as they basically took control of their fate and decided that they weren't going to let The Claw control them.   We find that Lots-o' had been picked up a garbage truck driver and attached the front of his garbage truck. And after getting cleaned up and returning to Andy,  Andy donates his toys to Bonnie and we get one last playtime as Andy introduce the young girl to all of his toys.

And the movie ends with Bonnie becoming the new owner of the toys and we see the joy in the toys' eyes as they will be played with again in proper manner.

Okay.... I gotta be honest here and say that while Toy Story 3 is a good movie,  it's my least favorite in the trilogy.  I can't explain but I don't have the same love for this film that everyone else did at the time and the hype that this film got led me to hate this film for quite a while.   I still do think while good, it's a bit overrated.

Characters

Main Characters

Woody voiced by Tom Hanks

I liked Woody in this film as he was dealing with feelings of anxiety and separation. He wasn't ready to let go of Andy as he didn't realize that even though that this his time with Andy may be done,  the memories will live on.  And I feel that is a message that needed to be heard and it is sometimes hard to take.

Buzz Lightyear voiced by Tim Allen/ Spanish Buzz voiced by   Javier Fernández Peña

 

In the grand scheme of things, Buzz seemed rather minor in the third outing.  This was defintely more of Woody's story again.  He had his good moments to be sure as second-in-command of Andy's toys and you saw loyal he is to them as he was willing to stand by their sides.  Sigh... I guess we need to talk about Spanish Buzz.   This just felt gimmicky and as if the team was thinking, we need to do something else to Buzz but what.  In the first film, we had him think that he was a real space ranger, in the second film, you had Other Buzz, who also thought he was a real space ranger and the third film went back to that well, which was a little tiring but Spanish Buzz was so over-the-top that he clashed with the rather serious moments of the toys trying to escape. Now, I'm not saying that you can't have comedic moments but Spanish Buzz was just an idea that for me personally, didn't work.

Potato Head, Slinky Dog, Bullseye, Mrs. Potato Head, Rex, Hamm, Jessie, The Aliens  voiced by Don Rickles, Blake Clark,   Frank Welker, Estell Harris, Wallace Shawn, John Ratzenberger, Joan Cusack,  

This is perhaps the biggest role that the rest of the toys get. And I get that as they wanted to give the toys one last hoorah before fans had to say goodbye and I'm happy to say that each of the toys got their moment to shine in the threequel.   This is the film, where you finally got to see their family dynamic and I liked that.  

Andy voiced by John Morris

This film made me a little sad watching it because I grew up with the Toy Story movies and here's Andy as he was roughly about my age, when I saw this film and  it felt like I was letting go  of a part of my past, seeing Andy so grown up here.  Something about this just hit me right in the gut and made me a bit teary-eyed.   

Supporting Characters

Bonnie Anderson voiced by  Emily Hahn

I  really like Bonnie and she is such a fun child character without ever crossing the line of becoming annoying. She feels like a real kid and how you see her play with her toys does seem very realistic for a young child.

Barbie voiced by Jodi Benson

I was surprised by Barbie in this film as they seriously upgraded her from what she was in the second film to an actual character and gave her something of a personality.  A bit of an over-the-top personality but it's still cute to watch and that is in part thanks to Jodi Benson, who is awesome in any role that you put her in.

Mr. Pricklepants,  Buttercup, Dolly, & Trixie  voiced by Timothy Dalton,   Jeff Garlin,  Bonnie Hunt, & Kristen Schaal 

Perhaps my biggest disappointment regarding Toy Story 3 is that I wish we had spent more time with Bonnie's toys because these characters were awesome and I would have loved to learn more about them and spent more time with them because they were easily the highlight of the new characters for me in this film. I wanted to learn more about their dynamic and how they function as a group.   And everyone of them was just awesome.  So, yeah I was a little bummed that we didn't get more time with them.

Music

We Belong Together 

And this is where part of my resentment for Toy Story 3 started. I know I know, it's petty but the year this was nominated for Best Original Song, I See The Light from Tangled was also nominated and I was pulling for that because it's the better song from the better movie but no, they had to give it to this song.   This song isn't even that good, it's the worst of Randy Newman's Toy Story songs. It says everything that he said in You've Got A Friend In Me just with new lyrics.  I'm convinced that the only reason that this won was to apologize for not giving it to When She Loved Me from Toy Story 2, which is the best Toy Story song and perhaps the best Pixar song.

You've Got A Friend In Me (Spanish Version)  

I'll be honest and say that this is the version of You've Got A Friend In Me, I've listened to the least.  Again, it feels like they knew they had to include this song in the third film but they also knew that they had to do something different with it. So, they did a Spanish cover and that's really only there because of Spanish Buzz.  I don't have much of an opinion on this version.  However, I do like the dance here and as someone that is a Dancing With The Stars fan that two of the professionals from Dancing With The Stars, Cheryl Burke (who has since left the show and I also have a HUGE crush on) and Tony Dovolani choreographed Buzz  and Jessie's dance here.

So I do kinda hope that if Dancing With The Stars ever does a third Disney Night (which BTW if you like dancing and Disney, you need to check those out),  they have a couple dance to the Spanish You've Got A Friend In Me to bring it full circle but I do realize how intimidating that would be but still, it would be so COOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Villains

Ken voiced by Micheal Keaton

Ken is easily one of the funniest characters in any of the Pixar movies and as I said in the Top 6, I attribute that to Micheal Keaton. He owns this role and makes you believe that he is this character and you just have a blast, whenever he's on screen.

Big Baby  voiced by Woody Smith

Big Baby's arc while small in the grand scheme of the overall movie is still interesting to watch for me. Because as I've mentioned here before, with just one scene he goes from being nothing more than muscle to actually becoming a character that we can care about and feel sorry for. And it takes a lot to pull that off.

Lots-o' Huggin' Bear voiced by Ned Beatty 

Lots-o'  is one seriously messed up teddy bear.  I'm pretty sure unlike the villains that have come before him, he has no redeeming qualities whatsoever.  He wears a mask to hid his true motives as this is one nasty teddy bear. He may smell sweet but he is rotten to the core.

My Final Thoughts

While Toy Story 3 is a good film, I am reluctant to say that it's the best one in the trilogy. There are just a few things holding me back from making that statement but I do enjoy this movie and do find it to be a fitting sendoff for these characters. Which made the news of Toy Story 4 all the more baffling but we cover that at a later date. Join me next time as I look at Hawaiian Vacation.